Vikings is one of three Brazilian teams present at the VCT Champions Berlin. Having already achieved their goal of qualifying to Champions, how far can this team go?
Team Vikings is in Group C at the VCT Champions along with Gambit, Secret and Crazy Raccoon. The Brazilian roster has not played a single official match since August and comes in as mystery this tournament. We spoke with Vikings IGL Sacy in the pre-Champions press conference about the team's preparedness, underdog status and their recent bootcamp.
Viking’s last official match was all the way back in August. They lost to KeyD stars in the VCT 2021: Brazil Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs. It was an important match, a qualification match for Masters 3 Berlin but Vikings just fell short.
Despite failing to qualify for Masters Berlin, Team Vikings was already guaranteed a spot at the Champions. The team finished in the top 2 of the Brazilian circuit points which was enough for a Champions invite. They did not attend Masters Berlin but they already had 200 points from Stage 1 Masters and 100 from Reykjavik.
The team has been scrimming a lot since August but scrims are not the same as official matches. Maintaining the player’s competitive mentality is a crucial task of the In game leader.
We have been working quietly to be honest. We took 1-2 weeks off and went right back to scrims. Playing scrims and official matches is quite different. We are missing it. A bit excited to play the Champions tournament but I feel we are ready. We have prepared for this tournament for two months. Since January this year, we set a goal which was to reach Champions and we are here.
“In January, we set a goal which was to reach Champions and we are here” - Sacy
Being the underdogs might just be a blessing in disguise for Vikings. Opponents have little data to go off of and Vikings could potentially surprise a few strong teams at this event.
"I won’t lie. We are the underdogs here. To be honest, for me, it's an advantage. Cause they (opponents) don’t have much material on us to study. It's been a long time since we have played international tournaments. People won’t respect us and we will show up as a surprise for them."
Bootcamp takeaway
The Vikings players were in a bootcamp before the Championship event in Berlin. It was a very necessary one according to Vikings Sacy as it helped them develop a macro understanding of the game.
We feel like we understand more about the game, about the macro in the game. We understand what we are doing on the map which was really hard for us before. Bootcamp was really important for us and we are now ready to take on our opponents.
Vikings will play their first official match after nearly three months. A lot has changed in the game in these three months, so it will be very interesting to see how Vikings has adapted to the new meta.
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Baby steps for Vikings
Vikings face Crazy Raccoon in their first match of the tournament. Many fans consider Vikings to be able to easily make it out of the groups, but for Sacy it’s one step at a time.
"We are not qualified for the playoffs yet. People are saying we have an easy group, but there is no easy group for us. Our first match is against Crazy Raccoons. And then we still have Gambit and Team Secret. They are not bad teams. Crazy Raccoons is not a bad team." We are not going into the match against Crazy Raccoons like “OK, we got an easy team”. That’s not how it works.
"We are taking baby steps. We are facing Crazy Raccoon first. So let’s try to win against them first before thinking about our next opponents."
Sacy is a former League of Legends player who played for Red Canids in the CBLOL. His League of Legends career did not go as planned, but Vikings Sacy believes his struggles in Riot’s MOBA helped his career in Riot’s FPS game.
One of the reasons I’m here (at Champions) is because I tried in League of Legends.
There’s no League of Legends in Berlin right now. It's Valorant and a lot of shooting. Team Vikings are in Group B along with Gambit esports, Team Secret and Crazy Raccoons.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Valorant news and updates.
