"I do wish there was a little less unnecessary drama and a little more of the community kind of realizing the reality of the situation" - Potter following EG's win

Having LATAM teams be a part of Americas League and having more than just the domestic teams face off against each other has been such a blessing for VALORANT esports, especially when teams of opposing regions collide. Day 2 of VCT 2023 - Americas League’s week 5 brought together Leviatán and Evil Geniuses in a head-to-head with Evil Geniuses trying to find their second win at the event and consequently improve their record for a better chance at a Playoff spot, whereas Leviatan was looking to improve their seeding on the table with another win.

Evil Geniuses has had far from the ideal event they would have liked. From the get-go, they seemed to be a team persevering through internal drama and challenges, and the discussions uprising in the community regarding their performances did not help either. A lot of comments were made on the flaws in their game and questions were raised on the coaching staff. However, ever since their matchup against KRU Esports, it seemed that they were finally regaining control over their performances and over the span of last two weeks, they improved quite a lot. Following their most recent win against Leviatan, THESPIKE.GG was granted the opportunity to speak to Christine "Potter" Chi, EG’s head coach, in a post-game interview to get her thoughts on the game, the issues with the team, and how she has managed to keep the roster in check.

Potter on developing perseverance against the drama

THESPIKE.GG: As soon as the result became apparent, what were your immediate thoughts? How did you guys react on the win?

Potter: It felt incredible. We definitely needed this win. I think the past few weeks has been challenging for the team with a lot of distractions and a lot of outside factors but I think it just comes with the territory. Everyone’s competing hard and wants to win so there's been a lot of drama as everyone knows and consequently a lot of distractions. So, it's been challenging for the squad to remain focused for the past week, but we did our best and I’m glad it paid off.

THESPIKE.GG: There have been a lot of comments about how the roster has performed at the event thus far. How do you think you as a coach have managed to keep all the players in check and persevere through that?

Potter: Just reminding each other that there's a lot of opinions. A lot of them are valid and some just aren't. I think for us we were looking at issues in communication, the synergy in-game and there's been a lot of role problems coming in. We also struggled with finding comfort for all five players on the server so that's been a goal for us. It all boiled down to reminding each other of how far we've come and focusing on the bigger picture.

THESPIKE.GG: How was today's matchup overall, from starting off strong to how close it came in the end?

Potter: We're heavily a momentum-based team and being a younger team, the confidence can get shaky pretty fast especially if things don't go your way within the round. Sticking to your game plan can also be difficult for newer players and that's kind of what happened. It didn't feel as dominant as I think we would have hoped for, so our confidence throughout the whole series in all three maps wasn't as high as it should have been. I think we had a lot more control than we showed and that to me should have been a 2-0. Regardless, I'm proud of the guys and I mean we stayed in it. This was the second time I think for us as a team being able to stay in it and claw our way back but again I think we had control the whole time and it should make for really good footage for us to go back and watch.

THESPIKE.GG: How does having only two wins so far in the league make getting a playoff spot difficult? What is your plan and mentality as a coach going forward?

Potter: Luckily for me, there a lot of neck-and-neck teams right now so for us playoff contention is still in the air. It's not completely within our control anymore so we pretty much can't make any mistakes moving forward. But hopefully, other teams do and give us a little bit of breathing room here in the next couple of weeks. We still have the possibility and we're still remaining optimistic. For us, the practices have been going well and we have been progressing as a team, so it's just about executing on stage.

THESPIKE.GG: What was your thought process behind bringing on Demon1 in place of BcJ and how did that switch up uh roles within the roster?

Potter: That was an extremely stressful time and a really tough choice to make at the time. When we were practicing we decided to sub Demon1 in on two Jett maps. We were practicing all week with that roster lineup then a few days before our actual match versus 100 Thieves we found out that we would not be able to sub in demon one on map one because the rosters are locked the night before. We took that risk the following week and decided to go in and incorporate max into all the maps. He's just such a talented Jett with his presence so it's obviously right. His confidence in the server and the way that he reacts and the way he controls the map it gives us so much room to work with so just having a Jett like that it's incredible so for us.

THESPIKE.GG: Your next matchup is against Sentinels that made a roster change bringing on Marved into the team and have been looking different ever since. How well do you think EG's roster stacks up against them and what plans do you have if you do right now?

Potter: Sentinels have definitely been looking good since Marved came in. We're very familiar with the Sentinels game plan. We put a lot of pride in our prep leading up to the week, we're just going to go back and do what we did for this matchup.

THESPIKE.GG: How difficult has been coaching in the America league especially with the competition being extremely close and neck-to-neck, how excruciating have the efforts been to yourself visible in the space?

Potter: It's definitely a catch 22 type of situation where I'll be damned if I do and damned if I don't. So, I don't really try to be as visible as I think probably some people but for me yeah it's been challenging but I enjoy the challenge. It's something that I love but it's been challenging for me and equally as tough for the team, but I think that's how it's supposed to be. I do wish there was a little less unnecessary drama and a little more of the community kind of realizing the reality of the situation and comparing apples to apples and things of this nature, but it is what it is.

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.