Day three of Champions Seoul kicked off with a 2-0 victory from Americas top seed LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho to take down Pacific's TALON TALON Asia-Pacific Rank #17 Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha ban Joseph Seungmin Oh Governor Peter No . In a post-match press conference with members of the media, head coach Hector "FrosT" Rosario alongside other Talon members discussed the loss with dissatisfaction over how the game played out for the Thai side.
Even with the 2-0 scoreline, this series looked like it could have been anyone's game. What would you say were the positives from your first match at Champions?
Crws: "I don't really see any positives. From my perspective, we didn't play to our potential at all. We made a lot of mistakes and if we just did what we should have done, it would have been the other way. So I don't see any positives from the game we played."
After Bind, you said that map could have been won 13-6, but the amount of personal mistakes and inexperience played a role in your eventual defeat. Could you elaborate more on this?
FrosT: "So it's just same old, same old. Here, you're playing teams that are too good. In Pacific, maybe we don't get punished as much, but the truth is you have the 15 best teams in the world. At this point, you can't be making mistakes and giving people rounds or doing things that you're not supposed to be doing and things you know you shouldn't be doing. However, this has been a consistent problem of ours since the start of this roster. At some point, we are either going to develop and not make these mistakes or people like me are going to be out of a job."
How do you evaluate the team's performance in the match against Leviatán compared to the expectations you had for the matchup before the tournament?
FrosT: "I thought that series went exactly...well, okay, not exactly how I thought it, but in terms of everyone thinking we had a great performance, I pretty much expected that. I expected us to win 2-0. I obviously didn't expect us to lose. However, I think it just speaks to the fact that when these guys play their best, I'm pretty sure we could beat any team in the world. The problem is, part of it is my fault, where we seem to not be as prepared as I think we are. It means I need to do a better job in preparation to make sure that we don't consistently make these mistakes, that's one. Two, if we're going to be completely honest, we've also had four rookies in franchising. Partly my fault. We went from lenne to surf, Governor obviously is a rookie this year in VCT, primmie obviously is a rookie in VCT. So because of that, you are going to have mental lapses and inexperience is going to show. That means I need to be more patient. However, there's a standard that me and Crws believe this team needs to have, and often we find ourselves not meeting that standard. But if we do meet that standard, Americas' first seed is not that big of a problem. As you guys saw, we are often our worst enemies. Until we fix that, I'm not sure how competitive we can be. But I believe that at our best we can actually win this tournament."
FrosT, you mentioned during the post-match press conference when you guys qualified for Champions after defeating Team Secret that this is possibly Pacific's best chance at Champions and that out of all four regions, Pacific teams combined are the strongest coming to the event. After coming here and having seen some of the official matches, do you still believe that's the case or are any teams being surprised to you?
FrosT: "No, I believe that's the case. I think even today we showed it to Americas' first seed. Americas is a fan favorite in terms of strength overall, but I think actually when you play, Pacific is still at the moment the strongest region. I think all four of us can make it out of groups. If you saw today, a few rounds go differently, we are up 2-0, all of you guys are like, 'What the heck is this?' And then you see Pacific is actually nothing to mess with at the moment. I still think the top of the top though, the top of Americas and the top of EMEA certainly have good opportunities to win this, so I don't think it's going to be clean. I certainly still believe, especially after practicing and feeling all the other Americas teams, I think that if we are the fourth seed, it's unlucky for the rest."