"Lot of close rounds that could have gone either way"- 100 Thieves Cryocells on their opening matchup at VCT 2023: Americas League

VCT 2023: Americas League has commenced with 10 of the best teams across the North American (NA) region competing against each other. The opening game featured Sentinels taking on 100 Thieves, where the former came out victorious. It was an intense match-up in a best-of-three series, with the winner taking the first and last map. That being said, every game in the series was close, with the score difference not being over two rounds on every map.

Sentinels took the overtime win in the final map, Ascent. Both rosters showcased exceptional performances across all the maps, however, only one could take the win.

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Cryocells from 100 Thieves speaks on the aggression of Sentinels and more at the opening game of VCT 2023: Americas League

Matthew "Cryocells" Panganiban is an American professional Valorant player who represents 100 Thieves. Cryo is known for playing many Agents from Jett and Omen to Sage.

Even in the opening matchup of VCT 2023: Americas League, Cryocells did not shy away from giving his best performance while playing Sage after almost two years.

In an interview with Sportskeeda, Cryocells was asked to share his thoughts on the first game of VCT 2023: Americas League, alongside many other questions.

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Q: Pleasure meeting you. Tough loss today. What do you think about the roster’s improvement after VCT LOCK//IN. You had to play VCT Americas in less than a month. Do you think this affected the prep time for the squad?

Cryocells: I personally feel like our roster is still below expectations. But it was an unfortunate loss today. There were a lot of close rounds that could have gone either way in my opinion. We are still improving, but not to our standards.

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Q: How did you feel playing Sage after almost two years? How did it affect your fast-paced gameplay in general?

Cryocells: Sage is still pretty much a comfort Agent. It honestly suits my playstyle more.

I don't typically play that fast. I like to think that it's just a slower Agent. It goes with my playstyle, as I don't play fast 100% of the time.

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Q: Sage is a rather slow character, is running the Operater rather too different on Sage?

Cryocells: If you're comparing Sage and Jett, then yes, there's definitely a difference. I don't think Awping is that sick on Split. I honestly think it's one of the weakest AWP maps.

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Q: Speaking about Awping, what is your opinion on TenZ? Was he a problem for 100 Thieves on Split? Considering his performance was outstanding on Jett.

Cryocells: Yeah, I'd say so. Whenever they were running the double Duelist comp, they would just have TenZ and Zekken enter. He was getting some pretty good impact kills.

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Q: In the first game of VCT 2023: Americas League, were Sentinels too aggressive for 100 Thieves to counter at times? If yes, how are you guys planning to counter that in the future?

Cryocells: We honestly felt like we were playing too timidly. Especially in the second half of our defense. They were playing really strat-heavy, running executes. And we kind of stopped disrupting them in the early rounds.

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Q: What mistakes did 100 Thieves make that helped Sentinels capitalize on the opening game of VCT 2023: Americas League?

Cryocells: We did not play our usual game like we play in scrims. I'm honestly not sure, but again, there were a lot of close rounds that could have gone either way. Like a few team fights in the last few rounds of Ascent.

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Q: What are your expectations going forward in VCT 2023: Americas League? Who are you most excited to play against and why?

Cryocells: I'm not really sure, NA is really stacked. Probably NRG or LOUD. Probably MiBR too. NA has a lot of good teams.