“I’ll do it for my team” – Rb explains his flexibility and Nongshim’s success as Pacific’s #1 seed at Masters Santiago

After Nongshim RedForce defeated RRQ to qualify for Masters Santiago as the first seed, Hotspawn spoke with Rb about returning to international play, adapting his style, and what the team must improve before the global stage.

Hotspawn: Firstly, congratulations on your win today.

How are you feeling heading back to your first international event since 2023?

Rb: “I’m extremely happy that I was able to win today’s match and gain the first seed to Masters Santiago. And since this is my first international appearance in three long years, I am looking forward to showing my new style, new team play and performances, 100%.”

Hotspawn: Talking about your new style, you’re coming in off of playing with TEC in China.

So how do you say that your time in China has evolved your playstyle?

Rb: “My experience within the CN League didn’t really have much influence on my new playstyle or what I’m doing in Nongshim RedForce right now. And for my current roster, I think that within our own plays, believing in each other and just trusting each other’s individual plays to work as a team basically solves the whole problem itself. And that’s what we’re doing right now, the things that we’re doing to do really good.”

Hotspawn: Talking about Nongshim, there’s been a couple of roster changes since the team won Ascension.

How have you been able to fit into the team and what do you think is the biggest value that your experience brings to this roster?

Rb: “Becoming a new addition to the roster for Stage 2 last year, there was a lot of trial and error during the process of trying to make up the teamwork and try to get synergized with each other. And it took a long time. And because of that, when we were together playing in Ascension in 2025, we had to learn and go through a lot of processes with each other and as one, as a team. And with all that, all the hardships that we had to go through in Ascension, that’s what made us the team that allowed us to become first seed in Masters Santiago.”

The first Ascension team from Pacific to make it to the global stage! Welcome to Masters Santiago, @nsr_valorant 🫡 pic.twitter.com/mhFBWv7bTq

— VCT Pacific (@vctpacific) February 13, 2026

Hotspawn: You’re one of the most flexible players in the history of Valorant. I remember your duelist arc, and then now you play smokes, and I think you played everything in the middle. You used to be on Killjoy for a while. Of course there’s mechanical skill — but also,

How do you have the mindset to constantly stay so flexible and evolve as a player?

Rb: “I have never really thought about that much and just basically, when I was within a team, I just complied with whatever the coaches wanted from the team. For example, if the coach wanted duelist for this map or smokes for this map or sentinel for this map, I just felt that, for my team, I will do it. So every single one of those things is hardships that I have to go through and I have to overcome. So because of the mindset and things that overall within my career with Valorant, I was able to become such a dominant player.”

Hotspawn: What is your favorite agent to play right now?

Rb: “At the moment it’s Omen because I can just basically utilize the agent’s skills to go anywhere I want.”

Hotspawn: Against RRQ today there were some many maps where you guys had an insane opening advantage, but RRQ were consistently able to make that comeback.

So what do you think is the reason for that and is that something that you’ll have to work on fopr Santiago?

Rb: “On the first half of the maps that you had mentioned, we showed a lot more confidence in taking away rounds from the other team. But as we gradually went into the latter half, I felt that there were times where we had to be more careful, but we didn’t, which allowed them to push back a lot. For example, in Breeze, we finished the first half 11–1, and when we first got up to match point at 12–1, we showed a lot of parts where we were bothering a bit too much and we could have taken the round, but we were not able to because they made too many mistakes.

“But what I personally think of that specific map is that even though it’s only one point, I want to be more calm even in such situations. With our mindset already fixed onto it right now, I think that we’ll be able to give better performances in the next stage.”

Hotspawn: Since the initiator nerfs and with more Chamber coming in, you don’t see Sentinels being picked – it’s more of a double controller or even double duelist kind of meta. 

What is your current take on the meta?

Rb: “Personally, whether double duelists or double smokes, I wouldn’t say which kind of meta I prefer. But as recently a couple of months ago, when Valorant implemented the patch where for most of the initiators, as well as other agents, their basic skills that needed a cooldown was increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds, the majority of the initiators were indirectly nerfed.

“And for the teams that utilize that kind of strategy and comps for utilizing that much of initiator skills, they were having a lot of hard time, which I also think is the reason why a lot of things have been shifted to a double duelist comp and more of a shooter-central kind of a strategy. And overall right now it feels like our team’s doing pretty good on that part as well.”