Team Envy is one of the top contenders to go the distance at Valorant Champions 2021 after performing strongly during the year-long Valorant Champions Tour. They qualified for both the first and the third Masters while also making it to the Stage Two Challengers Finals. Their best performance came in the Berlin Masters, where they went to the grand final.
In Group A of Valorant Champions, Envy started strong with a dominant performance against X10, winning 2-0. In the winners' match, they faced Acend after a delay that was caused due to a controversy. In that match, Acend handed Envy a sweeping 0-2 defeat, winning both the matches 13-8 and 13-11.
Casters questioned Envy's choice not to ban Bind as Acend is probably the best team in the world at the moment on Bind. Envy did put up a fight in map 2 but was sent packing by Acend for the decider match.
Team Envy will next face X10 CRIT in a bid to become the second qualifier for the playoffs from Group A. X10 are sure to be buoyed by their performance against Vivo Keyd and will provide a stiff challenge for Envy.
Team Envy's Chet "Chet" Singh talks about Team Envy, their recent match, and their chances at Valorant Champions 2021
In a recent exclusive conversation with Team Envy's Chet after the team's match against Acend, he discussed with Sportskeeda regarding his team's preparation and performance for the Championship. He also gave an update regarding Victor and his status.
Here's an excerpt of the conversation.
Q: Ascent was Envy’s pick and is one of their strongest maps in Valorant, but the map didn't go much in favour of the team. What do you think went wrong that resulted in the team losing that map?
Chet: Honestly, I think just the midround situations, where we did not capitalize on their mistakes. We did not capitalize on the information we had.
Talking about your performance on the second map, even though the team lost on Bind, we saw them gathering momentum after the score turned 10-3, which allowed Team Envy to win 7 continuous rounds. Yet they lost the map. What happened to the team to lose the second map as well?
Chet: We lost two like really bad eco rounds that we probably should not have. Losing those ecos ruined our economy and we just could not recover. We kept buying a little too passive. So, that kinda made us really scared and they got to use the whole map against us.
You joined Team Envy after the Valorant Masters Berlin. What are the key changes that you have brought to the team?
Chet: I have added more strategies. I am also making sure that the players perform the things I am giving them to work with. I think that’s pretty much the key thing.
Continuing from that, how has been the experience with Team Envy so far, compared to TSM?
Chet: I have some experience with everyone on this team, with what they are doing. They know how to make good decisions. Today was a bad day and I think we can definitely show it later on in the tournament. With TSM, I think it was a shaky roster and kind of difficult to get a solid core going.
Tell me how did the team prepare themselves during the past few months, before the Valorant Champions.
Chet: Well, it has only been like a couple of months, and I don’t want to go too much into my preparation. I just watched vids and did a lot of server time and made sure we were coordinated.
Victor just tested COVID positive at the Valorant Champions. Tell me what was the team's reaction to it and how did it affect the team. Also, how is Victor doing now?
Chet: We are definitely surprised as we were pretty safe in the whole tournament so I am not sure how he got it but he is not doing that great and he looks sick. Not sure what we can do. He is not feeling well. It is hard to play well when you are feeling bad. It is definitely rough but we are trying to make the best of the situation. We can’t do anything else to help him recover faster. We have medicine and all we can do is wait and hope he gets better.
Team Envy faces the winner between X10 Esports and Vivo Keyd next. How confident are you on the team in facing either of them and making out of the group stage?
Chet: We are still going to be super confident in playing either team. We will be just as prepared as any other match. We definitely respect them. It is going to be hard to make it out of the group. We had a shaky start and maybe it will wake us up.
Catch Team Envy in their decider match at the Valorant Champions 2021 on Valorant's YouTube and Twitch channels today.