Potter, the coach of Evil Geniuses, gave esports.gg her reaction to the 100 Thieves series and the VCT debut of Demon1 in Week 2.
Evil Geniuses has put together a large roster to take on VCT Americas 2023. Throughout VCT LOCK/IN and the first week of league play, there has been a consistent starting five. Until Week 2 against 100 Thieves, that is. Max "Demon1" Mazanov debuted and we spoke with Christine "Potter" Chi about it.
He slotted in on Icebox, replacing Brendan "BcJ" Jensen. While he performed well, EG still fell to 100T. Potter was vocal with us regarding her reaction to the loss, how Demon1's first VCT appearance went, and what to expect in upcoming matches.
Evil Geniuses coach Potter is proud of Demon1 in his debut, but knows there is work to be done with the team overall
"It's never easy to speak about or dissect a loss so quickly after a match, but I'd like to ask, what's your immediate reaction?"
Potter: "Well, we worked really hard on our anti-eco and my immediate reaction is that our momentum completely stopped going into the second half after we won pistol. Once again, we're plagued with this g*d damn anti-eco. So, that definitely deflated us. I think more so this week than it did last week, and it was almost just playing catch up for the rest of the series, unfortunately."
"You're clearly a passionate and competitive coach. When these losses happen, do you feel any disappointment in your players at all or do you look at it as motivation to improve?"
Potter: "It's definitely not disappointment in my players, but probably like...it's not disappointment, it's just like a, 'Oh, it was so close,' type of feeling for sure."
"Okay, and I have to ask about the substitution for map two. On Icebox, BcJ left and Demon1 entered. BcJ has always been an impactful player in VALORANT, so can you elaborate on that substitution choice?"
Potter: "Yeah, this has been somewhat in the works for the past couple of weeks. Demon1 one is just incredibly talented. He's been showcasing that in scrim after scrim, and he's just a Jett that has kind of untapped potential. So, we want to be able to see exactly how good he can be.
"He's been performing extremely well in our scrims and for us, we're trying to become more consistent, and we're trying to be more explosive based off our map control and things like that. And with Jawgemo, he's just a different kind of Jett.
"We're really just trying to figure out all of the options that we have on the table while the season is early, you know? I think the way we would've approached this would've been different had Brazil and our first match gone differently. But again, we have a lot of tools at our disposal and we need to be able to figure out exactly how to elevate all of our players."
"And what are your thoughts on Demon1's performance as Jett?"
Potter: "I think he did great. You know, he obviously he didn't single-handedly carry us. That would've been great, but he did good. He sounded cool and he had some incredible rounds. I think if we were, again, not playing catch up throughout the second map, like mentally, then I think we would've been able to tee him up a little bit more with his teammates and allowed him to shine more. But we had some promising moments."
"With the likes of ScrewFace, Apoth, and Reformed still waiting in the wings, are you able to speak on any other potential substitutions we might see in the future, whether its based on the map choice or perhaps a favorable match up against a certain team?"
Potter: "No, not at the moment. Um, yeah, not at the moment."
"Well, both games so far were against NA teams represented here at VCT Americas. Next up, you'll finally face a LATAM team and a Brazilian team the following week, with those being KRÜ and FURIA, respectively. Have you paid attention to those two regions' performances in the league thus far and if so, what do you expect in these upcoming matches?"
Potter: "I've definitely been paying attention. We scrim them quite often as well. We have over the course of the last few months and they're extremely strong. They have a different kind of confidence individually for sure.
"It just feels like at any point, any single one of them can have this 'rabbit out of a hat' kind of round. I mean, their aim is just insane, so definitely in the scrims, we feel that for sure. I think we have a pretty good idea of what to expect."
"And to end things on a positive note. There has only been a small sample size of the league with plenty of opponents left, but what are some things you've learned in your coaching role in that short time, whether personally or on a team basis, that you can say you're proud of?"
Potter: "I probably don't say it enough, but just being proud of what we've done so far. Again, when we compare apples to apples and we are comparing roster versus roster, how much money the orgs are putting into each roster, and things of this nature. I think I've built a competitive one, so I'm pretty proud of all we've done so far and we've got a lot more work ahead. So, kind of just looking at it like that."
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