Redgar of Team Liquid: “If you compare us from the beginning and right now, we’re much better in my opinion.”

From being tagged as the laughing stock of EMEA Valorant after a disappointing showing in Lock In, Team Liquid completed their story of redemption by defeating Fnatic 3-1 in the grand finals of the 2023 VCT EMEA playoffs to become the region’s first champions in the game’s franchised era.

Not only did TL scale the EMEA mountain by handing Fnatic, which had been 19-0 by that point dating back to the start of Lock In, they did so in spite of the little buzz surrounding them, which left them as a low to mid-table team before the league began. Nevertheless, such a scorching run in playoffs, which featured wins over Natus Vincere, Team Vitality, and FUT Esports, wasn’t done on a whim.

On top of relying on excellent individual play, such as what fans saw from Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel or Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin, TL needed the guidance of an IGL whose leadership brought about success in past teams like Gambit Esports and M3 Champions for 2021 and 2022: Igor “Redgar” Vlasov.

With his direction throughout the season, TL caught fire at the right time to win playoffs and become a major player for Masters: Tokyo. As Redgar heads to his first Masters LAN since 2021, all eyes will be on him to see if he can manufacture a repeat performance in Japan.

Fragster caught up with Redgar for an interview about his thoughts on facing VIT, the progression of the team throughout the season, the development of his IGLing, what it’s like working with the TL coaching staff and more.

This interview was conducted following the first-round upper bracket series between TL and VIT in the 2023 VCT EMEA playoffs.

Redgar on facing Vitality

 

Pedro Romero, Fragster: Congrats on that series win, Redgar. I want to start by asking for your thoughts on how you were able to lead this team past Vitality specifically in that final map given that it went the full distance.

Igor “Redgar” Vlasov: I’ll describe it map by map. On the first map, it was a little bit of a tough start for us because the things that I thought might work, such as the info I should have to make more proper calls, weren’t that good, but on the next maps, it became—we just woke up after the first game, you know? This is not the reason why we trained every day to show that lame Valorant on Lotus.

On the second map, we just had a good start and we kept it up with the timings and everything, and on the attack side, it became a little bit tough. They had really good individually skilled players who outplayed us one by one so we just decided to group up and find out the keys to their defense and the teammates helped out in that by gaining information. My calling was good if my teammates were also taking the good information and not dying, you know? It’s all connected. I can’t do the proper calls every time without them helping me find out what is happening on their sight.

On Ascent, the beginning was really nice. We were up 6-1, but when I thought everything was under control, they started to do really nice rotations [and the like]. In the defense side, we just take the eco round and we pulled a string of really nice rounds, and in the end, we found out our defaults kind of countered them really hard and we just ended the game with sick communication and teamwork by the guys who played on B. It was soulcas, Jamppi and, of course, Sayf. They free-played really good to end the game at a critical moment. I expected that they were going to do that and they just did that so I have really great teammates.

Fragster: It certainly was a tough way to overcome a team such as Vitality. Speaking of which, it is the same team TL faced way back in the first week of the season and lost to 2-1. With that in mind, how did you prepare specifically for this team since that early encounter?

Redgar: The first we played them, they didn’t change anything from Sao Paulo, but right now, they did really good preparation and they, I would like to say, mind game’d us on Lotus. I really respect how Salah worked on that and it was really nice changes that really got me into the trap of [figuring out] how they’re playing. On attacking side, for us, it was really bad because we didn’t truly understand what they were doing. I kind of understood but they used really nice utility-based things. And we prepared for them as well just as how we prepare for any team. It doesn’t matter for us players who regularly play on-stage. The preparation that patterns what their weaknesses are is usually the same thing that you’re doing in the regular season also, so nothing really changed at all.

Progression of TL and Redgar’s IGLing

Fragster: One of the biggest things that was considered in viewing TL throughout the season was your IGLing and how you directed your players within the team. How have you viewed your development in IGLing as the season wore on?

Redgar: The reason why I said earlier today and right now that we became much better during the season was because I’m growing our personalities in the team. I’m teaching them how to play and we’re learning as a team on how to make the proper reactions. I don’t like, for example, to have teams where I should always exactly say every time [things like] “Hey, you should rotate to this, do this and this” and have four puppets in my team. This is not how we should play Valorant in my opinion.

We are learning as a team and I am learning the team. I show my teammates my vision of the game and if they truly believe in what I want to do—for example, they are going to see an opportunity and I have trust in them. They have trust in me and I have trust in them and we are evolving in the season. I just like to grow players [in a way] that they should not always listen. They should also be proactive in terms of [knowing] what to do. It’s better to me to coach people because I can’t focus on myself, but if I teach them how to play, it’s much easier because they would realize [the things] that I want for them to do. This is my part of IGL: to teach the people, have them follow my ideas and [gradually] gain trust in each other.

Fragster: How does your strategization work with eMIL as he’s the head coach? How do you work with him when it comes to strategizing for a given team on a weekly basis? Does it change or does it stay the same as it is?

Redgar: I think I’m pretty lucky with the coaches [I have]. Right now, I have coaches where we are on the way and it’s so easy to work with. We are a duo but in terms of strategy, right? They can also help us with many things. We are all together as a band of coach and management so I’m kind of part of that also. We just think in the same way so it makes us—we don’t have fights about what we have to do and which comp to play. We’re just trying and if someone has an idea, we just prove it, and if you fully understand what you want to do (like compositions and strategy) we just go into it. It’s not just about a “hey, I know better about the game and we should do this” kind of thing. We just have a connection between us and this is really incredible and I’m really glad that I have it.

Fragster: So it’s like a well-oiled machine that works well together as a unit, right?

Redgar: Yeah. Also, our team is made from three other teams, right? One from Guild, two from M3C and two from old Liquid and all have different visions of the game. It takes time to make the team work together. It might take six months or one year to make a real team that have really strong bonds, communication and trust. We’re still on our way there, but if you compare us from the beginning and right now, we’re much better in my opinion. Even if you can not see that in the score results, we have a strong mentality. We can keep our mood on a high level. If someone goes down, we will bring them back.

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