"Before Rarga stops saying he's a bad player, I don't think he can improve." – XLG hvoya on his frustrations with the team

A domestic showdown pitted Dragon Ranger Gaming against Xi Lai Gaming fighting for tournament life, with XLG coming out on top to fight another day. Despite the victory, the team looked shakier than their first match against NRG, a series where they had lost 2-0. Especially on Haven, XLG couldn't seem to get anything going, and it took Teng "happywei" Minwei to go 35-12 (a non-OT map kill record) to drag the team across the finish line on Split.

To try to understand the team's struggles, we had the opportunity to talk to Aleksandr "hvoya" Eremin following the match, who was probably the person most frustrated with the team. The coach opened up about the role issues, Arthur "Rarga" Churyumov's mental battle, as well as the visible communication problems that hampered the team.

A combination of pressure and role issues

THESPIKE: Earlier we were talking about how, despite winning, you aren't feeling the best about the team's performance right now. Can you talk me through why that's the case?

hvoya: To be honest, I don't feel the best, because I thought this matchup was going to be way easier for us. But I can also truly understand that we have more pressure than DRG, because everyone considers us a team that can actually do something internationally, except EDward Gaming. So at least I'm happy we won our first international match. Even if it's a regional matchup, we're still playing in another arena, another country. I'm also happy we're not going to face NRG anymore because of the rules.

THESPIKE: You had a lot of time before London just to prep for the tournament. I was talking to James "NoMan" Man Ga-kit about this after your first game against NRG, and he said you used most of that time to experiment with roles. From a coach's perspective, what did you do tactically to prepare for London compared to VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Masters Santiago 2026?

hvoya: We've been trying different roles. You can see Rarga playing Waylay and NoMan playing Raze. We tried to keep the same idea of a double-duelist comp, but we changed the pace a little. We started playing a bit slower, because people have started bringing Vyse back into the meta, and that's an agent you can't just run onto because of the Vyse wall. Some players also have some role issues, because I can't say we can flex a lot. We've been trying double initiator as well. Even in Stage 1 we put NoMan on KAY/O. I don't think KAY/O brings us a lot, but maybe in the future, because we just need a little more time.

VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Masters London 2026

Dragon Ranger Gaming

1

X

2

Xi Lai Gaming

Swiss stage, Best of 3 - June 9, 2026 - 2:00PM

13

Haven

4

9

Fracture

13

11

Split

13

Dragon Ranger Gaming

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

vo0kashu

1.38

276

60/41/17

+19

1.46

88.4%

182.8

25%

80%

8

2

Nicc

1.18

220

49/39/20

+10

1.26

78.5%

139.8

30%

50%

4

4

Flex1n

1.06

188

38/41/33

-3

0.93

75.6%

112.0

25%

57%

8

6

SpiritZ1

1.05

220

48/45/12

+3

1.07

72.6%

143.4

34%

64%

9

5

Life

0.69

152

33/47/14

-14

0.70

73.0%

105.2

42%

35%

6

11

Xi Lai Gaming

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

happywei

1.35

274

64/40/14

+24

1.60

80.4%

197.1

40%

62%

8

5

Lysoar

1.01

181

40/44/30

-4

0.91

71.8%

120.9

23%

50%

2

2

Rarga

0.95

204

46/48/10

-2

0.96

72.2%

131.1

33%

48%

12

13

WsLeo

0.76

159

30/48/24

-18

0.63

67.3%

103.9

28%

17%

1

5

NoMan

0.70

156

33/48/15

-15

0.69

61.7%

115.4

25%

33%

5

10

"Rarga is downgrading"

THESPIKE: Speaking of a player on a new role: Rarga has been playing a lot of Phoenix this tournament, and he hasn't looked the most comfortable right now. What do you think the issues are with his stage performance compared to scrims or practice?

hvoya: I'll tell you. Even after the NRG game, when Rarga didn't show up again, I opened the screenshots of our scrims. I scrolled through ten random scrims out of ten, and I could see Rarga playing one game in the middle of the pack. The other nine games he's a top fragger, averaging like 25 to 30 kills. So obviously the issue is himself, because he keeps saying he's the bad guy, he's the bad player, he doesn't deserve it, and so on. Before he stops saying this, I don't think he can improve.

I can see the big difference from the Rarga back in 2024, when he was just playing, enjoying it, not caring at all about his performance. He'd just play as usual anywhere: stage, home, any tournament. And now this whole thing happened after we finished Stage 1 last year, when we won. We lost our key player, and everything got super messy. I think that was the starting point of Rarga downgrading. At some point he had a really good bounce-back, but it's still very inconsistent. I just wish him the best, and I wish he'd truly understand that he's a very good player, because everyone around him says so. The manager, the team leader, the camera staff, all five players, three coaches, everyone says he's a good player. Even if people outside don't say that. But he still suffers.

"I don't believe someone can help him. Maybe a very good mental coach can do it. But for me, he can only fix it by himself. Only himself."

Rarga dominated VCT CN in 2025, averaging 260 and 228.5 ACS in Stage 1 and 2 respectively. This season, the duelist player has had a much quieter performance, especially on the international stage.

The gap between Chinese and NA teams

THESPIKE: I noticed a lot of flooding during retakes, especially in the NRG game, off the back of less utility. Is that something you see as a key part to fix in the team's game plan?

hvoya: The big difference between the NA teams and the Chinese teams are that the former have really good util usage and really fast comms to connect with each other and flood properly. Flooding is also quite popular in China, but our floods become so messy. Even our pistol rounds are messy, like the first pistol round on Fracture. Maybe there's a little bit of a language barrier, but I don't believe it's a real issue. Maybe it's also a synergy problem between the players, because I can't deny it. I can see we have issues with that.

THESPIKE: And I think you said earlier you'd like to play Global Esports next. Why's that?

hvoya: First of all, it's my personal matchup against Savva "Kr1stal" Fedorov, my past player. I used to share a lot of IGL experience with him, and I think Kr1stal is a really great player, so it would be fun to face him. Rarga and happywei are his past teammates as well. We're just friends. I'm cheering for them today, and I hope they get to play.

Kr1stal was the IGL of the XLG roster that qualified for VCT CN through China Ascension 2024, but was unfortunately let go due to import rules.

THESPIKE: Thank you for the interview, and best of luck against GE.

Catch XLG as they face off against GE for the final spot to playoffs. For all things VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Masters London 2026 tune into THESPIKE.GG