"Apart from NRG and LOUD, I think we are better than most of the teams and should have little trouble playing against them" - Leaf on competition in Americas

VCT 2023 - Americas League is truly a gift that keeps on giving as the opening day of Week 3 produced yet another entertaining matchup between NA’s renowned 100 Thieves and Cloud9 with both teams looking to improve their win records. However, only one team was fortunate in that aspect as Cloud9 prevailed over their counterparts in a dominant showing over Lotus and Ascent. THESPIKE.GG was granted the opportunity to conduct an interview with Nathan "leaf" Orf breaking down their thoughts on the game, coming off a loss, individual performances and more.

THESPIKE.GG: Congratulations on the win. What were the emotions running like immediately after the result became apparent?

Leaf: Winning always feels good. With the scene being so competitive and the games being so close, winning always helps.

THESPIKE.GG: You guys were coming off a loss against LOUD just last week. How was the team’s morale going into this matchup?

Leaf: As I said before, losing always feels bad and winning feels good. The loss against LOUD was very close and a tough one to say the least but the entire team was dedicated to get the win today. Obviously with the roster change of Vanity and Yay, we had to bring on new players and change the comps accordingly so our practice schedules were changed and it took some time getting used to all of that but we are looking much better now.

THESPIKE.GG: Even though Cloud9 hasn’t used Lotus so far in the Americas league, Cloud9 decided to have it as their map pick. Could you give us an insight on that decision?

Leaf: We had a lot of practice on it during scrims and realized that we were quite decent on it. Also, we know that 100 Thieves rely a lot on set plays and previous matchup data and we realized that if we could switch up our map pick at the last moment, it might throw them of atleast a bit and give us the advantage needed to secure the win.

THESPIKE.GG: If I am correct, Cloud9 vanned Icebox instantly. What is the reason behind that choice and how do you feel about it leaving the map pool?

Leaf: The entire core, myself included, do not understand the map as well as some of the other teams do, so playing on it doesn’t make sense especially knowing that it will be leaving the map pool soon enough, a news that we were honestly quite glad to here. It is just a bad map in my opinion.

THESPIKE.GG: So, are you excited for Bind’s return then?

Leaf: Definitely excited for it.

THESPIKE.GG: Last time you played on Lotus, you were using Cypher. Today the comp included Neon. How was the experience like and did it seem impactful?

Leaf: Last time we played we had Vanity and Yay on our team so obviously it was different. We had yay on Chamber in our last comp, which is automatically dangerous but with the rookies we had to switch it up and include Viper in our comp and then adjust the remaining roles accordingly which is why I played Neon today which I honestly think did good.

THESPIKE.GG: You mentioned the departure of Yay and Vanity and how that changed up things in the team. How did you guys react to the initial speculations and comments regarding their influence on C9’s performance and their expected performance on the team?

Leaf: I have always been my biggest critic so I do not focus on what other people have to say. Even with the departures of Yay and Vanity, it was up to us to focus on the event at hand and see ways we could mitigate the situation and find solutions for it. The rookies also have done an amazing job at filling the roles in the team and I think we will perform significantly well in the league. Regardless, it was interesting to see what people were saying and the narratives that emerged with Yay and Vanity’s departure.

THESPIKE.GG: Although you guys played good and got the win today, if there was something you could change about today’s gameplay, what would it be?

Leaf: I can’t think of anything too important of the top of my head since we would need to go back and rewatch the games to figure out where we could have improved but I think in general we let Ascent get too heated up at the end and should’ve closed it out sooner.

THESPIKE.GG: Considering all of the performances you guys have had in the Americas League so far, how well do you think your roster stacks up against the rest of the competition, both those teams in NA and South American teams included?

Leaf: I think we are pretty strong. Our biggest competition I think is LOUD and NRG, and we already played against LOUD so yeah. Apart from them, I think we are better than most of the teams and should have little trouble playing against them.

Make sure to check out our VCT 2023 Hub for all the information about the VALORANT events this year.

Featured image courtesy of RIot Games.