The Legacy in-game leader says he is back to full health but needs “baby steps” after missing ESL Pro League, and believes Legacy are closer than ever to becoming a team that contends for every trophy.
arT is back. After missing ESL Pro League Season 24 with meningitis, the Legacy in-game leader returned at the Thunderpick World Championship in Malta and led his team to a 2-0 win over PARIVISION on Wednesday.
Before the match, he spoke to Thunderpick’s broadcast for the first time since his illness. Asked what the last weeks had been like, he said it had been tough at the start, before he focused on getting back as quickly as possible.
It’s a lot frustrating to skip an event. It’s the first time I skip an event in my career, so it’s frustrating in this situation as well. So I just want to come back and play.
“Just baby steps”
arT said he is at full health, but that the time away from the game has left its mark, with little time to practise before the event.
It’s full health, but I need to pick up where I left, because it was many days without CS and it’s the first event, so we did not have time to practice a lot. So, you know, it’s just baby steps, but we are ready to play.
He watched some of Legacy’s matches at Pro League while he was ill, even though many of them were early in the morning in Brazil. “It was like 6am, and I could not watch all the time because I was not feeling great,” he said. “After I felt better, I watched some games and talked with them, but you know, it’s not the same as being here and working.”
Legacy played Pro League with bobz as a stand-in and went out in the group stage.
A contender “closer than ever”
Legacy have had their best year so far. They won the CS Asia Championships in May and FISSURE Playground #3 in September, and arT was asked whether the team now sees itself as one of the elite.
I think we are very close to it. I guess we have to win a little bit more to feel ourselves like we are a contender for every tournament we play, but I think we are getting close to that. I think it’s closer than ever.
The missing piece, he said, is consistency: being comfortable on every map and in every situation.
Reading PARIVISION
arT also explained why PARIVISION, who beat Legacy 2-1 at Pro League, are so hard to play against. He pointed to Jame’s reads and the way PARIVISION stack sites.
“They get some readings very well and it’s hard to not get in the stacks. I think that’s something that Jame does very well,” he said. “I have to play more slowly so I can try to read the map and get the better sense of what they’re doing.”
It paid off, but only just. Legacy won Dust2 13-11 and needed overtime to take Mirage 16-14, with dumau the best player on the team. arT finished with a 0.90 rating in his first match back.
FURIA next
Legacy now face FURIA in the Group B winners’ match on Thursday at 18:00 CEST. The two Brazilian teams have met twice this year, and Legacy won both, including the third-place match at the Esports World Cup.
