After a nail-biting opening match between Team Liquid and Paper Rex,
G2 Esports locked in a comfortable victory over
TYLOO at
VALORANT Champions Shanghai. The four-time regional champion
swept China’s first seed, setting up a matchup against Paper Rex, while TYLOO will face Team Liquid in the elimination match.
Following the best-of-three series, both teams attended the post-match press conference, where the players shared their thoughts on the game, their experience at the event so far, and what they expect from their upcoming matches.
G2 Esports
Questions For Jacob "valyn" Batio
Since London, the team hasn't been getting the results you expected. What are your expectations for Champions, and do you think you can lift the trophy?
Jacob "valyn" Batio: “100%. Having such poor results in the past and not living up to our own expectations has lit a fire under us to compete and prepare differently for this tournament. I don't want to jinx anything, and it was just the first match, but we do feel really good. Our practice has been feeling amazing, and now it's about translating that onto the stage. I know we can do it.
I had the most fun I've ever had on a stage and it was the opening game. So I feel really good about it. I think we could lift the trophy, but I'm not going to toot our own horn too early. It's just the first game, and we still have five more to go. Our mindset is to play and have fun. You never know when your next opportunity is going to come, so we're all trying to seize it together and go out with a bang.”
Questions For Andrej "babybay" Francisty
You were previously part of VALORANT’s Tier 1 scene with FaZe. How does competing in the scene feel different compared to when you played in 2020–2021?
Andrej "babybay" Francisty: “The most obvious difference is that I was a Duelist player who didn't really have to do much other than fight, and I was really good at it, to be fair. I think whenever I know what my role is on a team, I get really good at it. It took a lot of work. Josh (Josh "JoshRT" Lee) was teaching me how to play Sentinel. It's not just learning the agents; it's learning how to play the Sentinel role that I had to work on.
That's the biggest difference. I learned a completely new role after being out of the game for so long. I trusted the process, and it ended up going really well. I'm happy with how the year has gone for me personally. If I put myself back in my shoes when I was playing on FaZe and someone told me to play Sentinel, I would have had absolutely no idea how to do it, or maybe even no confidence to try. But I knew Josh was a great coach and leader, so I knew it was going to be okay.
You'll face Paper Rex in your next match. What do you think will be the biggest challenge in that series, and is there anything you want to say to them?
babybay: It wouldn't be an international event without G2 versus Paper Rex. If we want to win, we've got to beat them, even though that's not technically true, we could make it out of the group without beating them. But I think it'll be a fun match. It always is. This time around, though, I think we're a lot looser when we play, so maybe it'll be better for us.
When we matched up against them in Santiago, it was pretty stressful. We really wanted to win, and we weren't able to show our best selves. If we keep doing what we're doing, it'll be a fun match. I think they'll be better than they were against Liquid today because they have some confidence from that win. It's always fun playing them, and it's always love for them. They're really nice dudes. You can't really talk smack about them at all. It's impossible. So, good luck. May the best team win.”
Questions For Josh "JoshRT" Lee
Your last two international events both started with losses. How important was it to start this Champions campaign with a win, and what was different about the buildup and preparation this time?
Josh "JoshRT" Lee: “I talked to my team about how we tend to start cold and don't ramp up the way other teams do at internationals. I think it has to do with the expectations going into it. Usually, we're coming off a regional win and finishing first, so we're feeling ourselves a little bit. Maybe we skip some steps, and the individual preparation isn't as tight. So we vowed that this had to be different and that we'd do it much better this time. We also didn't win our regional, so there's more to prove.
There's more hunger and a lot of storylines, but given that this could be our last, we felt like we had to do this right. And we showed it. As for the specifics, it could be the small things such as the focus in practice, players playing more ranked, hanging out outside and having conversations so we can improve, enjoying the city, enjoying the food, and making sure this is a low-stress environment. Competition is stressful, and we're ready to take on this challenge. What better way to do that than against the home crowd favorites? It was really fun, and I can attest to what Jacob (Jacob "valyn" Batio) was feeling.
Obviously, I can't be out there, but I felt the energy in the comms. The players were really feeling it. TYLOO gave us a really tough start, and we took on the challenge and went for it. I'm proud of my guys for doing that.”
TYLOO
Questions For Xie "hypnotizing" Haozhi
Is there anything that stood out to you immediately after the game that caused the loss and that you think can be cleaned up before the next game?
Xie "hypnotizing" Haozhi: “I feel like losing the game could somehow be a good thing for us because this is TYLOO's first international. It's kind of like the game back in Stage 2 when we faced JDG and lost to them. After that loss, we could figure out what's wrong, and it's better for us to fix these problems before the next match. That would be good for us.”
Questions For Pong "SiuFatBB" Ka Hei
How does it feel to represent TYLOO at Champions, especially with the tournament taking place in China?
Pong "SiuFatBB" Ka Hei: “For me personally, I switched teams to be back at an international, and TYLOO performed as the first seed representing the CN region. Looking back, we went through a lot of struggles and difficulties, but finally, we made it here. It's very, very exciting to be here with all my teammates, and we're looking for a good result, of course. But after this loss, we'll go back and review our game. It could be a very precious experience for us as well.
You played Sunset today, a map where you've been 6-0 so far. What made it difficult to play your usual game on that map, and why do you think the level we're accustomed to seeing from you didn't show today?
SiuFatBB: Personally, I feel like we're a team, but after the first-map loss, even though we had a 6-0 record on Sunset, we just didn't play as ourselves. We didn't play our usual game, and there were some mistakes. Speaking of the details and little things during the game, as the IGL, I probably made some wrong judgments based on what was happening. Basically, I saw some stage nerves from us.”
