"Even when we were down, we were still hyping up each other, screaming": Team Heretics Boo speaks on their latest series, and mentality going forwards

Last week, Team Heretics faced off against KOI in a fierce battle of Spanish pride. KOI emerged victorious (2-1) in the early hours of the morning finally, with both teams exhausted. After the loss, Strafe Esports had the opportunity to speak with Team Heretics' Ričardas "Boo" Lukaševičius. In this exclusive one-on-one interview, we spoke about the series against KOI, the mental state of Heretics and his experience working on Heretics as the IGL.

 

Sorry for your loss, that was well-played from both sides. In your opinion, what happened in that series against KOI? What do you think went wrong against them, and was there anything that went well, were there any positive takeaways from the series?

Yeah, so what went wrong, on Fracture, we started too slow. The first 5-6 rounds, we’re just waiting for them to execute on us, which was wrong. That’s why we only got three rounds on defense. Once we switched, we picked Defense side because I knew we could control Attack side. And we were controlling Attack side, but with 3-9 half, it’s not enough rounds. Like a couple of rounds, a couple of after-plants, they had good ultimates, we lost the map.

But nevertheless, when we finished Fracture, we felt that we woke up, and that we were leading. We were kind of dictating the game at the end. So, we went to Lotus with that mentality, we knew that Lotus was our best map, we didn’t lose Lotus with that comp to anyone yet. We just stuck to our plan. Again, it was Defense, Defense was harder, but again on Attack, I felt that we were in control, I could call, we had really good retakes from players, “Mixwell” especially. Like his lurks on A were impactful. He was killing “koldamenta”, just shifting around and stuff.

So, after Lotus, we felt very confident. We did what he had to do. Everyone was completely in, communicating, hitting shots, and also having fun. And then on Ascent, again on Attack we started strong, I think it was maybe 7-2. Obviously we were exploiting their…okay we won some lucky rounds, some rounds we shouldn’t win. But then, we also knew how they were playing so we were exploiting that. Towards the end of our Attack side, they obviously adapted so they got three more rounds.

Then on Defense, I think it was some close rounds that made the difference. But at the same time, on Defense, for me personally, that was my worst stage of the game, of the Bo3. Where I didn’t have clear reads and wasn’t doing my best. I wasn’t playing at my best; I could have done more. But still it was close, we lost but at the same time, we came into this Bo3 with the mentality of let’s just have fun. And it is what it is, if we lose, we lose. If we win, we win. And that’s actually what happened. We had a lot of fun. Even when we were down, we were still hyping up each other, screaming, the atmosphere was great- up until the last round.

Only when we lost, then we felt sad. But at any other point, we were cheerful, alive, never gave up, and that’s what I’m happy about the most.

 

I could definitely see the energy was still there. I wanted to ask about the Attack side of Ascent specifically. At the end of it, it looked like you guys were defaulting quite a bit and taking quite a bit to commit to sites. Was this part of what you meant when you referred to them countering you guys and they were sort of reading into your strategy, or was it more of the fact you couldn’t get a read on them?

On Ascent Attack, those last few rounds we were actually just doing the same things we were doing before, but they obviously adapted. So, I think one of those rounds, we went towards A, and they read us. Last Attack round, we went towards B, and they also read it. Like we could have played those rounds better, but we knew what was the end goal of the round, but they reacted better, they over-rotated correctly and whenever we were executing, they shut us down really well, so that’s what happened.

 

I see! I had another question, but this one is more of a two-step. Viper on Ascent is not a very common pick. You don’t normally see Viper on this map in particular. What made you guys want to utilize her here. I see on your record that you have played Viper on Ascent before, but not that often. Was it more of a comfort pick for “Mixwell”? Or was it rather you had something special planned that you felt Viper was crucial for?

The thing is, we’re quite trash on Ascent whenever we play meta comp, I don’t know why. You know, the KAYO, Sova, Killjoy, Omen, Jett. Like it just doesn’t click for us. We’ve tried it, I’m not sure if we played it in officials…maybe against Fnatic and we lost horribly. When we were against NA’VI, we also got destroyed on Ascent. So, it was basically, okay meta comp was not working, we need something. We need something specific, we need something more unique, to try and throw the opponent off guard. And Viper was always, like you said, we’ve played it before, we know the strengths and weaknesses of Viper, and we just felt, okay that’s what we will do.

We had that plan, we stick to it, we practice it, and yeah, it almost worked. Obviously, the rounds, the decision-making…the rounds lost, it was not based on the composition, it was based on communication, kills, and all the other stuff. But yeah, that was it for Viper. Like, we needed something different on that map because the regular meta comp was not working for us.

 

I see! Moving on, compared to the Giants game last week, you guys took a little longer to warm up into it. Was there any difference compared to last week, like the emotions and the mentality of last week going against Giants, versus this week going against KOI?

I think from our side, it was similar. We had even more energy and reasons to win against Giants, and it’s not about the season or about the standings. It’s about “Mixwell”, “keloqz”, and “Avova”, playing against “Nukkye”, “pipsoN” and “hoody”. “pipsoN” and “hoody” were my ex-teammates as well, so there is a lot of history between us. So, maybe that’s why we played better against Giants. But from our side, it was quite similar anyways. The difference was from the enemies, and we’re weaker mentally maybe. And KOI had nothing to lose, I think they’re out of Playoffs anyways if I’m not mistaken. So they just played with no pressure, they played with the same mentality we had. Like, we played a game, whatever happens, happens, let’s do our best. I think that was the difference between those two games.  Giants, they had everything to lose. It was their Playoffs spot on the line.

 

In terms of leadership, how has it been like working with the Heretics roster? And leading the Heretics squad, how has it been?

Since the beginning of the team, it’s been a rollercoaster. But for the last iteration, we decided to bring “Weber” up, and it’s been good for me because we can share the leader role, where I’m responsible for in-game stuff as per usual. But “Weber” is really good at being the emotional leader, like he brings people up, he reminds them why we’re here. He reminds them, ‘let’s have fun guys.’ ‘Let’s talk, let’s do that,’ he would say. Like, it’s not about in-game stuff, but more about team atmosphere stuff. He just balances us out, like whenever we’re too emotional, he calms us down to the required level. Whenever we’re too down emotional, he brings us up. So, whenever I’m In-Game leading, he’s a mood guy who fixes our mental state. So, that combination, I enjoy it a lot. I think “Weber” is doing his best, like he’s amazing, when you think about our situation. So yeah, our last two weeks have been enjoyable for me. Even if we lost, it’s still a way better atmosphere.

 

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Credits: Hara Amorós / Riot Games / LVP / la

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