"This match didn’t feel much different from our LOCK//IN match": ZETA DIVISION's crow about VCT Pacific League opening match

The VCT Pacific League kicked off on March 25, 2023, with a clash between ZETA DIVISION and DRX. Taking place in the biggest tournament in the Asia-Pacific region, it was the first of two matches scheduled for the day and quickly became a riveting contest. The series exhibited some fresh new takes on Pearl that could be potentially meta-defining but reflected an age-old tedium when it came to Ascent. DRX took both maps with relative ease, while its opponents left quite a bit to be desired.

Here are some takeaways from ZETA's side, as discussed by crow with Sportskeeda in a post-match interview.

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crow from ZETA DIVISION speaks about match against DRX in VCT Pacific League and more

Sportskeeda got the chance to have a conversation with Maruoka "crow" Tomoaki after ZETA DIVISION's game against DRX in the VCT Pacific League. The pro spoke about the Japanese audience who came to support them, their Agent compositions, and his experience playing Harbor for the first time.

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What was it like facing off against DRX in front of a live Korean audience? How different was it from your experience at VCT LOCK//IN playing against Leviatan?

crow: With this tournament being a Korean tournament (sic.) held in Korea, there were obviously a lot of audience members cheering for Korea. But then, there were also a lot of people who were cheering for us, who had come all the way from Japan. I was caught off guard and surprised by that.

There is not much difference between different tournaments, so no, this match didn’t feel much different from our VCT LOCK//IN match [against Leviatan].

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ZETA played the most standard Ascent composition that is designed for collecting information. Despite that, you had a lot of difficulty with your Attacking half. What do you think went wrong?

crow: I haven’t reviewed the game to say exactly what went wrong. However, we didn’t get to play too many rounds on the attack to tell if it was hard or not, but defending was difficult for sure.

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We saw you playing the Harbor-Viper composition that was popularized during VCT LOCK//IN. What value do you think it adds to your previous composition?

crow: Because this [VCT Pacific] is a league format, we can change the composition in the future. We played the last composition at LOCK//IN, and didn’t want the opponents to be able to counter-strat us based on that. There is a long way to go [in the tournament] and our composition could change in the future.

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You also played Harbor for the first time in an official match. What was the experience like? About Harbor as an Agent, what are your thoughts on Harbor as a hybrid between a Controller and an Initiator?

crow: Harbor skills (abilities) on our team against enemy setups, so it was very difficult to adapt to the enemy setup and use the skills effectively.

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With both Killjoy and Viper on your team, you have an added layer of security in both attack and defense. However, we did not see you implement such a strategy. Is there a particular reason behind that?

crow: Even if they (DRX) get the plant, we can use these abilities to create space for us to retake the site. However, DRX played really well and we couldn’t get those executions done perfectly today. However, we do have set plays in place.

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ZETA will be playing against RRQ next week. What are your thoughts on the team, and what are your expectations for that matchup?

crow: I don’t have any specific feelings about RRQ. But with this being a long-drawn tournament, we will try to keep our chin up and win every game hereon.