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The TEC Arena in Bangalore was host to thousands of gaming enthusiasts over the course of three days, featuring tournaments for major esports titles such as Valorant, FIFA 22, Mortal Kombat 11, and more.
While the TEC Challenger Series 8 was the highlight of the event, the TEC Arena also opened up several other avenues for gamers to compete. One such event was the TEC Valorant Community Cup, an offline community tournament which presented an opportunity for Valorant enthusiasts in Bangalore to compete amongst themselves.
Marzil, a professional Valorant player who represents Lethal Esports in India, was among hundreds of gamers who competed in the TEC Valorant Community Cup. After three days of exciting matchups, Marzil's team managed to see gold at the tournament, claiming their share from a grand prize pool of 1,50,000 INR.
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Marzil talks about his victory at The Esports Club's Valorant Community Cup
In a conversation with Adarsh J Kumar of Sportskeeda Esports at the TEC Arena, Agneya "Marzil" Koushik talked about his triumph at the TEC Valorant Community Cup. He also shared his thoughts on Valorant franchising, his ever-growing Agent pool, and Lethal Esports' progress in Valorant esports, among other topics.
Q: Congratulations on winning the TEC Valorant Community cup here at the TEC Arena. Tell us a bit about your team and your road to victory.
Marzil: So, my team consisted of me, Anil "LuciA" Kumar (Lethal Esports), Kiran "Rossi" R, a friend of ours called Vineeth who goes by the name, Monsterz, and Khelthuzad. The five of us were friends and were from Bangalore, so we just decided to play. After all, it is a community cup.
We wanted to win, but we didn't have any try-hard elements to it. We just came in, we played, and it's for the community, right? So, we just had fun and we just tried to play whatever we could. No real strategy in mind. We just picked whatever Agents we were comfortable with and just rolled with it.
Q: You are one of the most experienced Valorant players in India. How do you plan on using your experience to guide Lethal Esports to a successful campaign in the near future?
Marzil: Initially, when we started, I knew it was going to be a little hard because I came with some players who were not very new to the scene, but have a lot of potential. So, it was always going to be a very hard and rocky road. But my plan still remains the same, to give them as much experience as possible, and to give them the space to grow, which is what most promising up-and-coming players need.
They need to feel the same pressure that we feel when we play at those officials. They need to get a feel of that so that when you're more accustomed to a certain experience, you're programmed to do better for the future.
Q: You have been seen playing a variety of Agents with VLT, mostly switching between the Duelist and Sentinel role. What prompted you to switch to Initiators and a primary Operator role in Lethal Esports?
Marzil: Initially in VLT, I was a Duelist because that was what they required. I've always been the kind of person who would fill the role that was needed for the team, even in previous games like Counter Strike.
If they needed a Sentinel for the team, I would step up and say I can play that role as well. In Lethal, I know I have players who can play Duelist, so I'm more of a support player. I can play more of the Initiator, and sometimes, I play Controller as well.
It's not like I'm proficient in anything, and the reason I'm playing these roles is to make sure that the rest of my team is comfortable with whatever Agent they are good at. I just try to facilitate that and make that possible.
Q: Chamber is an Agent that you picked up quite frequently over the last couple of months. What are your thoughts on the nerfs that Chamber was subjected to in the recent Patch 5.03?
Marzil: It's not the Agent that requires the nerf, I believe. It's any Agent who is strong with the Operator right now that is being nerfed. Initially, it was Jett who was nerfed because her Operator was so strong. Right now, it's Chamber because with your TPs, you still fulfill the same role that Jett required with the Operator.
Every change that has been made to both these Agents, for instance, reducing the size of Chamber's TP to make sure that the slow division is lowered, is to make sure that if he does have the Operator, he is not as useful as he was before. It gives other Sentinels a good chance to play a role in the team, which is good. I think it's a good idea to make sure that all Agents are viable. The only issue is that this is because of a gun. You shouldn't have a monopoly on a weapon.
I hope that the gun is looked at more specifically in future patches, because you need to make sure that every Agent has the potential to use the Operator, but isn't as overpowered in such a way that you have to have an Operator on a team to win. There has to be different ways to approach the game to win.
Q: As you know, Valorant has plans for franchising next year. Many teams from North America, in particular, have already pulled out of the Valorant scene before Riot announced their plans. Do you think franchising will affect India's esports scene in a similar way?
Marzil: I don't think franchising will affect the South Asian scene as much as NA and EU. Both NA and EU don't have the same number of third-party tournaments that India and South Asia do. We have so many tournaments that, regardless of whether we get a franchise slot or not, we'll still have tournaments and we'll still have teams that will be playing.
The reason why organizations from North America were pulling out if they didn't get a franchise slot is because they had no other reason to keep paying the players to play when there will be no tournaments to happen. Here, we'll always have tournaments from Skyesports, TEC, Penta Esports, Villager Esports, and so many TOs that can host tournaments.
Even if they're for a relatively low prize pool, we still have tournaments that will happen and still give players a reason to keep playing and for teams to still be on-board until the opportunity for the next franchise slot comes to the region. Until then, we have to make sure that we meet the requirements to get to that franchise position.
