Defeated on Thursday by
FUT Esports (0-2) in the opening round of the
VCT EMEA playoffs,
Team Liquid can no longer afford a mistake if they want to qualify for Barcelona and keep their hopes of reaching
VALORANT Champions alive. Winners of Stage 2 a year ago, the organization appears to be struggling more this time around and will need at least a top-three finish to compete at the most prestigious international tournament of the season.
Facing Eintracht Frankfurt Esports this Saturday, TL will need to regain their form against a team that managed to eliminate three VCT sides during the Play-Ins. Ahead of the match, Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko spoke to Sheep Esports about what lies ahead for his team.
What is your first feeling after the game?
Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko: “We lost the comeback on Haven, which we shouldn't have. We had pretty good reads on how they play on defense and I had some understanding on how they approach attack as well, and it just didn't work out, let's say. And on Summit, they never showed their map yet and they played this interesting comp with a lot of abilities when no one experienced it before. Now it's like double Duelist meta and stuff, and people forgot, I think, how to play against double Initiator or agents like Astra. I think we just got overwhelmed with the abilities and we didn't find the way to adjust it. On defense we could come back as well, but still it was hard, yeah.
Particularly in the first map, you were far ahead before the momentum changed. What do you think you missed to win this game?
trexx: As I said, I think Haven was pretty good for us. After the first half we were 9-3 and then we won pistol, and then they forced buy, but we went into sites where they were and they just bombed us with the stuff and it all started from here. And then, yeah, it was just hard to understand where the gaps on the maps were because they were all over the place, yeah.
Your team was on a break during the last three weeks because you were already qualified for playoffs and skipped the Play-Ins. So what did you work on during this period?
trexx: We were just improving our maps because we're playing six maps out of seven, I think. We've been just grinding, improving the maps themselves, adding more on top on most of the maps.
What did you think about your team's performances during the group stage overall?
trexx: I think the group stage was good for us. The first game we couldn't play with nAts (Ayaz Akhmetshin) and then when he came back we started winning and it was good, like we had some momentum in the group stage. KC gave us a fight and it was good to watch it, basically to understand our gaps and to understand our weaknesses and to improve as well.
How do you feel about your own performances during this period? Are you satisfied with what you've been doing since you came back?
trexx: Not this game, but I think yes. This game was a bit rough for me. I felt like I had good reads in terms of what people do on the map because I had some good calls but I just couldn't find my place individually, because I've been focusing too much on how to outplay them in terms of positioning as a team rather than actually individually. And I think that's what I struggled with today. But overall, I think from group stage I've been performing well, even though I didn't play for like almost a year. And yeah, I think group stage was good for me. Now it's time to show in playoffs.
As you said, you didn't play during six months before coming back to Team Liquid. What was your first motivation when you joined Liquid again?
trexx: Even though I didn't play, I've been still watching events and stuff, and I just saw that people are still not playing good. Even if I didn't play for like six months, I was doing my health stuff, so I knew that if I came back I was still going to be better than a lot of teams or a lot of players, whoever I would join. And then there was no bad blood with Liquid, so as soon as they contacted me I said: “Of course, let's go”.
What do you think still needs to be improved for the rest of the competition?
trexx: I think today we faced something we didn't face, which was playing a game that matters. Obviously, any game in group stage matters and stuff, but today I felt like some things we were doing less than what we do in practices or even in group stage. We were more scared of doing something rather than the opposite. We’ll need to talk through as a team. We are playing for Champs, we're playing for Barcelona and stuff, and this is what you play for when you're a player. So if you're scared of these moments, then yeah, it's hard to speak about it.
Speaking about Champions, how do you currently estimate your chances to qualify for them?
trexx: I think we still have pretty good chance to qualify, even if we drop to a lower bracket. I think we'll find our way in the lower bracket. I don't think this loss is a big deal. We just need to find ourselves and go back to the group stage mentality, let's say, and just smash people again.
Your next game will be against Frankfurt, one of the tier 2 teams that passed the Play-ins. Three of them actually passed that stage. Do you think this result is possible because Tier 2 teams are really strong or because Tier 1 teams are just average in EMEA?
trexx: I think it's kind of both. The teams that lost in Play-Ins to Tier 2 teams obviously performed badly. And yeah, the thing is that those Tier 2 teams have been practicing for like a year together. While the teams they’ve been facing in Tier 1 have been doing a lot of changes during the year. I think that's one of the big reasons, first of all. I also think Tier 2 nowadays has more passion towards the game rather than Tier 1 because there is a lot of familiar faces in Tier 1 that are still playing and not performing well, but they're still playing because there are no one to take their spot. So yeah, I think it's a big, big thing nowadays.
If we look at the VCT teams in playoffs, they made just one change maximum during the year. Liquid is kind of the exception because you and Kimmie "Kicks" Laasner arrived before Stage 2. So how do you still manage to perform despite that?
trexx: I think it's a combination of a lot of things because I played with the boys before, I played with Kicks before, so we knew instantly that the vibes and everything would be good. The only concern, I guess, was just if we could actually play together as well again. And as far as we showed in a group stage, we can. We just need to, yeah, wake up a little bit for playoffs and I think it's fine.”
