“We've always been quite like neck and neck with Gambit”: Soulcas on Team Liquid's defeat to Gambit at Valorant Champions Tour 2022 EMEA Challengers

Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers 1 kicked off with the match between Team Liquid and Gambit Esports on February 11.

Valorant Champions Tour 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers 1 will decide the top three teams from the region who will qualify for the first Valorant Masters tournament of the year. Thus, with EMEA being one of the dominant regions in last year’s Champions, the competitive standards have been set high.

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Team Liquid and Gambit Esports are both invitational teams to the Valorant tournament, who are seeded to Group A. Both the teams fought against each other, but Team Liquid lost the series to Gambit at a 2-0 scoreline. They lost the first map, Icebox with a 9-13 score.

Later in the second map, Breeze Team Liquid initially dominated the first defense half. But soon after the sides switched, the team lost some crucial rounds to Gambit Esports, by putting them in the lead.

Team Liquid's Valorant pro Soulcas opens up about their match against Gambit Esports and their goals for VCT 2022

After their match against Gambit Esports on the inaugural day of the Valorant Champions Tour2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers 1 tournament, Pratiti Dhang of Sportskeeda Esports talked to team Liquid’s Valorant professional player, Dom “soulcas” Soulcas about the match and their goals for Valorant Champions Tour 2022.

Here’s what he said.

Q: Team Liquid lost a series against Gambit Esports today at a 2-0 scoreline in the inaugural match of the Valorant Champions Tour 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers 1. What do you think went wrong for the team to lose today?

TL Soulcas: I think we were like kind of rusty, going back into our first official because we weren't like losing or being comfortable. So I think that was the main factor.

You can kind of just feel it while playing, and I think sometimes it may happen to some teams when they come back from a long break of playing officials.

So I think once we watch back we kind of know like the obvious mistakes that we did, and we should be a lot better for the next games.

Q: Team Liquid was ahead with 7-5 in the first half of the second map, Breeze. However, later in the second half, the team lost some lost crucial rounds to Gambit Esports.

TL Soulcas: I think we were just a bit too slow to adapt because we identified it, but we never made a plan or fully execute the plan that we wanted to do, like how to adapt to their places and how they're playing the map.

So yeah, we think we're a bit too slow. I think we weren't as loose and taking too much ground, so we kind of just let them play the game rather than us controlling the game and I think that was the main issue for the T-side.

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Q: The last time you guys face Gambit Esports was in last year, Valorant Champions Tour 2021 Stage 3 Challengers when you guys lost. So comparing your encounter with them back then and now, what are the major differences you spotted out they have brought to the team?

TL Soulcas: So we've always been quite like neck and neck with Gambit, especially in scrims. I think we used to scrim them the most, but we haven't scrimmed them too much recently.

But we've always been pretty good screaming partners. We've always had close games. We knew how strong they were, but obviously, we didn't know what to expect from them with this long break because they could have made changes and stuff, especially having that on stage.

I don't think anyone really expected that, and I feel like they were just as strong, but I think we lost more because of how we played rather than how well they played. They added in new strategies and new ideas which definitely caught us off guard.

But I think we were the team that made way more mistakes and they capitalized on that.

Q: In today's match, Jamppi was seen playing Chamber in Icebox, which is the first time ever in an official Valorant Champions Tour tournament. How do you think this new agent composition work out for Team Liquid?

TL Soulcas: We know that Jamppi is like a great Operator player. It's like he's super consistent and before we try out him on Chamber. After the first few days we saw how well he was performing. He is super consistent in scrims on Chamber.

I think maybe it was just an overall like today. Like, he wasn't able to shine as much because obviously like how strong of a team Gambit is and it’s kind of hard to punish them.

He wasn't able to show his true form on Chamber but I think Chamber is like a really strong open agent so we would put that on Jamppi because of the alarm button and TP. It's very hard to play against so we'll try out and it's working out pretty well so we stuck with it.

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Q: What are the things that you look forward to or you have set your goals for this Valorant Champions Tour 2022 season?

TL Soulcas: For me, it's to qualify to like every offline event and also make it to the Valorant Champions and do a lot and go much further than we did last year in Champions. That's my overall goal for VCT.

I'm pretty sure it will be the same. Like I want atleast to get into the finals but I think once we get to the finals I'll be very confident to take the whole thing but we have to take each step of the tournament day by day of the first Masters. We want to make sure that we qualify and do very well.

Q: Which teams do you consider to be top rivals in Valorant esports from the EMEA region?

TL Soulcas: I think it would be Gambit Esports and Acend because obviously, we lost to Acend in the Valorant Champions tournament and Gambit because of the match before, also how we're kind of like floating around like the top three right now. So I think those two teams are like our biggest rivals right now.