Expectations were sky-high for Team Heretics this season after keeping together the squad that reached the VALORANT Champions final last August. But a stuttering start saw those expectations quickly muted and now a loss to Team Vitality has dropped the side down to EMEA Kickoff’s lower bracket. Ahead of a do-or-die lower bracket final tomorrow, where the winner will join Vitality in the grand final, we spoke to Heretics’ IGL Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius.
Hotspawn: What are your thoughts immediately following the series?
Boo: We were just way too scared, way too scared to play the game.
Why do you think that was?
Boo: Mental. What caused that? I’m not sure because we knew what we needed to do. I think we did good preparation, the rounds that we have are good – we scrimmed them. The rounds that we prepared specifically for them were — on a macro level — really good reads.
But when it came down to executing it, it just didn’t happen. Always something happened, like not right. And why? I don’t know. In my opinion, it just comes from each player himself.
Lee Jones: The first map was a struggle at the start, going 1-8 down.
But Heretics were able to pull it back to 10-8. What was the trigger for that comeback?
Boo: I think the big difference is that we woke up individually. The thing is on almost every timeout there was nothing to adjust macro-wise. On Haven, there was I think one of them and it was already close.
We got to the point of like:
“Okay, they’re worried, they’re going to change something so now we change something”. But up until then it was just like; “Guys wake up, guys wake up, start playing the game”.
So, yeah, I don’t remember the point where the change happened, but we just started fighting more because, yeah, it’s a shooter game, right? And we started getting some kills, started getting fired up.
Does it give you confidence then that it might only be a mental correction that could see Heretics back to their best, particularly if you’re comfortable that the macro play is already solid?
Boo: Yes, 100%. I think it’s been very similar on all three games we played this year with the slow starts. It’s not like after that we changed something strategically and suddenly started winning. It was all non-game-related stuff. And yeah, I think we’re prepared.
Our map pool is good. Our Abyss is 13-4, 13-2 or whatever, 13-1. But, we are so prepared on the map and ready to play it. We just have to do it. And if we don’t, any team here, they’re just gonna s**t on us.
Lee Jones: Now you’re playing the lower bracket final tomorrow.
How do you get ready for such a quick turnaround?
Boo: We’re gunna do our analysis as usual, like me and the coaches and analysts. For the players, they don’t worry about that – they just worry about our game.
We’re just going to do what we can today. And I think that’s actually the difference that we want to do this year, because last year we had a lot of those like BO3, BO5, BO5 – like in three days. And that’s where we prioritized rest over preparing because, I mean, there is almost no time.
What we’re going to try to do this year is, especially coaches, they will sacrifice rest because they don’t actually play the game, right? Me, it’s going to be like 50/50. I’m not going to go too hard. I still need to sleep, I still need to play the game. But we will prepare better in these specific situations that that is happening right now. That’s the difference which we hope is what helps us in BO5s.
Lee Jones: You’ve still only lost to Team Vitality — currently the best-performing EMEA team — but the expectations have obviously shifted a lot since this time last year.
How do you rate Heretics’ start to the season so far?
Boo: So far I would say our level is under what we want. Yeah, that is like public expectations, but it never mattered to us because, you know, public expectations last year were like: Heretics, 10th place. So, you know, we just focus on our own expectations. Of course we have them. We have our standards and I think so far we’re under them, we’re not reaching them consistently.
Some moments, maps, I don’t know, like streaks of rounds are there for sure and even above. But I would say if you combine everything, it’s below our standards so far – and if you’re talking about this game now, for sure. But I think it’s normal, it’s how we were always like. We’re always building up throughout the tournament. So it’s a little bit natural for us.
But we need to fix the starting point, the starting point needs to be higher. We cannot start games 1-8, it’s almost impossible to win. We managed to win against BBL – huge comeback. We almost managed Vitality. But it’s just starting the game with such a disadvantage, we have to avoid it. So in general, I’m not scared. Like you said, we did lose against a good team, but if we would have played like that against KOI, they would also win. It was quite bad.
Lee Jones: MiniBoo has said the goal is six titles.
Looking ahead, what are the general expectations for the season from your point of view?
Boo: Yeah, we have this dream in the team to get six titles, which is basically impossible. I mean, it’s possible theoretically; in reality it’s so hard to do. But, yeah, our goal is the same as last year. The big dream is to win everything, sure, but the real goal is to take each game game-by-game.
We can’t look at winning Kickoff without getting to the last game.
And the main goal is to always take these games as serious as possible, focus on it, prepare for it as much as you can and just go step-by-step because it’s just easier. It removes the pressure. It puts the focus where it should be. You don’t start thinking about the future too much. You don’t start thinking about like; “Oh my God, it’s seven games until winning. It’s so much, so many opponents.” You don’t overthink. You just focus on what’s going to win you the game. And that’s how we did last year. That’s our goal this year.
So yeah, public-wise, sure, things changed. For us team-wise, I wouldn’t say much changed – a little bit I would say.
