“We want to prove that we're up there with the best teams in the world, and we're gonna do that through the power of hard work and friendship.”

Despite not achieving ideal results at Masters: Copenhagen, AYRIN , the longstanding veteran of XSET XSET Inactive , feels confident about his team's chances at Champions.

There's good reason for him to feel that way. Despite their short stay in the Copenhagen bracket, XSET now has international LAN experience as a team. They're improving, and they're better prepared than ever before.

xset walk image North America's second seed is ready for their redemption arc. (Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

“I think the team is feeling great,” AYRIN said. “We're doing the boot camp here in Poland, and it's a great time to get used to the jetlag and talk a lot more in person. I don't think a lot of teams get the opportunity to talk in person for a while before big events. The past week has been phenomenal for our team [both] in and outside of practice, so going in [to Champions] we have high expectations and we're going to take it step by step.”

After a consistent yet disappointing 2021, XSET, a mainstay at fourth place for much of the VCT's history, finally qualified for their first international event of the year after emerging from NA Stage 2: Challengers as North America's first seed. Heading into Copenhagen, XSET received an invite directly to playoffs, avoiding the group stage entirely and pit against the remaining top seven teams.

But after falling to OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive in their opening match, the team just barely missed out on a win over LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee , bombing out of the playoffs without a single win to their name.

syyko and team image Endless hours of preparation by Syyko and the team failed to yield ideal results in Denmark. (Photo: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games)

However, due to the circuit points they accumulated throughout the 2022 VCT season, XSET had already qualified directly to Champions, skipping past the NA LCQ.

“Having the LCQ is actually not a bad thing for a team because you build momentum,” noted AYRIN. “You're able to play a bunch of matches, and then your next match is right around the corner. We haven't played a match since Copenhagen, so we're itching to play that first match against XERXIA. We're really, really excited.”

Although the team wasn't able to play in the NA LCQ, they were still able to boot camp and prepare for their upcoming matches together. The team started practicing in a manner that would mirror their experience on the international stage in the hopes of recreating the environment they expected to play in.

“That's partially due to the management of our team, and also Syyko, the coach,” AYRIN said. “We do a lot of stuff where we like to play with earbuds instead of our HyperX headsets. We went to that small Philly LAN just to practice. There's just a lot of small stuff that we do [where] we try to practice how we play, and I think as the game gets more and more competitive as it does every single tournament, you want to get that small advantage any way possible.”

“To say that you're better [or worse] than another team [I think] is just factually false,” he continued. “All the teams make it to Champions because they're good teams, [so] it's up to us to [take] each and every step to get that little advantage over them.”

syyko chet image SyykoNT has gone toe to toe against top teams both in and outside of North America. (Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

That mindset Syyko has instilled into his team gives his players, like AYRIN, a lot of confidence in him.

“[Syyko] has been with us since the start and has proven [that] he's a top coach in the scene, respect to him.”

Despite their prep, Copenhagen didn't go as smoothly as XSET had hoped. Contrary to what many might think, it wasn't the pressure that got to the team at their first international LAN.

“I wouldn't say it was nerves, I think it's more about excitement.” AYRIN said. “I think people get mixed up between what being nervous and excited is. I don't really get nervous, maybe [I] even [got] a bit too excited.”

AYRIN did admit that there might be one outside factor keeping him from top form that he won't be able to overcome.

“They didn't have maple syrup and poutine, though, so it's definitely going to be a hindrance to my performance [at Champions],” he said jokingly.

ayrin hyper image LAN nerves can't get to the cracked controller. (Photo: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games)

It's no surprise that the players of XSET remain composed even on the stage, with a good portion of the team having experience in different games. “Rory — dephh — played in a couple CS:GO majors, Brendan — BcJ — played in an Apex major, [and] I played in the Crossfire major.” Despite having attended LAN events in different games, those moments were all but recent, and the team spent the better part of two years outside the looking glass of North America's top dogs.

“Being able to rank up in North America, going from an eighth-place team to a fourth-place team and ultimately winning that [NA] Championship is a phenomenal feeling to say the least,” AYRIN said. “Copenhagen was one of those events where we went and it was just surreal to be back on that international stage. For three of us, that's a second international major in a different title, so it means a ridiculous amount to us. Unfortunately, we didn't do the way we expected to do, [so] we're gonna look to correct [our performance] this event.”

With a new event also comes a new playing field. Following the 5.03 patch, Pearl has been added into the map pool in place of Split, and Chamber has received notable nerfs pre-Champions. AYRIN seemed unfazed by the changes as he discussed the current meta.

“Firstly, I think the Chamber nerfs aren't as strong as you would expect. Going into Champions, [I think] we're going to see a similar number of people playing Chamber [as compared to] the last two events. Personally, that's kind of annoying,” he said. “I don't mind Chamber because we have Cryocells , [whom] I believe is one of the best Chambers, but at the same time it makes the game a bit stale, kind of like when Astra was the main controller.”

cryocells image As if zekken wasn't enough, XSET upgraded their firepower with Cryocells. (Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

Even with the changes, AYRIN expressed excitement at the path the professional meta was shifting towards.

“It seems like the game is heading into a direction where not a single player can play one or two agents, but multiple agents, and that's on top of being a great communicator and teammate,” AYRIN said. “As we saw with PRX and FPX, the runner-up and the winner [of Copenhagen], [they used] a multitude of compositions, and I think that's where the game is headed. It's gonna be super exciting, because we have a couple of things that we are going to throw into the mix that [will] hopefully surprise other teams.”

While on the topic of the other teams, XSET find themselves in Group C with XERXIA Esports XERXIA Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #28 b3ta Puwadon Jaisuekul Siraww Siraphop Honghirun bnwgiggs , KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro , and FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks , the latter taking home the trophy at the previous Masters event. Should XSET triumph over XERXIA in their opening match, they have a chance at meeting FPX in their next series.

“It's gonna be really exciting to play against them,” AYRIN said of FPX. “After we played at Copenhagen, one thing we learned is that regardless of the teams we play, we have to beat them. At the end of the day, they're all really, really good teams. There's no team that I think is easy or hard. Some people might think that certain groups are harder than the others, but at the end of the day, you have to win two [games] before you lose two, and that's the way we're thinking of it at the moment.”

With 15 other teams to battle against at Champions, one would think that there would be certain matchups XSET might want to avoid. But AYRIN, committed to the idea that no teams were unchallenging or too difficult, denied wanting to avoid any team.

“The way we look at it, there's different teams and there's different reasons [we want to play them]. We want to play FPX because they're the world champions. Beating them would be a huge momentum [swing] for us, and big for North American Valorant. At the same time, we want to play OpTic, we want to get that rematch [since] they had a one-up on us in Copenhagen. Leviatan also beat us; we want to get some revenge on those guys. They're good players, but we're not nervous or scared of any of the teams because like I said, the margin is so little. It's who shows up on that day.”

With their upcoming match against XERXIA taking place on Sept. 3, XSET are mere days away from their first game in Istanbul. The morale remains strong and the team looks to impress in their upcoming games.

xset team image The biggest event of the year inches closer for XSET. (Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

“Expect big things from us. We've been working really, really hard.”

See you on the big stage, AYRIN.