[EXCLUSIVE] EG Potter explains the reason behind the team's poor performance "It was just a matter of poor execution on the stage"

At the VCT Americas 2024 Superweek Day 2, Evil Geniuses took on KRU Esports. In the best of three series, KRU were able to take down EG without dropping a single map.

With the loss, EG are now the last seed in Group Omega of VCT Americas League Split 1. They have lost all their regular season games. After their recent loss, Strafe spoke with the Head Coach Christine "Potter" Chi to talk about the teams performance and the challenges they are facing in the current split.

First of all, commiserations on the last match. It hasn't been going your way for this regular season, at least. What do you think has been the team’s problem so far?

[Potter] I think the story for our team so far this year has been just figuring out how to be confident. None of the players besides jawgemo has been at this stage, at this level, at these levels, and we're all just kind of trying to figure out how to be better, how to be better individually and how to be better as a team.

We weren't able to stick to the game plan in a lot of different scenarios. Even starting from Week One, we had a lot of rounds that looked like it was going to be a good start and things just crumbled. These are things that we put a lot of focus on in practice and things were looking good. It's just, you know, the pressures of the stage, it gets to you. Unable to convert the rounds that we should have been able to convert.

And then when that happens, it's just like a snowball, you start to lose a little bit of confidence, you start to not peek, you start to play to not lose, you start to play to not make mistakes and then, you know, you just crumble.

That's where experience definitely needs to come through. That's where a player like jaw(gemo) is definitely a pillar for us in that department. But, you know, again, with jaw struggling individually as well, it's just tough, it's tough. He's got a lot on his plate. So yeah, definitely not an ideal start for us this season.

You are an experienced and championship-winning coach and you have also been a player yourself, so you aren’t new to the goods and the bads of the game. What do you usually tell your team, especially with the next two games being essential for qualifying for the Playoffs?

[Potter] At this point, our plans have shifted a little bit. We're looking ahead to split two, using the last two matches to kind of build that confidence for ourselves. The expectations have been lowered a little bit because we have to be able to relieve a little bit of the pressure on ourselves.

So, that's been our conversation with each other, just trying to see the vision together because like I said, we've had good rounds together and our scrims, our practices, they have been going very well. So just being able to see the vision.

Your next opponent will be Sentinels, What do you think about them? You also tweeted how you are yet to lose to Kaplan, SEN or JohnQT? Are you confident in winning?

[Potter] I knew that tweet was gonna be controversial when I sent it. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. And you know, I'm not too worried about whether we win or lose, regardless of whether I tweet it or not.

For sure Sentinels is, I mean, they've been incredible, they've been incredible this whole year. They've had an insane start and, you know, I've always had a lot of respect for Kaplan and JohnQT and that's kind of what that tweet was, was, you know, since all the way back in 2022 we've been facing off against each other and, you know, even back then we had those qualifier matches and, you know, just must-win scenarios. Definitely back then as well.

So familiar territory, a lot of respect for Sentinels. But, you know, we've had a lot of good practice and we've been building our confidence and so on the stage, we haven't executed it yet, but during practices, we feel pretty good leading up to this match, the game pretty soon.

What will be the preparations like going into the game?

[Potter] We're definitely gonna have practice, a drill session, a vod review session, and some scrims. So, we won't be able to have a day off. We're getting right back to work tomorrow, so that's how we'll prepare.

Superweeks are pretty crucial given you have two games and they impact your standings a lot, especially in the current group situation. As a coach how do you approach such weeks? How did you approach this superweek?

[Potter] This week's approach was a little tricky for sure. Yeah, this week was difficult for sure because stylistically with Sentinels and with KRU very different.

Good news is for Sentinels. They're a team that again, they are very polished, they're very fundamental and they have good foundations and teams like that can be more predictable and a little bit more you can assume that they will play to the most optimal scenarios, most of the time.

Whereas with the team like KRU, one of the best aspects of them is, is, you know, the unpredictable factor and Keznit, being as good as he is mechanically, they are a lot more grouped, a lot more not execute heavy per se, but a lot more willing to just ride or die fight, especially if Keznit is feeling it so very different stylistically.

So our approach this week was really just to prepare for Sentinels. Our approach and our game plan and our systems are designed to allow each player to be able to read the room and read what's coming at them. And we have the protocols set in place to respond and to react.

So we prepared for Sentinels mostly because KRU's style was going to be such that they would tell us when they wanted to fight. So it was tough preparing for super week. But you know, I think preparation wise, we felt good and again, it was just a matter of poor execution on the stage.

What do you think about the level of competition, the meta, the overall space VALORANT is right now?

[Potter] Well, it's definitely, you know, the nerfs coming through for Skye and with Gekko being the flavor right now, it's definitely changed up quite a bit, but really, it's just each team coming through in 2024.

I mean, the competition has definitely been elevated, and I think, you know, I still stand with what I said last year, which is that America is definitely ahead.

I just think, you know, we're not as top heavy as it looks. You know, I know if you look at VLR(Strafe.com) right now, you'll see that, you know, one group is obviously much better record-wise than the next.

But, you know, I think the competition, it's incredible in America. We've got so many strong teams and so many strong individual talents here. So it's, it's, it's stacked, it is absolutely stacked and you can feel it in the practices as well. Like the Scrim quality from challengers up to VCT. It's just, there's a lot of good teams putting in a lot of work right now.

You have been a Counter-Strike professional and now a VALORANT professional. So, Counter Strike or Valorant?

[Potter] That's a good question. I love Valorant. Counter Strike is my true love. It's what gave me all the feel-good feelings that I got, that made me obsessed with gaming for sure. But Valorant is such an interestingly challenging game. It's so easy, but it's so challenging. So I’m having so much fun with Valorant. I think it's definitely the future.

Potter and Evil Geniuses will play against Sentinels tomorrow for the playoffs lives. You can follow the game on YouTube or Twitch. You can also follow the game on Strafe.

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Featured Image Credits: Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games