After concluding the Group Stage with three victories, Team Heretics began their VCT EMEA Stage 1 playoff run with a defeat against Eternal Fire. Despite entering the series on a three-match winning streak, it was not enough to overcome the explosiveness of the Turkish side, who secured the win after dropping the opening map.
Heretics will have another opportunity this Saturday when they face BBL Esports in the lower bracket. Ahead of the match, the team’s captain, Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius, shared his analysis of the series with Sheep Esports.
What is your first feeling after this game?
Ričardas "Boo" Lukaševičius: “Good, I think we had a chance to win the game, but we didn't.
What went wrong today according to you?
Boo: I think we should have played more bravely and played for the win. Our last three regular-season games were fully built on that, taking the risks, and taking the game to them. I think it wasn't bad today, but it wasn't enough. I think we were doing it a fair amount of times, but just not enough and yeah, it was hard to win.
How did you see the matchup against Eternal Fire today? What was the main strength of this team, according to you?
Boo: They're extremely talented individually, and we knew that they were going to play on confidence, they're going try to get momentum and keep fighting in every situation. What we were preparing was like taking the fight to them, like you cannot win against such a team if you're not ready to lose it all. Like you need to go all in and kind of beat them in their own game, especially on matters like this. With the lower amount of utility, you can't just outsmart them or whatever, outgather info against them. The game is so much more about fighting, aim fighting, trading, and neon sliding. So when they get in your face, you need to hit back. That's kind of the only way to win, in my opinion.
To come back a bit on your group stage games, you had a tough start, but you managed to bounce back and to qualify for the playoffs. From your perspective, what have been the main improvements of the team during this time?
Boo: The main improvement was the roster change, that allowed us to basically play with our identity way more. We struggled to find a comfortable place in the meta and just inside the team. When we made the roster change, it allowed us to kind of be us and go a bit back two years before to what made us good. And it was a very day and night shift.
When do you think that shift took place during the group stage games? What has been the turning point of the season that changed the momentum?
Boo: I think there are two. One is, as I said, the change in the roster. But even then, we played against Liquid and we didn't have time to change our comps and our style. We still played with Koshmaras (Martynas Namikas) on Chamber, which is not his strength. Looking back at that, we talked with coaches like we probably should have gambled it and already did the changes, but we tried to play it safe. And then the second shift was when we got time to build. After the Liquid game, we got a full week to build what we want to play. We won against KC and got more time. Same against Gentle Mates. So yeah, we built what we wanted, and found out how we wanted to play.
On a personal level, how did you work individually to progress and evolve to adjust to what the team needed?
Boo: Individually, all I do is kind of team-related. I don't do much individually for myself, mechanically or anything. My main focus is making sure that people are doing what they're supposed to, that they're enabled. It's not just me, but coaches as well. Our main point is to make sure that the players are in a position where they can be the best, because we all know that they can be the best players in the world, but the environment needs to be in a way that you know they can do that. So that's the main focus, and whenever we achieve that, then your enemies just die by themselves. Like things just happen, and we win rounds flawlessly.
But obviously it's hard to achieve, so it's like a constant and never-ending work. It’s focused on mindset and confidence, and a lot of mental things. Of course, we're still focusing on the things in-game, to make sure that people are comfortable, that they know what they need to do, that they can express it themselves, like how they want to take some map control, how they want to execute. But still,
VALORANT is more of a mental game than anything else, in my opinion.
About your new teammate, Koshmaras, you told me he was allowing you to play your game as you wanted. What concrete changes would you say he brought to the team?
Boo: The main thing that he brought is that he's a really good mechanical player. He has a really good, unique game sense, like playing with Odin and stuff. That's something that we have never had, like this uniqueness. So he brings that, and he plays selflessly. So I mean, it is kind of similar to Miniboo (Dominykas Lukaševičius) when he was doing anything for the team. He is the guy who allows others to shine. And he still manages to shine himself, which is extremely hard to do. Even though he's the one who goes first and just dies most of the time, he still has good stats. So, yeah, he just has a lot of space creation for us to be us. That's what we need.
And he fits with the team in terms of vibes. He's similar to me in terms of energy, he's not screaming or doing such stuff. But you know, he wipes in terms of jokes, in terms of sarcasm, whenever he plays in-game, he is hype. Everything fits, and that’s what we wanted.
So far, we've been able to see him shining the most on Neon. Today, Riot Games announced that Neon is going to be nerfed in the future. Would you still say that he will be able to adapt to some changes and keep doing what he does now?
Boo: For me, Neon breaks the game. I hate it, and I think most of people hate it. That's not how FPS shooters should be played, in my opinion. It just throws away the fundamentals of the game. Spacing doesn't matter. Utility doesn't matter. Your internal timings when the enemy could be there are broken because she's faster than everyone else. In my opinion, it breaks the game and it should be fixed. I'm glad Riot is doing that.
Obviously, Koshmaras is insane on it, so Neon being broken works for us. For the state of the game, I think it shouldn’t be deleted, obviously, but fixed. Whenever it happens, we are just going to see what's next for us. Same as any other team, VALORANT meta changes, sometimes drastically, sometimes not really. There is nothing else to do than to try to adapt. Sometimes you manage to adapt quickly, and sometimes you kind of fail, and then you try to learn from the ones who made the right choices.
You'll be facing BBL this Friday in the lower bracket of the competition. What's your opinion on this team and are you still confident in your chances to make it to London?
Boo: I think they're an example of a team that struggled to adapt to the drastic change of Riot killing Yoru. But that doesn't mean this is going to be, in any case, an easy game or anything. They're obviously a really good team with their unique style. And for me, to make it to London or like winning against BBL, then winning the next games will depend on us. We’ll need to take the fights not reactively but proactively, that's one thing. Another thing is understanding how the enemy plays, like what their strength is, what their win condition is, what they want to do and making sure that we disrupt that.
If you allow any team to do what they want to do, they will be super hard to play against. But if you disrupt them and they start struggling, that's when you know you can get the momentum and kind of run away with the game. So yeah, BBL is obviously a strong team. They have good players; it’s the same game as any other game in VCT where you could get destroyed, you could destroy them. It depends on the day and how you perform.”
