Riftbound RQ Lille and Utrecht winner, Pedro "Squirtle" Bañeres: "If someone cheats, ban him, don't give him a slap in the wrist"

A new record has been set in competitive Riftbound, as a player secures back-to-back Regional Qualifiers victories without dropping a single match across both events — but he did not prepare for the fight alone.

In an interview with Sheep Esports, Pedro "Squirtle" Bañeres talks about his run through RQ Lille and RQ Utrecht, his dominance with Azir, and how understanding both your own deck and your opponent’s strategy is key at the highest level of play. He also shares his experience on the importance of his team, Team Micelion, and the competitive mindset required to succeed in long TCG tournaments.

Pedro "Squirtle" Bañeres: “Yeah, I mean it's incredible about the record. I now realize how insane it is because when I am playing and I'm just focused on the tournament, I'm playing my games, I'm like celebrating its victory and then you are realizing that last time I lost was, I mean in a Regional of course, I lose at my locals, but last time I lost in regional was in Bologna. So that is insane. And when you stop to think about it, it's when it really hits. If I'm playing the tournament and just celebrating each win, it's hard.

Squirtle: Yes, of course. I think that's also one of the main advantages I could have, especially in Lille because Azir was never very popular. So in any matchup I was facing, I knew I had more repetition, more experience on that match than my opponent. In Ultrecht, it was a bit harder because people knew how Azir worked and stuff, but I found out in Lille there were a lot of mistakes or just my opponents didn't respect some of Azir strengths. It happened less in Utrecht, so it was a bit harder there, but I think that is a very big advantage knowing better what your opponent does than your opponent knows what you do.

Squirtle: Yes, I think it's a mix of the both. In theory it's very straightforward. In Azir it's very straightforward, well more or less because you need to know, for example, your opponent’s accelerate threats because sometimes recycling one rune makes the difference between holding or not. For example, if your opponent is able to have a Pyke that attacks for four accelerated, maybe recycling one rune and having a four-might-body is better than just leaving a three-might-body and not recycling. But in other matches, maybe that threshold is five, six, or whatever might.

Squirtle: I think so, but I'm also surprised because even after the good results that Azir has done, not only with my previous winning Lille, but Rocklho making top eight in Vancouver. I don't remember the tournament, the name. It also won in China. I was a bit surprised coming to Ultrecht that it was, I think the seventh most played deck, like Viktor was played more on other decks. This is something I learned from my teammate, Mateo, which also went with Azir, that he didn't really like the playstead of Azir. He loves the deck, but there are a lot of people that initially don't like the token strategy. They associated with maybe low level play or something like that. There is a lot of stereotypes against tokens, I believe. But I think Azir is a very, very strong deck and it has a lot of tools, a lot of micro decision that makes it very strong against almost every deck. I mean, you can have a bad matchup, but you always have the tools to fight it, making it, I think, a very interesting choice and it also rewards knowing your deck. If you play a thousand of games with Azir, you will still be making mistakes.

Squirtle: While it's true, it's one T1 tournament, one game. I believe it's impossible to go to a tournament alone. I mean, you can play online mostly, but talking with other people, with other experts, because of course I know a lot about Azir, but there are some decks that I barely touched or I don't really understand some strategies for, like Irelia or Diana. So having people that focus their time on that so you don't have to, gives a lot of knowledge because, as we said earlier, it's as important to know your deck as it's important to know your opponent's deck. So having that preparation is super, super important. Being able to practice a lot of matchups and even the ones you are not practicing, having a reliable player tell you the interesting gates of it is invaluable. And yeah, it's true, you can of course run into your teammate in a tournament. It happened to me. I ran against Oscar, luckily we both made Top 8, but it's always something you want to avoid, but sometimes of course it happens.

