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ANDhe world of professional VALORANT has been turned upside down since the end of 2022. When Riot Games announced that the shooter would see a giant change in its sceneNo one expected what was to come. Beyond the franchise leagues, which I know were expected, the developer has created the VCT Lock/In, the largest tournament in the history of this video game.
In it, 32 teams will fight to prove that they are the best in the world, while they will discover how well those first steps they have taken as a team have gone, since the players were confirmed. Especially interesting for us are three participants: KOI, Heretics and Giants, the three Spanish teams that will participate in the VCT.
As prior to the tournament, from MARCA we bring you ‘In Raze Land’a series with chapters on each of the three teams, which will allow us to get closer to the history of the team, its players and their feelings for this competition that will take place in Sao Paulo. Today, to begin with, KOI, a team willing to change history, with the collaboration of Koldamenta.
KOI’s gray past
The tents have already established themselves as one of the main Spanish teams. The Ibai Llanos club has thousands of followers, and is already in the main competitions of both League of Legends and VALORANT, little more than a year after its creation.
But now focusing on the Riot shooter, the truth is that its name has not matched its level on the servers. Despite the club’s effort to try to create a winning team, KOI hasn’t made the cut in either of the two Rising splits last year.
In spring they finished the regular phase in second position, with a good result of 6-3 which presaged that the team would be among the best and would have options to win the title. However, in the playoffs, rebels, that ultimately won the tournament, showed itself to be a more compact team, and he took the BO5 with a 3-2, leaving them at the gates of the grand final.
The biggest disappointment was in summer. The second split did not end as well for them as they would have liked. They could not find the key, and they had to change pieces to try to avoid a relegation that would have been hard to Liga Radiante. With a 5-13 they finished in penultimate position, and beat Real Betis in the relegation qualifiers 3-1.
a bright future
That is, right now, what the carp are looking for. After suffering last year, now they want to turn around and change course, taking advantage of their promotion to VCT. For this reason they have completely renewed both their players and their staff.
As coaches, the boys from the Ibai Llanos club have decided to count on BARBARRex-guild coach, VCT team last year, and with Goked, who led CASE Esports to victory in the Rising Summer Split in the previous season.
And as players, the five who will fight on the server are preceded by their fame. Starxo, the Polish player who arrives after ending his contract with AcendYou already know what it is to win a World Cup, since you were proclaimed champion of the 2021 Champions League. Wolfen, the Bulgarian wolf, arrives from CASE, where with Goked he managed to take the Rising and make a good performance in the VRL Finals. The third party is Sheydos, the Russian player who becomes part of KOI from M3Cand that he was runner-up with Gambit in the 2021 Champions League.
Two former BARBARR pupils complete the roster. First, Trexx, He had a huge role last year in Guild, standing out with Raze. And finally, the only Spanish player on the squad: José Luis Aranguren, also known as Koldamenta. MARCA has spoken with the former IGL of the Guild, who will now try to direct the tents in this new year.
Koldamenta: “It is likely that the team that wins is not the best”
The KOI player is happy with his team, although he knows that things still need to be polished: “We have trained only one month for Brazilso there is still a lot of work to be done but we are evolving at a good pace.” In addition, he feels confident with the improvements in the team, since he knows perfectly the work dynamic of Trexx and BARBARR from his time in Guild: “Being with a person you know from before makes the process much easier.”
But one of the problems has been that KOI has had to wait longer than the rest of the teams to present their roster: “The wait has been a difficult process, knowing that the rest of the teams are already preparing and not yetbut I trust that working hard that in the long run has been worth it”. In addition, he confesses that he feels that others see them as a strong roster: “I don’t really know what people think of us, I think that at first glance it seems like a strong roster, but in the end it’s all about fitting the pieces together and that takes more time.”
Regarding the tournament, Koldamenta points out that he expected another type of format: “I expected a more complex tournamentbut since there is a simple knockout format, it makes it much more random. “Because of that, he believes that the situation may arise that the best one does not win:It is very likely that it will not be the best team that wins“.
The main idea, he points out, is to create a tournament that shows what we will be able to see in the different VCTs: “I think that with this format it is more focused on the show, having a good time and warming up for the year than a normal tournament”.
