MiniBoo: “We all work our asses off and just go to the final and lose. It’s not acceptable”

Despite having shown far better performances in comparison to their lacklustre Kickoff, Team Heretics’ EMEA Stage 1 run has ended in tragedy with a 3-0 finals loss to Fnatic, the organisation’s 5th consecutive defeat in grand finals appearances. We spoke to TH’s Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius for an interview following the loss.

Hotspawn: What do you think was the difference that saw Fnatic come out on top today?

MiniBoo: I don’t know, it’s been 10 minutes so I obviously couldn’t process all the things that happened yet. So I cannot give a good answer what’s happened. I still don’t know myself.

Lee Jones: I can imagine it’s been a taxing few days playing games back-to-back.

Do you think fatigue could have played a part?

MiniBoo: No. I think it doesn’t matter. We love to play and we want to play more games. I think that’s not the reason.

Lee Jones: It seemed like there might’ve been a balancing act between using it for results immediately, versus getting used to playing without it knowing it’ll be nerfed for Masters Toronto.

What were your thoughts on the Tejo situation?

MiniBoo: We are able to change the comps fast, so for us it doesn’t matter. And about Tejo overall, I think it’s killed, no one’s going to play Tejo. I think it’s really bad. I didn’t play ranked yet with Tejo, but I think it’s going to be pretty bad. I’m not sure yet, we are going to have to figure that out. But I doubt that people are going to play it like because on paper it’s so bad.

This agent is interesting. I didn’t like it from the beginning because it changes the method so much and it’s like super chaotic and I don’t know, that’s not VALORANT and I didn’t like it. So I’m really happy that they did it.

Lee Jones: After a difficult Kickoff run, finishing 2nd and going to Toronto can easily be seen as Heretics moving in the right direction, and Benjy has spoken about the generally improved environment as well.

Are you able to look at things in a bigger picture like that and see that you guys are on the right path?

MiniBoo: I mean, yeah, the results can show that we’re doing better. Like we’re playing good VALORANT up to finals and we just need to like, I don’t know, be better emotionally during the final. We get into the final, but we just need to play it better.

Do you think that was an issue today then? Did heads start to drop a bit?

MiniBoo: I mean, yeah, obviously, we lost Split 13-3 or whatever, and we were losing 2-10 Icebox. So obviously it’s not the real Heretics. I think it’s obvious that we didn’t play our game.

Lee Jones: You mentioned the start on Icebox, but eventually you guys started coming back and then had a close game on Fracture.

Are there some positives to take from that, the fact that you guys did find some fight when things were looking pretty bad?

MiniBoo: Yeah, but we still lost both maps, so it doesn’t matter. I don’t know, I’m just disappointed in myself and overall how we played. I’m really disappointed. And yeah, it’s not acceptable to play like that.

You work hard for it, you sacrifice your life, and then on the most important part, you just play like this. It’s just disrespectful — disrespectful to yourself and to your teammates. We all work our asses off and we just go to the final and we just lose it. It’s not acceptable to do it like that. It’s just super unfun and disrespectful in my opinion.