By beating FURIA in the quarter-finals Vitality have broken an unwanted streak, ending a run of four events in a row where they failed to reach the top four. The downturn in results has been reversed despite playing with a stand-in, Vitality growing game-by-game with Justinas “jL” Lekavicius amongst their number.
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Vitality recover from Nuke drubbing to make BLAST Porto semi-final
“Honestly I saw it in a good way,” Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam said of jL coming into the team. “I think also for the team, to have someone new[…] with jL we have an experienced player. We want to be in playoffs, we want to give our best, also with our schedule at BLAST we had time to practice a little bit, with the day off.”
Despite posting an already-impressive result, XTQZZZ does not see going this far with a stand-in as an achievement just yet. “For me right now, it’s not an achievement. If we are in the final, maybe you can consider it a bit differently.”
In an interview with HLTV following his team’s quarter-final bout, Vitality’s coach also gave his assessment on the victory over FURIA, provided insight into his approach to integrating jL into the team, and his thoughts on their struggles on the T side of Nuke.
You can listen to the interview here.
How did that series go in your eyes?
Well, the first map we got destroyed. They played really aggressive, they understood how we wanted to play. We tried to adapt but we did some mistakes on what we wanted to do.
On Cache we lost both pistols, but I think our CT side was pretty good. On T side we had good opportunities, let’s be honest, with the pistol, the second round. We also had one or two rounds where we were in between, we were not in sync, and that’s unfortunate. It was the main reason why it was really close.
On Dust2, finally on T side we understood each other, we played pretty well. I don’t know, they played pretty aggressive once again on CT but we were more… I would say more aware.
I wanted to ask about Nuke, because it feels like the T sides have been a bit of a problem for you lately. What issues do you see on the T-side of that map?
You mean the T side since Legacy? Because before it was okay.
I know we can struggle on T side, we focus on it and we can bounce back
Yeah.
I don’t know, I think both times we went too fast. We didn’t have time to have, honestly, a mid-round. The T side was really fast, like seven to eight rounds, so we need to talk about it tonight or tomorrow, it depends on our schedule, but I’m not worried. I know we sometimes can struggle on T side, we focus on it and we can bounce back after
I wanted to ask, from a coach’s point of view, how much work do you put in to try and incorporate jL into the team, and how much do you let him do his own thing?
At the beginning we wanted him to give some thoughts, some ideas, he would like to play in his position, mainly on CT. On T side we are trying to help him a lot to remember strats, checking utility to be honest, because there are a lot of things to do when you have the mezii role, you can understand how it can be difficult.
Of course it’s a bit different how he wants to play after the situation, but it’s not easy for him. Sometimes he is really frustrated because he did one mistake and it was tough for him to reset, so we try to help him as much as we can.
W have been really focused on a good mindset, playing better as a team
In general this is a deep run for Vitality to make considering you have a stand-in. How does it rate as an achievement to get this far with a stand-in?
Honestly nothing, because… if we win, why not, it’s a good achievement, but we have been struggling lately, so we have been really focused on a good mindset, playing better as a team, finding some solutions etc. So we are more like that, and also focused on the VRS, because lately it’s a bit harder for us. For me right now, it’s not an achievement. If we are in the final, maybe you can consider it a bit differently.
Like you say, Vitality had been struggling before this event. I think a lot of people from the outside would have said it was a terrible time to be trying to play with a stand-in, but does it freshen something up in the team? Allow you to maybe let go a little bit of some of the problems you have been having before?
Honestly I saw it in a good way, in my opinion. I think also for the team, to have someone new. Now for us it’s not terrible, we are… even with jL we have an experienced player. We want to be in playoffs, we want to give our best, also with our schedule at BLAST we had time to practice a little bit, with the day off. If it was a different tournament, maybe my mindset is different, but no, we were really happy to have something new. So no problem.
