Following Karmine Corp's hard-fought 2–1 victory over Movistar KOI on Thursday, Sheep Esports sat down with Ahmed "Ze1sh" El Sheikh, KC's coach, to discuss the emotions behind the win, the lessons learned, and prospects. He gave us an honest insight into KC’s journey through the season, from acknowledging initial difficulties to stressing the importance of mental strength and preparation, and the key to achieving consistency at the highest level.

How do you feel after this 2–1 victory against MKOI?

Ahmed "Ze1sh" El Sheikh: "I feel good. In the past, we often struggled when we were caught off guard, like and we had trouble getting back into a best-of. This time, we showed character, and I think that was the most important aspect of this series for me. I wanted us to prove that we’re a team with real strength, and we managed to do it. Also, KOI really surprised us. They completely changed everything: their game plan, their compositions, whether it was on Haven, Lotus, whatever. They rebuilt their entire approach and relied on a very specific set of plays designed to catch us off guard. And to be honest, not to sound disrespectful, but that was probably their only real chance of winning the series. So they tried to destabilize all the preparation we had done throughout the week, how we trained, how we studied their tendencies by presenting something entirely new.

In your opinion, what could have been different for KC to start strong right from the beginning?

Ze1sh: I think we didn’t really enter the series well because we were missing shots like crazy. We were literally losing all our duels. If we had been sharper mechanically, I believe the game would have looked very different. We even lost a crazy 1v3 against baddyG (Kamil Graniczka). Honestly, aside from raw aim, I don’t know what else we needed, because we gave away so many rounds simply by failing duels. We lost free 1v1s where, normally, we should be winning every time.

We started on a map where we’re usually comfortable. Sure, sometimes we troll on it against teams like Paper Rex or Bilibili Gaming, but overall, it’s one of our strongest maps in the pool. This time, though, we just couldn’t hit our shots. We lost the attack side 9–3, but within those rounds, we threw away a 1v3 and three or four man-advantage situations. So yes, the score looks bad, but in reality, we gifted a lot of rounds.

Fortunately, we woke up in the second half. Once I saw how we were defending on the second side, I felt the energy shift, even if sometimes we didn’t perfectly execute what we had prepared. There was still that feeling of: guys, we’re better than them, we’re going to come back. That confidence snowballed onto the next two maps.

On the first map, you seemed absent at the start and only began reacting at 0–8, on an eco round where aim made the difference. What did you say to the team after that map, and how did you wake them up?

Usually, I’m the one who yells and lights a fire under the team. But this time I told Engh (Andrey Sholokhov) I’d be the positive guy, so he’s the one who went off on them, really got on their case. Because once again, we were falling back into bad habits: making careless, unnecessary mistakes. Honestly, most of our losses come down to tiny details, but details that are stupid and don’t reflect our true level as a team. We’ve proven at the Esports World Cup, also in the qualifiers, that we can compete at a high level, even though we still trolled some maps there, too. If we manage to cut out those lapses in focus when we’re distracted, when we stop listening, when nerves creep in, I really believe in this team. I believe in our road to Paris.

After this match, what key aspects will the team focus on in preparation for facing Natus Vincere? And what do you think were the determining factors in today’s victory?

Ze1sh: As always, we’ll do our prep study on how NAVI plays and prepare our responses. But above all, we need to build on this momentum and snowball our confidence. We know how strong we can be. As Engh always says, we’re capable of beating the best team in the world, yet losing to the worst. That’s an issue we must fix. Right now, though, I’m confident. We showed resilience after being shaken up on the first map. We bounced back and displayed a much better version of ourselves. We need to capitalize on that and focus on reinforcing the team’s confidence.

If you had to evaluate Karmine Corp’s journey through Stage 1 and Stage 2 so far, what lessons have you learned as a coach to adjust your approach?

Ze1sh: It’s honestly tough. To be completely transparent, if you watch our vlogs, you’ll see: we’ve had a mental block since the start of the season. In key situations, we stress out and fail to close out maps or matches. As a coach, I don’t claim to be an expert in psychology. Engh and I know how to make a team function and push it to perform, but mental resilience has been our biggest challenge. Our main problem all year has been losing man-advantage situations.

In VALORANT, what can a coach control? On attack, mainly the first 25 seconds of the round, setting up the plan and the early moves. On defense, there’s a bit more influence. After that, once the mid-round develops, it’s up to the players to react based on what happens on the map. Of course, in reviews, we explain what should have been done differently, but in the moment, we can’t control everything.

And the truth is, we consistently gain advantages early, but then we throw them away because someone makes a small mistake, overpeaks, or loses focus. Statistically, we’re the worst team in the league when it comes to converting numerical advantages. That’s where we need to improve: staying calm, avoiding unnecessary chaos, and playing with discipline. Youenn (Youenn Rocaboy) is doing a lot of work on this, and I trust him completely. We already saw progress today: after dropping the first map, we mentally reset and bounced back immediately.

If I had to summarize our year so far, I’d call it the season of frustration. Because when you see players like TenZ (Tyson Ngo) say that KC is always ahead of the meta, or when Paper Rex’s coach admits they studied and copied our strategies after winning Masters, yet we fail to translate that into results, it’s frustrating for everyone: the players, the staff, the whole organization. We know our worth, and it’s hard not to show it consistently.

For those aspiring to become VALORANT coaches, what do you think is the most important aspect to develop first?

Ze1sh: The game knowledge comes naturally over time. The most important thing is learning how to manage people. Many coaches aren’t tactical geniuses, but they know how to manage a group and bring out consistent performance. On the flip side, some extremely tactical coaches struggle with people management. Game sense can be studied; people management is much harder, it’s either natural or it takes years of experience to develop.

When I transitioned from player to coach, I read extensively about psychology. I studied how athletes in traditional sports approached competition, their routines, and how they prepared mentally to enter the zone. Helping players reach that state where they can fully perform is crucial. Look at someone like Cristiano Ronaldo: the discipline, the daily routines, the mental preparation. That’s what builds consistency.

Of course, tactics are also vital. As a former player, I already had that background, and I’ve always been very vocal in-game, so I understand map flow and communication deeply. But to stay relevant long-term, you constantly need to reinvent yourself, adapt to the meta, and keep learning.

For example, even though I don’t grind the game as much now, whenever there’s a big patch or meta shift, I’ll spam ranked games 100 or 150 per act to understand exactly how things work: the new agents, the new mechanics, the new trends. Sometimes I’ll see an individual make a creative play in ranked, and I’ll adapt it into a team concept. That constant process of learning and translating ideas into structured strategies is essential."