KOI BARBARR: “We’re working incredibly hard to try to find a new level every week, but it’s hard. It’s hard when it’s the mental part that is missing.”

After a winning drought that spanned nearly two months into the VCT EMEA League, KOI finally took a series in their favor by defeating TH 2-1 for their second win in the year.

Contrary to expectations when some looked for TH to continue their momentum following their upset win over Giants the week before, it was KOI who underwent a renewal of their own as through the handiwork of its players, which includes a 57/42/26 KDA and a game-high 247 ACS & 1.27 rating (per VLR.gg) from Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko, they begin ending a season filled with struggles on a particularly high note.

Having bagged another win, the Spanish side looks to keep their resurgent form in such shape for the EMEA LCQ, which fittingly serves as the last competition before Champions, which will take place in Los Angeles, California in August.

Following the series against TH, KOI’s head coach André “BARBARR” Möller talked to Fragster.com for an interview on how they were able to beat their fellow adversaries, how he reflects on this season and what he could’ve done differently, and more.

BARBARR on facing TH

Pedro Romero, Fragster.com: Congrats on finally getting that victory after so long since your last one. I want to know your thoughts as to how the series played out and what enabled you guys to take home the victory?

André “BARBARR” Möller: Our practices have been very good for a long time. I do think that we haven’t been able to show almost 50% of our practices in officials because of nerves, and then when you start to lose a couple of games, you start to getting some demons or ghosts in your head, right? We just decided that even there was little to no chance to reach playoffs, at least we gotta try to redeem ourselves and not go away from here without showing anything before the LCQ.

I think that was in everyone’s head to actually relax a bit and show what we practiced in officials. What made us go over the line was a little bit more on our experience in officials, experience in dealing with these tight games, and having a little bit new born confidence also. We knew that we didn’t play absolutely horrible, but we know that we can do so much better and we didn’t lose that part where the hope is still there if we can pull it off. It was the will to win finally from the guys, I would say, instead of cracking under pressure so it was a great win.

Fragster: I want to talk about how this team prepared against TH because the latter came in with a new lineup with the inclusion of weber. With that said, what was the preparation like from a coaching’s perspective?

BARBARR: We prepared a couple of new rounds for all of the maps in a different way in playing the game. I think that was also needed because, when it comes to improvising in officials, a lot of it is very hard where nerves are hitting you and when you’re playing improvising and reacting to the game all the time, it’s very hard when you’re not so experienced with that pressure. I painted up a lot of new rounds that we were using and devised a new strategic way in how to move and I think that helped us a lot at least. In general, there was nothing more to it other than trying to have fun in practice, to smile a bit and try to transfer that to officials. Since we’ve been losing quite lot of games in a row also, when you stop enjoying the game completely, I think that’s when you’re done so we were focusing on having fun and playing a bit more hard set in a strategic way instead of improvising a lot. That was the change for this week.

Heretics is not a bad team either. I think weber is doing absolutely fantastic. I think they look like a completely different team with him. With what they’re doing right now, I think they could be higher up in the table if the change happened sooner so all the credit goes to them. They’re playing fantastic and m1xwell is finding a newer form now when weber is calling a little bit more. He can focus more on shooting so they were a rough team to play against, but our preparation was very good this time I would say.

Fragster: I want to take the focus to Ascent since it was a tight map in the closing stages of the series. I want to know how you guys were able to bounce back late in the second half of that map and avoid overtime?

BARBARR: Obviously, not every lead is comfortable but we were 8-0 up against Fnatic and we then threw it all away, so we just focused on what we could do better in that game. We knew that our Ascent is strong. I think our Ascent is one of the strongest in the league, to be honest. I think only BBL has a stronger Ascent than us and we can compete with any team on the map, so we were obviously comfortable going into that map especially because we were having very good scrims on it. With the new things that we had, and with a new way of thinking on the map itself, it made us not crack under pressure and had us continuing to play round after round without thinking about what happened before and what could happen afterward.

I think that’s just the mental part of it when it’s getting tight, but it was a very great performance from the guys in general. Some of the players is not reaching their full potential so far of what they can do and we’re still working on bring everything out of them, but it was a solid performance in general and I think it could help us for the LCQ. I’m pretty sure the Liquid game will be one hell of a game also. It’s looking better and better and we really needed this win for our confidence.

BARBARR reflects on 2023 season

Fragster: Of course, this marked the first win for you guys since winning against NAVI in Week 1. When it comes to reflecting on how the season transpired up until this point, what is something you feel the team could’ve done differently that would not have led to its current state? Also, what is the biggest positive that you’ve seen out of this team this season?

BARBARR: What I think could’ve been better is [for us] to actually work with a performance mental coach full-time. I think almost every team has it and we got a bit unlucky with that so that woud’ve helped a lot, to be honest. I would say that we got way too stressed and way too panicky in tight situations where, way too many times in key rounds, we were throwing them away. You saw that here on at least Ascent. We also threw away three empty eco’s or similar things like that where [we suffered] big economical damage on our side which shouldn’t be there. It should’ve been a lot more cleaner so there’s still a lot to fix, but I knew that the teams that are normally built and how I’m building mine is around the top and this was a complete shock fir me that it had gone this way so I’m incredibly sorry to the club and the fans, obviously, that this have been going down.

I’m not blaming anyone to be honest with you. I always say that I can always do better and it’s up to what I do as the head coach in how the team is performing. That’s what the team is doing too. We’re working incredibly hard to try to find a new level every week, but it’s hard. It’s hard when it’s the mental part that is missing, and especially when you mix that together with the losses, it can get to you easily when you’re a young player.

We couldn’t really predict this. We had to go into the league with only one game from LOCK//IN in Brazil so we couldn’t really predict how we could’ve worked under stress, but we’re trying more and more to fix it together and hopefully we have a professional that will help us for the next season. What we have been doing good is, from the first game against NAVI, even if they say they shouldn’t have lost against us, I think we played better Valorant than they did, so that was a highlight for the season. I think we should’ve beat Vitality also. I think it was a close series, but we just didn’t follow the gameplan hard enough.

We had all of the chances. It was all in our hands to bring it to me playoffs, but you live and you learn. I think the players have been growing a lot in living away from home in Berlin so I don’t blame them in having a rough time, but there’s goods and bads. Obviously, the results are mostly negative this season and I can only hope we show up in the last game and the LCQ.

 

Feature Image Credit: Hara Amorós / Riot Games / LVP / lag.