Squirtle: Yes, most of us come from other TCGs. It's a bit varied. For example, myself, I come from Magic and then later Lorcana. Jose and I think it played a lot of Runeterra in his case. I believe playing another TCG helps out hot when learning another one from zero, from scratch is super important. Matheo also came from Magic and has won several tournaments. He's attending the pro tour and such. So yeah, we come with a big background in TCGs. Mostly most of us is Magic, Lorcana, and as I said, Runeterra. In every TCG, there are some basics that are shared like resource management, they can vary because, for example, in Riftbound has runes, but understanding the importance of it comes from a deep knowledge of trading card games. So yeah, it's super important.

Squirtle: I agree that both things are important, but I have to agree more with Sam. I think having a lot of experience in other TCG, I'm not talking just knowing the basics, but there are people that have been, I don't know, competing for a decade or more in Magic or another TCG. That gives both the knowledge of a card game and the mentality to compete in one because these tournaments are long.

There are also like too many tournaments with day two because you can go with a super well on day one and then you start a bit bad because you just left bad on day two and then everything that you think you have accomplished on day one starts to vanish. And that's something that can happen to you in the first time you make day two, in the second, in the 10th time. But if you all have been competing for a decade, you probably have the mindset to know that the work is not done and you need to keep competing and keep performing well to actually accomplish your goals that could be top 8, winning, or achieving a metal in this case.

Squirtle: That's a tough question. I think it's a mix of both, of course. I believe some people tend to be better at card games than others. It happens in everything, but hard work is also very important. I have seen people that are very talented and then because of that talent, they don't test some matchups or whatever and then they find out that a player they thought was worse than them is constantly winning them because they know the matchup through and through. So I believe it's a mix of both. And of course hard work is important because what you see as someone that watches the tournaments and stuff is you see someone winning and making a result in a tournament, but it's not that alone. There is a work behind, as I said, a thousand of games, not only alone, but talking about the game, I think this is very important is also because teammates are also important.

Talking about the game, about the interactions is as important as playing games because you could be playing games one after another without gathering any relevant information. So understanding what is happening, the meta as a whole, putting out that hard work because it's almost like a job. In that case, it's a lot of time consuming. Of course, ideally you enjoy it, but I think that's what make me a player, dedicating to the game not only as a hobby — which is of course fine. I enjoy the game and I'm lucky to enjoy the game, but also sometimes that maybe you don't want to test Aurora matchup, but you have to, even if you don't like playing against Aurora.

Squirtle: Yeah. I think I believe I'm probably that person also did that work. Everyone has a first time. Everyone can perform in that first time. I don't really know his background, but for example, in Bologna, that was my first RQ. One of my teammates made Top 8, I ended top 24. So while it's true, it was our first tournament, there was still a lot of work put behind. Of course, card games always have variance. Some people can get lucky and of course every time you need a bit of luck.

I was lucky in a lot of my games, especially my Semifinal, but it's something that happens. But the hard work is being able to win those games that you can win. There will be games you will win just by luck and there will be games that you lose just by luck. But in this tournaments that there are 13 rounds against very good opponents, you can't rely only on that. So I really think that my opponent, that the Viktor player had put the work behind his list and was rewarded for it.

Squirtle: It hasn't happened to me personally, of course. You never know. I think the only approach to cheating is to be tough, like planning and stuff that needs to come from the organization. I mean, unluckily it's something that is bound to happen. There are a lot of prizes in this and there are people that will take any chance to get them. If someone cheats, ban him, don't give him a slap in the wrist and that's it, or something like that. I don't know if I'm explaining myself well, but I think it's important to also not end [the punishment] at one event. Of course, there are several chats that can be doubt and whatever, but if someone is found guilty of cheating, there need to be hard consequence for that. Even in prohibiting to come to another regional or something.

If you are a cheater and you see that nothing happens to cheaters, you will keep cheating because, if I get caught and nothing happens, I maybe get disqualified of that event, but that's it. And if I don't get caught, I'm making a lot of money because there is a lot of money on the line on these games and it also sucks for a player. Of course, there are a lot of times that it is by mistake, but knowing you lose a game because your opponent did something wrong or you feel you got cheated is something that feels super bad. If it happens you early on games, it maybe makes you quit. So I think not letting the cheaters just like "okay, you get a game loss and that's it." It's important. So they feel the consequences of the actions and we have an honesty.

