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The VCT Americas League continues to progress with 10 partnered teams across the region showcasing their best performances at the regional tournament. Week two of the event has featured some great games so far, with the first game featuring LOUD taking on Cloud9. While the latter failed to secure victory, the North American team put up a pretty strong performance against the Brazilian giants.
Members of the roster had a few words to share with their fans after the intense game, as the matchup went full-length in the best-of-three series. The VCT Americas League will feature more such matchups, as the teams are just starting off.
Xeppaa from Cloud9 on facing LOUD and more at VCT Americas League
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American Erick "Xeppaa" Bach is a professional Valorant player who plays for Cloud9. Prior to pursuing Riot Games' hero-shooter, the player made his mark on competitive CS:GO.
In an interview with Kushal Bhattacharyya of Sportskeeda, Xeppaa was asked about his thoughts on the Cloud9 vs LOUD match in the VCT Americas League.
Q: What were your expectations when taking on LOUD at the VCT Americas League, considering they came up second at the recent LOCK//IN event in Brazil?
Xeppaa: Our expectations against any team, no matter who they are, are always to win, of course. With LOUD, we knew the game would be hard and nothing easy. But our expectations were to win.
Q: What was your secret behind defeating LOUD on their own map pick, especially with Gekko in the play, and how did that momentum slow down on the other two maps?
Xeppaa: In Split, we had an idea about their comp, as they played last week. At the end of the day, we were playing our own game. It's a map that they haven't seen from us. We knew that they were probably not going to be super ready for our comp and the way we wanted to play things.
It was good. We definitely won the map. Us winning the map against LOUD, arguably one of the best teams in the world, gave us good momentum to play the second and third maps.
Q: What are your opinions on the energy that Loud's Gekko and Skye brought to Split?
Xeppaa: Personally, I didn't feel too much with Gekko and Skye. I can't speak for my team, but for me, it was either Gekko or Skye when it came to using flashes. We were kind of prepared to play against them because we knew what their comp was. At the end of the day, we pulled through with a win. We kind of expected it.
Q: So far in the Americas League, we have seen some really promising performances from Cloud9. What do you think sets C9 apart from the other teams here in the tournament?
Xeppaa: I think we are underdogs. We are probably the only team to go through changes after Brazil. So, I guess a lot of teams might underestimate us. We have that, so as the weeks go on, hopefully, we can pull more wins.
Q: After seeing how teams have been playing so far in the VCT Americas League, what do you think about the current level of competition in the Americas when compared to EMEA or Pacific?
Xeppaa: I don't watch too much Pacific, but I hear EMEA has a couple of teams who aren't really competing. I think for sure that every team in the VCT Americas League is a good team. Every team has a chance of beating each other. I think it's really competitive here in this league.
Q: You will be facing 100 Thieves next week in the VCT Americas League. They are a strong team who had a good showing in the off-season and at LOCK IN. What are your thoughts on that matchup?
Xeppaa: We lost to them at the Red Bull tournament a couple of months ago. We are excited to play against them, with two new teammates of ours who haven't played against them. It's a fresh start for us, so I'm excited to play against them.
Q: Which team are you looking forward to competing against at the upcoming VCT Americas League playoffs?
Xeppaa: Loud. At the end of the day, you have to play against the best to be the best to win anyways. We will have to play the best teams when the playoffs come, and it doesn't matter if it's the first, second, or third round. You have to win to qualify anyway.
Q: Bind will be returning in the next Act and replacing Icebox. Are you happy with the change? Is there any other map that you would rather see Bind replace?
Xeppaa: I'm excited; Icebox is a little iffy in general due to how consistently the map is played. I don’t think I personally liked Bind; I would prefer Icebox a little more. But my teammates and coach have a really good understanding of Bind already before they took it off. So I'm excited that we are hopefully going to do good on Bind.
