Fnatic’s successful player Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev shared his thoughts on his team and about the tournament after the KRÜ Esports match they faced on the first day of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2021: Stage 2 Masters – Reykjavik tournament.
Q1- Considering your training before Masters, how do you believe the level of the competition will be in Masters?
A1- We didn’t scrim as much. Even before the Masters Qualifiers we were pretty confident. We won our scrims, we did what we want. We didn’t play any other game in Iceland, only Team Liquid.
Q2– Yesterday a clip from the last press conference went viral on Brazilian Twitter. Did Fnatic train against Vikings and Sharks? If so how do you see their level compared to the rest of the teams?
A2– We didn’t practice Vikings or Sharks or any teams in Iceland. I didn’t look at them much but heard from other teams and Liquid, that they’re very strong. I guess we’ll see in Masters. But I don’t want to make predictions out of scrims.
Q3– In game 1 against KRÜ, FNC looked dominant, what went well for the team?
A3- In the first game, we lost 2 pistols. But we still kept going and won some eco rounds. We had our positivity. We didn’t argue about anything and we’re all on the same level. Our communication was higher than before and it was nice, we enjoyed the fight.
Q4- In a recent AMA, FNC rated KRÜ as an easier opponent. Do you think the same?
A4- I think KRÜ is a good team and they have good fundamentals. But I think we’re just better and we already have passed that level. We’re 2 steps above.
Q5– Your next opponent is SENTINELS, which will make a debut against you. Do you believe that playing an MD3 earlier can be detrimental to FNC in view of the fact that it gave more study material to the SENTINELS?
A5- We didn’t play or show many of our strategies. We’ve already reviewed them because we knew we were going to play them after this game. So I guess we had the same amount of time to prepare for each other.
Q6– If you can share what difficulties did you find whilst facing KRU Esports today?
A6- Facing KRÜ, we had individual problems like overpeaking. We gave respect to the opponent when we didn’t have to. Also, we didn’t trade enough and some players closed us out.
Q7– What do you make of KRÜ’s playstyle? Was there anything unique about going up against them ?
A7- When we watched their VODs, for me I found a similar playstyle and similar strategies to us. So it felt like we were playing against us again. But they’re a bit more aggressive and they were hitting nice shots too.
Q8– You’ve been proficient with Jett during your time so far with Fnatic. How do you make of your performance with her today?
A8- I think my performance in this game was kind of good, I did what I prepared in pracs like what I wanted to and Boaster gave me a lot of freedom, so I think I have done my job well.
Q9– We recently saw some players complaining about PC and internet issues in Iceland, have you faced the same issues?
A9- Yes, we went through the same problem with PCs or monitors. We accepted the fact we can’t do anything about it and we were just preparing on those PC’s. We knew on stage we’d get better PCs and other hardware. So I thought it was good we prepared out mental and didn’t talk about that anymore.
Q10– You’re known for having clean pistols, what went wrong today?
A10- The first pistol on Haven, we had a pretty good flash and dash combo. But KRU dodged it with Skye’s wolf so it kinda went wrong there. Then other pistols, we lost duels or didn’t communicate enough.
Q11– If you can name 3 non EU players who have impressed you in scrims or ranked? Who would they be?
A11- I didn’t meet anyone in ranked or scrims for non-EU players. But for what I saw in VODs, I think Saadhak, TenZ and Munchkin.
Q12- Do you believe you’re the best Jett at VCT Masters?
A12- Yes, I believe that.
Q13– How does it feel to be a part of Valorant’s inaugural international LAN tournament?
A13- I’ve wanted to get on international LAN for a couple of years now. I’ve had so much excitement to come here and when we qualified. We instantly qualified with 4 days of preparation, so I’m very happy with that, so I think we’re going to be the first team in and the last team out.
Q14– Your individual aggression seem to be your key to victory, did you identify KRU’s passive defence as weakness or did you just relish the map freedom?
A14- I looked at some VODs of KRU and saw some patterns of players and tried to abuse that but sometimes they didn’t give me the chance to do that, so props to them.
Q15– FNC has been consistently rated over many teams coming into Iceland. What do you bring into the team that puts you above teams and regions?
A15- I think our playstyle is very unique. We are disciplined. We play together a lot and we have great firepower. Our coach does a lot of work in like anti-stratting, helping us, changing things up so that we don’t get bored and so other teams cannot keep up with us.
We will see how the Masters Reykjavik tournament will progress for Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev and for Fnatic. Because Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev spoke very assertively in this press conference.
