AYRIN believes Global Esports haven’t reached their final form in VCT
Riot GamesGlobal Esports Valorant IGL AYRIN talked about the team’s early struggles and finding their peak form again for VCT Pacific LCQ with Dexerto.
Global Esports did not have the best start to the 2023 season.
Due to Ganesh ‘SkRossi’ Gangadhar and Abhirup ‘Lightningfast’ Choudhury’s visa issues, the team was not at full strength until Week 4 of VCT Pacific. Moreover, they also had to figure out how to bring players from different cultures together and handle multiple role swaps.
Without surprise, Global Esports got off on the wrong foot in the VCT Pacific League and had to work hard to bounce back from a 0-3 start.
“I just think a lot of people don’t really understand how difficult it is to really bring so many people from different cultures and different teams and to stack on top of it, everyone was a Duelist player before,” Jordan ‘AYRIN’ He, Global Esports’ IGL, told Dexerto.
“Everyone here is extremely talented, but at the same time, with the timeframe we were given, it’s not an easy task to just role swap, and get people speaking English and playing in different styles, so to say.”
The Canadian player said that it’s hard to get people to break out of their shells when they’re new to a team and haven’t played together before, and adding in cultural differences didn’t make it any easier. He described the first split as enjoyable, but not easy in the slightest.
“I don’t think people really understand how hard it was, to be honest,” he said.
Global Esports’ goals for VCT Pacific LCQ
When SkRossi and Lightningfast came into the fold for Week 4, the squad was in win-now mode. Any more losses for the team would mean their chances of making playoffs, and potentially qualifying for VCT Masters Tokyo, would tank.
The squad did end up missing the playoff stage after posting a 3-6 record, but they showed flashes of what their ceiling can be, according to AYRIN, who praised the team’s map wins against Paper Rex and ZETA DIVISION.
The challenge for LCQ is making sure the team can consistently play at that level.
“I think we definitely haven’t reached our peak,” he said. “There were sparks of it throughout the season. We had some really good games, some really good maps… I think our focus now is kind of trying to reach that consistency where, even if a player doesn’t play well, we know that we can find ways to balance it out or still get the win.”
Riot GamesThe former XSET player also pointed out how the best Valorant squads in the world (Fnatic, DRX, Paper Rex and NRG) all have well-established core groups of players that have been playing together for years. Global Esports, in comparison, have only been together for a fraction of that time.
“I just met these guys like less than six months ago,” he said.
AYRIN said making it through the VCT Pacific LCQ and qualifying for Valorant Champions would be amazing for the organization as a whole, but acknowledged it will be a difficult task.
Global Esports will not be afforded the luxury of a slow start. They will face Rex Regum Qeon on July 19 in a do-or-die match, with the loser seeing their season end early.
“This team is extremely talented, but other teams are trying just as hard,” he said. “We have to try harder.
“For LCQ we will, but I think if we made it to an international event in this first year, it would turn heads, for sure. I don’t think people understand or realize how hard it is, because everyone’s f**king good and spends a lot of money.”