TH neilzinho: “Koshmaras came in, and he buffed everyone else"

After a difficult start to the year and a Stage 1 playoff run that saw them climb all the way up the lower bracket to reach the final, which will be played this Sunday, May 17. Following their qualification against FUT Esports in a 3-1 BO5 victory, Team Heretics VALORANT coach Neil “neilzinho” Finlay spoke with Sheep Esports in a post-match interview, where he discussed his players’ performance in the BO5, their ability to bounce back after a very difficult start to the year, and other topics.

Neil “neilzinho” Finlay: “Yeah, I’m really pleased, of course. I think I was very relaxed today. Yesterday was very nervous and very nerve-racking. There was a lot of pressure yesterday, but I think today we were just so relieved to have qualified, and we played with kind of no pressure. When it’s like that for us, we are quite a scary team when we get into the flow, and they just couldn’t stop it.

So yeah, I’m honestly so happy with how they have performed over the last couple of weeks. It’s been such a grind, and they don’t complain, they don’t cry about it, they don’t say they’re tired. They just want to win, and they just want to play, so I have no negative words whatsoever.

neilzinho: I think it’s a bit of everything. We haven’t really had the chance to play Haven that much, just because of how the lower bracket worked. We banned it against Fnatic, I think, and then we didn’t play it in the last couple of games. Obviously, when you’re in the lower bracket, and you just play, play, play, play, play, you don’t really get much time to scrim.

So it’s not a map that we’ve had many reps on, even though it has been a very, very good map for us in the past. I think that’s why there was a bit of rustiness on the map. But then, once we started remembering, “Okay, we actually used to be one of the best teams in the world on Haven,” that’s when you started to see us naturally coming into it a little bit. Honestly, I feel like we had no right to even be taking that map to overtime, or even making it close.

We lost both pistols and the bonus. We were playing pretty poorly, to be honest. So the fact that we managed to bring it back, and we should have won it, I think we lost a 1v4 at the end, the fact that we were able to do that is only positive. We just had a little mentality shift after that map because we lost a couple of stupid rounds. That was mostly what we spoke about, just making sure that it doesn’t happen again and controlling the advantages.

neilzinho: Yeah, honestly, I think it helped a lot, just because every time we lose, we learn a lot. It’s the most cliché thing ever, I know, from a coach, but genuinely, it’s true. We learn so much more from the maps we lose. We’re not going to learn too much from that Breeze game, even though we just won 13-1.

We played really well, and we can look at the stuff we did well. Obviously, there are things that we can replicate, and that’s very nice. But when you lose, you learn so much more. I think the biggest lesson we took from Eternal Fire was just how disciplined we need to be in advantageous situations. Again, we had lost 5v2’s, so many stupid rounds.

That’s why I was quite annoyed after the ones tonight, because we had been really, really good at that in the lower bracket. I think that’s one thing we improved a lot on: converting the advantages. And honestly, Eternal Fire was actually a really strong team. They have such good individuals, and they did really good anti-strats, to be fair. So they weren’t an easy team to play against.

neilzinho: When we were making changes, I gave a big presentation explaining that we were in a dip and that it was normal. It’s true, it happens to teams. We suffered quite a bit with the language barrier with ComeBack, and it set us back quite a bit. But I think the chemistry that we have as a core, and the ability that we have as a core, you don’t just lose that after two months. I think it was just a confidence thing.

Some of the boys were getting a lot of hate from fans, from our own fans, from everyone else, saying, “You’re washed,” “You’re this,” “You’re terrible.”It’s like, mate, they’re 18, 19, 20 years old. They’re not washed. You don’t just turn bad in three weeks or three months. It was mostly about finding someone who really fitted in well with the team in koshmaras. Again, it’s not luck that we have been one of the best teams in the world for the last two years. And it’s not luck that we, as staff and players, keep getting the best out of rookies.

There are not many teams in the world that can do it. So we were very confident in our own ability to pick up someone that we saw had a little bit of talent and turn them into something special. That’s what koshmaras is, and we’re very good at that as a coaching staff. We just played to our strengths and believed in ourselves because we know our way works. That’s kind of what has happened again, and it has proven to be the case.

neilzinho: Honestly, it was a weird one. Obviously, we struggled to find someone that we really connected with after we had to replace MiniBoo (Dominykas Lukaševičius). Trying to replace someone like MiniBoo is not easy. He’s an incredible player and an incredible teammate, so it was never going to be easy to replace him. When we were doing trials in the offseason, obviously, we loved keiko (Georgio Sanassy), but he went to NRG. There wasn’t anyone that we truly felt a special connection with.

We saw potential in ComeBack, and that’s kind of what we ran with. We kind of had to ignore the language barrier issues and stuff, but we never really connected. When we decided to bench Comeback, we tried again. I think we had 48 hours to trial people, but in the two scrims that we trialed koshmaras, he connected with us more than anyone did in the offseason. We spent around two weeks trialing people, so I think it just felt like it was kind of meant to be.

We saw something special in him, and we were like, “Okay, that’s what we need right now. That’s what is going to get our family back together,” if you want to say it. I think that’s what happened. Kosh came in, and he buffed everyone else. He just fits in really well, and he’s a funny guy.

neilzinho: Just his identity as a player. He’s the kind of guy who will just sit there and grind, grind, grind, and find all these little niche things with his play, with an Ares, with a shotgun, with an Odin. There are people already saying, “As soon as Neon is nerfed, he’s going to be nothing.” People don’t understand how dedicated this guy is. He will just get good at something else. If he puts time into it, he will just get good at something else. You’ll probably see him running around with Phoenix and an Odin or something. I don’t know.

He will find something else. He has his own identity, and I think it’s so unique. He’s just a unique person, honestly. He came in, he was in Tier 3 literally three months ago, and now he’s in a Stage 1 Grand Final and has made it to Masters. And he doesn’t care. Maybe he feels pressure for one game. There was a situation tonight where, on Haven, he was kind of struggling. He had a slow start, and I think it was Wo0t who just said in-game, “Kosh, you’re not having fun right now. I want to see you have fun.” And Koshmaras just goes, “Okay, I’m going to have fun.” He picks up a Bucky, runs around, kills people, gets an Odin, and then the next thing you know, he has 30 kills. He is just that easy.

He just wants to have fun and express himself, and to do that on stage, and then again at Masters, is going to be so much fun to see, honestly. So I’m just happy we have someone who isn't afraid to be himself. And we created a good environment, I think, where he feels that he can do that and not get pressured, or not feel like he’s going to get shouted at for making mistakes. We know he’s a rookie. We know he’s going to make mistakes. But we want him to make mistakes, because he will learn. I hope he will learn from that.

neilzinho: The objective for London is just to keep the train going, honestly. Obviously, we want to do well. We want to do as well as we can. I think, as a core, when we have had a functional roster, and we haven’t had any internal issues, which we did have around Toronto last year, we have always placed really highly at internationals. We have always made deep runs into the tournaments. That’s always my intention.

When I go to a Masters event, I don’t want to go there just to play two games and go home. If I’m going to a Masters, I want to be able to go deep in the tournament. That’s always going to be the goal. We want to do well on the international stage, and we want to go there for practice, but we will go there with the intention of going as far as we can. For me, just getting to the group stage and losing two games is never, ever going to be my mindset as a coach. We want to go deep. We always go deep at internationals. We’ll just take it game by game and see what happens.”