Chronicle: "If you compare my performance to the group stage, I started to play better now because I'm not nervous anymore, I'm much more confident"

Going into this matchup, X10 Crit had become infamous in the Valorant community worldwide for eliminating one of the best NA teams, Envy while Gambit, the champions of VCT 2021 - Stage 3 - Masters Berlin - Playoffs had made it to the quarter-finals after a comeback from 9-3 down against Team Vikings. To sum up, it was the perfect recipe for an intense matchup – it did not disappoint.

The map veto witnessed a surprising pick from X10 Crit as they chose Fracture over Icebox, which had proven to be Gambit’s weakness while Gambit chose Ascent. Gambit launched a composed attack on Fracture out of the gate and took the half 9-3. I know what you’re wondering, but the 9-3 curse failed this time as Gambit managed to close the map with a 13:7 score. On Ascent, Gambit’s pick, their offense suffered and X10 wasn’t going to give up that easily. At the first half, the scoreboard read 7:5, with a decent chance for Gambit to execute a sweep; however, their defense couldn't keep up with the incredible plays from Itthirit "Foxz" Ngamsaard who managed to exploit weaknesses in Gambit’s and take the map. It seemed that X10 was going to cause yet another upset by defeating the Russian team, but Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov came to a timely rescue on both offense and defense and Breeze, the final map, went Gambit’s way earning them a spot in the Semi-finals.

After Gambit’s close win against X10 Crit, THESPIKEGG had the opportunity to interview the series’ MVP Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov.

How are you doing?

I’m doing great. We just won the match and we played great today.

Congratulations on the win against X10 and becoming the series MVP. How do you feel about your and the team’s performance today?

This match was really great, I tried to help my teammates as much as I can by playing the role I was assigned and I’m feeling good about my performance today. If you compare my performance to the group stage, I started to play better now because I'm not nervous anymore, I'm much more confident. We have managed to achieve our goal by reaching the top 4 and after today I think we will play on our max power.

Did fracture pick from x10 surprise Gambit and what made you change from Jett to Raze?

Yes, the fracture pick did surprise us because we thought they would pick Icebox given our bad performances on it in the last two matchups. As for the change from Jett to Raze, it was the team’s opinion that Raze was more profitable on this map. She can perform great executions and has the skills needed to play aggressively on this map. According to me, she’s better than Jett, at least on this map.

Gambit didn’t pick Ascent in the tournament before today. Why did the team choose this over Breeze and Split where they have had wins previously?

Before the match, we believed that we needed to pick Ascent because it is one of our strong maps since we have played it a lot in scrims which is why we were so confident while choosing the map. But today, we played really bad because of really small and stupid mistakes. In the end, I think that it was a great idea to pick that map because now we know our mistakes and can try to fix it for the semifinals against Fnatic or KRU. If we want to win this tournament, I think it is really important for us to double-check our maps, be confident in them and try avoiding the mistakes we made today.

Despite Ascent being Gambit’s map pick, your defense struggled to find momentum. What do you think the reason behind that was and how does the team plan to change that next time around?

If you go into the specifics, we knew that they were going to pick Kay/O on this map and while we were prepared for that, we did play as good against his utilities. I also made some over-aggressive repeaks like in the last round after I killed Jett, I immediately started going for another guy, which was Kay/O I think and it turned out to be a huge mistake from my side. We were picking a lot, and we didn’t destroy their defaults on the attack site if you talk about the mistakes on attack. However, it was a great experience and one we can learn from.

How confident were you in the lead up to the Quarter Final against X10 Crit as they looked really impressive in the group stage.

If you are talking about my team, I think we did not feel any pressure of this match before it began. It is difficult to explain why we were so nervous in the group stages, but I think that after we reached the playoffs our confidence in the team grew a lot.

A lot of the talk around Gambit is around the players but how vital is your coach, Engh, to your team, especially after the comeback against Team Vikings?

I've always said in my interviews that our coach is 50% of our team’s success because he is fulfilling so many roles in our team from moral support, coach, head coach, analyst. To be honest, that is a lot of workload but he is a crazy guy, and we all love him.

So far, Acend & Liquid are in the semifinals along with yourself, do you think Fnatic can make it through so we can see an all EMEA region semifinal? Or do you think KRU will cause yet another upset?

I will say Fnatic because they are our EMEA friends. So, let’s go Fnatic!

Would you prefer playing Fnatic or KRU?

It does not matter, I think. Since the team that wins this match is obviously better and we will be waiting for them in the semi-finals. We will start to prepare right now!

What are your thoughts on the likes of Sentinels, Cloud9, Envy, and Vision Strikers not making it through?

I think the whole tournament is really great because there are a lot of tough matches which makes it really enjoyable to watch. Also, the large number of upsets the community has witnessed is also great, I think. The minor regions are showing the world that they can go head to head with reputed teams from major regions.