Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin have known nothing but the top ever since VCT began.

In their first international appearance, Gambit's LAN chances slipped away at the last moment. After slogging through their group in Stage 2: EMEA Challengers Playoffs, Gambit faced a FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #5 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder squad that was just further ahead than them in the meta and were handed a 2-0 defeat.

“It was our first huge tournament against the top European teams,” Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin said. “To be honest, all of us were a bit shaky and we had a lot of pressure on us.”

Keeping up with the trend of dominating the regional VCT events they attended, Gambit rushed through Stage 3: Challengers 1 without dropping a single map and earned a spot in the EMEA Challengers Playoffs. Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk forced them to traverse the lower bracket. There, not only did they reach Berlin, but they did so in incredible fashion.

Gambit defeated Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #10 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak 2-1 to qualify for Masters Berlin, but their hunger wasn't satiated. G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive were next up, losing 2-1, while Acend lost 3-1 in the lower bracket final. The grand final against Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Rank #19 skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt OXMANN Aytekin Çakır umu7 Umut Pekdoğan started out with a decisive Ascent for the Turks, but Gambit quickly got back into the series and finished it off 3-1.

Gambit line up in front of the camera Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Some didn't expect Gambit to reach Berlin. Several others did, but not the way Gambit did.

At the time, Igor "Redgar" Vlasov described their qualification as deserved, not as luck. After the bittersweet taste left in their mouths in Stage 2, reaching Berlin was a special feeling.

In Berlin, Gambit only struggled against 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #5 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk in the Group C winner's match in a true display of the latter's experience both in and off the server. But soon after, they made the playoffs after beating Crazy Raccoon Crazy Raccoon Inactive 2-0 for the second time.

Making playoffs also meant the team had already qualified for Champions. Win or lose, from thereon out their flight back to Berlin was booked. They would avoid the LCQ and they were extremely close to glory.

“We were underdogs, we went to gain experience, but we wanted to win the tournament,” nAts said. “I played every game like the same game. Yes, we qualified, but who cares? We can win the tournament.”

In the final stage, no one could stand up to Gambit. Every match they played was a clean sweep, except for their quarterfinal against Vision Strikers Vision Strikers Inactive stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Zest Kim Ki-seok (김기석) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) . That match was a three-hour-long brawl between the two titans that most would probably have wanted played as a Bo5 grand final. After this victory, Gambit swept G2 and ENVY ENVY North America Rank #2 canezerra Alex Banyasz Eggsterr Inspire Hunter Schline P0PPIN Matteo Weber ion2x 2-0 and 3-0, respectively, to lift their first international Valorant trophy.

At the time, it was Gambit's biggest and toughest task ever. And one they were unproven at. But they never let the nerves get to them and carried on playing with the same incredible mental fortitude Gambit's always shown.

Fireworks burst over Gambit after winning Masters Berlin Gambit shone bright in their first international test (Photo by Lance Skundrich/Riot Games).

Their win was, in part, thanks to Gambit's support structure.

“We lost [First Strike], I went to my psychologist, he told me to do one thing, I won't say what it is because it's a secret, and until today I'm doing that, preparing for every tournament,” nAts explained. “Maybe, because of that, I play without emotions and am feeling really good.”

Minutes after winning, Gambit's in-game leader and captain Redgar told the media that the level they were at wasn't anywhere close to what he wanted from the team. According to Redgar, Gambit were at 60% of what was in the IGL's mind.

Gambit's latest and only outing since Berlin was the second Red Bull Home Ground, where Acend beat them 2-0 in the quarterfinals. Their early exit from Red Bull Home Ground prompted them to immediately go into bootcamp.

“We instantly went to bootcamp and started playing a lot,” nAts said. “It was just: wake up, you go play Valorant. Sleep, wake up, Valorant, Valorant, Valorant, all day. We were doing nothing except playing Valorant. No free time, because we just had to prepare for this tournament.”

Gambit's absence from competition was, in part, due to nAts catching COVID-19. “Unlucky,” he said.

“Because of that, we couldn't play a lot. I had high temperatures, I couldn't sit in front of my PC because it was so hard and we started to play less,” he said. “Instead of six praccs, we started to play four praccs or even less.”

“We are at 60% or maybe even 50%,” nAts admitted. “We can play better if we fix our problems, if we have an individual game like normally we do, we can play much better. But because of COVID-19 we lost a lot of things and I'm going to say we're at 60%.”

At most, before Champions arrives, nAts expects the team's level to rise to 70%. He went on to say that, had he not caught COVID-19, the team's form could have risen to 80% of his IGL's expectations.

“After the group stage, it will be much better.”

From November 8 until very recently, Gambit were in bootcamp in full preparation mode for Champions, dedicating four full weeks to preparation. The team arrived in Berlin on November 21, quarantining until November 26.

But that may not be enough.

“If we're talking about our current form, we can play well but it's not enough to win Champions,” nAts said. “There are a lot of good teams right now, everyone is preparing because it's a huge tournament and everyone wants to win. If we start improving every day, I guess we can show an incredible performance.”

nAts later said that winning Champions is not on his mind for now. First and foremost, the team wants to put on a good show, taking it one step at a time.

nAts holds his panda up to the camera “I'd like to have the Champions buddy, maybe on my Prism Phantom,” nAts said (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games).

Gambit are placed into Group C of Valorant Champions alongside Team Secret Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #8 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes JessieVash Jessie Cuyco Wild0reoo Brheyanne Christ Reyes 2GE James Goopio Jremy Jeremy Cabrera , Team Vikings Team Vikings Inactive Veroneze Vinícius Ribeiro Ds Daniel Silva swag João Neto pollo Julio Silva and Crazy Raccoon Crazy Raccoon Inactive .

“If we compare all the groups, we can say our group is much easier than others,” nAts said.

They'll open against Team Secret, a match scheduled to begin the second day of Valorant Champions.

"[Secret] are playing good. The first game on LAN is always unpredictable because everyone has problems on LAN, maybe sound, maybe something else, maybe pressure,” nAts said. “We're going to prepare for them like we always do for everyone. Of course we're going to watch their demos, we're going to talk about some things. Of course we're thinking about that, but in the first game we'll see their strategies and change something during the game, like they will.”

“The first game, for me, is like a final.”

All in all, Gambit crave glory once more. After lifting the Masters 3 trophy, the aim is now to put on a good show and lift Champions' trophy.

“Now, we're at full confidence because we won Berlin and we can repeat that. Everything depends on us, if we're going to play our game, if we're going to play good. We can do the same thing. Right now, we just need to show our best performance.”

“We'll see how it will be,” nAts said. “If we start well, yes, we can win all of them.”