Derke: “I was a bit of an annoying guy to push people… especially this week, it kind of worked in a good way” – VCT EMEA Stage 2

Team Vitality’s superteam project is in a new phase with the additions of kovaQ and new IGL UNFAKE. While their VCT EMEA Stage 2 campaign started with a loss to GIANTX, the French side quickly got back on track with a dominant win against FUT Esports. After the victory, Hotspawn spoke to Vitality star Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev for an interview.

Hotspawn: It was pretty much a perfect series against FUT today.

What is your reaction to the series?

Derke: I mean, it’s happy to win because I think we grinded for over a month maybe already to get good results, and, you know, not do dumb stuff. But then against GIANTX, it was both good and bad. I think they’re good right now, but also we had really bad and dumb mistakes, and then we played on the map bad.

But it was a good learning lesson, even though we don’t want to lose the GIANTX because, it’s like, we need to get every single win we possibly can. But yeah, after you lose a game like that, you already know you have, what, four more to go, and you just need to do as much as you can.

So we started focusing on FUT. We started practicing even harder, even though [the] last two weeks before GIANTX I pushed people to kind of like: “Oh, ranked, ranked, ranked” or “do this” or “this is [a] dumb mistake”.

“Don’t do this” or “do this” or “good job guys” or “this is bad”.

I was a bit of an annoying guy just to push people. And I think especially this week, it kind of worked in a good way where we actually learned to do those things. Especially after [the] last official — nobody wants the same taste in their mouths. And then we went against Futbolist and we actually played like we played in practice, it was really fun.

UNFAKE was clowned on a bit last week for saying he was going to be a fragging IGL, before the series against GIANTX was ultimately disappointing for Vitality. That said, today he was fragging and ended 27/12.

What have you made of your new IGL?

He’s a super chill guy, probably too chill. Let’s say if I had Boaster before, it was a mixture of chill and also, you know, be a bit in your face if you keep doing bad stuff. Then I had Sayf [who] was a bit more demanding, but also very nice if you do those things.

But now UNFAKE is like totally opposite, where he’s super chill. He’s not really pushing people too much. He’s just calling game, trying to do stuff. So we might need to work on and that’s what I thought, maybe I need to take words of guys like: “Oh, here and there, we need to do better”, you know.

But I think [he] is a super chill guy. I don’t think he cares much about fragging IGL and stuff. He just plays the game. I think he might have said that for fun because he is used to doing good in practice too. So maybe he felt just confident. I think today was good, showing that he can actually do it, you know, and he played really well today too.

What are your thoughts on kovaQ?

KovaQ is a good kid, shoots insanely well. I think with him, you need to guide him, because a lot of things he got away with in tier two — like over-peeks or taking unnecessary fights and stuff — I feel like he still had those bad habits. Whereas he didn’t really play tier one where it’s like, because of your bad habit, you might lose the round. You cannot really allow those much because the game can snowball really easily. So for him, it’s learning a process on how to adapt in the scene and stuff.

Today he did well. Against GIANTX, it was a bit off and on. And I think in practice, I kind of tried to push him. Like: “Oh, these scenarios are actually played like this and it’s going to be way better for you”. And then he kind of picks it up and feels like: “Oh, this is better”. He might not say it, but it feels like he just picks it up instantly. So I think in a way, the loss was also good for him to realize here you don’t get away with being overconfident and stuff. You just need to be smart.

With the roster changes now, it feels a long time since people were talking about the ‘Team Vitality Superteam’.

What do you think about the change in atmosphere?

For me, there’s actually more pressure. I really wanna make Champs, it’s an ultimate goal. Of course after trexx’s departure or whatever, already we kind of felt, in some ways, fragging-wise and stuff like that, it’s a bit lacking. We had Clém (CyvOph) coming in and trying his best, and I think he learned a lot.

But then we just had to search for other options, especially when we heard Sayf — he’s leaving because of his personal reasons. You just have to respect those kind of reasons. And then you just need to look forward into like: “Oh, what’s happening”.

“We need an IGL.”

“We might need to actually care about consistency with the roles because we don’t have five super good players anymore where we can just adapt on the fly, pick whatever we want and just have fun with it.”

We need to have a different approach, different structure. So now we’ve got kovaQ and UNFAKE, and even though it’s not the superteam, we’re trying to build structure. We have me and Less, we can actually frag out. We have experience, we can show things or just share the experience. We just need to actually be structured, do these things, because right now in Stage 2, a lot of teams will quiet down a bit. Maybe they don’t have much energy left. And we’re here to push if we actually want to make it to Champs.

I’m not going to say it’s someone’s better or worse than anyone. It’s just a different team basically. Sometimes they just have to wake up and realise that, yeah, things are not going to be the same, you’re not playing with the same people anymore. You just have to adapt and see what works for you.

Yesterday, I spoke to Boo about the large number of roster changes throughout the league ahead of Stage 2, and how that could make it difficult to prep opponents and have an idea of their strength.

How do you evaluate VCT EMEA Stage 2 and Group Alpha at the moment?

It’s a strong one. I think I kind of agree. And I will add to that, that in my experience, yes, teams can make changes mid-season and they can look better on paper, and they might look better for one match. But what happens after two or three matches when you’re actually going to get people reviewing how you play and stuff?

And that’s, in my opinion, where experienced players actually shine — when they understand what they can do, what they cannot. Do reads on opponents, also understand that sometimes they might have reviewed me, so I need to [do] a little bit [of] change and just keep those things in mind.

Because if they play against Heretics or Fnatic, whose core stayed for the longest, they’re probably going to get punished really hard after week 3 or 4, because they will just have more preparation. [The] first weeks might be hard, but I do think experienced teams might go on top again.

For us, I honestly don’t know because, of course, me and Less are the only ones who played a lot of internationals now. In that squad comes Kicks who already played a couple, so just needs to see how he will feel it out. But I think it just comes to practice, and I think me and Less already stepped up after these changes and I already we realized we need to step up even harder. Because, after a couple of weeks, stuff is actually going to get harder and especially in playoffs.

So we kind of need to share experience — really teach people and people need to be taught. They need to actually pay attention to it, otherwise you’re going to have another learning lesson in a VOD review after a lost match. And it’s always the one that sucks the most.