G2 Esports' IGL Valyn on the team's Shanghai performance "It builds confidence within the team"

G2 Esports exceeded all the expectations after placing third at VCT Masters Shanghai. The team that wasn't expected to do all too well, defeated Paper Rex, Team Heretics and T1 to secure their highest placement at the international event. At the forefront of their run has to be their IGL- valyn.

Jacob "valyn"  Batio led a team that qualified through the Ascension to the top of VALORANT world. The young IGL not only called for the team, but also managed to deliver superstar numbers, helping the core qualify for their first international tournament in two years (The Guard, 2022 Masters Reykjavik).

With Split 2 starting today, Strafe Esports had an opportunity to sit down with valyn ahead of its start, to talk about their successful international expedition, expectations for the upcoming split and the game updates.

Congratulations on the third place at Masters Shanghai. How was the experience? The city, the tournament?

The experience as a whole was one of the most special experiences of my life. Being a competitor in China obviously felt surreal, like competing in a Mercedes-Benz arena filled with 18,000 fans was something really special.

But on top of that, just being able to explore the city. I didn't expect Shanghai to be as beautiful as it was, man. It was really like an eye-opening experience almost, being able to visit such a beautiful city. I haven't traveled the world very much, so just being able to see things is always really nice.

And yeah, I would say that just summing it all up, it was just very special, like all parts of it. Traveling, seeing things, competing was one of the best experiences of my life, and I'm very grateful that I was able to experience that.

Obviously you guys had an amazing tournament, but the biggest highlight has to be the win over Paper Rex. With the odds against the team, how did the team manage to pull off the upset?

For the Paper Rex game, we had a lot of prep time, because they chose us for the first round, so we knew what we were going to get into, like we had days to play. And I would say our two coaches, like Jack and JoshRT, prepped us well for that kind of playstyle, just because it's hard to simulate it, like not many people play in that fashion, or even are that skilled. So we just kind of mentally prepared ourselves, like how we have to win.

And obviously, we started Map 1 terribly, I don't even want to remember it, it was like 11-0 at one point. And they just came out the gate swinging with a good game plan on our map pick, and we couldn't really stop it. But we were still very confident.

I remember going into Map 2 and 3, I felt very good that we were going to win this game, just because, you know, we had all this prep time, we were ready, like we had the momentum going from the group stage into playoffs, and we wanted to win really badly.

Yeah, I would say everyone was just in a flow state mentality, where we pushed off the first game aside, and we just focused on the task at hand, and they have aimers, they have superstar players, but we were playing like superstars as well that day. Our shots were hitting, the game plans were hitting, and no matter what, we didn't give them the chance to individually let them crawl back.

I would say a team like Paper Rex, they're known for, if their backs are against the wall, the individuals shine even harder and pull them out of that hole. But for us, we were just suffocating them, we didn't want to give them any space to work with, and the game plan was perfect. So from there, we just maintained our advantages and closed the game out pretty easily.

What was the practice situation like in China?

I guess the complicated part was the servers that we were playing on were like limited to Chinese teams, because we're on the Riot China client, so we couldn't really scrim with the APAC teams.

I'm not sure if any teams had VPNs and stuff, but we saw teams were looking for APAC scrims, but we weren't able to do that, so I would say our practice honestly wasn't that great either.

It was just a lot of watching ourselves, watching the opponents, but not much scrim rep, so maybe that's why I can attest some of these slow starts, it's just like we weren't in the greatest form, I know some players, we've looked great at moments, but we weren't putting that much time scrimming and stuff, so maybe that's why our form had a bit of a drop-off.

As a top team from Shanghai, how do you assess the level of international VALORANT?

Yeah, I would say all of the regions are very competitive right now, I would say the only region that hasn't been having the greatest results but I firmly believe will get there is China, and that's because I think it's very new to Valorant still, they don't have the same amount of time spent in the game as teams from the other regions.

I mean we saw APAC has become a very competitive team, or sorry, APAC has become a very competitive region where any team can be a first seed or a second, etc.

And EU, I would say has also stepped up massively, like last year they were known as a Fnatic one-trick region, but now we have all the teams stepping up, like even the young guys coming in, Heretics being a top performer, everyone in Valorant as a whole is just starting to step up.

Even our story, being in Americas, coming from Ascension, being a young team with not much experience and going into internationals, I would say that the skill level is rising, the teams are getting better, and every year I believe there's going to be new top teams within every region.

Do you think the Shanghai placement adds additional pressure to qualify for, to play well in Split 2, and then qualify for Champions? Or would it be the same?

I would say it doesn't add any pressure. If anything, us competing this well and proving that we can be one of the top teams in our mindset just shows like: "Hey guys, we can do this". It builds confidence within the team.

It builds confidence, it builds resilience, and understanding that we can win, we can make anything possible. So it just keeps you motivated throughout the weeks to keep working hard. You know, there obviously is slight pressures just because you perform well in Split 1 you have that self-pressure to want to compete again internationally.

I just really want to go back to internationals. My head's focused on Champs, but there are leaps and bounds we have to make in between, and as long as we keep our heads focused on that, I think regardless of the pressure or the situation at hand, we'll have the confidence now, and the understanding that we're a good team that we can maybe come out with all these wins, make the playoffs, and go into Champions.

What are your expectations from the Split 2 fixtures

Yeah, so our first match will be against Cloud9, and we played them in the playoffs, we came out with a 2-0 victory, so I feel pretty confident against them.

I am expecting a tough matchup, they are a great team, and Oxy has been known to always put up pretty powerful performances, we were able to nullify him a bit last time, but teams are always going to learn from mistakes and watch the VODs back and get better, so it's going to take even more from us to come out with the win on Week 1.

I'm very excited to play against NRG Week 2, they're a team that I always wanted to compete against, especially now bringing back FNS, it's just a team that I just want to get a taste of playing, and yeah, so I would say those two games are going to be tough.

Going into Week 3 we have KRU, and so far we haven't lost to them, but our matches have been close, so I feel pretty confident versus them.

And then the last game versus Sentinels, the content match, so that's going to be a big game, I think when it comes down to who makes the playoffs, just because there's a tie right now between us, NRG, and Sentinels being 3-3, so if it shakes out how it's expected to shake out, the last match versus Sentinels might be the do or die, so we'll see how it goes.

My expectations is that we are to make playoffs. Of course, I think that we are leaps and bounds as a team, and we're a strong team, so I'm expecting us to make playoffs, but results aside, I'm just expecting us to put the same hard work that we did in Split 1, keep the same discipline, and hopefully build on our losses and get better.

What are the thoughts on the current map pool and agent changes?

I would say Haven coming back is pretty nice for me, I've always been a Haven enjoyer, or 3 bombsite maps in general are some of my favorites, so I'm excited for Haven to come back.

Abyss being introduced for playoffs is a bit strange to me, I'm not sure why we're adding like a new map at such an important part of the year, like it's a short turn around time, especially because some of these teams are  not going to know that they made playoffs until the very end, like a team like Sentinels, they won't know that they've qualified until the very last week.

It's going to be hard for them to prep for this map, so I'm expecting a lot of people to just ban it, but it seems like a map with a cool gimmick of being able to fall, so I'm excited to see how it plays out.

All the best for all the future matches, congratulations on the great victory, great run, and hope to see you again.

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The VCT Americas 2024 Split 2 kicks off later today. In the first week G2 Esports will take on Cloud9, Catch the game live on Twitch or YouTube.

You can watch the extended video cut of the interview on Strafe YouTube.

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Featured Image Credits: Lee Aiksoon/Riot Games

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