"It wouldn't matter if I'm TenZ, yay, Cryo or cNed, there's no better five than the five you practice with" - Ethos on getting playing time

VALORANT esports is thriving more than ever with entertaining matchups being played out on a weekly basis. The opening day of week 3 of VCT 2023 - Americas League was no different either as the face-off between NRG and mibr granted top-notch entertainment especially as the game proceeded to overtime on both map 2 and 3. Following their loss, THESPIKE.GG was granted a unique opportunity to conduct an interview with Alan "ethos" Ruan breaking down his thoughts on the game, coming off a win, his individual involvement as a sixth man and more.

THESPIKE.GG: What were the emotions running like immediately after the result became apparent? Especially coming off of a win last week, does this loss hit even more worse considering that you were trying to build up a momentum and going on a winning streak?

Ethos: I think that it was unfortunate for us, but it just goes to show that in VALORANT really nothing is free, and any team can beat any team. We were definitely expecting to play better than we did, but I think just, you know, off days happen and sometimes the other team, MIBR, just played very well and it just happens, you know.

THESPIKE.GG: Having two maps go to overtime back-to-back just shows how close these both maps were. Do you think NRG could have done something different to prevent it in the first place?

Ethos: I think that one thing that our team sometimes will fall into and a lot of teams will fall into is when you're on stage and it's a very intense match, you end up starting to play to not lose, and I think that's what we started doing in a lot of the, not just Pearl, but in a lot of the maps, where we started to get a little bit too scared to go and actually figure out what they're doing and go make a play ourselves, and instead we just kind of let them get their lurks in and their execs in.

THESPIKE.GG: Let’s talk about Pearl as NRG were up quite, up very well in the first half, but you sort of let it go in the second one. So do you think you could have done something better to prevent that from happening?

Ethos: On Pearl specifically, we figured out that we need to start playing to win and we need to actually get up in there and take control of the round, and if we kept that same energy, that same confidence throughout the series, it could have been a different outcome for sure.

THESPIKE.GG: How much do you think you will get a chance to be play in these matches as well as the upcoming matches going forward?

Ethos: I think the chance of me playing, well, personally I'm hoping that I don't have to play, because that would mean for some reason someone on the team would be too sick to play or would just be unable to play. It wouldn't matter if I'm TenZ or Yay or Cryo or CNED, there's no better five than the five you practice with. So, I could be the best player in the world, but slotting in, I would have to try my best to just make sure that the overall machine that the team is running smoothly.

THESPIKE.GG: So, even though, you aren’t playing in the game. How involved are you with the team and their performance?

Ethos: When it comes to my involvement with these matches, I do feel that I am involved in these current matches as I show up to practice every day, and I try my best to analyze the game from a different perspective, from the sixth man's perspective. Outside of what Chet does as a coach, I try and focus more on just individual decision-making and plays and trying to provide as much support as I can in the back end with them. So as for my involvement currently in matches, I already feel just as involved as anyone else. I feel when the team loses that, I lose as well.

THESPIKE.GG: How well do you think NRG's roster currently stacks up against the rest of the competition? And how do you think the upcoming matches will be considering your team's current record?

Ethos: I think that right now it is hard to predict what the results will be going into this season because our roster is good. We have a lineup of five amazing world-class players who have proven before that they can hang with the best and that they can be the best. It's just a matter of nailing down the fundamentals and smoothing out the rough edges. As we have a history of being a team that loves to experiment, loves to play outside of the box of the meta, and I think that while it is incredibly exciting to be a team that always tries new things, it can also be a double-edged sword.

Sometimes we overlook honing the skill sets that we have now the fundamentals, the basics that we have now, whereas some teams might practice with the same meta comp for a couple of weeks or months. We might be experimenting with other comps, so we might not have as many reps on the comp we actually end up playing in the tournament. Realistically, as long as we can focus on smoothing out the rough edges on the team and keeping our consistency and our confidence up, I think that we have everything we need to really just stomp the rest of the competition. But again, it's VALORANT. The other team might just be God-tier players that day. Anything can really happen.

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.