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AFK Gaming
Valorant Champions Tour’s (VCT) 2022 season has stepped up the competition with new teams making their voices heard. OpTic Gaming, XERXIA, and The Guard are just some of the teams that have impressed fans and are looking to displace established teams. Among the new wave of teams is Bleed Esports, a Singapore-based organization featuring talent from Singapore and Europe.
Within just four months of being founded, the team gave some of the biggest names in the competition a run for their money and it is looking to become one of the best teams in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. AFK Gaming had the opportunity to have a chat with the roster along with the team’s head coach and assistant coach, who discussed how the team is looking to adapt and overcome all obstacles.
How Bleed Esports has become a melting pot of global talent
Bleed Esports is one of the few teams in the world that has a mix of players from the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. The team features:
Lionel “lenne” Lim - Singapore
Derrick “Deryeon” Yee - Singapore
Jacob “pyth” Mourujärvi - Sweden
Max “maxie” Lönström - Sweden (in-game leader)
Xavier "Lexy" Lee - Singapore
Nikola Ninić - Germany (head coach)
Aaron “eno” Cheah - Singapore (assistant coach)
With players and coaches from different regions, Bleed Esports players had to learn and adapt to each others’ playstyles. Coach Ninić said, “The biggest surprise I had when I started coaching the team was how there is a lack of a ‘practice mentality’. It’s not that players from the Asia-Pacific region are not hard-working, but the little hours they put into practice were surprising. We had to step up our game immediately and work harder”
Hard work is something Bleed Esports strives to live by. Ninić knows how tough the competition is in Europe and for APAC to rise up to the same level, it will require players to push beyond their limits to match up against the world’s best.
Withstanding pressure and finding motivation
The journey in the VCT has been a difficult one for Bleed. Yee said, “The team had a rough start in 2022, and Bleed was almost knocked out before making it to Challengers. The team was trailing by five rounds to NO.Men during the APAC qualifiers and everyone was mentally drained.” The players almost reached a breaking point where they just wanted to be done with the game and start preparing for Stage Two. But the players found their rhythm in the game and managed to make a comeback.
Since then, the players developed a never-say-die attitude and managed to make it all the way to third place at the APAC Challengers event. Bleed needed to earn at least second place to qualify for Masters One and it narrowly missed out on a spot at Reykjavik against XERXIA.
The mental drain of competing against the best teams in the region and the high stakes puts a lot of pressure on the team. Lönström said “There is no respite in the Valorant Champions Tour. You compete in a game and immediately start preparing for the next game.”
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Mourujärvi, who has been playing for the past eight years, spends time working out, eating healthy, and he tries to maintain a healthy diet to stay focused. The team has increased its practice time from about four or five hours to eight hours in preparation for the VCT and it has been mentally exhausting. But the hard work has paid off and the team feels that its results have definitely improved after bumping up the time it spends on scrims and practice. Players are cutting down on streaming and leisure to prepare themselves mentally for the rigorous format of the VCT this year.
But competition is not the only source of mental fatigue for the players. During the group stage of the APAC Challengers event, Bleed Esports won a match against XERXIA via a forfeit which led to rude comments and toxicity from fans. XERXIA had to forfeit due to technical issues but some fans lashed out at Bleed Esports. Mourujärvi talked about how toxicity is something that he has become used to over the years. He said, “when I used to play CS:GO, I used to get death threats every day. Even my family used to receive messages from toxic fans but I have learnt to ignore them.” Bleed Esports has its sights set on only the competition and it does not let negativity from fans of other teams get in the way.
Preparing for Stage Two
Lönström and Mourujärvi didn’t know if they could play with the Bleed Esports roster which led to a lot of uncertainty in Stage One. The team did not get confirmation as early as it would have liked to and it was strapped for time when it comes to getting enough practice in and developing synergy as a new team. Lönström feels that with enough time available for Stage Two, the team has higher expectations from itself.
Lönström said, “This time around we will be stronger with a better map pool and lots of preparation. We will be a lot more glued together as a team.” Ninić, who transitioned to coaching in Valorant just four months ago, said, “it was my first team that I coached in Valorant. I need to help develop my team and also work on my individual skills as a coach. I have to get used to Valorant’s mechanics and learn from our opponents to help my team improve.”
The team is looking forward to changing its practice style and the head coach believes that he has found out the playstyle Bleed Esports wants to go for. The team wants to bounce back and improve. Former player Xavier “LEXY” Lee had to leave Bleed Esports to serve his country in the military which was a major setback for the team. The player rejoined after a month of absence and will be competing in Stage Two.
There are a lot of teams that have proven themselves in the APAC region during the 2022 season and the competition is only getting tougher. Lönström is impressed by Paper Rex and NAOS Esports. Ninić feels that Paper Rex is the best team in the region, even ahead of XERXIA, a team that has impressed everyone in the circuit.
On the current state of the Valorant Champions Tour
When it comes to Riot Games’ handling of the event, Ninić feels that there are some irregularities in the circuit. Different regions compete on different patches in some cases, which can make scrimming against teams from other regions difficult. The coach hopes Riot keeps things consistent across all regions for the events by making players compete on the same patch, or avoid patch releases during events completely.
The structure of the competitive season is something everyone is happy with. (Maxie) feels that it is extremely tough and the competition demands that you bring your A-game at all times, as even a single mistake leave an impact. But he wants the format to stay the way it is as it helps teams adapt and improve in such a competitive environment
Mourujärvi said that there is a distinct lack of an official tier-two scene. He said, “With the Valorant Champions Tour being the only major event by Riot Games that is open to everyone, teams that are knocked out do not have a place to compete in.” He is hoping for more events where teams that do not qualify for the VCT main events have a place to compete, so they can improve and get some practice in a competitive setting.
The players at Bleed are Valorant fans at heart and when it comes to watching other teams, they enjoy watching European teams compete. North America’s The Guard has been the talk of the town and Mourujärvi has been following them this year because of the dream run the team is experiencing. Underdog teams making a statement at big competitions is also something the team enjoys watching and the players are hoping for some great stories at the upcoming LAN events this year.
At the end of the interview, Lönström apologized to the team’s fans for not making it to Masters Reykjavik. The team is looking to bounce back and hopes for continued support from the community in the next stage.
