After being eliminated from ESL One: Cologne by Luminosity Gaming in the group stage decider match, FlipSid3’s in-game leader Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy sat down with theScore eSports to discuss his team’s performance, their lineup and his plans for the rest of the event.

How do you feel the tournament went for you?

I think it was okay for us. We were playing with DavCost for the first tournament and we knew that we could pass groups and I think it was really close. It was in our hands and we just lost it. But overall, the tournament was good.

What do you think went wrong?

You know, this week, the third map is random. So basically the result, was little bit random because in some maps you’re good in some you’re not. Against EnVyUs we could get Train, Cobble or Inferno, I think, and we got the worst map — Inferno. If we could get Train or Cobble we could win that I think. So, basically, just random map.

Against the other two teams, Mousesports, we had two Cobble maps and we played good first map and second map… I just think we should be a little bit aggressive against Luminosity in the last rounds. That was the only thing.

Following your loss to Luminosity, what was going through your head?

Actually it was the most frustrating loss in my career, actually. I don’t know about my teammates, they were sad, but it’s one of the most frustrating, disappointing losses I think. When the score was 15-12, I was confident, like 100% that we were going to win this, that we were going to play in the playoffs.

Then, I don’t know, something just happened maybe it's a bit of karma or something. We were controlling everything, we were feeling every moment, like we knew what to do in every situation, it was like we were on fire, you know? And, then suddenly some circumstances, some plays and their timings...but...I want to congratulate team Luminosity. Luminosity, their spirit, their will for the win was very good. We had three match points, and then they just overran us.

Your team has this way of always staying positive and being able to come back late into matches. What is it that gives you guys the edge to stay positive and believe in yourselves?

I think, first of all its experience. Me and Markeloff we have a lot of experience. Throughout the past years, I got this experience that no matter what, you need to struggle until you end the game, then you have a chance. The worst thing that you can do when you are losing is to be negative and thinking or focusing on the fact that you’re losing. You don’t need to focus on your mistakes, you need to try to forget about your match score. It's very hard to do actually, and I think it comes only with experience.

The most important thing is to stay positive. Positive ideas, positive thinking is the key to success.

You played EnVyUs on the first day. How strong is the French lineup right now in your opinion?

I think EnVyUs has good individual skill. It’s very hard to play against them if you are not equal in individual skill because, when you meet any of their players, if you can’t out aim them or, for example, if you have bad timing, like you turn your back one second before the player comes, if you make a little mistake, they can overturn this mistake in their benefit and they will immediately use this mistake. One player can suddenly kill two players or three players, because they’re very good in individual skill.

I think it’s the only advantage for them, if you are speaking about all tier one teams. Their team play, they're not doing anything special, they’re playing really simple Counter-Strike. So I think they need to improve in this aspect.

The big story for FlipSid3 was coming into a major, having to play with DavCost since losing S1mple permanently. How has the new roster done in your opinion?

I think we did really well. DavCost is a really young player, he is not an experienced player, so it’s really hard for players to compete on that level, but I think we did really well. The main benefit is that we did not argue during the game like it was with S1mple. Nobody is insulting anyone, it was calm, we had calm discussions. We could analyze during the game what we should do, so everyone was focused and not trying to interrupt or distracted by arguing. These are good things that we got from DavCost.

Do you think you are a better team now, or when you had S1mple?

Yeah, absolutely. Counter-Strike is a team discipline, so as a team we are much better. S1mple is a great player, but he need to improve on a lot of things like his personality, his communication with the team, his teamwork and so on. At the moment he’s only good individually and you can’t win if you’re playing against other teams when somebody is playing alone, without the team. It’s like playing four plus one. Now we are playing like a team and I like it a lot, that people are listening to me, and if someone made a mistake than I can tell him about it and he’ll listen to me. With S1mple it was like, he’ll listen to me, but then, in some important rounds he can do whatever he wants, and it should not be like that I think.

What is going to happen with the roster in the future? Is DavCost going to join you guys?

We will think about it, but I think that probably DavCost will be our fifth player.

What are your plans for the rest of ESL One: Cologne?

We are going to watch it, like spectators, because this is an outstanding tournament. This is the biggest event in Counter Strike: Global Offensive and in Counter-Strike’s history. We will definitely watch every match here in LANXESS arena.

This article was edited and condensed for clarity.