Shopify Rebellion Gold began their VALORANT Game Changers Championship Seoul campaign with a controlled and confident victory in a rematch of last year's final versus MIBR. They then headed to the press room to discuss their success. Mel and Alexis discussed the "Champions composure", explaining how their years of international experience and more efficient preparation in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) had made this tournament feel more relaxed than ever and more topics.

Questions for Melanie "meL" Capone

Focusing on map one, what gave you the edge from start to finish? Did you already have MIBR’s game plan figured out, or was there another factor that made the difference?

meL: "Them picking it certainly helped. But honestly, I think we mostly just played our own game. We didn’t overthink what they would do; we just did our thing. Pearl is a very good map for us, and I think we definitely showed that. That’s pretty much the story of that first map.

As the years go by, we see more and more players arriving on the GC circuit who are pure talents in terms of skill. Do you think the level is higher than last year? And in your opinion, which team could spring a surprise, like NRG did at the Champions?

meL: That’s a good question. I definitely think this year is more competitive, probably more than ever. I feel like I say that every year, which is actually a good sign for the scene, it means things are progressively getting better, not regressing. At least that’s how it feels to me. If anyone were to have a dark-horse run, I could see Karmine Corp our next opponent doing that. I think Team Liquid are the favourites, and I’d also say G2 Gozen, depending on who you ask, are still a very formidable threat as well. So I’d put G2 Gozen and KC in that conversation too.

How much of an advantage do you think it is to have so much experience between the four of you, and how did Dodoonut's integration into this already well-established group go?

meL: I know “experience” can be such an abstract word, but today I really felt it. Personally, I think a lot of us felt it. We were very calm going into this match. I’d say it was probably the least nervous I’ve ever been going into any match, especially one at a world championship.

That calmness is definitely a sign of experience. For some of us, it’s our fourth time being here; for several others, it’s their third. It’s only dodonut (Karnthida Chaisrakeo) first, but I think the rest of us having all that experience and feeling that “Champions composure” is a direct result of how many times we’ve been on this stage. It feels good to finally feel like we’ve earned that. In previous years, I don’t think it was fully there; today it definitely was.

You mentioned this is the calmest you’ve felt compared to previous times. How did that first event feel versus how you feel now?

meL: I think this event is the one where we’ve had the most time, and more importantly, the most efficient time. We learned a lot from the past two years, especially that first year, when some of our practice wasn’t very efficient. This year it feels like every scrim we’ve had since we arrived in APAC has been super productive, we always took something away from it. That’s a big reason why we felt so calm as a team. The APAC teams have also been really good practice. It’s actually been kind of amazing.

Who have you been scrimming against?

meL: We don’t even know half their names, but they’re going in. They’re all good. They all have names in different languages that we don’t recognize, we’ve never seen them before, and they’re just playing like superstars. The Chinese teams, we’ll say it ! The Chinese teams are insane. You saw how fast we killed the other team today, when we play those Chinese teams in scrims, we die fast. We die very fast."

Questions for Karnthida "dodonut" Chaisrakeo

Since Shopify have already won two GCC titles with florescent (Ava Eugene), there are still a lot of expectations from the public about you “filling her shoes.” What is your mindset regarding that pressure?

dodonut: "Honestly, it doesn’t affect me that much. My teammates know that I’m good, and I know that I’m good, and that I can fill those shoes pretty well. I just have to play my own game and not worry about public opinion.

Coach Joe, your former coach from FlyQuest Red, was here in the crowd cheering for you. How did it feel to have him here supporting you, now that he’s local and coaching GC Pacific?

dodonut: It’s always nice seeing a familiar face in the crowd. I hadn’t seen him in over a year, so it was really nice to reconnect, to go back to my roots a bit, and talk to someone who helped me get here and get this far in the first place."

Question for Loic "effys" Sauvageau

Your next opponent is Karmine Corp. What are your thoughts on that matchup, and do you have any words for them?

effys: "I think KC have been showing up pretty well, they had an impressive first game against Xipto. But I believe that if we kill them faster than they kill us, we’ll win the game. That was basically what we did today: we were killing them way faster than we were dying, and that’s our game plan going into this series, kill them fast before they can kill us."