T1’s Korean superteam beaten by Vitality’s “not a superteam”

The matchup of Team Vitality and T1 was billed as a battle between superteams; Vitality boasts a mix of EMEA and Americas stars while T1 has assembled a stacked all-Korean lineup. Despite Vitality’s 2-0 victory to add to VCT Masters Bangkok predictable start, the series was a close affair with 13-10 and 13-9 scorelines showing a tightly fought battle in which the sheer talent of the EMEA Kickoff champions got them over the finish line.

Team Vitality will again face Korean opposition when they go up against DRX tomorrow for a chance to reach the Playoffs stage of Masters Bangkok, while T1 must win in their do-or-die matchup with Trace Esports on Sunday if they’re to stave off elimination.

Jubilant Team Vitality

The Team Vitality members were understandably upbeat in their post-match press conference — as the roster has seemed to be at all times during these early phases of the season — doing their best attempts at speaking Portuguese as the team enjoyed thanking those posing questions to Less in his native tongue: “Obrigado”.

During the media appearance, IGL Sayf was asked for his thoughts on the series overall and what he made of T1 as Vitaliy’s first opponent of the tournament.

“They put up a fight. Obviously we got away with a lot of scenarios because we have some good players on the team. T1 as a team, they played really well actually. We felt contested all the time and I think they’re the best team to play in the first game because that’s the only team you can really get warmed against in terms of starting your tournament off and just making sure that everyone is warmed up basically for the next. So in terms of T1, I think they’re a banger team, really banger team actually. So it was nice playing them first.”

After giving props to T1, Sayf was later keen to downplay his own side’s superteam status when asked about their strong start to the season compared to supposed superteams of the past, insisting that “you earn the right to be a superteam, you’re not a super team just because you have some good players”.

“First things first, we’re not a superteam. That’s number one. I know a lot of people like using this word, but you earn the right to be a super team, you’re not a super team just because you have some good players.

“That’s one. Two, I think the difference is that we had a strong baseline. The thing is that people found a lot of success in their rosters because they had very good players. And the disparity in Europe — specifically back in the days — there were very, very good rosters but on the opposite side of the spectrum there were very, very bad rosters. And now finally, the talent pool has allowed for us to create teams with more balanced rosters.

“I think with Derke and Less coming in, it definitely went up on our side at least, because me, trexx and Kimmie (Kicks – we’re insane. And when you push the team to the next level, when you get players that are on the same level as you as well, you can do a lot more things. And I think that’s kind of what’s happening.

“We see it in other teams as well; we see it in KC, we see GIANTX – I’m talking EMEA now. But generally, the talent is much, much different than before. And before, people just labelled teams ‘superteam’ just because, like, names. But it doesn’t matter and we cannot compare one with the other. I cannot compare ourselves to NRG. 

“All I know is that I have four really, really fantastic players with me alongside the coach and I think what we do together is something that’s because we’re all so good at what we do. We’re all so good at our job. So that’s the only reason we are good with the vibes. We’re good with these things because we see all the scenarios in-game and we’re all smart enough to make our own decisions and deduct these scenarios so that we’re always having some form of advantage or ending up winning the round.

“And that’s because of us. So, yeah.”

“Amen” was the response of head coach Faded.

T1 unworthy of superteam moniker – today

Like Sayf, T1 Dueslist Buzz also felt his side was not worthy of being called a superteam, though his opinion was focused on their performance in today’s match after being asked on the pressure to live up to the superteam hype.

“There is actually not a lot of sense of pressure. I would say no sense of pressure with the name being referred to as the Pacific superteam or Korean superteam. But the thing is, I don’t think we played up to the name today and I guess coming off of today’s loss, we would have to try to play up to the standards and up to the name superteam in the upcoming match.”

Coach Autumn was quizzed on what specifically needs to change if T1 is to turn their fortunes around for their elimination series against Trace Esports. He affirmed that some aspects such as communication and “how we laid the rounds out” were executed well, but pointed rather generally to “other mistakes” as being the key.

“I think there were other mistakes in a lot of other aspects of the game. But I’m pretty sure when we go back, we’ll talk about it. These are not the players to be making the same mistakes, they won’t rinse and repeat. So I think we have a good chance of adding to our game and really becoming stronger.

“And now as coaching staff we just need to prep a lot more and set up a good environment for the players to perform as much as they can and create a comfortable environment for them as well. Going through that process, I think we have a good chance of having a good run in the rest of the tournament.”