EG Potter: "EU sucks. I mean, I knew Americas was #1 coming into this event, but EU only have Fnatic that I can see as contenders."

Evil Geniuses have become the team to beat at the ongoing VCT 2023 - Masters Tokyo event in Japan. The North American side has so far made a perfect run over the course of the group stage as well as the playoffs, defeating the likes of DRX VS, LOUD, or Team Liquid.

Christine "Potter" Chi has played a key part in Evil Geniuses' uprising. From rocky beginnings in the VCT 2023 Americas League, Evil Geniuses has risen up as a top contender for the trophy in Japan. We managed to sit down and chat with Potter in the Tipstar Dome, where the event is currently taking place. Potter had a lot to say about the matchup against Team Liquid and the team's great preparedness at the event. She also opened up about NA's rivalry with EMEA and did nothing but hold back on that front, adding a little spice into the mix.

VALORANT Masters Tokyo: Interview with EG Potter

THESPIKE (Puri): Congratulations on the win today! Any thoughts?

Potter: Man, Corbin (C0M) is a beast. I can't believe he pulled us out of another pickle.The pistol round didn’t go as well as we had hoped, but he got another 4k. It happened the other day on Fracture as well. Gonna have to go back to the drawing board for pistol rounds but man, each one of my players are stepping up and it’s incredible.

THESPIKE: In the post-match press conference you talked a little about prep. Could you go into a little more detail on it?

Potter: I don’t wanna give too much away, but our focus on our prep is figuring out what we need to adjust or make better on our choke point approaches depending on the comp we’re expecting to face. For example, today on Fracture, a lot of our prep was for a different comp. Liquid threw a curveball our way with the Cypher, but because we have already discussed so much of what we need to get the control we were looking for, with small adjustments before the match went live, it was easier than most matches that we played. I don’t really know what Liquid were thinking with that comp to be honest, I don’t think we’ve ever struggled versus a Cypher on Fracture. When you have Killjoy in your comp that’s as OP as they get, it really doesn’t make sense. I can see why they did what they did, because they wanted to try and stop our pushes, but it just was too easy.

THESPIKE: I talked to Saadhak before and he said that your team has a special playstyle on Fracture. Any insight on that?

Potter: Yeah, it’s definitely special. We sucked on Fracture all year. Because of player comfort, we brought out Sova which nobody else plays. We had to spend a lot of extra time on that map to figure out how to make Sova work. When you look at it on paper, Sova just feels a little clunky because of the long choke points like A Main, B Main, and Dish it takes so long for that drone to travel so it doesn’t make quite as much sense, but we figured it out.

THESPIKE: So do you think teams are gonna finally come around to banning Fracture now that you’ve won another match on it?

Potter: If they do it doesn’t matter because we have two other strong maps. In this tournament we definitely have an edge in map vetoes because we’re willing to pick three maps that we’re so confident we can win on. Fracture is just one of them, but we have two more.

THESPIKE: Also speaking of LOUD, what did you have in the match this time around that you lacked in the playoffs domestically?

Potter: We had two very big wins under our belt. Last time we faced them, we had confidence as a team but we didn’t have proof of it yet. We didn’t have the wins to show things were working. The type of team we are, it’s only been a few weeks but because of that confidence, it’s definitely different in how we view our matches.

THESPIKE: You’ve grown tremendously as a coach, and even though you were a former player, that didn’t guarantee you would be able to step up and do the job. In which areas do you think you improved the most from the beginning onwards? What are you most proud of in terms of growth?

Potter: That’s a great question. I’m most proud of bringing a group of misfits that nobody expected to do anything, to actually accomplishing something and then some. I think it’s incredible. I don’t think people talk about it enough, but my team is a team full of rejects. My team is full of players that nobody wanted, myself included. Jawgemo was on the bench of T1 Academy when I found him. All of these players were players that nobody wanted. And we’re here now. So I think that’s really f****** cool.

THESPIKE: Now that you have started to see results, are you getting better scrims than you might have before?

Potter: Before we were scrimming better teams and now we’re wanting to scrim worse ones. My players hate scrimming tier 2/3 teams, but I very much enjoy it. For us, that’s how we find our gaps, because T2-T3 players don’t care. They’re not playing defaults for control and comboing utility, it’s very wild West and it’s great for finding gaps. We’ve been focusing on that for the past few weeks and dodging better teams.

THESPIKE: You’re still undefeated and you just beat EU’s #1 seed in another 2-0. Could you provide a little something for the NA/EU rivalry?

Potter: EU sucks. I mean, I knew Americas was #1 coming into this event, but EU only have Fnatic that I can see as contenders. Depending on who's hitting their shots on Liquid, they’re decent. But EMEA, pretty underwhelming this tournament so far.

THESPIKE: Lastly, a word for the fans!

Potter: To the OG 10, thank you so much it looks like we’re making it to the upper bracket finals so keep sending us your energy and we’ll try to go all the way.

Evil Geniuses continue to be the team to beat at VALORANT Masters Tokyo from the initial group stage. Potter's team will be facing Fnatic in the Upper Bracket Final on June 19 to see who makes it into the Grand Finale of the event in Japan.

Make sure to check out our VCT 2023 - Masters Tokyo event page for the bracket, stats, and results.

*Featured image photo credit: Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games