The VALORANT Champions Tour Champions run has come to an end for FURIA. The Brazilian squad, who qualified through the Last Chance Qualifier, fell short against fellow Southern Americans KRÜ Esports and now head home. In spite of the swift elimination from the tournament, however, young rifler Gabriel “qck” Lima walks away with his head held high.
qck's VCT journey ends in the Champions Group Stage, but he sees the progress he has made throughout the year. (Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games)
After his exit from the tournament, qck joined for an interview to talk about the series versus KRÜ Esports, how he looks back on his competitive VALORANT year, and what lies ahead for him.
Hotspawn: Welcome, qck. An unfortunate loss means FURIA is now eliminated from VCT Champions. What is your takeaway from your series against KRÜ?
qck: It’s always a very bad feeling. I wish I could go back in time and do things much better. However, we need to see the positive side, take the learnings that we can, and we can come back even stronger.
Hotspawn: What read did you have on KRÜ heading into the series? Were there any particular strats you had prepared for them?
qck: Individually, I think I was in a good mindset during the series. Our biggest mistakes were as a team, as a group. This is something that happened in the past too, and we need to improve so next year we can play better. During the game, we had some issues with communication. So that’s why sometimes, during the rounds, we didn’t play very well. This is something that we need to improve for next year.
Hotspawn: It was quite surprising to see Fracture as the first map. What were your thoughts on that?
qck: That was a map that we had prepared as well. So, we were prepared, but we were surprised as well. It was ok. Because we prepared for it, we had a pretty good game on the map.
Hotspawn: I don’t want to dwell too much on this particular series—everyone will understand your disappointment for being eliminated. But, looking at the bigger picture, how has this year been for you, competing in VALORANT?
qck: It was a very good year for me. I have made some very good progress in terms of mechanics, in terms of gameplay. And even though we didn’t win, we could show our level to all the world. Now we are more respectful, and we’re gonna have a better year next year.
Hotspawn: Did you think, at the start of the year, that you’d make it to the world championship?
qck: Early this year, when we won many times, I thought that yes, we did have a chance of making it here. But I didn’t think it would be this year. During the Last Chance Qualifier, we evolved a lot. That is why we are here today.
Hotspawn: That growth what I wanted to touch on next: If you compare yourself now to the player you were at the beginning of this year, where do you see the most growth?
qck: I can see the difference. I was an individual player, I played for myself first. Now, I play for the team no matter the agent, no matter the map. I will always play for the team and think about the team, and not think about myself.
Hotspawn: Do you see your personal growth reflected in how FURIA has evolved in 2021?
qck: We could see the problems that we had against Sentinels because we hadn’t played on a global scale with other teams, from like Europe. We could see that we could have won that game 2-0, and we almost did. So, it was very clear for us how we had evolved during this year.
Hotspawn: You’re eighteen years old, which is still very young for a player. Where do you see yourself go next in VALORANT?
qck: My expectation is to stay with FURIA for a long time. I want to be in all the [VCT] Champions. This is just the first year for VALORANT but I see a great future, and I am looking forward to it.
Hotspawn: Brazil is already a pretty strong force in VALORANT. And in CS:GO there was the glory lineup of Luminosity/SK Gaming. Do you think Brazil can fly as high in VALORANT as they have in CS:GO?
qck: Yeah, I think so. We mirror a lot from Counter-Strike. We hope that, in the future, we can be even better than what we did in Counter-Strike.
Hotspawn: To round up, qck, is there something you’d like to say to your fans, or to the other Brazilian representatives at the event?
qck: To the fans, I would like to say thank you. All the support, all their passion, is fuel for us. It makes us much stronger. For the remaining teams, I hope they can go forward in the championship. Regardless, whether it’s Vivo Keyd or Vikings, FURIA will be supporting you 100%.
You can watch VCT Champions live on the official VALORANT Twitch channel.
