All Masters Bangkok teams fielded questions from the media on the eve of VALORANT’s first global event of the year. Here we look at the key comments from those widely considered tournament favourites; G2 Esports, Team Vitality, EDward Gaming, and Sentinels.
G2 – Americas #1
First was G2, Americas champions and generally thought of as the favorites at Bangkok. The addition of jawgemo has elevated the side, and he was immediately asked how his approach to winning titles has changed since his time winning Champions with Evil Geniuses back in 2023.
Jawgemo insisted that he still has “the same mindset, same grindset” with little changing having not attended any other global events between 2023 Champs and Masters Bangkok now. He added that he is “trying to introduce all the ideas and confidence” that he gave EG back then to his new home in G2.
Jawgemo and valyn were asked who they expected to be crowned as tournament MVP, valyn accepting that “it’s probably gonna go to this guy” as he gestured toward his teammate.
“No one does it like him… I’m expecting a jawgemo MVP”
Later, valyn was quizzed on what makes G2 such a successful Ascension team in comparison to others who struggle to find their footing against VCT’s partnered sides.
“Really good process in the team, starting from management all the way down, everyone is responsible…”
When you just work hard every single day, try to get 1% better every single day, it’s going to sum into something greater. We’ve made some great additions to the team bringing in jawgemo, bringing in leaf. But at the end of the day it just comes down to our identity as G2, just how we operate; we try to get better, a little bit better, every day.
Finally, on how Masters Bangkok could shape the players’ futures, jawgemo highlighted the potential for the tournament to provide a “good process to get to Champs” and it’s importance in G2’s fight for survival in the VCT.
“We are running on the Ascension tournament if we do not get to Champs. Getting the points that we wanted in Kickoff was the best start and then obviously winning this and getting the five points would be the priority.”
Team Vitality – EMEA #1
Up next were Team Vitality’s Sayf and Derke, the latter starting by giving his thoughts on their current supposed superteam and why teams focused around him historically perform well.
“I think the success is just me doing my job. I think I do a lot more than probably most of EMEA in terms of communication, because I also probably have the best experience in those terms. I think when teams change that kind of a players it’s hard to fill someone into that role without them getting that experience first.
– So I think me coming to Vitality, giving Sayf some help with my role, even having Less, it gives Sayf kind of a fresh start and makes it easy for him to be an IGL. Us three mainly make each other’s lives easier”.
He was to talk about Fnatic further, pressed on a recent Instagram post where he affirmed that he will win Champions without the team having been asked if he was disappointed never to have done so with the side.
“For me this whole Fnatic thing, every question I get to is probably mentioning Fnatic, Fnatic, Fnatic, every day, people asking me about it or just mentioning it somewhere. And for me it’s it’s a little bit boring. I feel like those people can’t move on from their ex-teams or whatever.
“So I think for me, just focusing on the future right now in Vitality, I want to play with these boys. I want to win with these boys… So I don’t really care about anyone else right now.
That didn’t stop the Fnatic-related questioning as Derke was later asked to compare former and current IGLs Boaster and Sayf. He pinpointed Sayf’s previous Duelist experience as allowing Derke himself more freedom, creating a more free playstyle that he says suits Vitality, compared to playing “more precisely” with Boaster on Fnatic.
Sayf was asked about fostering this environment that allows his teammates to play freely.
“It’s a way of seeing the game. A lot of teams approach the game very structured and you have these set rounds where you just do the same thing over and over again… But for at least for me and for my boys, when you reach a certain point of understanding, you start seeing that it doesn’t really matter how you start the round.
“It doesn’t really matter if Derke needs to go peak A or B – you can do a lot of adaptations on the fly. I think how this team enables people to do what they want to do in the round is by keeping the same ideas of what we want to do throughout the round at core, but we’re just making micro plays around the map that still makes sense like within the same round.”
Sentinels – Americas #2
Next Sentinels’ N4RRATE and vibe merchant Zellsis took questions. Zellsis was asked for comparisons to this time last year whereby Sentinels again had started the year strongly, then becoming Masters Madrid champions.
“It’s amazing to be able to qualify for Masters right out the gate, especially considering we had a lot of identity crises during the offseason, you know, testing things. I think we got a little bit lucky in the offseason with our roster getting N4RRATE and bang – they’re very talented players, very hungry to win. I think being able to qualify as early as we did with the amount of time we’ve had as a team and being so young is a blessing.”
N4RRATE’s move to Sentinels this season came after a breakout year in EMEA after joining Karmine Corp as a relatively unknown name and going on to prove himself as an extremely capable Duelist at a tier one level.
On his development on SEN, the American “wasn’t super confident” throughout Americas Kickoff as, at that point, he didn’t know what was needed from his performances to help the team win.
“We were still trying things out. We changed things. So I was just trying to find my voice in the team… during Kickoff it was sometimes a struggle to do that, sometimes it worked out really well.
“I learned a lot just from playing that tournament and obviously I’m super happy we qualified, even though I feel like I wasn’t out like my best form. But I think overall like it was a very good experience.”
Asked about life post-Tenz retirement, Zellsis was firm on his belief in the current lineup, insisting that the roster “is the highest-skilled ceiling” that Sentinels have had and that despite having been the “X factor”, the “void is filled” with N4RRATE arriving.
Both Sentinels and N4RRATE’s Karmine Corp made it to Madrid Masters last year, and reflecting on the differences going into Bangkok N4RRATE swiftly quipped that it was a “complete fluke” that his side was on the losing end in their matchup and “should have never lost”.
“I think the team now is definitely like a very strong team and I think we definitely have a lot of experience that other teams don’t have. Also the teams here are relatively- I wouldn’t say they’re new, but they have a lot, a lot of roster changes… So I think it’s definitely going to be like learning experience for everybody and I think we’re the most confident to win at least.”
Read also: The Underdogs of Masters Bangkok
EDward Gaming – China #1
With an unchanged team following their 2024 Champions triumph, EDG had to run the lower-bracket gauntlet in China in order to reach Bangkok but still enter as a favourite. ZmjjKK and CHICHOO were their press conference representatives.
On retaining the full roster this year, ZmjjKK feels that there is “no pressure” in terms of added expectations and that “everything will start from zero” this year.
“I think our advantage is like our strong point is about our teamwork. All of our members have the same goal, we always work together.”
He also commented on EDG’s past matches against Pacific’s Paper Rex, a side they faced in the last five global events but will meet in Bangkok following PRX’s failure to qualify.
“I think it’s all the same. We face against every team and there’s none who is difficult to face against or who is easier to face. But I feel this time with PRX not making it to Master Bangkok is a pity for both of our teams because we are brothers, you know, we’ll take this brotherhood and go further.”
