G2 valyn: "We’re trying to just get this game out of our heads and reset"

After a tense series that ended 2-1 in favor of Nongshim RedForce, G2 Esports leaves the Masters Santiago upper bracket with that particular taste of defeat that comes down to a single detail, a single round, a single call. After the game, Jacob “valyn” Batio gave his reaction to the loss to Sheep Esports, expressing both frustration and lucidity. He spoke candidly about what was missing to seal the deal, how Nongshim managed to tip the scales, but also what gives him confidence for the future, as the tournament is not over yet.

Jacob "valyn" Batio: “The feelings, honestly, are just a lot of frustration. They were so close. I feel like another day we could win that, and those losses that are so close hurt the most. At the end of the day, though, we have a game tomorrow, I'm trying to just quickly get it out and just brush it aside, but it hurts so close to getting that top four. I'm still proud of the performance; we had a good game. Map 3 was overtime, so it doesn't get closer than that. And yeah, just focusing on BBL now.

valyn: We had a good game plan going into it of how to stop it, but it was just through the VODs, and in reality, none of it was really working on defense. Our defense looks really bad. We felt like maybe the Astra util and the Iso util could maybe slow him down a bit, but not really. He was just running it down really hard. On Split, though, it's a longer range map, and the chokes are not so tight. His Neon movement is not as quick. So we were able to make a comeback on defense there and take it to overtime. But yeah, Corrode just felt like it was a really good map for them. And the Neon utility on that map is really hard to deal with.

valyn: It comes down to just one extra read or one call, because a lot of teams, like Nongshim, use a lot of util for bombsite. If we call to play retake and they hit B like that could be the difference maker. Not every time you butt heads, it's kind of 50/50. Sometimes you have to finesse them. You have to make them think that you're playing a site, and they throw everything and play retake. Yeah, it just comes down to one call. For them, it was their overtime round that they called to like four man push A, and my two teammates at A just got run down. So they had that one call. And it’s so close, but that's the nature of the meta and the double Duelist. If two teams are good and they're both playing aggressively, then it just comes down to one moment.

valyn: Outside of the game, he brings in a lot of intangibles for the team that we lacked. He brings in an extra voice of leadership for the team. Previously, I felt like it was kind of just me and Josh (Josh "JoshRT" Lee) trying to rally the troops, but he's really good personality outside of the game, which then helps us be better in game, be more confident, and come up with more ideas. It's just someone you want in your team. And then in the game, he brings an X factor, as he can go for a lot of plays. And you kind of just trust his mechanics to win those duels or close out rounds, whatever. AWPing as well, he's a star AWPer, so he's very versatile. This event would be his first Masters; he's still getting the swing of things, but I trust BABYBAY a lot, and he's really good. I'm honestly happy with him, and I appreciate him a lot. He makes me better every day, makes all the teammates better, too.

valyn: No, I credit him a lot. Every time I have an interview question like that, I credit him a lot. He picked up Waylay really quickly for us. He picked up other Duelists in the past for us fast. So we thought maybe it would take him time. Maybe he's not used to the mechanics of everything because he's been out of the pro scene for so long, but he's really good mechanically. You put him on Waylay, and he can play it well. He can play a lot of agents; his Chamber is world-class. I was definitely impressed. But he puts in a lot of hours, so it makes sense. He puts in a lot of work. He listens to the coaches. He listens to all the feedback. And he's like a sponge. He takes in everything really well. So credit to him.

valyn: Honestly, it's all about the recovery. For us, we play tomorrow, so we’re trying to just get this game out of our heads and just reset. For BBL, they're coming off a fresh win versus FURIA. So I know they have a lot of confidence, and we just have to not give up. It's one more game until we go into the top four. So we just have to work our ass off tonight, make sure we prepare well, and come in tomorrow feeling fresh and confident. And we win this one game, and then we have some time off to go into the lower run. It's just going to take a little bit of time to fix the bleeding from today. Hopefully, by the time we're back at the hotel, we’ll just get our food, prepare, and we’ll go next.

valyn: Definitely. We haven't lost in the playoffs. That was our first loss. So we've had a day break in between. We've always felt like we have some time to prepare and still go out. Honestly, there hasn't been too much time for fun activities, but we walk around in the morning, we walk at night, we see the city, try different food, and maybe go sightseeing a bit. And it's been a really good balance. I love Chile so much, honestly. It's a very calm city. It's not too packed. There are a lot of trees, a lot of green, and the weather's nice. It feels like you're kind of on vacation at this Masters, so I like it a lot. I've been very grateful. Hopefully, we can continue going because it'd be a dream to play in the Grand Finals here, because the crowd is so amazing too.

valyn: That loss versus PaperX was a blow to us. We didn't play our game at all. We played very weak that day, but we know why we played very weak. And we were able to apply those lessons into the two games after. Obviously, those games are difficult. We played XLG and then T1. T1 is also a very good team from APAC. So that was a confident win for us, that the practice we put in after that loss versus Paper Rex is working. And I still think it showed today, we improved a lot. Without that loss, maybe today's result would have been even more different. And yeah, they're a great team. That loss was nice because we lost, and then we still were able to qualify for the playoffs. It was like free learning.

valyn: Definitely one of them was Nongshim. I'm happy I played this match. I wish I had won, but it is what it is. The other team, maybe NRG, because obviously internationals is a whole different level than regionals. And they feel very confident at internationals, and we feel very confident versus them because we always beat them at home. It would be a really entertaining match to actually play them on an international stage and see what happens. It'd be a lot closer than the regional games because we always beat them pretty hard, but they're really good when they travel. That would be a fun game, so I hope to play NRG sometime soon.”