"This is the best team I've been on": TSM's Stephen "reltuC" Cutler reflects on Valorant First Strike NA run

After an impressive run through qualification to the finals of the NA First Strike Valorant tournament, TSM was defeated on Sunday by 100 Thieves in a 3-1 series, falling just short of the championship.

Although they lost, TSM still put up a strong fight and showed why they deserved to compete in the finals.

Sportskeeda sat down for an interview with Stephen "reltuC" Cutler, the in-game leader for TSM, to ask him what he was expecting coming into this match, what went wrong, and what his biggest takeaways from the tournament were.

Congratulations to TSM VALORANT on taking home 2nd place in the first #FirstStrike tournament. After an incredible year and winning 7 tournaments, you've still got so much to be proud of 👏. pic.twitter.com/dzCeMAHnTa

— TSM (@TSM) December 7, 2020

Q. What were you expecting from 100T coming into the First Strike finals match?

We expected a decent amount of anti-strategy like we knew coming in they would abuse the fact that we don't run a sentinel. I know that Steel is a really good IGL, so I knew he understood that throwing fakes or causing us to rotate would benefit them.

I tried to explain to my team that this is what they were going to do, and we did a decent job on some rounds. But some rounds we got caught off guard still. But yeah, that is what I expected.

---

Q. What would having a sentinel have changed in this match?

Sentinels give this security of having certain areas watched without having an actual person watching. So when I sat in mid, Cypher will trip mid which lets you play like two B and three A, or something like that.

You know, on offense he can watch your flanks with his trips and stuff. It lets you not have to clear a lot of different angles when you are trying to rotate back to a site.

---

Q. Why didn't you play one sentinel?

I think the composition we play now just benefits our playing styles as players. Subroza and Drone are really good Duelists, then Matt Opping on Jett is the best Opping character, and then you need someone to gather info, so I play Sova or Sky.

So we just played in our minds the five best agents in the game and we just went with it. Since we come from this Counter-Strike background, we never had the ability to watch our flanks, so it's just what we went back to.

---

Q. What were some unique challenges you faced as an in-game leader against 100 Thieves today?

I knew that we couldn't do all the same stuff that we usually do because I know they watch footage of us. So I came up with a game plan where we try to fake what we usually do, or trying to make it seem like we were doing it while doing something else.

It's kind of hard to do without actually practicing it. Me and Taylor, the coach, sat down and prepared all last night, but not being able to scrim with the strats and see what the holes would be, it’s just kind of hard to do.

---

Q. So your strategies were functionally untested coming in?

Yeah, because they are going to react a different way. Sometimes we haven’t seen how teams will respond when we do these things, so it’s hard on the fly.

Q. 100T pulled off some impressive plays, one of the most impressive players was 17-year-old Asuna. How do you effectively play around a dangerous threat like Asuna?

We have been playing against Asuna since the beginning because he was on Immortals. So we know how he plays. I would say he is one of the more aggressive duelists we play against, but they all have tendencies. Pretty much, you want to make them feel as uncomfortable as possible when they are going to take a fight.

Q. Y’all came over from CS: GO together, are you happy with the synergy and dynamic of your team so far?

We have a lot of respect for each other and our roles. This is the best team I have been on. I played with everyone on this team on CLG in CS: GO, except for Drone and Wardell, I played with all these guys. I know all their personalities.

We already have a lot of the chemistry that you would build with a new team. We understand everyone’s playstyle, and you don’t have to communicate on certain things because you know that the other person is already doing that.

Q. What is your big takeaway from the First Strike?

What I will take away from this tournament is that it’s kind of lame that there was no losers bracket after playing a full month of qualifiers. You have one bad day, and you get knocked out.

But as a team, we know that when we face any team and we lose, it’s usually always that we beat ourselves, whether it be comms or not playing a situation the right way. That will be something we review from the footage later on this week. So that’s good to feel that you are beating yourselves, no one is better than you, you are just defeating yourself, really.