LEV Onur Talks Struggles Ahead of Playoffs: "I Don't Know if We're Going To Find Our Best Form."
Leviatán’s bizarre decline throughout the course of VALORANT Champions Tour: Americas 2023 has been one of the biggest surprises of the season. After their top 8 finish at VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, LEV started out strong in VCT Americas, but limped to the playoffs with a 4-5 record.
Leviatán have only won one of their last five matches — a 2-0 victory over the winless KRÜ Esports in week 6. After their final match ended in a convincing loss to LOUD, LEV head coach Rodrigo "Onur" Dalmagro did not mince his words when speaking to Esports Illustrated about the current state of his team. “We are having a hard time, and not just in this game,” Onur admitted. “We've been struggling the last couple of weeks and we're not getting the results we want in practice.”
It's very difficult. I don't know — we have a couple of days to restructure, but it's hard to be optimistic when we just lost the way we did. It doesn't feel to me that that game was competitive. This is the second series where we have underperformed; the previous one was against Cloud9. I don't know if we're going to find our best form.”
LEV’s first match of the VCT Americas playoffs is against 5th seed FURIA Esports, who also finished the season 4-5. FURIA, while being the lower seed, did get the better of LEV when the teams faced off in the regular split in a nail-biting 2-1 victory.
What was particularly deflating to LEV about their loss to LOUD was that, for the first time in weeks, their practice had actually been productive the way it was during the start of VCT Americas. Unfortunately, unlike earlier in the split, the results did not translate to the stage against LOUD.
“We try new things within the week and we change our routine and maps. We made a lot of changes, and we actually have beaten a few good teams in the last few days of practice, but we still played like s**t,” said Onur. “It's very hard to find a reason. I don't know if there is just one reason; there's probably a couple of them.”
It’s safe to say LEV is not heading to the post-season in the highest spirits, and the bittersweet nature of their qualification is something the head coach of the Argentine side is wrestling with as much as his players.
“It's sad because we train a lot and we practiced a lot in the last six months to be here in this moment, and now, our mental and emotions are not letting us perform the way we need to perform,” Onur said. “It's a very f****d up situation.”
Grim as things may be, LEV have had a few days to wash off the loss to LOUD and will look to head into the series against FURIA with a rejuvenated mindset. “We're going to keep trying, we're not beat yet,” Onur said. “We're not out of competence and we still have a good chance to make it Tokyo, but the time we have is short.”
Leviatán faces off against FURIA Esports on Tuesday, May 23 at 1:00pm PT to kick off the playoffs of VCT Americas 2023 as teams battle for a spot at VCT Masters Tokyo.
