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Week 6 of the VCT 2022 Stage 1 EMEA Challengers will mark the conclusion of the tournament's Group Stage, thereby sending 6 teams across to the playoffs.
The former roster of Gambit Esports marked their return to the Stage 1 EMEA Challengers by competing in their first official match in a month under a new tag - M3 Champions. After their month-long absence, the team is expected to play 3 consecutive matches in hopes of playoffs qualification.
M3 Champions took on Natus Vincere (NAVI) in an engaging best-of-three matchup for their first game of Week 6, defeating their fellow CIS opposition in two straight maps. The conflict on Ascent ended with 13-5, following which M3C closed out the match on Breeze, with a 13-9 scoreline.
After winning 2 out of their 3 games, M3 Champions are currently competing for playoffs qualification in 3rd place. Natus Vincere have claimed 2 wins in their 4 outings, trailing behind M3 Champions in 4th place. The standings are subject to change since both teams are yet to finish their VCT EMEA Challengers Group Stage fixtures.
M3 Champions' IGL Redgar talks about their absence from competitive Valorant and their return to VCT Stage 1 EMEA Challengers
In a conversation with Sportskeeda Esports' Adarsh J Kumar, M3 Champions' in-game leader (IGL) Igor "Redgar" Vlasov discussed his team's performance against Natus Vincere, detailing their return to the VCT 2022 Stage 1 EMEA Challengers playoffs.
Q: The M3 Champions roster has been away from the VCT Stage 1 EMEA Challengers as well as competitive Valorant for close to a month now. How does it feel to be back?
Redgar: It feels awesome! I feel the pressure that we usually face when we're playing, I feel the confidence that I get when things go according to plan. I have really missed those feelings.
Q: After weeks of inactivity, M3 Champions have returned to top tier Valorant with a clean victory over Natus Vincere. How do you think your team performed in this VCT EMEA Challengers matchup?
Redgar: I don't think we performed well on Breeze, especially at the start of the game when we were on the attacking side. Some things didn't go according to plan. I don't know why yet. I will rewatch the game and figure out the mistakes, and I hope we don't repeat these mistakes in the next game. Nevertheless, I feel good that we played an official VCT game after a long time.
Q: Despite being from the CIS region, this is your first official encounter against Natus Vincere in a VCT match. What do you think about their performance in this fixture?
Redgar: I don't think they have figured out their playstyle yet, or maybe we just cornered them today; I don't know. They looked lost during the game, in my opinion. Maybe Duno has not adapted to the IGL role yet. During the match, it looked like he lost his position at times, or maybe it was due to the team not listening to him. A lot of things contributed to their defeat.
In the first half on Ascent, NAVI won 2 buy-rounds not because they cornered us, but because I tried to switch up our positioning, thinking they would switch it up as well. They didn't change anything and continued to make the same moves, so we just reverted to our previous setup and won the last 2 rounds of the half.
I think they are on their way to becoming a good team. Close to a year ago, we played the same way NAVI are currently playing. We had not figured out our playstyle back then, so I guess NAVI are also on a similar path.
Q: The entire roster of M3 Champions was put through a situation where the team had to spend time away from competitive fixtures with uncertainty about their VCT schedule. What did the whole team go through in that period?
Redgar: We are professional players who should be ready to play at any time. During that period, we just trained hard. After knowing that our opponents will play and we won't, we felt that it was good for us. Since we had more time to prepare for them, they won't be able to figure out what we will do.
In those 3-4 weeks, we had the freedom to change anything we wanted without other VCT teams knowing about it. We will have information on them, but they won't have anything on us. It's like the most strategic thing to do, you know.
Q: The VCT EMEA Challengers Week 6 encounter against NAVI on Map 1 (Ascent) was the first instance in an official fixture where we have seen you pick up KAY/O, and the first in a long time where nAts was seen on Astra. How was your experience with the Agent, and what was the thought that went behind the change?
Redgar: My start on Ascent was not great. If I haven't played an official match in a long time, it is a bit stressful for me during the start. Even though I started the match really badly, I got back into the game after 8-9 rounds, forgot about everything else, and focused only on my team and the game. I was in the zone, that's the best way to put it.
Everything went like wind and I just followed it. I felt much better at the end of the first half and in the second half. So I guess I played well. It was not my best performance, but I did good. I can play much better and I will train to show that I can play on a lot of Agents.
There are a few Agents in particular that not all of us can play on, so we need to do these little rotations so that we can be a good team and work together like a clock.
Q: Over the next few days in the VCT EMEA Challengers Group Stage, M3 Champions will be facing the likes of BIG and LDN UTD. What are your expectations for those matchups?
Redgar: I really want to play against both of those teams. I look forward to playing against BIG. The same goes for gob b, who is a legend. I always wanted to play against people of such status. I think he will try to outsmart us, but we have prepared something for them too, so let's see if we can outsmart each other.
We played against LDN UTD when they were under a different tag, and we have faced Boo as well, several times. They have been winning against us, so we should stop it. We will finally win against them because they have a 2 or 3-game active win-streak against us. I have told myself that this game will be like our previous game. We will be all-in to this game and prove that we have changed when we finally defeat them.
Q: M3 Champions have a tedious gameweek of fixtures separating the team from a VCT EMEA Challengers playoffs spot. After a victory today, just how confident is the team in winning the remaining 2 matches of the Group Stage and qualifying for the playoffs?
Redgar: We are full of confidence. We may have lost our confidence at times during the game, but we have teammates who can carry us, and that brings back our confidence. Like I said before, we play like a clock. If even a single detail is missing from our gameplan, all of us try to bring it back and make it work for us.
