Paincakes interview (part 1): “What made Akrew stand out was raw talent and clutch ability. That’s a really big deal in this game.”

Ahead of the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour season, Akrew was heralded as one of the most promising Tier-2 teams in North America. In a scene congested with various organizations constantly striving to overtake their competition, the team stood out through their impressive coordination propelled by the individual brilliance of their players.

Among Akrew’s lineup was Jacob “Paincakes” Hass, who joined the team in late 2021 after roaming in the Tier-2 scene since the game’s launch and playing for numerous teams in the process. With him on board, the team nearly qualified for NA Challengers 1 and 2 as they were within a few wins away from reaching the VCT in both splits.

Unfortunately for him, the org announced their temporary leave from Valorant as a result of Akrew missing out on the VCT entirely, coupled with them missing out on entering the NA partnership league for the 2023 season. Thus, Paincakes is back to the amateur circuit where he must grind through a seemingly endless stream of tournaments to crack the highest level of play in the region.

With a firm view toward the 2023 VCT season, Fragster caught up with Paincakes for an interview to discuss his professional Valorant career. In the first part of the interview, he discussed his first encounter with Valorant, joining the Akrew roster, and their attempt to qualify for NA Challengers.

Starting pro Valorant career

Pedro Romero: Let’s start with your origins within Valorant. How did you first come into contact with the game and when did you decide you wanted to become a professional player?

Paincakes: I used to play Rust before Valorant. It was a week before the beta or alpha version came out and the first time I saw this game, the first thing I honestly said was that I wanted to go pro. Then a week later, all the keys to the game came out where you can play on Twitch and receive the drops so I’ve been playing it ever since.

You didn’t focus on any other genre besides FPS games?

I mostly played Rust and Counter-Strike and stuff. I tried to go pro in CS but it was just too hard for me.

What made Valorant stand out for you in particular?

It just looked really fun when I saw it and I think the timing of it all played into it because it was released right when COVID started. I had nothing to do and I knew it was a new game. I had been waiting for a new game and ever since I played it, I loved it. With all the different abilities and agents, it’s like a good mix between CS and League. I really liked other games — I guess Overwatch is close to it, but I always liked a more tactical, search-and-destroy type of games.

From that point on you managed to form a career within this game? How did you navigate the scene while forming a career at the start?

Probably a few months into the game, they started coming out with tournaments so I just tried to find any team I could and compete. For the very first team I played with, we played one game and lost and I was cut soon thereafter. Then I played in the Knights Valorant League (KVL) which got me connected with a lot of people who are pros now. I joined the team ‘Trying to Win’ which eventually became my first salaried team under the name of Equinox. I met the TTY guys on KVL, they liked me, we played tournaments, we won a bunch of them, and then I got signed. That was kind of how it all started. Before we got signed, I did have some individual offers but I wanted to stay with my team.

Joining Akrew

You eventually joined the team that would be signed by Akrew in late 2021. Talking about that specific lineup, how was that team formed?

It started out as EZ5—there were a lot of different EZ5 teams, but originally there was me, gucc107, and other people that I can’t remember at the moment. We were just a free agent team. I think we had our coach Stan (Stan “n4ts“ Sukachov) who eventually left. As our next coach, we had Juv3nile, who’s on TSM now [NOTE: at the time of the interview, Juv3nile was still a member of TSM before he parted ways with the org a few days afterwards].

It was kind of the same thing and we started winning a lot of tournaments. Right before the next VCT season, they started picking up players so they signed neon, me, gucc107, c0m, and Kanpeki. Then we played a ton of tournaments, as in every event you could think of. That’s kind of how that team got formed. It just found a lot of good free-agent players.

No kidding. The team performed well at the end of 2021 and before the start of the 2022 VCT season, thus gaining a reputation as one of the most exciting amateur-level teams in the region. Compared to this Akrew team and your past teams, what made this lineup stand out from the rest?

I think it’s just how much we played the game in scrims and stuff. We really did not have that many off days, we were always just playing a ton. A lot of raw talent and clutch ability were major factors, as we always won clutches. That’s a really big deal in this game.

Qualifying for VCT

It was through those kinds of characteristics that the team tried qualifying for VCT. Unfortunately, you guys weren’t able to do so despite being very close. What do you think was the leading cause for being unable to qualify for Challenges 1 and 2?

I can think back to Challengers 2. It was there were lost to Sentinels twice. Obviously, they have a lot more experience compared to our team as a whole, since we have a lot of newcomers to the game. Sentinels actually stole Kanpeki from us around two weeks before VCT so we picked up johvanii and we only had two weeks of practice with him. I think it was just due to the time spent with the team. It took a lot of time and they had more experience because they’re all just ex-CS pros. They had Rawkus as a coach too which helped them a lot. I think it’s just because of a difference in experience that explains why we lost.

Can you talk about how you guys lost that final series against The Guard before Challengers 1?

I think that was right when they were in their prime and they were just destroying everyone. They were just a better team at that point because they ended up going to Iceland. They still are a good team. I think we could have beat Sentinels on the recent one, but I think we choked under pressure. I don’t know if our team was right under that skill level of being Tier-1 or if we just choked under the pressure for the matches that would’ve sent us there.

Regarding the fact that you guys did not have much experience competing in the highest level of NA Valorant, do you think that was a key contributor to your subsequent failure in VCT qualifying?

Yeah, I think it was due to inexperience and also poaching. We always got our players and coaches poached. We never stuck together with a solid five or six with the coach. I don’t think it was inexperience that could explain our Challengers 1 result but rather because we lost a really good team. For Challengers 2, we really couldn’t get a full roster together. Everyone kept getting poached. There was not enough time for us to get together as a team, but I believe in Challengers 1, we were just outplayed.

Read Part 2 of the interview with Paincakes here.