Bonkar: “I love pushing everyone to get comfortable being uncomfortable” – VCT Americas Stage 2 Interview

1. After NRG’s dominant 2-0 victory against Leviatán in VCT Americas Stage 2, with two 13-2 map wins, the team sits closer to VALORANT Champions. For coach Malkolm “bonkar” Rench, it wasn’t just about the scoreline—it was about growth, improvement, and building the right atmosphere for his players.

Hotspawn sat down with bonkar to discuss the team’s evolution after the G2 loss, the impact of skuba, his philosophy as a coach, and why atmosphere and fundamentals matter most in the playoff run.

Hotspawn: How are you feeling right now after such a convincing win?

bonkar: “I’m feeling good. Having a convincing win is always nice, but just the important thing is keep winning. And the most important thing is that we just keep improving from week to week. That’s what makes me most happy, that we improved since the G2 game.”

Hotspawn: After that loss, what was the biggest thing you guys tried to work on and fix? Was it strats, or something else?

bonkar: “The biggest thing was environment for us, atmosphere out there. We had it a little bit in the beginning of the season as well, where we couldn’t recreate our prac environments, which led to us not playing as we do in prac and not doing the rounds that we do in prac. So that was the biggest thing against G2.

“Even on the Corrode map against G2, we didn’t feel like we played that good, to be honest. Same thing with Sunset and Bind, obviously it was more of a need to recreate a good atmosphere and a cool, calm and collected environment for everyone, even if it’s playoffs.”

Hotspawn: Mada mentioned that skuba was a kind of missing piece.

What do you think he adds?

bonkar: “Skuba is a very good system player. He is the kind of player that if I say jump, he asks, how high do you need me to jump? So he does everything you tell him. Even if it’s bad, he will keep trying it and then eventually he’ll make a tweak to a strat or whatever it may be and then make the entire team better because of it. He’s a team player.”

Hotspawn: You’ve worked with some of these guys before.

What was your original vision for NRG when you joined this year? Are you close to it now?

bonkar: “The original vision was, we came off off season really good, was just to continue together, to be honest. And then obviously everything blew up for certain reasons. Then when things happened, my vision was this roster, to be honest, it didn’t happen immediately when I wanted it to happen. Eventually it did. And the goal was always to compete for trophies.

“That’s what we’re really, really trying to do, it’s just we didn’t have that much time together yet to figure stuff out, especially since when we started it was still Tejo meta. And then two weeks after it swapped immediately, we had the whole EWC thing, and just getting people comfortable playing officials in front of an audience.

“And same thing, it’s a bit of a reset for Ethan as well. Getting him comfortable in IGLing and just truly believing himself and like, making him understand how good he is at what he’s doing.”

Hotspawn: What kind of IGL/coach relationship do you and Ethan have?

bonkar: “I mean, we watch VODs together every now and then. Not that often, though. We do that more as a team. It’s a lot. I’ll bring round strats, a lot of things, and then he/they change however they want and then we use the things we want in officials.

“Right now, we’re progressing every week with, you know, getting him more comfortable and getting him better at what he’s doing. So it’s a constant work, but it’s looking very solid so far.

“It’s been a lot of set things, but it’s also because of me, because I wanted it to run that way. But we’re getting more and more defaulting in and just slowing it down a little bit more here and there. And I think it’s definitely paying off here.”

Hotspawn: Today’s win was so clean.

Was it prep, or was everything just clicking?

bonkar: “Everyone just being locked in, everyone knowing exactly what their job is in every single round.

“The big thing was just every time Ethan called something, whether it was on defence or attack, everyone just insta listened to what he said. Really good setups all the times.

“We had a very clear idea of how we wanted to play against them. They have had so many tight best-of-threes, so there is so much tape on them out there, so it was kind of easy to—I shouldn’t say easy. It wasn’t easy to anti, but you have so much tape on them, so you can see so many red lines through the gameplay. So you can really hard anti them if you want to.

“And then it’s just giving the vision to the team and then they use that vision and they play however they want with that vision. And that is something that Ethan does especially very good. You can show him a picture and he’ll be like, all right, I got it, let’s do it like this.”

Hotspawn: Next up is 100 Thieves or C9. Do you prefer one?

bonkar: “Not particularly. I think both of those teams is really good. I think 100 Thieves has been slumping a little bit. Obviously will be fun to have a rematch. I also really want us to play on C9, you know, mitch, old teammate, all of these things, but I don’t prefer any of the teams. We just, we mainly focus on ourselves and we know that’s how we’re going to win the game.”

Hotspawn: Do you prefer coaching or playing?

bonkar: “Personally? I mean, when I loved playing, I loved what I was doing. My flame for playing video games, it kind of started to go out earlier than I thought. I didn’t even notice it. I was thinking to myself, why am I stagnating? Why I’m not getting better? Why all of these things?”

“And I was kind of done with esports for a while. Even if I was super grinding, I was just thinking, next step, what am I going to do? What do I want to do? And then I got introduced to coaching and it just reignited everything in me with esports because I love the tactical aspect of the game. I love teams and team environments in general, and I know I’m very good when it comes to being a teammate and having fun and these things, and it’s truly what I love.

“So I’d say both were equally fun when I loved gaming, back in the Guild days and these things, we had so much fun. But I’m having the exact same feeling in all of the teams I’m coaching now. So it’s just different time periods in my life. But I love them both equally.”

Hotspawn: Would you ever go back to playing?

bonkar: “Nah, I’m never going back to playing. I’m subbing in every now and then for prac and the guys know that they don’t need to worry about me. That’s all I’m saying. They know.”

Hotspawn: Who’s the chillest player on your team?

bonkar: “Brawk. Skuba is also chill, but brawk is like mega chill.”

Hotspawn: Who’s most likely to rage?

bonkar: “Ethan. Otherwise, me, probably, to be honest. But Ethan, if it’s a player.”

Hotspawn: Who’s most likely to clutch a 1v2 or 1v3?

bonkar: “Skuba. Or brawk. They’re very equal there as well with chill and clutching.”

Hotspawn: Who’s most likely to overheat?

bonkar: “Sam (s0m).”

Hotspawn: What’s the biggest obstacle standing between you and Champs?

bonkar: “Ourselves, to be honest. Again, just recreating that good chill atmosphere we want out there. We know that if we play in our system the way that we want to play the game, the way that we practise, then we’re more than fine. It’s just about getting comfortable and just doing it every single day on command, almost like, this is when we do it and we just go out and do it.”

Hotspawn: Do you think the new map changes and patch affect you?

bonkar: “I think it benefits us. We love week-to-week improving, doing new things, picking new maps, having new map priorities, having new strats. I absolutely love it. Just creating new stuff all the time and pushing everyone to get comfortable being uncomfortable. So I think it benefits us to be honest.”

Hotspawn: What’s the best Valorant moment in your career so far?

bonkar: “I don’t have a specific round, but before we were even signed, like when we were unsigned, like me, Sayf, Yacine, Leo, Draken, goffe, all of these people, Aron as well. That summer when we grinded, after NiP and before Guild. That was so much fun with all of the open qualifiers and just playing because it’s fun. We didn’t have a salary then, you know, we were just doing it for the love of the game. Those were really, really awesome times, to be honest.”

Hotspawn: If you could play any team in the world right now, who would it be?

bonkar: “I would love to play against Fnatic because it’s been a long time, and I’m sure Boaster is 100 times better at anti-ing than he was back in the days. But I would love to play against Fnatic to just feel how he antis this and stuff because, in my opinion, he is the best in the world at what he’s doing. So I want to feel it, see where I am. That would be nice.”