After a turbulent Group Stage,
Team Heretics ultimately finished third in their group at
VCT EMEA Stage 2 and will now have to battle through the Play-Ins to reach the playoffs and keep their hopes of qualifying for
VALORANT Champions alive. The Spanish side ended the group stage on a far more encouraging note, securing back-to-back victories over
GIANTX and
Fnatic, including an emphatic 13-0 win on the final map of the latter series.
Despite the team's inconsistent campaign, head coach Brandon William "weber" Weber, who is currently leading the roster during matches while awaiting the potential return of Neil "neilzinho" Finlay, remains optimistic about what lies ahead. Following the victory over Fnatic, Weber spoke with Sheep Esports to share his thoughts on Team Heretics' performance and the challenges awaiting the team in the remainder of the tournament.
What is your first feeling after the game?
Brandon William "weber" Weber: “Ultimately relief, I would say. I think it's been a bit of a rollercoaster stage. It definitely started off with the most rollercoaster we could have had with the game against Liquid. Every single game was up and down and I think it's really hard to tell which sort of Heretics you're going to get on the day. So I was just happy to kind of be on the receiving end of the Heretics we kind of come to expect.
To talk about the game itself, you had a really hard start on Summit before going round after round and turning things away. So how did you manage to come back from perspective?
weber: To be honest, we were untested on Summit. I think it's a map that we do enjoy playing, but it's kind of still quite hard to get scrims on it. So we didn't have many repetitions on the map, it's kind of hard to dig deep in tactical pauses to find what the solutions should or could potentially be. So ultimately, we threw out what we had on Summit. And we would have said, “okay, let's just do our thing and just hope for the best.” We scraped three rounds towards the end of Summit. From there, we had experienced what happened in scrims in terms of the attack side. We were very successful on attack, so we knew three or four rounds and we could pull it back.
I would say it's not what we wanted and there's definitely a bunch of things we need to fix on defense. I'm not happy in the slightest with how we played, but I'm very happy with how we picked ourselves up and moved on.
What do you think about your team's performances since the beginning of Stage 2? Are you satisfied with it overall?
weber: Yeah, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I am proud of them. I am happy with how we perform most of the time. But unfortunately, sometimes we dip to levels that just aren't acceptable, I would say. But they also know that themselves; I'm not going to beat them for playing that way. Like ultimately, if they play that way, that is also a reflection of what our preparation has been as coaches. I think we've got there now; we've kind of seen we can do it. We're kind of moving back towards the end of Stage 1 form. Yeah, ultimately, I think I'm happy right now with how we played. There's a lot of adjustments and additions that we can make, but right now I'm happy.
This week you had two wins against GIANTX and now Fnatic. Do you feel like it can change the dynamic or at least put a positive one for the rest of the season?
weber: Absolutely. If you make a comeback like that against a team such as Fnatic, regardless of their form, and then you turn around onto your map choice in 13-0, I mean, if no one takes anything from that, then why are we even playing? I hope that gives us the confidence we need and gives us the proof that we are still a top team. It may not be showing that in the table, but we've given ourselves a few extra games to go out and improve that. So hopefully, I think that's where I'm at with that.
On the personal side, did you feel like your role changed a bit during this Stage 2 since, of course, Neilzinho isn't here with the team? Do you feel like you have more responsibilities or things to handle?
weber: Absolutely, there's more things that I need to do on a personal level with the players, like on-site with them. But when it comes to day-to-day practice and things like that, Neil has been with us every single second that we're practicing and preparing and everything like that. In terms of the VALORANT side of things, it's relatively the same. It's relatively normal. Everything's kind of good. And we've now got our analyst on site as well. So he'll be with me in the booth from the next game.
But when it comes to the personal side of things with the kind of void that is there because he's not here, yeah, it's hard to fill that kind of gap. And yeah, it then leans on me to kind of step up and be a bit of an in-person father figure, which I naturally am anyway, but you know, it's like one of the parents is missing. You kind of need to also be there and give them like the extra bit of attention that they might need. And it's not easy; it's not what we want, but it's definitely something that will change moving forward, and thankfully he's had his surgery that was successful yesterday, and if we do make it to Shanghai, he will be back with us and yeah, that's what we're hoping for.
Do you feel like the results would have been even better if he was there or the problems you met during Stage 2 were harder to solve than just him being on site?
weber: It’s very tricky; you can't really quantify that. In the traditional sense, I would say that maybe it could have been different, but it would be pure speculation. From a preparation level and from the VALORANT side of things, I think we were equally as prepared as we would be if he were here or weren’t here. I think some of the losses might be from a mentality side, and not losing leads and avoiding comebacks like we had against GIANTX is maybe one of Neil's strengths, where he's more of a person that can shout at people. I can do it as well, but I think he can get people a bit more comfortable, so maybe it could have, maybe not, I couldn't tell you; it'd be speculation.
You'll still have to go through the playings next to continue to the group stage, are you still feeling confident to make it through it?
weber: Yeah, absolutely. I think we've beaten a good team there in Fnatic, regardless of their standings right now. The only team that blew us out of the water was Karmine Corp, who played a fantastic game on the day that we chose to be not so fantastic. Our form on paper looks pretty good. Also, what we said when we made the change from ComeBack (Berkcan Şentürk) to Kosh (Martynas "koshmaras" Namikas) was like, we will just scale into the stage, and I think that's what we're going to do now. We can only take positives from this win and I have full belief that we can just go through, take these two wins in a row that we need and move on to the playoffs.
Do you feel like there is any VCL team that could make it to the playoffs or even more, from what you've seen from there? Is there anyone of them that feels like a threat?
weber: I think the obvious one is Enterprise Esports. We practiced against them a lot, before and now after they've picked up Pati (Patryk "paTiTek" Fabrowski). I think he's been a good addition for them. Naturally I think they're the kind of team that you're expecting. Obviously, Frankfurt are playing also well, and I think they could maybe be a dark horse coming into it. But yeah, I think Enterprise is the one that everyone's waiting for and looking for to perform.”
