VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo: Interview after the victory over Team Secret

Following NAVI VALORANT victory over Team Secret in the second round of the Omega Group VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, a press conference was held. The players answered journalists' questions about the match against Team Secret, expectations for the next opponent, and the out-of-the-box picks of the NAVI captain's agents.

I brought this up with Team Secret — one of the big stats coming out of this game was the 27 first kills for you guys to their 11. JessieVash attributed that to just being kinda bullied by cNed in some of those rounds. So I’d like to ask you what you saw from them? What allowed you guys to win those opening duels and get that many first kills compared to your opponents? How important is this set-up for success later on in the match?

ANGE1: To be honest we should ask cNed about it. They were just dry peeking you? Or you’re just good? I think cNed is just too good. You know you can’t just come to his side without getting entered before. That’s basically the answer.

Congrats on this massive win, it was a great series from you guys. Your next opponent will be known after the match between Leviatán and Vitality [Leviatán is NAVI’s next opponent - editor]. Which of those do you prefer playing against and why?

suygetsu: For me it doesn’t matter who we will play against because we played both of the teams before. We played against Vitality in the tournament and won, we played againstLeviatán in the championships and won. I think Leviatán, because it is going to be more exciting. EMEA vs EMEA in my opinion is not interesting at all. However, I’m actually cheering for Vitality because of Salah [Team Vitality’s coach - editor]. I’m deciding to play against Leviatán.

How do you feel progressing towards the semi-finals after winning two games consecutively in LOCK//IN and which team are you most excited to play against as you progress?

d00mbr0s: I feel fine, calm. I don’t know, feeling thankful as someone said. About the team I want to play, I also think like suygetsu and prefer Leviatán. It’s a great team. I think it will be more interesting to play against them than to play against Vitality. I think a region against another region is just better for the viewership and better for us to learn. If we go deeper into the tournament I would like to play against DRX. That's the team I'd like to see as our nemesis in terms of rivalry. I would prefer to go all the way and play vs DRX.

Regarding the Icebox, we know it’s one of Secret’s strongest maps. I’m just curious to know what led you to leave it open in the veto instead of taking it out?

d00mbr0s: We looked at their match against Liquid and decided that wasn’t any cause for concern. Another interesting pick, interesting playstyle, but if you have some raw footage of how we’re playing, it actually becomes easier for us and they haven’t seen our Icebox while we have seen theirs. What I saw in the server is, that they didn't change anything so that’s why we left it open. We wanted them to pick Icebox.

Today we saw a Cypher in the first match. It is not common to see Sentinel on Icebox. Could you comment on the reason for choosing this agent please?

ANGE1: I’m not going to go too deep into this idea. I just like to play agents that are not usually played on some maps. Because people are not used to playing against wires, against cages, against cameras in some spots. Same as they were not used to play against Sova on Pearl before or against Omen on Fracture. It’s just good because they have no idea what to do against it.

You previously faced off against Team Secret all the way back at Champions 2021. Did you feel that the team is a little different now than it was before? Did you notice any patterns you knew from the past?

cNed: No. I think they are a completely different team. I wasn’t expecting them to win against Liquid as well but they won and l think they really improved. I think they have a different playstyle now than at the Champions.

You guys have shown yourself to be somewhat comfortable on Pearl. You left it open against KRÜ Esports in your previous match. You had 3 wins last year and you had a really good win today. I want to know, how comfortable do you feel on that map?

ANGE1: We feel comfortable on this map but it’s not our best map. I don’t know what more to say.

Questions to NAVI VALORANT start at 14:00.

Recall, the day before yesterday the match for entry into the quarterfinals of the tournament took place. In the best of 3 match NAVI VALORANT beat Team Secret 2 : 0 (Icebox 13 : 8, Pearl 13 : 4). On February 27 at 19:00 our team will face Leviatán in the quarterfinals.