“With the experience of playing as a team, we become better” TL Redgar talks about Liquid’s performance at VCT EMEA

At the VCT EMEA Week 6, Team Liquid took on Natus Vincere in a best of three series. With Sayf out because of illness, Team Liquid came into the game with a substitute. Despite the close game, Team Liquid lost the game 0-2. After the game, Strafe interviewed Team Liquid’s IGL Igor “Redgar” Vlasov. In an exclusive one-on-one interview, TL Redgar talks about the game, preparation for NaVi, Liquid’s performance and more. 

Q. What were the positives and the negatives from the game?

TL Redgar: “First of all I think, I will just try to explain, I think sometimes they were just better individually. You know like they are playing a really unique playstyle. I was trying to adapt to them, and after that they adapted to us and then us adapting to them you see. To be fair, we were playing with a sub and we scrimmed only two days, so we didn’t have much time to prepare. What I want to admit is harmi played really well. Maybe not the scoreline but he did what we wanted him to do. He satchelled in without fear and he wasn’t that type of Raze. He did a pretty good job given the little time we had. Maybe he had pressure, he played the first time against Navi. He wasn't nervous and I really respect how he played. If someone says we lost because of him, no we lost because Navi played better than us. He did his job and we would’ve lost with anyone. And that’s a good thing, even when we lose, we have good vibes, we just try to smile, try to have a good atmosphere and do our best. So in that terms it was good. If someone thinks we can’t play good Valorant without Sayf killing, we today showed we can. We were close to beating NaVi with a sub. And that was a good side.  We aren’t playing a sprint right, it’s a marathon and long distance we will beat them”

Q. Following up, You said Harmi did his job. What do you think was the main difference playing with/without sayf?

TL Redgar: “Yeah, if we saw our game, we played a little bit faster today. Because in slow rounds Sayf likes to call with me. For eg. In mid rounds he is making his plays and manipulating enemies. And when we don’t have that guy who is helping with that we just prefer to try to go with no fear into them in the first rounds. Slow rounds are harder to prepare, the timings, the abilities. Fast rounds are easier to prepare, you just throw utilities and go in. So we decided to go with that since we had less time with Harmi. It was kinda worth to do it”

Q. Did you guys prepare anything special going against NAVI?

TL Redgar: “Yes it was prepared. But decided to go for playing simple Valorant because you can’t play slow Valorant with a stand-in who doesn’t know the whole chemistry, the role. I think it was hard to prepare something specific, like the Yoru comp is hard to counter. So (Without Sayf playing) we decided to play simply, try to win and have fun. That was our credo for this game.”

Q. How do you feel about your own performance so far in the tournament?

TL Redgar: “I definitely think we will win by the season. Usually in the teams I played before, even like in Gambit, we were good at upgrading our form during the tournament. Like more officials, more mistakes, it means that we can evolve a lot of things in us like communication, adaptation and all that stuff. With the experience of playing as a team, we become better. And I think and I hope till playoffs we play differently compared to how we played during the start. Even if we win or lose, we try to take maximum profit of our performance and try to do the best”

Q. How was it transitioning from Gambit to Liquid for you and nAts?

TL Redgar: “First or all I would like to say that the working methods are different. We were from Gambit, two players from Liquid and one from the Guild. It was three different playstyles so in the beginning it was a lil bit messy. Maybe they didn’t understand what I wanted and I didn’t understand what they wanted, but through the losses, through mistakes we understood each other better and better. And Right now, I think we have a common point. Our relationship has become much better than it was at the beginning. And everything gets better with time, because I heard and spoke with a lot of IGLs who transitioned from their native languages to an international team. They said it is hard to immediately start playing as a team. Some teams do it in a year, some teams can synergize in six months. So in that spirit like six months or one year, you become much better as a team. And I think it might be happening to us now. It is a really good feeling when you start to see you are playing better than before.”

Q. How has it been like working with emil? How has the experience been working as a leader of Team Liquid?

TL Redgar: “He evolved when we started playing as a team. He was a little bit soft and you can’t do that, you can’t always be soft. So he started to be stricter, we understood more things, he gave us ideas, our mistakes and we are following it. If I compare him with Engh, they are different but they are both really great coaches. We are trying to take the maximum from him.”

The seventh week of VCT EMEA kicks off on 10th May, with Team Vitality taking on Giants Gaming.

Follow VCT EMEA's Twitter for all the updates regarding VCT EMEA.

Credits: VCT EMEA

You can also follow VCT EMEA on Strafe with Live Score, Updates, News and More.