Squirtle: I don't have a strong stance, of course, if what is told is true because the player in question is a local player. I know him from Madrid. It looks bad, not going to lie. It looks very bad, but of course it's a situation that I hope sets a precedent at least for people to try to make things as clear as possible. I think the deal was badly made from every side. Of course, I also believe, that player took advantage of this ambiguity to try to maybe, if I don't get it, the deal is there, but if I get it, it was then really close. So this is a very polemic thing. Of course, I think everyone should stand to their word and especially in these kind of things. There is of course a lot of money on the line. And honestly, I don't think it's even worth to win your reputation to do what is allegedly done, because it's really not worth. I have seen the post and it has over half a million interactions and now your face is known for not a good reason.

So regarding that, the problem is I don't think Riot in this case can do much because it's kind of a splitting with players. You say, I said situation, so it's a very, very hard thing to fix. Just kind of be careful when you do such things, making everything clear, like try to make it clear because in the end you are dealing with strangers no matter how friendly they are. It's rare this happened. I mean, there have been a lot of tournaments and it has happened now, so it's not like everyone is a thief in this, like they said, but just be careful, try to make everything clear so there is no room to confusion. In this case, I don't know if it was a confusion or not, but just to be sure it's better to try to make it because in the end you are fighting for a lot, a lot of money.

Squirtle: Yeah, I think there have been a bit of small things that I personally noticed For example, this is a very small thing but that I noticed they cared about. It was in my streaming rounds, the judges always ask for us to check upside down cards. Recent improvement. So that's like, "okay, they care in a way there is no doubts for the chat, the internet on those kinds of things." Also, my prize cards came in kind of a bubble wrapped box and that wasn't the case in Lille, so there is an improvement there as well.

Regarding slow play, I think it has improved a bit like you talked to me about slow play. I believe there was an issue in Lille especially where you just were a bit scared of calling slow play because a slow play is scary to do, right? Because there are a lot of decision, it's important and matches. And if a player wants to slow play and give room for doubts, maybe the judge is not confident on that and can't enforce it really. And what I noticed is they were a bit scared to call a slow play and yet they wanted the rounds to go quick. So what they did is that if you had a judge call, they will barely give you minutes.

I understand judges want to also to make the event a bit shorter, but I don't think it's a way to not enforce the slow play and then try to every time there's a judge called don't give extra time because it makes the players feel a lot bad both for calling a judge for small things because, sometimes, you are playing in an important game, you know the interaction, maybe your opponent also does, but you just want to make sure. In the end you are on the line for a best of for a top 8 and you want to make sure you want to ask a quick question, but you say, "If I call a judge now, then I will be wasting like five minutes. I don't want this to happen, so let's just move on." And ideally it doesn't happen anything, but then you later realize you did something wrong and then it feels super bad.

Also with the side events, I believe they try to stop a bit of the farming side events. I don't think they have a good way to stop it, but I know they are trying. They are trying to fix the stuff. It works in some things, it doesn't in others, but at least they are listening, they are learning from their mistakes and that's something good to happen to the game.

Squirtle: Yeah, of course it does. Every small thing you know you will be judged by a lot of people even if you do something almost everything correctly like small things like for example, it happened in my semifinals that when you draw a card, the typical thing that the second card bumps a bit.

Normally if you are in another play, you just talk with your opponent, say “I didn't see it” or just call a judge in case that shuffles, whatever, and it's just that. But you know if it happens on a stream, there is a risk that people call you a cheater that people think it was unfair for your opponent or like every small detail.

It happened to me, for example, in Lille. I'm used to place the equipments on top of the card because in Magic is done like that. It seems in Riftbound you need to place the equipment on the bottom because the might bonus is displayed there. So I was so used to play the gear on the top and I did it several times on a stream. And for example, people were saying that I was trying to hide information from my opponent or something like that. So every small thing you can be judged, every small mistake. So I believe it's a lot of pressure in those scenarios.”