Esports.gg spoke with Cloud9’s OXY after his team was eliminated by MIBR in the VCT Americas Kickoff tournament.
Cloud9 showed promise during the VCT Americas Kickoff tournament. Unfortunately, they lost a rematch against MIBR, ultimately being eliminated. Following that series, we spoke with the team's up-and-coming Duelist player, Francis "OXY" Hoang.
He's a young player with a potentially bright future. He's also a man of few words. We talked to OXY about the loss, his expectations coming into the year, and what he can do to bounce back before the regular season starts. Sometimes, less definitely says more.
OXY failed to meet his own expectations, but believes Cloud9 can come back stronger
"You’ve had your first taste of the big stage in VCT Americas with this kickoff tournament. Was the environment what you expected?"
OXY: "That was exactly what I was expecting. Very hype and lot of pressure, and stuff like that, but I'll get used to it."
"And how do you handle the pressure of being new in the league? Whether it’s that of replacing leaf or the format giving so little a chance to advance?"
OXY: "I think the atmosphere, everything is, I mean, I think I played alright, but I feel like I just wasn't able to shoot my gun today. I don't know what happened."
"I feel like there were a mix of expectations for you coming into the season. One side listening to Demon1 rank you as the worst and feeding into that. Then the other side just ready to see you tear things up. What kind of expectations did you set for yourself after joining Cloud9?"
OXY: "I obviously set my expectations really high, to win everything. I definitely have the capability to do it, but I mean, that didn't show today, so."
"Alright, well let’s chat about the rematch against MIBR. We hear so much about how hard it is to win a rematch so soon after the first series. What are your thoughts on that?"
OXY: "I think we just, we picked the same maps. I don't know if it was a good call or a bad call. Because we won the first series, but we choose the same thing, and then they just made new comps and just countered us. Then, yeah, I don't know what happened."
"As close as it can get with the overtime loss on Bind. The team has that double Duelist comp, with you taking on the Yoru role. What do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages of having two Duelists on that map?"
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OXY: "I think the advantage definitely is that, as the Yoru player, the second Duelist, you get to take a lot more duels. Solo duels and TP out. Give a lot of information with your body instead of utility.
"But obviously the other side, if you're not able to do that, there's also a lot of problems with that. Also, Initiator does this about the same thing, but you don't do it with your body, you do it with a utility. I think that's basically it."
"Do you think those disadvantages are what gave MIBR the edge in the end?"
OXY: "No, I don't think so. I think we just gave up too many fights that we shouldn't have given."
"Okay, and when it comes to you as the team’s Duelist. Obviously each Duelist Agent is different, with different positives, different negatives, and different abilities. Do you keep that in mind when you switch between say Yoru and Jett, or do you play them in a similar style?"
OXY: "You obviously have to switch, because when you play Jett, you're the main Duelist. Like on Ascent, you entry, you take all of the utility, get the crosshairs on you, but for Yoru, you play both.
"You can lurk, you can take something solo Showers, and then you have all this other utility to do stuff by yourself. And also, you can just get out. You can get all the way across the map easily by yourself. So yeah, it's a little different, but about the same thing."
"When it comes to you playing Jett against MIBR on Ascent, to put it bluntly, you didn’t have a great showing. What’s your biggest takeaway from your performance?"
OXY: "My biggest takeaway was, I don't really know ,to be honest. Yeah, obviously, we just lost and I legit, I don't know what happened. So, maybe just accepting the losses I guess. Understanding and remembering that we still have a whole season ahead of us to keep going."
"What kind of tools has the team given you to ensure you come back swinging when the regular season split begins?"
OXY: "Everyone's positive. Everyone's just encouraging and telling me it's just the first tournament. Also, we have a long way to go, a long year to go, so I have a lot of things to do. We've got to refine, and obviously, we've shown that we can definitely play against these top teams. But we just need to refine and tune our game up, and I think we'll do well."
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