After a successful Play-In run with wins over Bigodes and Mate y Tapa, Virtus.pro came into the 2026
Rocket League World Championship Main Event brimming with confidence. Featuring a trio of North America’s most exciting professionals, including Jayden "
2Piece" Horton, Dylan "
Wahvey" Thanus, and debutant Cohen "
Tawk" Hawco, Virtus.pro shocked the scene by defeating Team Vitality 3-1 in their opening matchup.
Hot off a LAN win that ranks up there with his best, 2Piece spoke with Sheep Esports following a strong few days in the office. The 20-year-old reflected on the quick start, why the squad managed to defeat Team Vitality, and what it would mean to both Memory and himself if they got to feature in front of a LAN crowd.
You guys jumped out ahead in every single match and were able to hold it for most of them. Do you think that having to play yesterday in the Play-In contributed at all to your quick start today?
Jayden "2Piece" Horton: “Yeah, 100%. I’m not going to lie, going through Play-Ins was the nervous part. That’s when we were nervous because we were expected to be better than all those teams and make it through easy, but now the pressure is lifted off. We get to play three series no matter what, so there’s almost no pressure. It definitely helped a lot and we also just got more reps in than the other teams.
A lot of noise has been made about zen hitting 3000 MMR. It seemed like you guys were up pretty quick every time he was on the ball. What was your key to stopping him?
2Piece: I don’t want to say too much just in case we play zen (Alexis Bernier) again but we knew a lot of their game plan is getting him the ball, so we definitely anti-stratted that pretty hard. I won’t say how, but that was definitely what we did.
With a win here against Vitality, another win will secure you a spot in front of the crowd. What does it mean to you to be able to play in front of a crowd?
2Piece: I’ve been playing for almost four years now and I’ve been to a few LANs but never made a crowd, so that was the main goal. Obviously the ultimate goal is winning, but the main goal being the crowd, that's what I’m looking forward to the most for sure. It’s going to be insane.
Even for your coach Memory, it would be his first time either playing or coaching in front of a crowd, so what would it mean to you and the team to get there for Memory?
2Piece: Honestly, a lot. For the majority of my career he has been my coach and he has also been so close to qualifying for LANs when he was a player but he never made it. Having him be with me in this moment would be great.
