EP Iluri: "I enjoyed the resilience we had this year"

Enterprise Esports’ run in VCT EMEA Stage 2 has come to an end. After an impressive showing in the Play-Ins and against Team Vitality in the opening round of the playoffs, the team ultimately reached its limit a few days later. Defeated by Karmine Corp and then by Team Liquid two days afterward, the challenge ultimately proved too great for the VCL side to secure a top-four finish and advance to Barcelona.

Despite the elimination, which takes nothing away from an impressive run for a team of their standing, Enterprise captain Ilari “iluri” Puranen spoke to Sheep Esports to reflect on the team’s season.

Ilari “iluri” Puranen: “I am just disappointed. We had a good run, but I feel like we could have continued it more, and just going out with two straight losses just feels disappointing.

iluri: I think our level is just not consistent enough. We saw it in the practice: when we are good, we are insane. But in both of the games against KC and today, they are just fundamental things that we are not good enough in. In Lotus, we are not reacting fast enough. We are not making decisions or plans fast enough. And in this game, I mean, it was a weird game because they just kept hitting A. We kind of adapted, and it was fine, but then we just lost advantages on the retakes. So yeah, it just came down to the basics.

iluri: Yeah, the playoff teams, Liquid and KC, they are individually insane, all of them. And what they do is react so fast to what is happening on the map. And that's something that we didn't do in the Lotus. We need to be faster than them in making decisions, making plans, and making calls. And they were better at that than us. And I think that's the biggest key.

iluri: We had a good run, of course; if you zoom out right now, it's just hard to do it after a loss. But yeah, I'm grateful for the team we had on this run, and it was a good ride.

iluri: I mean, we aimed for higher. So we achieved some goals this year, but not all of them.

iluri: I enjoyed the resilience we had this year. Outside looking in, it probably looks like we had a good run. We played a lot of officials. We won a lot of officials in Tier 2. But there were so many setbacks for us, so many different things affecting us. But we kept working despite all of them, and we had the resilience. And for that, I'm very proud of the team.

iluri: Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Just need to find the level; need to improve so I can be consistently winning against these top teams. And yeah, that's it.

iluri: I'm very optimistic for everyone in my team and for me as well. Personally, this was the year I improved the most as a player. And I hope to continue the trend as well next year. And yeah, just get on the highest level of VALORANT and play there consistently.

iluri: Bittersweet.”