GSR embraces pressure at Champions Shanghai: “I know that I’m good enough”

Team Liquid’s dream of making the playoffs at an international event in 2026 is still alive after they took down China’s No. 1 seed, TYLOO, in their second match of VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Champions Shanghai.

THESPIKE had the opportunity to speak to newly recruited Ognjen "GSR" Bondžić of Team Liquid after the game about his recruitment, the online reactions, and his debut on stage.

Twists and turns

While Liquid looked to take the series 2-0, TYLOO made them fight even harder, winning eight rounds in a row and taking the series to a third map. According to GSR, Liquid got too caught up in playing anti-strats..

“We'll focus a bit too much on like the anti and playing their game. And after we had a talk on map three, we just played our game. Don't even do the anti. We showed ourselves like this is how we usually play and scrims and stuff. I feel happy that we kind of discovered ourselves in the end and hopefully we can carry it on to the game as well.”

THESPIKE: There’s been a lot of tech issues during this tournament, did that affect you today?

GSR: “I mean, today we had to play with wired mice and the last time I played with a wired mouse was like 2016. I was like eight years old, you know? So at first I was like, how am I going to play with a wired mouse? But after I got on the server I realized that it's fine. I can play like this. And there were some audio issues today. I had not had a lot of audio issues, but it was playable. I mean, we can do it. You just have to sacrifice a bit, I guess.”

VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Champions Shanghai

TYLOO

1

X

2

Team Liquid

Group C - Elimination Match, Best of 3 - October 1, 2026 - 9:00AM

8

Split

13

13

Summit

7

2

Lotus

13

TYLOO

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

slowly

0.91

211

45/43/4

+2

1.05

62.3%

149.1

44%

40%

6

9

Splash

0.86

206

36/46/11

-10

0.78

68.2%

136.8

32%

47%

9

10

Erv

0.80

153

31/41/19

-10

0.76

63.8%

96.5

36%

60%

3

2

Scales

0.61

150

27/43/10

-16

0.63

52.1%

100.1

35%

33%

4

8

SiuFatBB

0.58

115

24/35/8

-11

0.69

61.1%

77.1

32%

33%

2

4

Team Liquid

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

kamo

1.26

258

53/34/7

+19

1.56

73.1%

166.2

25%

68%

13

6

GSR

1.23

237

49/34/13

+15

1.44

82.4%

148.9

33%

61%

11

7

Kicks

1.13

210

42/31/18

+11

1.35

72.7%

128.0

37%

83%

5

1

nAts

0.86

188

37/34/7

+3

1.09

72.7%

128.7

26%

27%

3

8

trexx

0.85

157

27/30/23

-3

0.90

72.7%

109.3

21%

0%

0

2

First-ever LAN

It was only about four weeks ago that GSR was on Team Liquid Academy, playing in Tier 2. Signing him was Liquid’s last move before Champions Shanghai, and the event marks GSR’s debut on LAN. Getting the opportunity to play for a Tier 1 team at the biggest event of the year is something he’s not taking for granted.

“It's been amazing to be honest. Like for my first games ever in my life to just be a champs, it's just crazy. I think no one has a story like this, you know? I just feel really grateful because so many players play for years and they never get the chance to play at internationals. And for me to be at my first ever event is kind of like a crazy feeling, I feel really happy. I just want to do my best to make sure Liquid breaks the curse finally.”

THESPIKE: How do you feel so far about your performance?

GSR: "I think my fragging is okay, but I'm still yet to find myself as a voice on the server right now I'm just more, you know, listening and following calls. But that's something I usually don't do. Usually I'm an active person that likes to talk and problem solve. So right now I'm just trying to find myself, giving ideas. I think shooting wise, I'm almost there. I'm still not one hundred percent because I can play way better.”

THESPIKE: It’s very clear that Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin likes his players to talk a lot, be very vocal. Is that something he's said to you multiple times that you need to talk more?

GSR: “Like after the first half, he (nAts) said, 'you're not talking, you're not giving ideas like usual, what's happening?' And I told him, I'm just in my head. And he said, 'okay, just be in the moment.' And after that, I started talking more and he was showing an attack because we had better spacing and it was overall better.”

THESPIKE: Do you feel like there’s a lot pressure to you to perform well?

GSR: “I never really think about this because playing officials is already like enough pressure itself. And if you just put extra pressure that you don't need, I think you're gonna crumble. It's hard to play under pressure, especially in this game. So yeah, like I just try to keep my head clear, just play the game. It's Valorant. It's something I do every day for hours, I'm here to have fun and yeah, stay in the moment.”

A lot of comments on social media

When GSR was brought on, Seymon "purp0" Borchev was benched. Making a roster change only weeks before the biggest event of the season was an unexpected and bold move. The reactions online were endless, with some expressing that the move was unfair to purp0 and others welcoming the change.

As negative comments started flooding his feed, GSR tried not to focus on what everyone else was saying, but rather on his own goals at Champs.

GSR: “I think it's not healthy to think about what other people think of you. I think what's most important is what I think of myself, and I know that I'm good enough and I deserve to be here. I'm here for a reason, so I'm just going to play my game and that's it.

I mean, people don't know what's really happening or like who's making decisions. They just see the, you know, five percent basically. And the team thought they had a better chance with me. They took the chance. Let's see what happens.”

Next up: G2

There’s still one game between Liquid and a spot in the playoffs. Their next opponent is G2 Esports from the Americas, and GSR thinks it’s going to be a tough matchup. If they don’t win, the curse of Liquid missing the Playoffs at an international event will continue.

GSR: “I mean, they (Liquid) never make playoffs because they were not good enough. So I think just let's just be good enough this time and that's it. It's just in your head. Just be good enough to make it, beat G2 and that's it. Nothing special.

I think they're (G2) probably like one of the hardest opponents we could play because they've been together for years and years. They have so much experience together whilst we're together for like one month. So yeah, it's going to be a tough game. I expect a close game.

For more interviews with players at Champions Shanghai, stay tuned to THESPIKE.GG.

Featured image source: Riot Games.