I think for a lot of people it’s about doing something you believe in and just doing it: Vitality Salah exclusive Strafe Interview VCT EMEA
In Week 3 of the VCT EMEA, Team Vitality took on Karmine Corp, emerging victorious in just two maps. The two organizations have a storied rivalry domestically (both French organizations with passionate fanbases), thus the game was a loaded one. After the win, Strafe Esports was fortunate enough to speak with Vitality Head Coach Salah "Salah" Barakat. In this exclusive 1-1 post-game interview, Salah spoke on his thoughts on the teams newfound success, their goals moving forwards and the mentality they have in approaching games.
Hi, thank you for agreeing to this interview. It is an honour to be able to speak with you. First of all, I feel congratulations are in order. You guys had a pretty decent game against Karmine. What were your thoughts on how the game went?
No problem! I feel like for us, it was quite comfortable. We didn’t really have an issue, we played quite good, I don’t think we’re all the way back yet, like we’ve been going through a bit of a rough period, like different sickness and different stuffs like this. But I think it was good.
I see. Did you guys (Vitality) prepare anything special against them?
No, we just did our thing.
What was it like preparing against Karmine? Did you consider them to be a particularly strong team? Or were you very confident of your victory?
With us, of course there was a little bit of the like the orgs’ rivalry and whatnot. But for us, every opponent is the same, we just imagine them without nametags to be honest. So we were not too bothered by who we’re playing against, in terms of how good they are or how bad they are. We respect that everyone can shoot the same way we can shoot. Everyone can do the same things we can. It’s just we aim to do it the best possible right? And be the best we can be. So, I think, we didn’t really go into the game with any expectations for how good or bad they would be, we just to ourselves more to be honest.
Sorry for pivoting a little more into it, but what do you personally think is Karmine’s main problem currently?
I’m not entirely sure, it’s hard to say when we dominated as much as we did. Maybe its confidence at this point. Like they have good players. A lot of respect for “ScreaM”. I think it’s a bit of confidence, maybe some game style stuff they need to iron out, but I’m not entirely sure to be honest.
You guys smashed Karmine on their own map pick of Ascent. But, on your own map pick of Split, it looked a little more competitive from Karmine, especially on the attack side. Was there any element of their attack that made it more difficult to deal with? Was it ScreaM catching you guys off guard more?
I think it was not necessarily that they looked better. I think it was more, they won pistol, they won third round, that was pretty much it to be honest. They got four or five rounds right, 13-5? 13-6? It wasn’t that bad, I don’t think at any particular time…like we weren’t afraid it was going to slipping us or anything like that. I think after the pause it was pretty much done right? We won the next round and just finished it.
I see. Well, there isn’t a lot to ask about the game tonight itself, but how does a typical day of preparation look for you guys? Any routines? Is anti-stratting something you focus on a lot, or is it more of a ‘focus on yourselves’ approach?
I say we have a good process, the way we do things. It’s a very scheduled and planned thing, the same every week I’d say. For every game, I have two excellent assistant coaches now, so they do very good anti-stratting. I’m able to use that anti-stratting to make gameplans from this. So, I think a lot of our stuff is…I spend a lot of time, we spend a lot of time on our structure for the first good period of the week, and if we need to, if there’s specific things we need to practice, we do it. So yeah, I think it’s a healthy mix.
In terms of playing on-stage, a lot of your current roster members on Vitality did not have a lot of LAN experience in Valorant prior to joining the team. Was there any nervousness going on in your first few weeks?
I would say, in like Red Bull and Brazil (LOCK//IN), I think there was nerves of course, it’s natural. It’s a new thing playing on stage, it’s a new experience entirely. I think for us it was about savouring the experience and coming into it, and slowly I think we are getting there. I don’t think there was any nerves after, I would say, the Liquid game [first game of VCT EMEA for them]. There was a little bit of healthy nerves, I think it’s a good thing to be nervous. If you’re not nervous, you’re a bit insane right? I think it’s a good thing, I think it’s a positive thing, and I always tell the boys, I never tell them to run away from pressure, I always tell them to run towards pressure. Because I think, if there is not pressure in your life, you’re not doing the correct things. If you have pressure, you’re facing a good course, if that makes sense.
What are your thoughts so far on Vitality’s performance in VCT EMEA? From an outsider’s perspective, you guys are obviously looking very good.
I think we’re doing great; we beat two of the, I’d say, people who I rated higher than us at the start of the season. People were rating Liquid higher than us; they were all quite high in people’s minds. We beat them, and we beat them with not even close to our peak performance. I thought that was really good. I think for FUTBOLISTS, lot of respect for them. They played a very good game, I liked the way they played and I think against them, we had some sickness issues and health issues, and I think that combined with tiredness of ‘superweek’ and all that, I think it all just combined into them just punishing us. I think it’s healthy to lose. Sometimes you need to lose, especially in a league format, everyone’s going to lose at some point. I don’t think there’s anyone who’s going to go perfect. So I think it was a fine loss for us. Now it’s just about getting momentum back and keeping it up.
Thing’s are going really well for Vitality at the moment. However, I did notice you guys have kept to playing fairly standard. Roles are kept more or less, and there isn’t a lot of role-switching or agent switchups happening. Are you guys looking to experiment down the road, now that you’re on a good track?
I mean, we’re always experimenting, we always have our eyes on everything right? We’re always going to be experimenting, we’re always going to be trying new things. But sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn’t. I do think there’s some interesting things coming, for sure.
I realize you probably get asked this question a lot. But have you considered playing Gekko at all in your official games?
I think he’s bad to be honest. I don’t think he good. He’s awful hahah.
What has been your biggest takeaways so far in the current meta? In EMEA or in general?
I think it’s not bad. I think people go too far sometimes. LOUD, when they showed everyone different things, and they showed everyone you can play in different ways. I think for a lot of people it’s about doing something you believe in and just doing it. I think a lot of teams, people are afraid of trying new things. The meta’s quite healthy right now. I think on some maps of course, we’re not getting a lot of comp diversity and that’s going to happen. In any competitive game, if there is something perceived to be the best, it’s very hard to justify going away from that right? But I think we have a healthy-ish meta. I don’t think there’s any agents that’s mega busted, which is a really good thing. So, yeah I think it’s pretty healthy right now to be honest.
Last question, in your series against FUT last week, compared to your series against Liquid and KOI, where it seemed to go a lot more smoothly, what happened in that FUT game? You mentioned the fatigue from superweek and the illnesses, but was there anything in particular FUT was doing that disrupted your game plan?
So, this day, we had three people very sick I would say, and that affected our performance. And it was something we knew beforehand that FUTBOLISTS is a really really good team. So, maybe if we were playing against other teams we could have gotten away with it more. But when you’re playing against a good team, if you’re not at a 100%, they’re going to punish you, and I think that’s exactly what they did. I’m not going to make the sickness the excuse. It’s of course the sickness, but it’s also never easy to play like this. It’s never easy to play with that kind of…lacking so much energy and comms and all that. But at the same time, they have to be good to punish us. I think we are a top team, and when you’re a top team, you should be able to win no matter what. And I think they were just good enough to make that impossible that day.
Next week you’re facing BBL. Is there any special preparations going into that series?
I think we’re just going to do our thing, just keep doing anti-stratting. That’s my brother the IGL. It’s going to be a fun game. I think we’ll just do our thing.
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