TL MiniBoo: "I felt bad because, my brother, my friends are there. I would have prefered that it wouldn't be an elimination game"

On Thursday evening, Team Liquid defeated Team Heretics in the lower bracket of the VCT EMEA Kickoff. After a hesitant start to the season, the reigning regional champions appear to have rediscovered their momentum and remain firmly focused on securing qualification for the Masters Santiago.

The match also marked the first VCT encounter between Ričardas "Boo" Lukaševičius and his brother Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius since the latter departed Team Heretics during the offseason. The two brothers agreed to speak together to Sheep Esports about their feelings and what it means to now find themselves competing on opposite sides.

Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius: “I was hyped up before the game, but once the game started, I looked at their faces. Honestly, I felt bad, you know; it's just not right. It's just the competition; it’s brutal, and one of us was going to win, and one was going to lose, so it is what it is. Honestly, I felt bad because my brother and my friends are there. I would have preferred that it wouldn't be an elimination game.

Ričardas "Boo" Lukaševičius: “I'm feeling okay. I think they managed to bring back an Abyss which was like, really well played by them. And then on Bind, it was like a complete stomp, really well planned and played from their side. So I don't know; there is nothing to be kind or sad about, maybe that we let them come back on Abyss. But in general, like, we just got stomped. So it's a deserved loss.

Boo: I didn't think about it. I think if I had really thought about it, it would have only impacted me negatively. Because obviously I want my brother to succeed, and winning means him losing. So I just didn't think about it at all. I just focused on the game and on the preparation. So I didn't let myself get excited.

MiniBoo: I also try to avoid thinking about it, but you know, once you're out at the venue, you see their cars pulling up, you see they're in the room, saying hi, taking a photo, speaking up to them, and across the stage you see them. It still gets in your head, like even if you're trying to avoid it. But inside the game I managed to forget who I'm playing against. We didn't really talk before the game. It was like, let's just play VALORANT.

Boo: He didn't talk more to me than to, like, ReiNs (Enes Ecirli) or Wo0t (Mert Alkan) or weber (Brandon William Weber).

Boo: I think nobody knew how it was going to feel before it happened. So now they can maybe have more answers. I know that they wanted to 1-1 and go to the third map, and the better team wins. So they are like, a bit sad that it was only 2-0. But yeah, I think no matter what, they're going to be happy and sad at the same time. It's going to be like this bittersweet feeling where you can't have a perfect ending, but also no matter what, you're going to be happy for one of us. I guess it's something unique to feel for them. But yeah, I think when we go now to talk to them, they can explain it in more detail.

MiniBoo: I picked up my mom yesterday after she came to the airport. We spoke a bit and she was like, “I don't know what to do. I don't know how I'm going to feel tomorrow.” And I just said to her “just cheer for both of us having a good game, and just watch the game and enjoy it.” There is one winner and one loser, but you know it's just 50-50.

MiniBoo: I think he was the first person I spoke to from everyone. I just wanted to hear his opinion. I think it was after Champions; I instantly came up to him. It was the same day we lost to Paper Rex. After that, I had this thing for a bit in my mind. And after everything ended, I just came up to speak to him, not having a full decision made yet. I just wanted to speak up to him and listen to his opinion, and he just said to me like, do what you do, I'm going to support you anyway, and just do what your heart feels.

Boo: When he talked, I always knew because I'm the same. We are brothers, so we're kind of similar in some ways. If you don't like what you're doing, there is no way you could do it at 100%. So it was the same for him; like, if he didn't see himself staying in Heretics, there was no point in staying or asking him to stay. So I just say, do what you want. It's always going to be the right decision. Maybe it's going to end up like being on a worse team or anything, but whatever the future is, it's still the right decision to make the step because that's what you want to do. So I just told him that, and yeah, I think it probably helped him to make it easier to decide.

MiniBoo: There wasn't a revenge type of motivation. It's more like excitement because there is nothing to revenge. We have no bad blood, and we are good friends, and I enjoyed my time in Heretics. So it was just more of excitement to play against them, obviously, because there are like four people and the coaching staff that have worked and lived with 90% of them for two years. So I just wanted to play them, not for revenge, just excitement.

Boo: It’s true that we played better and better. And I think even on map one, we had good streaks of rounds where we felt in control. But yeah, in map two, they changed the composition, and they changed the style. They were just running at us. And if someone is running at you and you can't kill them, then there is honestly not much to do strategically. There are not many answers other than rotate where they go and kill them. There were so many things just not going in our way. We have two people on site, and there are, like, Neon, Waylay, and Sky’s dog flying everywhere, and you can’t; you just can't shoot. So yeah, I think I would explain it by a complete outplay, macro and micro wise. There were not many answers we could do, even after the game. I and Neilzinho (Neil Finlay) talked, and there is not much we could have done. Winning pistols in 1v3 would have been better; maybe then we would snowball a bit, but yeah, there is just full outplay, I would say.”

MiniBoo: I don't really care who we play next. I was most excited to play against Heretics, and right now I don't really care. But we made a deal: whoever wins this game will be going to Santiago. So I have to carry that deal and carry that promise, and I'm going to do my best to actually qualify for Santiago so it's like not a waste.”