LEV Onur: "If Leviatán wants to remain among the best teams in the world, we need to be able to keep this roster together for several years"

After lifting the Masters London trophy, Leviatán made history in multiple ways: becoming the first Spanish-speaking organization and the first Latin American organization to win an international VCT event, while also fielding the youngest roster ever to claim an international VALORANT title. With VCT Americas Stage 2 and Champions still ahead, the focus now shifts to proving this roster can build a lasting legacy.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, Leviatán Head Coach Rodrigo “Onur” Dalmagro reflected on the team's historic Masters victory, his relationship with Francisco “kiNgg” Aravena, the challenges of leading such a young roster, and why he believes this is only the beginning for the reigning Masters champions.

Rodrigo “Onur” Dalmagro: Honestly, I'm only just starting to feel a bit rested now. Normally, whether you win or lose a Riot tournament, you're already flying home the next day. We decided to stay one extra day in London so we wouldn't have to catch a flight first thing in the morning.

On top of that, we had already planned a bootcamp in France because we expected to qualify for the Esports World Cup. We didn't make it, but the bootcamp had been scheduled so close to Masters that we decided to keep it. When the tournament started, it seemed like a reasonable decision, but as we kept advancing—and especially once we made it through the Swiss Stage—in hindsight, it started to look like a bad one.

We ended up winning the tournament and, almost on autopilot, got on a plane to France. When we arrived, there was a historic heatwave. The city wasn't prepared for it—there was barely any air conditioning anywhere. The players were happy with the facilities, but I felt like something wasn't right.

I think what we were missing was closure after London. The guys hadn't seen their families, girlfriends or friends in a long time. We'd just become champions, and three days later, we were already back to the daily routine. I felt that if we kept pushing without stopping, we'd pay for it later. So we decided to take a step back and cancel the bootcamp. When you realize you're making a mistake, there's nothing worse than insisting on it.

Onur: No, because when Paper Rex picked us, we already knew they were probably the best team in the tournament at that moment and one of the biggest favorites to win it. They came in very strong and had plenty of time to prepare since they skipped the Swiss Stage.

We knew it could be an early final. On Ascent, our attack became really difficult and they entered that state where they gain confidence and start playing extremely aggressively. When Paper Rex reaches that point during a series, they're incredibly hard to stop. On Lotus, which was one of their best maps, the match was much closer. When we reviewed the series, we found many situations where we had the advantage, but when we listened to our comms, it sounded like we were playing with urgency, as if we were losing every round. We realized we lacked composure. The energy was great, but our communications were far too chaotic.

It was a very important lesson for us. In general, we're not a team that gets heavily affected by losing a map. Looking back, I think losing to Paper Rex helped us grow a lot. We're not an easy team to beat twice.

Onur: I don't think there's a magic formula. It all depends on the people involved in the project. It's true that younger players usually respond better when you push them a bit harder. They're less afraid of burnout and they're willing to work a lot. We've spent months without really stopping: bootcamps, tournaments, travel, Masters, playoffs... and we were still scouting until eleven at night after every series.

But I also think having a strong staff is crucial. We have Luis Boya, who I believe is the best manager in the world. We have Jhein (Cristian Camaño), Cris... Because our staff is so well structured, we can afford to work with younger players since many responsibilities fall on the coaching staff.

Onur: My relationship with kiNgg started at the beginning of 2022, although I had already spoken to him in 2021 when I tried to sign him for KRÜ.

We've been through a lot together. In 2022, we helped put Leviatán on the international map. It was an incredible year. In 2023, however, I think there was too much external pressure. People were calling us the best team in the world before we had actually proved anything, and we didn't manage that situation well.

When we started working together again in 2026, we were both at different points in our lives. He came from a project that hadn't worked out and had brought him a lot of criticism. I came from coaching the academy team. I think he found a more mature version of me, and I found a more mature version of him. We both understood our responsibilities from the past much better and managed to leave the bad things behind. Honestly, I think this is the best version of both of us.

Onur: When we were building this roster, I already knew what these players were capable of. In fact, when we completed the lineup, I told Leviatán to pop the champagne because, for me, the first big victory had already been winning the offseason. The second big victory was winning Masters. And now comes the third challenge: keeping this roster together.

If every time a Latin American organization builds an international championship-winning roster it ends up losing its players because better offers come in, it'll be very difficult to build a dynasty. Teams like G2, Fnatic or Paper Rex keep their rosters together for years. If Leviatán wants to remain among the best teams in the world, we need to be able to keep this roster together for several years.

Onur: We don't look at the game that way. We don't believe any result is guaranteed. Not even a single round is ever 100% won. We always talk in terms of probabilities. We try to make the decision that gives us the highest chance of success in every situation. But the game has a huge amount of variance. That's why we can never talk about winning a tournament as an obligation. Even if you're the best team in the world, you never have a 100% chance of winning. That said, any organization would gladly start the year by winning a Masters and qualifying for Champions. Of course, we want to win Champions, but we don't see it as an obligation.

Onur: We're going to keep building on the foundation we had at Masters. Even though Patch 13.0 changes some things, I think we'll continue playing a very similar style because it's part of our identity. Sunset is back in the map pool, and I think it's a map that suits us well. Summit is a brand-new map that everyone is still trying to figure out. And obviously, we still need to improve our Breeze because we're still losing on it. The idea is to strengthen the weaker parts of our map pool while maintaining the level on our strongest maps.

Onur: We always study our opponents. We're not a team that simply plays its own game without paying attention to what the other team is doing. We try to find a balance between adapting to our opponents and sticking to what works for us. As for the group itself, honestly, we don't think too much about whether it's easy or difficult. At this level, there are no easy matches. There are only well-prepared and well-executed matches. If we have a bad day, we can lose to anyone. We've seen it happen many times. The game has too much variance for anyone to get complacent.

Onur: First of all, thank you so much to everyone who supported us throughout this journey. A lot of people believed in this team even when things didn't go well during Kickoff, and they understood that this was a process. I hope everyone enjoyed this moment with their families, friends and the whole community. It was something truly historic. And on our side, we'll keep working to try to do it again and bring even more success to the region.”