Immortals have been on a hot streak over the past few months, with strong results at the PGL Kraków Major and DreamHack Montreal, perhaps marred only by a consistent losing record against North.

Between their matches at the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017, theScore esports got a chance to talk with in-game leader Lucas "steel" Lopes about watching Mykonos from afar, playing with Brazilian legend Raphael "cogu" Camargo and what it's like facing North.

Editor's note: the following interview was conducted prior to Immortals' ELEAGUE group stage match against North on Sept. 15.

I know you guys were in Montreal during ESG Mykonos, but were you able to watch any of the games there? How are you feeling about not attending Mykonos, were you maybe jealous of the beaches and the pools?

Yeah of course man, we were like seeing the pictures and posts of everyone that was there, and the place is amazing man. Every single player of Counter-Strike would love to play that tournament because it's so different from any other tournament.

Speaking of Mykonos, you just notably defeated mousesports in decisive 16-8 best-of-one at ELEAGUE. Were their replays at Mykonos important ahead of the match?

To be honest, I don't know because it's always tough to play against mousesports. This time we were prepared for them, we were ready, we studied them a lot. So yeah, it was a good match for us.

Coming into ELEAGUE, you guys knew that Vito "kNgV" Giuseppe wasn't going to be able to get his visa, so how did you decide on cogu as his replacement?

Because when we knew that kNg wasn't going to be able to play, we needed one player that was available fast for the tournament, it was like right after Montreal, so we needed one player that was either that was living here in North America, and cogu was one of the only players available. We have LG and we have Tempo Storm with Brazilian players, but they were busy playing. So cogu was the best option available.

And I'm assuming that cogu, he's kind of a legend to everybody, not just in Brazil, what's it like playing beside him now?

I am surprised to play with him too. Like you said, he's a legend for everyone, especially for me, I used to watch him a lot. He still is my idol, because he means so much to Counter-Strike, especially in Brazil, so I'm having so much fun playing with him.

Considering he is that legend and he has that experience, and you are the in-game leader, a fairly young one if I can say that, how was integrating him into the team, even if jut for this weekend? Was he receptive to your calls? Or maybe were you letting him take the lead a little bit?

The thing is, Immortals, we have a loose style, so it's not hard to fit a player to play with us, especially because we never keep our playstyle. So we are not having a bad time or difficulty adapting him, because as I say playing with us is pure communication. And yeah, he's giving his thoughts about the game for sure, he's giving new ideas, I'd like to see how the next match goes.

OpTic Gaming picked up a European roster and they'll be residing in NA. How do you feel about them being one of the competitors in the region?

It's kind of hard to answer this question because we play a lot of North Americans, but we are from South America, so in theory it's a little bit fair. And the majority of players that are Europeans, in theory they should play Europeans, but OpTic is a North American organization. For me, there is zero problem of that, but I know that some of the American players don't like that at all. For me, I think it's good, because it's going to be more competitive, so I think it's good to have a mix of Europeans playing North Americans too.

Have you had a chance to play some practice matches against them? If so, what's your first impression?

We didn't practice with them at all, because after they came to North America, they scrimmed for one week, and right now they're in Europe bootcamping, so we didn't play them yet.

I think you guys are facing them in the later half of ESL Pro League so we'll have to see then. Switching topics, I know that since you came into Immortals, you've kind of become kind of an ambassador for the team, and a fan favorite at events you attend. What's your feelings on that?

I'm not sure how to answer this, because I am the only English speaker, so every time they need to do a live interview it's me. And I like to do interviews, but my teammates are learning English and I think ti's good for everybody to do interviews. it's good for the fans, people don't want to hear only me, people want to hear everybody, they want to listen to the twins, they want to listen to boltz talk about the game. They are improving their English and will start doing more interviews, but I like to do interviews, especially on the big stage.

You've been having trouble against North recently. What are your thoughts on facing them?

Yeah it's going to be a tough match man, we lost like five games in a row to them, we have a bad time playing against them. Maybe it's because of our playstyle, and right now to be honest, they are the worst opponents for us, I believe they are the toughest opponents to play against, so of course it's going to be a tough match, But it's a best of one, so I think we have a good chance to win and get into the playoffs.

One last question, and this is regarding Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke. Undoubtedly you guys have watched a lot of replays from North. Is it frustrating how aggressive he can be in certain situations? How do you play against someone that unpredictable?

The thing is about North, not just k0nfig, they are a super good team together. Their teamplay is amazing. So the thing about playing against North, it feels like you always know what they're going to do, what they're going to execute, but they execute so perfectly, even though [you] know what's going to happen, it's super hard to play against. It's so perfect. That's why they're doing so good lately. There's nothing you can do against it. Especially because they have the best flashbangs, the best smokes, and their teamplay executes on the sites are the best right now in the world.

This interview has been edited and condensed for space and clarity.