Arriving at
VALORANT Masters Santiago as the Americas’ third seed, and carrying the pressure that comes with being reigning champions, NRG opened their tournament sweeping XLG 2-0 in their first match. The win not only keeps their title defense on track, but also helps silence any doubts about whether a lower seeding would translate into a tougher road on the international stage.
After the win, Georgio
“keiko” Sanassy sat down with
Sheep Esports to reflect on his first international victory with his new team. Keiko also discussed reuniting with Ayaz
“nAts” Akhmetshin, and more topics.
How did it feel to return to an international event with a new team today?
Georgio "keiko" Sanassy: “It feels pretty amazing, reverse sweep into international, and now we just beat XLG 2-0. It’s pretty adrenaline-pumping, I would say, just the crowd and the energy there. The Chilean fans are very, very loud.
You dominated on both maps today. What do you think made the difference on Haven, for example?
keiko: We had, like, a complete read on Haven, how they wanted to play. I don’t think they changed much from coming back, coming to the international, so we kind of knew everything they were going to do. We had such a read on them.
We saw you take a photo and swap jerseys with Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin. How did that reunion go?
keiko: We just caught up. We talked for like an hour and a half. Just catching up on how life’s been in LA, how life’s in Germany. It was a nice talk. He’s enjoying his time. They qualified again, 4 out of 4 so far for them as well. So I’m glad to see them here.
We know you would like to play against each other. What do you think of Team Liquid’s new roster?
keiko: I think they’re very good in this meta right now. They picked up a lot of Duelist players so they can kind of do whatever they want because the double Duelist meta is very, very strong right now. They’re all very professional on every Duelist so they can be as creative as they want in this meta. It shows because they just instantly swapped midway through their run to Santiago. They switched to this double Neon meta, and they’ve been destroying ever since. So it shows how adaptive they are.
keiko: No, not really. I mean, I’m playing a different role. I’m playing on a different team in a different region. So, you know, like, it takes time to get used to. Obviously, I’m not going to be playing as well as I was in EMEA, where I was comfortable, where I was playing what I like to play. Right now, I’m playing a lot of different roles and filling, and I’m enjoying myself. I’m having fun with the team.
What helped you the most to integrate into this roster and fit with everyone?
keiko: Everyone speaks English very, very well. The main difference between EU is with the comms. In Europe, we had a lot of keywords to signal, like specific things. It activates something in people’s brains right now. But in NA, we have keywords still, but we have constant streams of information.
You have to really be listening to everyone, what everyone’s saying. So it’s very much less concise comms. It’s more like a stream of information that you have to put together. So that was a big difference at the beginning, but I’m very used to it now. And just being around everyone every day, so that’s how much it’s a slow process, but it’s working.
NRG celebrationg the 2-0 win against XLG at Masters santiago. Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
What is this team’s biggest strength? We saw you deliver an incredible performance with the reverse sweep in the lower final against MIBR. What makes this team so strong when it matters the most?
keiko: Just definitely the vibes. We are two down against MIBR, 9-3 down on Split, and everyone’s just like, “Come on, let’s dig deep here. Let’s play our game.” Everyone’s still enjoying themselves. Everyone’s getting hyped. Definitely, they have good energy, good mental resilience. No matter what, if they’re getting shot down, they still do the correct plays, no matter what, even if they get unlucky a couple times. No one gets discouraged.
How did you experience your first tournament in America?
keiko: Definitely a learning experience for me. Just everything, playing against different players. I’m not used to playing against different teams and play styles. But I think I did well for what was expected. I didn’t get to perform as well as I did in Europe, a different region, different play styles.
How did your preparation go? Since you just finished the American split, did you have enough time to scrim teams from this tournament, or just time to prepare for the match?
keiko: Yeah, I mean, we landed, we played a couple of days of practice, maybe two, three days. We didn’t get to play anyone from the tournament. I think we’re not trying to play teams and show what we’re doing. So yeah, we just played the LATAM teams. I think right now, the Chilean and the Brazilian teams, and like all of LATAM and Brazil basically, we’re just playing those teams and they’re very, very snappy, very aggressive. So it’s fun to play them.
We see you playing Duelist sometimes, but mostly you’re on smokes. How do you approach your individual training to stay sharp with such a wide agent pool? Is it because you need to flex a lot of agents?
keiko: The main thing bonkar (Malkolm Rench) told me is that: “Don’t care too much about your utility, just go out there and shoot some heads.” Just play as a Duelist basically. Like, we don’t care about your utility, you know, just do the basic stuff. You don’t have to do anything fancy. You’re just going to go out there with Mada (Adam Pampuch), and you’re just going to go out there and you’re just going to roll them down. So that’s what he said.
Other than that, and Team Liquid, is there a team or player you would love to face during this Masters and why?
keiko: I would love to play the BBL guys. They’re like a young team that came from Premier, into Challengers into Tier 1. Yeah, so they’re insane, to be honest. I think they’ve had such a long time together. They are insanely good to make it into Santiago.”
