"We knew we have nothing to lose so we are just focused on Japan," - MrFaliN on upcoming matches

VCT 2023 - EMEA League is in its final stage and only one series away before we know who gets crowned as the first-ever EMEA League champions. The top four teams have made it to Masters Tokyo and out of them one team managed to shock everyone in the league and secure their spot in the upcoming event in Tokyo is FUT Esports. The Turkish teams were deemed to be the ones everyone said to look out for, and FUT Esports showed what those words meant.

At the start of the season, FUT Esports had a decent start when they won against Team Heretics, Team Vitality, BBL, and more. They managed to book their spot for the playoffs, which was their goal for the season. After their win against Giants Gaming in the Upper Bracket Quarter Finals, they showed tremendous improvement in their performance compared to their regular season, and after their win against NAVI in Lower Bracket Round 3 of 4, we got to speak with the team's brain, Furkan "MrFaliN" Yegen. Here is the full interview.

MrFaliN on Masters Tokyo qualification and preparations

THESPIKE: MrFaliN, congratulations on the win. Tomorrow, you will be fighting for the Grand Finals spot, did you guys expect this at the start of the season? What were the team goals coming into the League?

MrFaliN: Our team goal was to make it into the Playoffs, but after a good regular season in the EMEA League, we already knew if we can win against Giants, we might win against FNATIC. But in the lower bracket, we already knew we are gonna go to Japan by the way, but in this match against NAVI, we knew we have nothing to lose. So we are just focused on Japan and trying out strategies for Japan to check if the strats are working or not, and this is going to happen against Team Liquid too. Of course, we want to win against Team Liquid, but we are preparing for Tokyo right now. We will try something new or different, which we didn’t do in the regular season, we might lose or win the game, but we just want to fix our mistakes right now before Japan.

THESPIKE: Regarding your map selection, you guys allowed Fracture to go through, was that planned?

Mr.FaliN: Not just playoffs, in the match against BBL, we didn't ban Fracture, but they didn't expect that; we already knew in the match against Giants that they ban Fracture instantly; therefore, we didn’t want to take any risks, and if we play Fracture again, we can have a huge advantage on Bans and Picks which will help us on future for Japan or if we qualify for Champions. Therefore the match against NAVI was good for us like I said before, we have nothing to lose; we can lose, but we can try Fracture to check if our strats and if it's working, we are going to improve ourselves if it's not gonna work we might ban again Fracture, but it didn't happen so.

THESPIKE: Can you walk me through your 1 HP clutch against Suygetsu?

Mr.FaliN: I thought the Viper molly is not going to bite me, but when I moved towards it I just check my HP it said one, and I just thought, okay, I have flash I’m chilling because I’m 1 HP; you know I can’t defuse the spike because he has molly so I just tried that, and I surprised myself too in that.

THESPIKE: For the match against NAVI, did you guys have any preparations, or it was, as mentioned earlier, you guys have nothing to lose and want to have the best time, or were there some sort of preparations?

MrFaliN: We did, actually, but when the agent selection came, they changed their composition, and we just said, okay, let's just play our game, but the main thing was trust and play our game with good communication, and let's win this match that's it.

THESPIKE: You guys came into the league as underdogs, qualified for playoffs, and now you have beaten big teams like NAVI, Vitality, etc. How has the team’s mental changed, and how much do you think you guys have grown or basically, what major differences do you see in the team now versus then?

MrFaliN: I think our team members know that right now, if we have nothing to lose, we are playing better, but in a bad situation, we might play a little poorly, because sometimes communication becomes chaos, we get picked off one by one by doing some mistakes. I think our match against Giants and NAVI has helped us out a lot, because we are already sure if we have good communication and trust each other we are going to win the match. But if we don't, we are going to lose like we did against FNATIC.

THESPIKE: Even in your match against FNATIC, you managed to win in Bind, which is one of their strongest maps.

MrFaliN: Yeah, actually, we never played Bind versus FNATIC, and we never practiced it; in the match, we just talked to each other, Guys, what should we play, and as I said, everybody just trusts each other, we just picked the agents and are gonna perform nice and stick to it. We didn’t have any strats for it. I just played in my head on Bind. Because Bind is an easy map for me, If I get info about the opponents, I know what they are doing I just communicate to my teammates. That's it.

THESPIKE: What are your thoughts on the Shorty right now? (Note: This interview was held before the PBE 6.11 patch update)

MrFaliN: This gun needs to be nerfed; everyone is choosing it, and you can’t take close fights. But I don’t know if it is a good thing as well sometimes Meta changes, and you just have to adapt them. I think that instead of 150 credits, it should be maybe 250 credits, then it might be worth it. But definitely, it should be higher than 150, that’s for sure.

THESPIKE: Which team do you want to face in Masters? (Note: This interview was taken before the finalists were decided in Americas League)

Mr. Fallin: Cloud9 because I just love the team, not in VALORANT but in general, and I just want to win against them. That's it I just love the team.

Make sure to check out our VCT 2023 Hub for all the information about the VALORANT events this year.

Featured image courtesy of Riot Games.