VIT Faded: "The key is to show we can fight back. That’s a mentality Vitality has shown across Counter-Strike and other games"

Fresh from a hard-fought series against Gentle Mates, Team Vitality's head coach Daniel "Faded" Hwang, breaks down a victory that blended experimentation with resilience. He explains why Vitality finally unveiled Corrode, featuring Felipe "Less" Basso on Chamber, and dissects the stall on Lotus. He also details Bartosz "UNFAKE" Bernacki's accelerated transition to IGL after arriving from Challengers France to VALORANT VCT EMEA.

Daniel "Faded" Hwang: "It has developed over time. Today, we never stopped fighting. Map 1 (Corrode) felt upbeat. Everyone was having fun. We finally got to show Corrode, which is a map we take a lot of pride in, so being able to play it now is a very nice feeling. We kept it in our back pocket so as not to reveal it too early, it’s been in the works. It was a good map. On Map 2 (Lotus), I think we fumbled a lot. We got ahead of ourselves after the first-half rounds. In the second half we slowed down and stopped doing what we had practiced, so it was really tough to reset. By Map 3 (Ascend), in the first half we know it’s a very CT-sided map the guys just refused to give up, and it showed on defense. Everyone was communicating. Derkre (Nikita Sirmitev) often takes over on defense in terms of calling. Less is constantly generating ideas, and people like Kicks (Kimmie Laasner) are really good at filling those ideas in as well. It was great to see the team fight back, and that’s something we always try to show: we never give up, and I think that definitely came through today. All credit to Gentle Mates, they played an insane game. We weren’t expecting that level of aggression. We knew it was kind of their last match and they’d want to go out with a statement, but it was a little difficult for us to adjust; we weren’t fully ready for it. Still, we managed to find the right answers in the end.

Faded: It’s an agent Less is very comfortable with. We don’t get many chances to use it because the current meta means we’re almost always going to need Less on Viper. He’s one of the strongest in the world at it, in my opinion. On Cypher, as well, you just saw it on Ascent. He’s always creating different setups, different transitions, and the way he helps the team is very strong. Corrode was the first map where, looking at the layout, we felt Chamber might be really solid. It's a way for him to have some fun, and it also gives us a lot of value. Shoutout to my assistant coach, SLK (Aleksey Lynksov), who fully built out this comp. It shows: you have Derke on Yoru, and you get to use this double TP. One person does it, another person does it, now we have both of them doing it. It’s a really cool concept that lets them play their game. If we could run Chamber on more maps, we would. Unfortunately, we haven’t prepped it much elsewhere, and we’ve seen a bit more stability with non-Chamber Sentinels. But you never know, we might come up with something in the next week or two and come out strong with it.

Faded: We didn’t play our game. I know that sounds generic, but we froze up a lot. We were taking space without ideas, whereas in our previous Lotus, every time we play, we’re instantly making decisions, poking and prodding different areas on attack, and we make it hectic for the opponents. Today, we got ahead of ourselves: we took the space and then waited for the next response or next thing to do, but by then, the enemies had already read us. We weren’t playing our own game; we were playing into their expectations. That was one of the biggest reasons we lost Lotus. Our defense was strong, though. The comp lets us play very retake-heavy. We were getting early picks, and even with some sloppiness, we still closed the half well. But once we got on attack, we let them play their game. When you let Comeback (Berkcan Şentürk) use an AWP, take space, and you respect it too much, it’s pretty much game over. We gave Comeback a lot of respect on the server.

Faded: I’ll go with a fun one: we credit different players as “player of the week” and give that player the space to choose our team activity. Once a week, we have to do a team activity so the guys can interact outside the game, and it’s really nice because they all have different interests. If you just do the same thing over and over, you burn out and stop connecting with your teammates. One of the biggest things we’ve tried to implement is making sure they connect outside the game. I believe a strong friendship and a strong brotherhood help you on the server. For example, Less loves board games very thoroughly, long ones, and it’s actually really fun. Derke loves problem-solving escape rooms, using his brain, always competing, and challenging himself in real-life activities. Those are some of the fun things we bring to the team in addition to practice itself.

Faded: It was definitely rough at first, especially over the split. We had a very short time to get on the same page, and the IGL–coach dynamic is crucial one of the most important pieces. I give him a lot of credit: he shows up three or four hours before practice every day, stays one to two hours later, messages me throughout the night, we’re always talking about maps and calling. After every scrim, he asks for feedback on what he can do better or what adjustments are necessary. UNFAKE is a very hungry learner. He knows he needs more power in his calling, but he’s very creative. That’s one of the things I respect most: he’s willing to think outside the box, and with more time, we can implement more of that creativity. A great example is certain pistol rounds, some ideas make you think, “Why would we do that?”, but credit to him for bringing them out. His strengths are his creativity and dedication. I can’t say I’ve never seen it before. Sayf (Saif Jibraeel) was definitely like this, too, but it’s inspiring when people are willing to work just as much as, or even harder than, I do. UNFAKE is one of those guys.

Faded: That’s exactly it, they bring a lot of experience. They grasp concepts very quickly in the game. I notice that as soon as I tell them something, they’re either writing it down if it’s new, or it’s a concept they already know. They’re leaders in the sense that they own their mistakes as soon as something goes wrong, they adjust immediately. What I respect is that they both want to learn. They’re always reviewing VOD's. Derke is always studying the game. Less is studying players as well. I'm not going to mention names, but he’s studying how the game is changing and how the younger generation is coming in. They lead by example. They don’t say, “We’ve done this before, so we’ll take a back seat.” They grind ranked to show they’re still willing to put in the work. They study VOD's and other players. They do everything required of a top-level player. In esports, it can be difficult to maintain a strong work ethic. You get used to your ranked routines, but at tier one, there’s a lot of study and a lot of self-critique. There are always things to improve in yourself and to learn from others. Less and Derke embody that. They’re not content with losing or with where they are; they want more, they want to be better. I see them inspiring the rest of the team to do the same.

Faded: A trophy is a great stepping stone, obviously. For me I want the guys to play to their level. Many times, we have to respect other teams because they’re playing a better game, but with us, a lot of our losses are our own fault. We can’t always play what we’ve practiced or show what we’ve done. If we can show the strength of our roster and of our work, and play to the best of our abilities, then we’ll most likely be able to play out during playoffs. The key is to show we can fight back. That’s a mentality Vitality has shown across Counter-Strike and many other games, never giving up. Until the final score, you don’t surrender, you don’t say “go next.” I want us to show that through the way we play. If we do, with that mentality, I don’t think we can lose. A trophy is the ultimate goal, and making Champions is a huge goal as well. But for me, I want to feel we gave everything we possibly could that we can hold our heads high even if we lose, knowing we did everything to fight that battle. That’s the message I want our team to give off: we will never surrender, we will never give up."