Falcons captain Finn "karrigan" Andersen has opened up about his team's persistent Ancient picks at BLAST Open Porto, despite the map consistently causing them problems throughout the group stage.
The Danish in-game leader addressed the strategy following Falcons' defeat to MOUZ, explaining that extensive practice on Ancient has shown promising results. According to karrigan, the map felt solid when he first joined the squad, and their recent training sessions have been particularly productive.
However, the primary motivation behind repeatedly selecting Ancient goes beyond practice performance. Karrigan stressed that Falcons have been relying too heavily on Dust2 in their official matches. By his count, they had only played Nuke five times in the previous 90 days before this tournament, making it essential to gain experience on other maps in competitive settings.
Despite Ancient not delivering wins at this event, karrigan views the experience as valuable development time. He acknowledged that the team hasn't reached their target level yet, but the matches are helping them identify what works and what needs adjustment. The captain emphasized that fixing these issues during official games is crucial for their long-term progress.
Falcons showed contrasting performances during the Porto group stage. They secured revenge against Legacy to advance to the playoffs and dominated MOUZ on one map, but faced difficulties against Lynn Vision initially and ultimately lost their series to MOUZ.
Karigan remains focused on building consistency, noting that truly elite teams must be capable of defeating opponents even on off days. He believes gaining more competitive repetitions is vital for Falcons as they continue their journey together, especially with a tournament break approaching after Porto concludes.
