[EXCLUSIVE] Team Vitality Kicks on their Split 1 performance: "Gentle Mates... was a wakeup call"

Team Vitality Kimmie "Kicks" Laasner sits down with Strafe Esports following their convincing victory against GIANTX in the 2024 VCT EMEA Split 1 Week 4.

Speaking on Vitality's strong start to the split, their unexpected dip in form against Gentle Mates, and recovering against GIANTX. Kicks also touched on the challenges transitioning into Tier 1 as well as the breadth of competition this year in VCT EMEA.

[Interviewer] Congratulations on your victory today. Starting off, Lotus was an extremely close map, especially considering it was not your guys’ map pick coming into the series. Could you take me through what has been Vitality’s approach towards Lotus and the adaptations you guys have made since Week 1?

Well, first of all, the week 1 map where we played Lotus against NA’VI was like, we kind of realized some issues we had with like what agents some people were playing and like, some role issues. Because we were always good on Lotus as a team. Before trexx came in, Lotus was always one of our top picks and when trexx came in, it was still the same thing.

But there were small problems that we didn’t really notice in scrims, that kind of came to bite us in officials. Some like, natural instincts, that people would have on certain agents that just didn’t happen in-game. Those like quick decisions that we needed, just didn’t come because people were just off-role and then, we were kind of just juggling the map around with like, we knew we were good on the map.

But like against some opponents, we didn’t have enough time to change around stuff because, like for example, against Heretics – they’re good on Lotus and we didn’t have time to switch stuff around. So, we just banned Lotus. And now, against like Futbolist, Gentle Mates, GIANTX, we had the map ready, and we just kind of changed stuff around and we didn’t have too much prepared on it. Because again, it’s like changing comps between weeks.

There isn’t too much time to do stuff, but we just tried to kind of keep roles natural again, so that people just feel comfortable on the roles and then we’re going to play better because of that as well.

[Interviewer] You’ll be facing against KOI next week. Much like GIANTX, they have also yet to post a win and would likely be looking to swing for the fences as well. What are your initial thoughts facing this team?

I mean, now that we’ve showed again that we can like, even in this Lotus Game, we should have closed it out and it is what is now. But after this GIANTX game today, especially after Breeze and Sunset, we’re confident in our abilities. And like that Gentle Mates game that happened, we already went over what went wrong and it was like – we were too relaxed before the game, like two weeks before the game.

We were kind of just like, too relaxed and like, ‘okay, well on paper, the hard games we had, we’ve won already, and then it was like we can now, you know take a step back and like, we’re going to end up top of the group. And we were like looking into the future being too relaxed and now […] Gentle Mates, it was a wake-up call. Like that was […] this was going to decide if you even made Playoffs at all.

And it’s good to see that we woke up for the GIANTX game now. We’re completely awake and if we just keep up the same work and we don’t become too complacent now against KOI, then I expect the same results that we had against GIANTX.

[Interviewer] We’ve seen since Kickoff, the level of competition in Europe has skyrocketed to incredible levels. On paper, teams were still strong. But to the outside world, Fnatic was running the show last year. What are your current thoughts on sort of the level of competition in Europe this year?

I feel like the region is in the best place it’s ever been. Sort of because of the amount of teams that have beaten each other. Like one team beat this, but then they beat them and like it just goes around in circles, where you can find the team that lose to someone 2-0, got completely stomped, but then beat another team […] like it just goes round and round. It’s really hard to predict what is going to happen in some of these groups, especially in our group. I feel like, from the outside, and even for us, I mean, it’s still hard for us to say who’s going to be the top 3 in our group now. And I think the reason why is because people are finding how to play positions, a lot of teams have made new roster moves.

A lot of young players have come in, like myself. I’m just, I’m still 18 and I came in. Like runneR as well with me, two rookies. We came into the scene into Vitality. Another team that did really well in Kickoff that I think everyone has already given the credit for, but Heretics. I mean, they have 4 young players coming in, they completely revamped the team, and they were really playing to the chance.

Playing against them, it was kind of hard sometimes because they really play as a unit, like they have really good aim and it’s really hard to find the kill and then not get traded instantly. I feel like more teams are abusing the fact that they can actually fight back. I feel like last year, even though I wasn’t here, I feel like the consensus was kind of that: ‘Ok, we’re going to play against Fnatic. Hopefully we beat them. If we don’t, it’s what we expect.

This year is like, every game, I guess everyone has like this expectation that they’re going to win the game and it’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen. Even for me, it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen in any game, like watching other people play as well.

[Interviewer] You came into this team from Tier 2, from Challengers. Can you speak a little bit on sort of that transition from, I believe is it the Polaris League, and then transitioning now into VCT EMEA from Laterious. Yeah, how's that transition like been like?

So, it was Laterious in Dach for like one split. But before that, yeah, I was playing in Polaris, always, like the whole time. And I would say the transition was kind of like quick and really sudden for me because I basically joined Vitality as soon as I turned 18 and then playing with higher standards, playing with the best players, like playing with someone like Sayf for example. Like one of the best players in the world.

This shift, just going from like Challengers, being like playing against some teams that are part-time or like you yourself. It’s like you’re not playing at the highest level yet. Like you’re working towards it, but you’re not there yet, and then just suddenly, just being here and like everything changes, like you’re putting in more work, you’re working on yourself more, like everything is like, goes up a level and I’d say the transition for me was like in the beginning, was pretty hard or challenging rather, not hard. Challenging like hard to catch up and there was a lot of work to do.

But the place we are now as a team, and me myself as an individual – I feel like I’ve kind of found out stuff about myself. Like what are my strengths, what are my weaknesses? What do I still have to work on? What do I do good and I’d say that I feel like I’ve done a good job transitioning into Tier 1 in my first year so far.

[Interviewer] Did you think you were good enough to come straight into EMEA and all you were waiting for was to turn 18? Or was the opportunity from Vitality a bit unexpected so soon after you turned free agent?

Hmm, I would say that I was expecting to get a few trials. But I didn’t really have the set image in my head that ok, I need to do well in these trials and I’m going to be in the VCT. Like I was going to be fine with the fact that if I didn’t make it yet, it’s fine, I’m still 18.

Yeah, but the fact that it happened, it was just kind of like, I guess, in a sense like, it just kind of made me realize, that like, holy f*ck, I’m good enough for this, like I can do all of these things that everyone else does, like everyone else is getting into the VCT and I can do it just as well. I can do just as well if not better and it was kind of unexpected but once it happened, I kind of realized why and it gave me a big confidence boost I would say.

Team Vitality have been eliminated from Playoffs contention after this week. They will return to compete in Split 2.

For all the latest updates on VCT EMEA, follow the official VCT EMEA Twitter/X here. You can also follow along with the action on the Strafe Android and iOS apps, as well as the Strafe site.

Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games

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