Ahead of Champions 2025, TL nAts reflected on the win, the mistakes to fix, and the road to the VALORANT’s biggest event of the year.
After Team Liquid’s 3-0 sweep over GIANTX in the VCT EMEA: Stage 2 Grand Final, in-game leader Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin spoke with esports.gg about the series, maintaining the team’s mindset, and the key areas to improve ahead of VALORANT Champions 2025. The IGL was chosen as the tournament MVP.
Team Liquid has been placed in Group C at Champions, where they’ll face DRX, Edward Gaming, and NRG. Their opening match will be against the Korean team, DRX, on Sept. 12, 2025.
TL nAts reflects on the team’s mindset and key strategies to secure the win against GIANTX
esports.gg: Is the trophy heavy? Because you’re struggling there!
TL nAts: I was heavy. I don’t think it was as heavy as the one from 2023, but it was heavy.
Were you surprised to be chosen as the tournament MVP?
TL nAts: I was surprised. Not shocked, but I was even thinking about that idea. Since I moved to IGL, I didn’t even think about those things.
The last time you won VCT EMEA was back in 2023. How does it feel to be winning domestically again, especially when you have already qualified for Champs?
TL nAts: It is good. Overall, winning is a good feeling, and I didn’t have it for a while, so this feels very good.
With both teams already qualified for Champions, how does playing purely for the title influence your mindset? Is there less pressure, or even more adrenaline?
TL nAts: We had a conversation on the stage, and we’re focused on the trophy. Of course, pressure was there. For me, it was not the first time, but for some of the boys was. It was an experience for keiko (Georgio Sanassy). That’s why in the Grand Final it was a little bit easier for me. Last time, in the Grand Final, we were winning 2-0 and ended up losing 3-2. That was hard, but at least now trexx (Nikita Cherednichenko) has two trophies.
GX has a specific playstyle and tendencies. How have you individually adapted to their aggressive playstyle to counter that?
TL nAts: I would say this game was all about patience. As a team, we identified the gaps and played around them because they played very aggressively against BBL. And it was hard to understand how much GIANTX was playing good and how much BBL was not playing as good. The start in Bind was a little bit shaky, and overall, over the three maps, they were close, but the win couldn’t be for anyone other than Team Liquid.
What is your secret to always being so calm every time?
TL nAts: I think it is just personality. No, I think it is a mindset and personality.
Team Liquid has the best Sunset retakes in the world, winning 58.6% of them. Being Sunset is a very hard site to retake due to strong post-plant positions and heavy utility value. How do you explain pulling off such a tough feat?
TL nAts: I think, overall, we are good at retakes. We saw that on Bind we are one of the worst teams, so I think on most of the maps we are pretty good. I think we just feel comfortable playing.
And Bind it is still one of your best maps!
TL nAts: We just stronghold it.
Are there any GX players you particularly enjoy matching up against, either because it’s tough or because it brings out your best?
TL nAts: I’m not sure, I like to play against everyone. I've been watching how GX Cloud (Kirill Nekhozhin) has been playing, especially since he became an IGL. If I need to choose, it would be Cloud. On Sunset, he did win very good clutches on us. Their thrifts are good, and his last clutch with westside (Miłosz Duda) was very nice.
Compared to the start of the split, what’s the biggest improvement in your own game that you’re proud of?
TL nAts: There are a lot of things I am proud of. Maybe, keeping the team in the right mindset, in-game specifically, maybe that I would say, but a lot of things, inside and out of the game, I’m also trying new stuff on myself as well. Overall, there are many things I am very proud of, but this one is the one that comes to my mind. I feel like a new player again.
Prism Phantom story and road to Champions 2025
I really wanted to know what the story is behind your love for the Prism Phantom. Is there any reason you don’t change it?
TL nAts: I don’t know. When VALORANT came out, I didn’t have it. I didn’t have it in the store. After that, I bought it because, every time I play with a skin with sound effects, I don’t really like it. I played with it for one week, and then I started to get bored. But Prism, I saw it and I instantly bought it.
It’s blue, so it kind of matches Team Liquid!
TL nAts: It does match, true.
What are the things you need to work out before heading to Champs?
TL nAts: Stop losing the rounds and secure the rounds, especially the rounds that we cannot lose, and I’m not specifically talking about the BBL Magnum defuse round.
I talked with Keiko about that, and he was clearly upset. What crossed your mind?
TL nAts: I’m not sure about what happened there. Since we know, I don’t care about it. Honestly, this is something that happens almost never, trying to understand why it happened, what exactly forced it, I don’t think it is necessary. We don’t need to pay much attention to it.
I was going to ask if there was any team that you would like to play against in Champs, but Yinsu talked about it on stage, and you answered EDG.
TL nAts: Yeah, because we lost against them. I played them twice, in Tokyo, we won, and then in Toronto, and then we lost, and hopefully we can win.
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