Less: “Everyone said it’s a big step… You’re going alone to a team, speaking [a] different language, different culture. But to be honest, I really wanted to win Champs”

Team Vitality’s struggles have continued in VCT EMEA Stage 2, facing the reality of an early exit which would’ve prevented VALORANT Champions qualification should they have failed to beat the already-relegated Gentle Mates. Though they did so in a nervy fashion, Vitality did ultimately manage a slim 2-1 victory to stay in contention, though their playoffs place now depends on BBL beating FUT in the last day of groups. After the win against M8, Hotspawn spoke to Vitality superstar Felipe “Less” Basso for an interview.

Hotspawn: You’ve beaten Gentle Mates today, so now it’s a wait for BBL vs FUT tomorrow.

Is there some relief at having done your part today?

Less: To be honest, it’s not really. Of course we’re going to feel good now because we have the victory, right? But tomorrow we [will] feel bad again because we need luck, and now we need some results to make playoffs because we lost a lot of games. So it’s our it’s our fault. We didn’t have a good start and we lost some really bad games that we should win.

To be honest, the group was not so hard. I think this group was really good to us — make playoffs easily and make seed one, seed two. But we lost the first game, and then we lost to BBL. So of course we are happy now that we won and we beat Gentle Mates, but [at] the same time it’s not a true happiness, you know?

What do you feel has been the issue for Vitality in Stage 2?

To be honest, I think we were not in a good level. I’m kind of [an] experienced player, right? I played for 3 years. And to be honest, our level was really low in the start. We played against GIANTX that, yes, they are having a good tournament, but we saw against Heretics now that they got stomped. So GIANTX doesn’t have a really high level now — not to beat the best teams in EMEA like Fnatic or Heretics — and we lost to them after this.

We beat FUT in a really good game, then basically we were no more [at a] high level in that situation. We went against Heretics, we got stomped 2-0, and then we went against BBL when we lost again.

So to be honest, we were not showing a good level of VALORANT in this group stage. We beat Gentle Mates, and with this, we have more time to improve, be better as a team. So I hope that BBL wins tomorrow to give us time to improve.

Speaking of your experience, you’re a veteran player now at this level, but welcomed in two rookies for Stage 2 who are both older than you — UNFAKE considerably older.

How did you find that dynamic?

We were joking a little bit about it, we were not saying ‘experience’, we were saying ‘life experience’ sometimes. Because yeah, I have more experience than UNFAKE and KovaQ, but both are older than me.

To be honest, [it] works a little bit the same as it would if they were younger than me. They respect me a lot, they listen to everything that I say. If I say something in the game, they try to follow, they try to watch VOD reviews with me most of the time. Like, yeah, they are older than me with life age, but in the game they still respect me a lot and they let me do the job that I should do as an experienced guy, you know?

Despite your experience, you’re still only 20 years old and won Champs in your first year in tier one.

How do you evaluate your career so far and those immediate achievements?

I don’t think so much about this because, to be honest, I don’t care so much. I think that I had problems with this in the start, because I literally went to my first professional team and I was in an international final in Reykjavík. So to be honest, I didn’t have so many problems getting to the top.

So now that I’m having problems, it’s kind of sad because I know the feeling. Maybe I know some steps that we should take to be in the next level, but I cannot [take them]. Sometimes I don’t have space to do [them], sometimes maybe we’re not in the moment to do these steps, so it’s kinda hard.

But to be honest, I’m happy that this happened in my career because I have more time compared to some players that are starting older, and if they don’t win in the next years, they will be kind of sad.

I have more time because I already won. I went to a lot of internationals and [got] a lot of experience and [have] a lot of time. If I take care of myself, I think I can play for 10 more years.

Moving to EMEA must’ve been a significant change for you.

How have you found it moving to Berlin? Have you been able to spend time with Saadhak since he moved at the same time?

To be honest, with Saadhak, we didn’t spend so much time together. We are close to each other, the same city, but at the same time, he has a lot of things to do with his team, his wife. And I had a lot of things to do with my team, so it was not so easy to meet each other.

But how is being [in] a different country? It’s not so easy to be honest. Everyone said it’s a big step, you know that you’re doing. You’re going alone to a team, speaking [a] different language, different culture. But to be honest, I really wanted to win Champions, and I was seeing that with that project we could. And we still can, right? The year didn’t end yet.

For me, it’s mainly about the game, you know. My life is the game. So if I’m: “Okay, I’m in Berlin. It’s not the same as LA or Brazil, but if I win 3 games, I don’t care”. You know? I’m happy because for me it’s more about if I’m winning or losing tournaments.

So yeah, I think Berlin is not the best city. Like about food, for example. I didn’t like the food here so much. Now it’s summer so it’s easier, but it was hard before, really cold here. So yeah, my adaptation was not fast. It was kind of slow. But I’m still having this experience that is really important to my life in general.

What in-game differences have you noticed between the Americas and EMEA?

For me, the biggest difference is [that] here the people are more aggressive. VCT Americas lead a little bit with strategy. The game in VCT Americas was kind of ‘LOUD in 2023’, right? Because we won, we stomped everyone in the first split and then we went to the Champions, we took top three. We were a team with more strategy than aim, and everyone was following this.

EMEA went to a completely different way. They are so aggressive, double duelist most of the maps. If it’s not double duelist, it’s Chamber. Aggressive game style, not so much macro, not so much rotations, it’s more about aim. And the teams that have more aim are shining in this moment, like Heretics, Fnatic, Liquid. So yeah, it’s different, the style, basically.