Team Liquid’s steady growth through 2025 saw them finally claim a title as they won VCT EMEA Stage 2, booking a VALORANT Champions spot as their region’s first seed. But two losses to DRX have seen them eliminated in Paris after just a handful of matches. After his side was knocked out of the event, Hotspawn spoke to TL coach Ivo “LohaN” Albino for an interview.
Hotspawn: Today’s loss unfortunately cemented elimination from Champs.
What are your immediate thoughts on the series?
LohaN: Honestly, I think I need to take a bit of responsibility here. I don’t think I could find solutions for the way they were approaching T-side, mostly. It was very hard to adjust to their compositions. Even though throughout the week we’ve been trying to scratch our heads and understand exactly what we should have been doing against them.
I think the comms are good, the energy was good, the mental was good inside of the server. In terms of fundamentals, it felt that we were playing quite good. But yeah, I think it was just fully strategical, honestly.
Hotspawn: NAt’s Waylay pick was obviously very surprising.
What was the thinking behind Waylay, and for nAts specifically?
LohaN: We’ve tested this in the past, even in Stage 2. I think Ayaz (nAts), he’s very good at chaotic situations, and I had this idea, I know it’s a bit of a crazy idea, but we tested [it]. I really liked it.
And the Corrode pick is: okay, we wanted to play a bit more aggressive as well on defence. We wanted to play a bit- not just play their game, we wanted to set the tempo for the game. On attack, I think it worked quite well. On defence, I think again we struggled to find the solutions. They just played really well, honestly.
The main reason for it to be Ayaz on the Waylay: we tested it, and I think usually it’s a Keiko that goes on the second duelist, but he’s been doing a quite good job on Omen and he can still dive with it. So we thought, okay, let’s have like a triple dive approach for the map. That was the main reasons.
Hotspawn: How did you manage to keep it under wraps?
Did you only practise it against your academy roster?
LohaN: Yeah, we actually used the academy yesterday.
The thing is, after the finals in EMEA, we had two days off and since then we didn’t have a single day off until today, which is unfortunate as well. Yesterday we have to practise because, again, we’re playing against these different comps that we don’t have a lot of reps in. So I think as well, always being a bit more tired than usual didn’t, didn’t help.
But yeah, yesterday we ran a lot of reps against this comp against academy and tried to figure out how we could adjust. I think some of it worked, obviously, as you can see with the result, some other things didn’t work.
Hotspawn: In an interview with Pedro Romero you mentioned mentality issues and your desire for the players to show more courage against DRX. You said in the press conference that that courage was there today.
How proud are you of your players’ mental despite facing elimination from VALORANT Champions?
LohaN: I’m happy with their resilience, with their mindset inside of the game, honestly. With the first game of Champions, yes, I was super frustrated because it really felt like we were just not in the server whatsoever. And even the first map against EDG as well, it was again the same feeling I was having.
Today, honestly, I had an amazing feeling at the start of the day. I think the boys were hyped, the energy was good, and unfortunately it just didn’t pan out. I’m still proud of the journey that we’ve done this year, but today it was just not the day for us and we just need to accept it. It’s part of esports.
On that journey, you’ve of course had an incredible first year coaching in VCT, winning a regional title and attending all international events.
How do you reflect on 2025 personally?
LohaN: Obviously on a personal level, I’m happy. It was my first year in VCT, I think I did a good job with the team. I’ve learned a lot, especially with learning with the people instead of the players — I think that was the biggest growth I had to do as a coach. And I think my assistant coach, Daniel [yaotziN.] as well, he did an amazing job. He also came from tier two.
And for us, it’s been a big learning experience. And I’m quite sure with the experience that we have this year, for next year, it’s going to pan out differently, I’m quite confident.
Hotspawn: You came into Champs as EMEA’s first seed, compared to being a second seed at Bangkok and third seed in Toronto.
Did you feel a difference in that regard ahead of this event?
LohaN: It was quite different from the rest of the internationals, honestly. Our first international, we lacked experience. We knew we were underdogs, we knew we weren’t the favourites, so we enjoyed it a lot there.
Then the second international in Toronto, obviously we didn’t have Ayaz for the first game, which was a different mindset that we had to approach because we knew that we were handicapped. So we knew we didn’t have that much pressure and we enjoyed [it] a lot.
For this one, I think from the start of this Stage 2, we had quite a few issues trying to understand what our identity is, what the system is that we want to play with. And I think this was one of the things that affected us the most coming into Champions. I think we’ve lacked understanding of what our strengths are, what type of game we want to play.
In EMEA it worked, and obviously we have our own merits to it, but I think it was also down to our opponents in EMEA not being in the best shape. And we knew that we were not coming to Champions at our ceiling, because I think we won EMEA at our bottom, honestly.
Of course, this exact roster wouldn’t have been possible at the start of the year, given that trexx was on Team Vitality.
But if you could have started 2025 with this lineup, do you think results would have been even better?
LohaN: Yeah, I would say so. Obviously it’s a completely different system that we need to play around trexx. He’s a very knowledgeable player. He’s very methodical, he likes to play very ‘1+1=2′, you know. And throughout the year, we’ve always been very disruptive, playing around our playstyle.
When we brought Nikita in, we tried to try to balance our playstyle a bit more, and I think this is where I specifically failed the most in Stage 2: trying to understand how we can optimise the system in a way that, when we get to Champions, we’re at our ceiling. And I don’t think I was able to achieve that, honestly.
Hotspawn: What are your personal hopes for next year?
LohaN: Honestly, for next year, the goals are going to be to again qualify for every international, dominate domestically, and win one international event at least. That’s my goal.
Obviously, I’m happy about this year, but I’ll always want to aim for the stars. I want to be a world champion. On an individual level, that’s my goal.
