Exhaustion and Depression: Team Heretics Wo0t on needed break before Seoul
"If you reach that level, you are playing so much and so much, so much, so much. You literally don't have time. You don't have any time for preparation. Also if new players reach max level, like for me it was Shanghai - my feelings was insane. I felt every single like feeling in a very short time [...] When you go to the top levels, your feelings control you, and you become emotional. And if you're emotional in this game, you can't win."
Heading into the final week of the VCT EMEA Playoffs, it was easy to see that, perhaps more than any other team, Team Heretics was nearing their mental limit. A continuous string of games and challengers pursued them throughout the season and had seemed to finally succeed in pushing Team Heretics to the brink of sanity.
Exhausted and embattered, Heretics entered the finals days of VCT EMEA with a perfect record in the Stage 2 regular season, and a deep unsatisfaction with their dipping individual performance.
Despite the prodigious young talents, their stellar camaraderie as a team, and their long string of accolades and deep runs just over the course of 2024, a perhaps less remembered fact is that this Team Heretics roster is still a relatively new team - especially compared to the rest of the EMEA roster they faced in this Playoffs bracket.
"It's like our 1st year, and we played like the maximum matches. We played every single match in the VCT - almost. So, it's really hard for us. But everyone like, it's like a good experience. We are learning... I'm learning how to fight with it, how to reset myself in tournament. - Mert "Wo0t" Alkan.
Perhaps it's a testament then, to the caliber of players on Heretics and the team as a whole, that even when faltering and teetering on the edge of exhaustion, they still find themselves within arm's reach of another finals appearance.
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Faced against a revitalized Team Vitality in the Lower Finals, Heretics was quick to score the first series point. Unfortunately, it was also their last in the series. Vitality went on to take the next 3 maps to secure their own rematch against Fnatic in the Grand Finals.
Speaking with Heretics flex man Mert "Wo0t" Alkan after the conclusion of the series, he was somewhat reflective but also displayed frustrations with himself and the team’s performance. “I think we played bad as a team, like we just couldn’t perform,’ said the 18-year-old Turkish phenom. “We’re just not on the day… sometimes you can’t, it’s the day. So we just deserve to lose."
Alkan went on to admit that sometimes it just isn’t your day. “Like you want to put your energy into stuff, but it’s not happening. It’s so hard,” he said. “So like, I’m not sad to lose.”
"When we play bad as a team, we literally play bad as a team," he said. "Like, even if I drop 30, 40, 50... it's not gonna change. We're gonna lose anyways because we can''t play good as a team sometimes.
“At least we didn’t lose (the) Grand Finals,” Alkan smiled, likely reminiscing on their recent loss to Gen.G in the Grand Finals of VCT Masters Shanghai or their prior loss to Fnatic in the VCT EMEA Stage 1 Playoffs.
"I'm not sad to lose. I think it's good to lose," he said. "Because we're going to see our mistakes and come back strong in Seoul." Speaking on the loss, he was very clear that any loss for the team, did not depend on who they faced, but rather Heretics the team themselves.
"We played so many matches this year, like in this season after I came. Shanghai Finals, Stage 1 Finals, and now we came until the last match. So, we played a lot of match, and all of us are tired.
A Full Rebuild
Last year, no one expected much of Team Heretics. A middle-of-the-board team that delivered occasionally but overall never quite met the expectations of its fan following or the individuals on the team.
Coming into 2024, Heretics underwent a near full rebuild, only retaining the services of IGL Ričardas "Boo" Lukaševičius. He would come into the new year supported by 4 rookies:
- Benjy "benjyfishy" David Fish, a Fornite prodigy who had grown bored with the competition and was looking to debut in competitive VALORANT in 2024.
- Dominykas "MiniBoo"Lukaševičius, the younger brother of Boo and a phenomenal talent who had been competing in EMEA's Tier 2 since 2021.
- Enes "RieNs" Ecirli, a young Turkish talent who had helped jettison his former team all the way to one of the best in Ascension.
- And Mert "Wo0t" Alkan, the prodigious talent who seems to be able to play just about any role at the highest level.
The Weight of Success
What most expected was another middling year with a team that on paper didn't seem all that impressive name-wise. "When I came to this team, I wasn't expecting, like, to improve ourselves that much. I was expecting like Playoffs in Stage 1, like other stuff as well. So, I'm really happy and proud of my team."
"People, yeah, people start expecting us to win,' he admitted. "Like win everything. It's of course, gonna make pressure on us. But I don't think it's like a huge effect, you know..."
Wo0t was also extremely outspoken on his team's potential. "Like, I just know what we can do. I know our potential, and I know if we use it, we can win against everyone. So, I'm never really feeling that much pressure."
However, while Heretics has enjoyed much success and as a result earned much confidence, fatigue was setting in for the team.
"In the last 3 weeks of Stage 2... I was completely lost. Like I was... I was just like, I wasn't feeling happy even if I do everything," said Wo0t. "If I even win, like, I was, like, so, depressed. Like, my mental was completely down."
Heading into Seoul with an uncertain form
Throughout the year, Heretics has managed to maintain their aura of success through a solidity of teamwork that never seemed to diminish and the continued deliverance of success in the form of high placements both domestically and internationally. However, for the first time heading into an international, the concern surrounding this team is exhaustion. Last year, this very symptom claimed Fnatic not long after their peak at Tokyo.
"For myself, I want to dominate again, like in Shanghai [...] even if I play initiator. That's what I'm expecting from myself. From the team, I want to expect something like Shanghai, just to know our game, when to chill... I think these days, we are panicking so much because we are always playing not to lose. We are not playing for win, we are always playing not to lose. So, we are just panicking so much, when something happens in the map."
I asked Wo0t as a followup, what did he think worked for the team in Shanghai that seemed to be missing now. He replied that in Shanghai, they were "just not touching game that much."
"We were like spending time as a team, dry running, like working on the theory. We were working so much on it, so everyone knew what they should do. And we were doing it clean and chill. So, that's why I think we reached until the Grand Finals."
With less than 9 days left until the beginning of VCT Champions in Seoul, whether or not Heretics can recover their mid-season form, still remains to be seen.
"We're going to spend our time to like, you know, reset ourselves [...] focus on resetting ourselves and enjoying it. If we enjoy it (VALORANT), we will win. If we don't, we will lose."
Reflecting on his experience as a competitor, Wo0t noted the particular challenges that come with competing in VALORANT. "For me, VALORANT is not like other games," he admitted. "You need to enjoy it while playing so you can perform better and you can just go in comps more," he said.
"Like, when you are not happy while playing official and enjoying - you can't perform well. It's impossible. Like I understood that in the last 3 or 4 weeks."
Much like Wo0t touched on towards the end, the form for Heretics will depend very much on their recovery, and if they can refind what allowed them to enjoy VALORANT to such a degree. With the biggest and last tournament of the season coming up in just over a week, each of the 16 teams will need to dig deep, and find their greatest motivation to lift the championship.
Stay tuned on Strafe YouTube for exclusive interviews, press conferences and more. You can also follow the tournament on Strafe Esports.
Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games
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