[EXCLUSIVE] Marved after going 2-0 up in VCT Americas League Split 1 "It feels really good"

At the VCT Americas Leagues Split 1 Week 2, NRG down FURIA in a best of three series to go 2-0 up in the league. NRG now share the number 1 spot in group A along with KRU and Cloud9.

Following their win against FURIA, Strafe had an opportunity to talk with Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen. In the interview, Marved talks about NRG's win over FURIA, preparation for next week and more.

Congratulations on your win today. You are now 2-0 up in the regular split. What do you think of the team’s performance so far?

Thank you so much. I think the team has been good so far. Games feel really good and we've got 2 2-Os, haven't dropped a map yet. So obviously, it feels really good.

Did you expect Split to be that one-sided? Especially since your last encounter had two close contested maps.

No, I didn't expect it, but once we got rolling and once we started winning a bunch of rounds, we had that feeling in us that we couldn't be stopped that day.

They also brought out Yoru, which is pretty unconventional since it normally doesn't work on all maps.

I don't think we expected that at all, if anything we expected Jett but not Yoru. And when we saw it, I mean, we didn't really panic. I feel like all of us are really good at adapting and, yeah, even Chet, he gave us a little couple of tips to play against Yoru. So it all worked out well.

Breeze was pretty close. I mean, not in the second half of the first half, it seemed like they were prepared for all your defensive setups. Demon1 was punished multiple times and they once again got, they, they mirrored your comp. Do you think, the last time the loss last time helped them this time to at least put up a better fight?

Yeah. I mean, they changed from KAY/O to Yoru, so they definitely had something in mind. They also picked attack against us. So they had a game plan and, yeah, they won both pistols. They won one bonus round.

On defense, I feel like we were playing a little bit too stagnant and we were just not being proactive.

So, yeah, Chet took a timeout and we were able to do that and I felt like we were in control, even though we were down at one point. So, we weren't really worried but they put up a good fight on the map.

You lost three pistol rounds today, Is that something of a concern for the team in the upcoming games? Would that be something you guys will discuss?

Obviously we want to win them, but it's a reality, you can't always win. I feel like we had good plans on the pistol rounds. It's just they hit shots or we got countered or just one of us made a mistake.

So, yeah, as long as we're able to bring the game back, even though we lose the pistol is the main, most important thing. So, I wouldn't say it's very scary that we've lost three today.

Next week obviously would be a longer week. You would play two games. And what do you think? First of all, how, what, what would the preparations be like? What do you prepare for both games? One game? What would it be like, how would it go?

I'd say, yeah, we kind of try to prepare for both games, but we take one at a time. So, there's one day in between the two matches. So on that day after the first one, we'll do preparation on the second team.

So I think these next couple of days we're gonna focus on the first team we're playing. I don't know who it is. But, yeah, that's probably how we're gonna do it.

You’d be facing LEV next, who will be coming off of a win against Sentinels. What do you make of them? How will you prepare for them?

[Marved] They definitely looked better than their first performance. Aspas is crazy. I mean, we were watching that game together as a team and you know, like 40 frags, which is insane.

It's the kill record for sure. And yeah, we're just gonna have to prepare as normal, not really scared of anyone. So we're just gonna try to play our own game and shut them down.

In the Leviatan - Sentinels game, Aspas went crazy dropping 47 kills. He was winning all the duels and seemed unstoppable. He was likely the deciding factor in that game. You have been a professional for a considerable amount of time and also an International Champion. How do you counter such an insane performance?

I mean, sometimes it's, it is what it is. I mean, he has this many, I mean, there are times where they get a lot of frags but there's ways which we can stop him without just shooting. I mean, we can outsmart teams.

So, we just got to focus on our own game. We can't really think about, oh, he's always shooting at us. Ok. There's no way we will win today. There's always a solution no matter what.

So, the second team you would be facing is MIBR, who look shaky but definitely show progress. What do you make of them?

[Marved] I think they're a lot better than they were last year. And, yeah, we don't underestimate any team, so we haven't really looked into them that much.

I've watched a couple of their matches and they don't look too good right now. But, you know, a lot can change in a week. So we just have to keep being locked in and being prepared.

You had a long break before the regular split. What did you guys work on during the break to come out guns blazing in the league?

[Marved] I think, just being more intense in practice. So getting more intensity and just fixing our map pool and making sure we iron out every map because we have that much time to do it and just keep doing the same thing.

Just keep growing as a team learning from each other. How we, what we like, what we don't like. So, yeah, I think that time really helped us.

Talking about Masters Madrid, Boaster recently said that he thought he’d win the tournament if Fnatic had qualified. What do you think would happen if NRG qualified?

I think they are good, there are a lot of good teams, Heretics. Gen G, Paper Rex, Sentinels, Karmine Corp. They all look like great teams.

But, I mean, we have confidence in ourselves. So I feel like we were there, we’d put up a really good fight as well. I won't say we're gonna win, because you never know.

But, yeah, pretty bold words from Boaster. But everyone feels like they can win the tournament. So it's not really that surprising.

What do you think about the level of competition in VALORANT? Do you think it is more balanced now compared to the previous years?

[Marved] I think so. Yeah, and anyone can win. APAC is looking very good. They have Gen.G paper X for two very strong teams even DRX is good. Our region is pretty stacked. We have a lot of good players here. A lot of great teams.

EMEA, they have a couple of teams as well so anyone can win. So just as players and team and individual teams, we just have to take it one game at a time and try to win.

Now some fun questions, One agent you will play for life? Your Instalock almost?

[Marved] I mean, I like Viper personally. Viper is very fun. Very calm. I'm getting older now and I just want to sit back and use my molly and shoot people nowadays. So I like Viper.

Vandal or Phantom? And your favorite skin?

[Marved] I prefer vandal right now. I use Kuronami. But, I think my all time best skin was definitely the Neptune vandal.

Favorite streamers to watch?

[Marved] FNS, Tarik s0m, Shanks, these are my favorites.

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Marved and NRG will next face Leviatan and MIBR in the VCT Americas League Split 1 Superweek. The Superweek kicks off Saturday, 20th April, 2024.

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Featured Image Credits: Photo by Tina Jo/Riot Games

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