Team Vitality has taken its first step in a long redemption run. The squad defeated Excel Esports in the lower bracket of the 2022 LEC Spring Split playoffs with a narrow 3-2 victory. A meaningful victory nonetheless, as the star-studded lineup tries to shake off an underwhelming sixth-place finish in the regular split. Bot laner Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság never doubted his team.
Carzzy stepped up in the best-of-five series against Excel Esports. (Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games)
After the series, Carzzy sat down for an interview to evaluate the five-game nailbiter. He discussed his team’s practice and mindset heading into the series, and why he was so confident about his team’s eventual success. Carzzy also talked about his own performance and why it was so different from the games he played during the regular split.
Hotspawn: Welcome Carzzy and congrats on the win against Excel! It was very close though, so how are you feeling about the series?
Carzzy: Well, I’m happy we had five games. It is the most experience we can get and we still come out as a winner. So, it’s good. I like it.
Hotspawn: Interesting that you wanted it to go to five games. Is that a bit of coping after the fact? [Laughs] Or were you just that confident you would clutch it?
Carzzy: Yeah, I was confident every single game that we were gonna win. There were some mistakes that cost us the game, some throws that made our games less clean. That was the only thing. Other than that, I was pretty happy. I think we improved throughout the series, everyone played more patiently than they usually do.
“Losing a game in a Bo5, if you’re a good player, it shouldn’t affect you at all”
Hotspawn: You were put on the backfoot at the start when Finn kind of rolled you with his Irelia pick. Was that a surprise pick to you?
Carzzy: We expected it, but we thought we could handle it. I mean, against Irelia, if you make a mistake and the Irelia player is actually decent, it’s pretty hard to deal with her after that. And yeah, Finn was smurfing that game. It was like the only game he smurfed. We can’t take everything away from them though. They played really well in game one. It was hard for us to win.
Hotspawn: Vitality has said all split long that the team atmosphere was great, so I can imagine the first loss was brushed off pretty easily.
Carzzy: It was really easy. Losing game one doesn’t matter. Even if we lose two games, it doesn’t matter. Losing a game in a Bo5, if you’re a good player, it shouldn’t affect you at all.
Hotspawn: Has the mood changed at all now that you’re in best-of-fives and the stakes are higher?
Carzzy: We’re having lots of fun together, still. We’re enjoying the practice most of the times as well. I think we have pretty decent practice right now. We added Hjarnan and Saku to our coaching staff and I think they’re really useful. Our staff is smurfing right now. So, I’m pretty happy with how things are going.
Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games
Hotspawn: When you were 1-2 down, which notoriously is the “Perkz comfort zone” because he so often climbs back from that, was there some sort of rallying call at all to pull it back?
Carzzy: I think no, not at all. We just trust each other. There is no reason to say stuff like this to each other because everyone is obviously trying hard and we know it. In game four we were maybe a bit scared in the draft phase, because [Excel] had a really good draft. We had Zeri, on the other hand, and Zeri is really OP right now. So we took the free win.
In the last game we felt pretty confident with our draft. They would have to play really, really well for us to struggle in the game. The only thing I was worried about was the bot lane matchup because I think they had a good matchup there. They could really f*** us. But they didn’t.
Hotspawn: But still you were fine, mentally.
Carzzy: I was really calm throughout the entire series, basically. I was really calm. I wasn’t thinking about going home. Even if we lose, there is no reason to be sad. If we lose, we just deserve to lose. So, I accepted anything that happens and that helped me with not being under pressure at all.
“In Bo3s it’s a lot easier for a good team to win. If the LCK had Bo1s, T1 would also not have gone 18-0.”
Hotspawn: Talking about your performance, I think it’s fair to say that your regular split was pretty rough—
Carzzy: Yeah, it was.
Hotspawn: How do you look at that and compare it to this series?
Carzzy: I think that I played really, really well in comparison to the regular season. It might sound like an excuse, but it’s hard for me to be as motivated for Bo1s because I really dislike the Bo1 format. I understand why it’s like this in EU, but it’s unfair for the teams, I’d say. It’s really flippy and it’s hard to prepare. I wouldn’t say it’s a full coinflip, but anything can happen. In Bo3s it’s a lot easier for a good team to win. If the LCK had Bo1s, T1 would also not have gone 18-0. They lost a lot of games. It’s the same in the LPL. So, it’s kind of rough in EU. But I always know that, as long as we get to playoffs, the result is gonna be good.
Hotspawn: That’s something that we’ve heard a lot during the split from Vitality: “As long as we get to playoffs, we’ll be good.” This was a first step and, as you said, there was some progress in the team throughout the series. What was different in the team compared to the regular split?
Carzzy: I think people are trying their best at all times in any situation in the games that are higher stakes. Because if you lose, you’re out. I think that’s the main reason why we are better in Bo5s.
Hotspawn: The lack of team cohesion was often criticized during the split. How is that now?
Carzzy: We practiced it and we talked about all the problems that we have. We are actively trying to oversee all of them and how we are improving on them. I think that’s helping us a lot. We’re looking at it with the added coaching staff, so it’s very easy to figure it out. That helps us a lot.
Hotspawn: Your next opponent is G2 Esports. I’d say that, throughout the split, they looked cleaner than you did. However, they did just lose pretty convincingly to Fnatic. What are you thoughts on facing them?
Carzzy: I’m definitely looking forward to playing against them. I think they have an interesting playstyle with interesting champion picks. I think it’s gonna be the next step for us where we’re gonna have to evolve in our creativity during the games. If we win against G2, we’re gonna be in a really good spot. Misfits should be really scared if we win against G2.
Hotspawn: It’s a big redemption run you’ll have to go through in order to claim the title. Is that something that’s on your mind?
Carzzy: I’m not looking too far into the future. I’m focussing on the G2 series first. After that, I will focus on Misfits. I don’t want to speedrun it in my head. The most important thing right now is to get ready for G2, then Misfits.
Hotspawn: To round up: anything you want to say to the Vitality fans?
Carzzy: I’m very thankful that they are following us and cheering for us, even though we had somewhat of a rough regular split. [Laughs] I’m very thankful for their support.
The 2022 LEC Spring Split playoffs continue on Friday, April 1, at 6 PM CEST. You can watch it live on the official LoL Esports site.
