How C0M went from Leviatán’s weak link to the next VCT superstar
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesLeviatán are one win away from qualifying for the Valorant Champions 2024 Playoff Stage. In an interview with Dexerto, Corbin ‘C0M’ Lee explained how the team turned its season around after a disastrous start.
Leviatán looked outmatched against top international opponents at VCT Masters Shanghai. The team lost to the eventual tournament winner, Gen.G, 2-1. Their elimination match against FUT Esports started with an embarrassing 13-1 loss on Sunset and led to another 2-1 series loss.
Corbin ‘C0M’ Lee bottom-fragged in both series, scoring 25 eliminations against Gen.G and 28 kills against the VCT EMEA squad.
“Shanghai was probably the lowest I’ve ever been… I was just very, like, dumbfounded, just broken,” the Leviatán player told Dexerto. “It just sucked.”
After their loss to FUT Esports in China, C0M — who was in a major slump and receiving a massive amount of hate from fans — was interviewed by Josh ‘Sideshow’ Wilkinson.
C0M said he couldn’t remember much from the game and could only take the blame for his poor performance while promising a return to form.
“At the end of the day, things take time. And whenever that time comes, we’ll rise to those expectations,” C0M told Sideshow while trying to hold in his emotions.
He later broke down backstage, crumpling under the pressure. This is why it’s even more impressive that he’s picked himself up and brought Leviatán to the top of VCT Americas for the first time.
Leviatán picked themselves up after falling hard.
Leviatán picked themselves up after falling hard
After a wake-up call on the international stage, Leviatán decided they needed a change. The team dropped their head coach and moved Dimitar ‘Itopata’ Staev to the position. They also brought in Preston ‘Juv3nile’ Dornon, who used to coach C0M before he signed with Evil Geniuses.
C0M told Dexerto that he felt locked into his role and style of play during Stage 1 and didn’t feel like himself.
“In Split 2, I’ve been able to play a lot more like myself, taking my own timings within the team and doing what will make my team win the most. I found my role in this team, but I also found my role and how I want to play as well,” he said.
It wasn’t just the coaching change that caused this shift in the team, C0M said, but also a mentality shift from the entire roster.
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games“We felt like we needed to do something, but also we wanted to be more ourselves.”
After their disastrous run in China, Leviatán crushed the VCT Americas league. The team only lost one series on their journey to winning the league and earning the No. 1 seed to Valorant Champions 2024.
On the outside, the newly revamped team looks like a well-oiled machine that plays well in its structure, but C0M said this roster’s strength now is how free everyone can play and react.
“We can be much more free-flowing in what we do and read and react in rounds. Which is a big thing. In teams, you can’t be super like, ‘I’m gonna do this the whole time.’ You have to read and react to your opponents. I think we have that, and it’s something that we’ve actually excelled in,” he said.
Ahead of the first matches at Champions, C0M was rewarded for his return to form with the title of “most clutch” VCT player by his fellow Valorant pros.
Valorant Champions and one more big hoorah
C0M has been at this stage of the season before and knows what it takes to make a deep run and win the Valorant Champions trophy.
His role now, much like it was on EG, is to keep the mood light and the vibes high. However, there is more pressure on Leviatán to win at the World Championship this year than there was for his team last year.
“I feel like that’s kind of my job in the team, where I do a lot of the mid-rounding and stuff. At the end of the day, I want to make sure everyone’s having a good time,” he said.
C0M said during their first Champions match against Talon Esports, he kept the mood light by pointing out how the VCT Pacific team’s rookie ace was dominating the server after Ian ‘tex’ Botsch called the player out in a pre-match segment.
“You just had to talk mess about him,” C0M revealed he told tex during the match.
Leviatán swept Talon 2-0 and are now in prime position to qualify for the playoff stage of the event.
If everything goes as C0M wants, his team will laugh all the way to the Grand Finals in the INSPIRE Arena. “I know the team that has the most fun or is the most fluid will win nine out of 10 times,” he said.
It took some time, but Leviatán has risen to the expectations put on them since the start of the season.