NRG brawk: "We've been hiding stuff and I feel like we weren't showing our full potential in Sao Paulo"

NRG have a throne to defend, and they reminded the world of it. This Friday, the reigning world champions defeated Nongshim RedForce in two maps (13-5, 13-10) in their opening match at Champions Shanghai. Still searching for their first trophy of the season, NRG are now one win away from securing a playoff spot.

Following the match, Brock “brawk” Somerhalder spoke to Sheep Esports. The 2025 Grand Final MVP reflects on his team’s opening showing at the tournament and their current form as they chase the first back-to-back Champs title in VALORANT history.

Brock "brawk" Somerhalder: “Feels good. I feel like the most important match is the first one and Champs, so it feels good to get the momentum coming in for the next game. Hopefully we can keep it up and make playoffs.

brawk: We did a bootcamp in Taiwan, so we had a few weeks playing these APAC teams. We had a really good idea of how they would play. They're just super aggressive, and we were ready to shut it down.

brawk: Yeah. Nongshim is a really good team, so our group is pretty heavily stacked. But I think it’s mainly because of us and Nongshim. Any group that we're in is going to be like a heavy group, so I think we just got to keep our heads up and just focus on each game at a time.

brawk: I think they have similar play styles. KC is like one of the most aggressive EMEA teams. Usually EMEA teams play really slow. They play more like us, kind of, but KC is just way more aggressive, just like XLG. XLG is also just another aggressive team, and they like doing certain things. I think they're just going to be aggressive, so as long as we punish them, we should be fine.

brawk: It feels good. I'm trying not to think about that, but I feel like we're coming back really confident again, and I feel like we found our footing and how we want to play every map, so I feel like we're going to be a threat for sure.

brawk: For Sao Paulo, I feel like we mainly took time. We didn't want to show all our strat, like all our stuff, because there was no point. At the end of the day, it was a seeding for Champs, so we tried to hide some stuff we didn't want to show. So we had a Split; we ended up pulling out today, so we hit that map. We didn't want to pull it out, so we've been just hiding stuff and I feel like we weren't showing our full potential in Sao Paulo.

brawk: I want to just take it one game at a time. I think once we're playing our best, we're the best team in the world. So as long as we just keep taking it one game at a time, we don't get in our own heads, we don't let ego swing, or we play as a team, I think we have no problem winning this.

brawk: I think at the end of the day, it's Champions. It's the biggest tournament. Everyone's hyped up for Champions the whole year, so I think it's just all along the line here. It's just all or nothing, so we've got to put everything on the line.

brawk: I think we should just come in confident again and figure it out. Obviously it depends on who we play, but we're going to have to think about how we want to play the match, and I think we'll take time from our coaching to figure it out. So yeah, I think we're coming in confident, so we should be fine, whoever we play.

* This interview was conducted during the KC-XLG match.

brawk: Yes, I think right now we all know we need a full lock-in, and I think if we're all locked in for, whatever, a month, I think we know what we can do.”