“It’s just hard for the fans to believe in us”: Lightningfast on expectations from Indian fans, Benkai as IGL, and VCT Pacific Stage 2 [Exclusive]

Abhirup "Lightningfast" Choudhury is one of the pillars of Global Esports, the sole representative of India at VCT Pacific Stage 2. The team recently went head-to-head with Team Secret and had an unfortunate loss. Global Esports has been a very active team in the region and has also gone through drastic roster changes over the years. Currently, the team is led by the former IGL of Paper Rex, Benkai.

After their match against Team Secret, I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Lightningfast. The player primarily sports controllers and found much success on Map 2-Ascent. However, the team’s momentum eventually began going downhill. Lightningfast shared his thoughts about the match and going forward in VCT Pacific Stage 2.

Lightningfast opens up about loss against Team Secret, Benkai's IGLing, and expectations from fans at VCT Pacific Stage 2

Q: Hello Lightningfast, I extend my condolences on the loss today. What are your initial thoughts about the matchup?

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Lightningfast: Our initial thought was, yeah, we could have won it. Like we didn’t, we thought it wouldn’t be so hard. The prep was good and yeah, just didn’t turn out the same way.

Q: On Map 1, Sunset, Global Esports did pick up the pace and gained momentum. Was there a specific strategy or player on Team Secret that put a stop to the momentum that became difficult to counter?

Lightningfast: Not really. The stop was because they had so many ultis and obviously when they have such a huge lead, it’s the game of Valorant where they can just stack up ulti and then bounce on us. That’s what broke us, which made us lose the momentum and the game.

Q: On Ascent, the start was much better, however, the defensive half went sideways. In the second last round, 2ge collected an unexpected frag on you. Was there a communication issue or something that made things difficult on the defensive end?

Lightningfast: There was no communication issue, it was just due to a lack of awareness a little bit from my side. Also, they just found the most insane timing they could ever find, and that is what cost us, cost me just not looking at them and they just killed me from behind... yeah, it’s just a timing thing there.

Q: Currently, Benkai is your IGL while previously he held the same position for Paper Rex. How has Global Esports sort of responded to his mindset and his strategy?

Lightningfast: Of course, like, this team is very different from Paper Rex and Ben has to change his calling a little bit and the calling is suited for us. Ben is not really the type of IGL who’d keep calling and things like that. He’s just more about finding the timings and finding the gaps of the opponents. Yeah, this is what Ben and the whole team are trying to achieve right now.

Q: The roster has changed a lot and you are an OG member while everyone is relatively new. Do you ever feel out of place or do you ever miss the old original roster that GE came up with?

Lightningfast: I mean I do, I do miss them, but obviously the level that we played on before is way different from the level we play now. Of course, I feel like if the old GE roster was in place of this roster, there would be a lot of difference. It would be even more difficult but of course, the vibes on the team can’t be matched in any other team.

That was just a whole different experience and a whole different feeling, but of course, this team is also really good and I don’t feel out of place because the people themselves are good.

But of course, having five Indian players compared to five international players like five different people from different countries had its benefits. It’s not really very common because it’s really hard to gel up but obviously, these people I’m playing with right now are really good and even personally every player in the team is really understanding and obviously, it just makes the team much better, and just feels good playing together.

It’s not really like I’m very out of place. Obviously, this is a more professional thing and we take it more professionally.

Q: You have a few more matches scheduled at VCT Pacific Stage 2. You are going to play against Bleed in very little time on June 23. How is the team dealing with the strategies for that specific opponent?

Lightningfast: To be honest I don’t really know. I’ll leave it up to coaches and my IGLs, and all I have to do is just play my own game, and that’s all I focus on and I don’t really know what the next prep is.

Q: Since GE is the only representative at VCT Pacific Stage 2 from India, there must be some pressure on the team from the community. How do you deal with it personally and as a team?

Lightningfast: Obviously, there are a lot of expectations from the people themselves, but it’s like I’m not quite sure what the people can expect. Obviously, for me, my expectation is just to be, like, better than Stage 1 and the small goals, like for example: Qualifying for playoffs. And for me, I don’t really think about the pressure from the Indian community. I feel like they already love me enough for me not to feel pressured.

Obviously (if) everyone would gang up on me it would feel really bad but I feel like everyone in the Indian community respects me and loves me and I love them back as well. So I don’t really feel any pressure. But at the same time, some people in the team do feel the pressure from the Indian community because of course there’s a lot of expectation.

For example, now that Gen.G has won (from) the Pacific League everyone expects us to be also better because the Pacific, in general, has become much better over the last few years.

But it’s just the thing that, we as a team are not able to deliver the same results the fans are expecting and it’s just hard to. It’s just hard for the fans to believe in us and this is how it’s gonna be. If you can win, the fans can believe and if you don’t win, obviously the fans have nothing to trust in us. So we just got to deliver for them to be more soft with us.

Q: What is your future vision for Global Esports? As one of the OG players, what is your future vision of this stage and for VCT Champions going forward?

Lightningfast: To be honest, every single individual has a different goal in their mind. For me, as a player from back in the days, like I’ve been playing in the Indian community for a while now, I feel like all I want is to take India to the international stage where I can represent India in a better, bigger way and show that India is not behind and we Global Esports as a team is not way behind. That is what I want to prove to the fans and prove it to myself, to some extent.

Edited by Jito Tenson