Vision Strikers BuZz Looks Ahead After Fracture Fallout

After a dominating performance on Day 1 of Valorant Champions, Vision Strikers were looking to be the team to beat. They were to face FNATIC the very next day, and according to Kim "stax" Gu-taek, Fracture was one of Vision Striker's best maps. They were confident they were going to beat anyone on it.

Well.

After being down 12-6, Vision Strikers were on their way to continuing the 9-3 curse to take it all, only to be stopped unceremoniously by FNATIC on the very map they were confident in. It was a rude awakening especially since their loss gave FNATIC an automatic trip to the quarterfinals.

Post match, Vision Striker's Yu "BuZz" Byung-chu spoke about their successes despite the loss on Fracture, still proving that they are the team to beat at Champions.

"We're quite confident in making it through the playoffs," Buzz said after the game. I think it's important that we prepare and review any mistakes that we made today. And I think we'll come back stronger."

It is a relief that their confidence wasn't shaken, but it is to be expected from a team who spent an entire month after Masters in Berlin in their own boot camp. This provided them the discipline to keep looking ahead, especially since they will be facing either Full Sense or Cloud9 on Monday. And who does BuZz want to face the most?

"Honestly, it doesn't really matter which team we face. We're pretty confident in beating either team. But because Full Sense is the team that we already beat, I think we'll be much more confident mentally if we were to play them again."

Either opponent promises to be entertaining. If it isn't Full Sense, it will be Cloud9, a team BuZz has history with--his former teammate is Son "xeta" Seon-ho and was coached under C9 head coach Yoon "Autumn" Eu-teum.

It didn't seem at the time that Vision Strikers were mentally inspired once FNATIC immediately took the lead in the final map of the series. The team didn't even take a time out until they were down at a rather brutal 9-1 score. This did not go unnoticed and when asked if nerves got the best of them near the end of the match, BuZz provided an explanation.

"Even though we lost many of the rounds in the beginning, I think the main cause of our--maybe what was shown on camera was because we as a team struggled to find the solution to how FNATIC was attacking," BuZz recalls. "So our defense was kind of flawed and we knew that, but we struggled to figure out a solution."

"But towards the end like you saw, we caught up a couple rounds and we went down fighting."

BuZz was also asked about Kim "Lakia" Jong-min, a substitute who played Sova on Icebox and was able to provide the energy needed to bring the score to a tight finish. Was there something unique about Lakia that the team needed at that point in time?

"Yes, definitely," BuZz responded. "When Lakia is playing with us, as a person, he gives off a really positive energy and has that effect. And he is there to make important calls throughout the game, and I think the communication and atmosphere are the biggest selling points when we have Lakia playing with us."

A notable play was on Haven, when FNATIC didn't seem to know how to respond to Vision Striker's flanking strategies, despite being a team well-known for using flanking techniques themselves. So when asked if this was a direct result of Vision Striker's scouting of FNATIC, BuZz confirmed this.

"Yes, we definitely studied some FNATIC games, especially the ones that they played here in Germany. We prepped sort of a playbook to deal with the flanks."

"But we realized early on in Haven and Icebox, that maybe they were really committed to these flanks. So we adapted in these maps and in these rounds, and I think that really worked out well for us, especially on Haven."

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