Following their dominating wins over ITE CC and NTU on June 11 for a semi-finals spot in Group A, Dominic “Domino” Teow and Darren “DeCapitate” Chua tuned in for a brief interview in which they shared a bit on their victories and their preparations in their future matches.
Hi Dominic, Darren. Congratulations on your wins, you guys put on a really good performance in your games! Could you guys just give a quick recap on how you approached both series?
DeCapitate: Honestly, we just played our game. We played as we usually do, we take our time and slowly figure out how our opponents play, then try to adapt to their playstyles. As for our own personal playstyle, we don’t really have one. We just try to adapt well to the other team. So I’d say the results of the two games weren’t really unexpected. From the brackets, we could tell that the stronger opponents are yet to come. That’s not to say that we didn’t underestimate our opponents, we took every match quite seriously.
Domino: Especially for NTU, I think this is our third or fourth time playing against this team. It might be a different roster but most of the key players are the same, and they still play the same way they usually do. We never underestimated them, because of course with roster changes, you never know if someone might pop off or have a really good day. But at the end of the day, for the most part, it was just like our previous matches with them. We were able to figure them out, adapt and get the win.
What were your thoughts as a whole on both your opponents?
Domino: I’d say that ITE CC were alright. There’s not much to say. They weren’t bad but they weren’t particularly good either. But compared to the previous times we played against NTU, they have improved. They have a little more direction and structure. If they can keep this up, they’re going places.
This approach seems to work really well for you guys. DeCapitate, in the second game against ITE CC, you were popping off on Jett. Talk me through how you were able to put on such an impressive performance.
DeCapitate: I just played around my teammates. I did things that I usually do. It doesn’t always work out as well as it did against ITE CC. Things just fell into place during those games. I was hitting shots, catching timings. They were playing pretty scattered and it allowed me to make the most of my abilities.
With such a strong showing against your first two opponents, I’m sure the team is pretty confident for your coming opponent, which is SP. I have to say, their win over NUS was quite surprising. Any thoughts on that?
Domino: Yeah, their loss to SP was definitely a surprise to us, because we’ve played against them before and we know how strong they are.
DeCapitate: We haven’t sat down and had a good look at the games, but we played against NUS maybe three or four times previously? They played in VCT as well, so they’re pretty strong. For SP to take down NUS is a huge red flag for us. It’s definitely something we need to look out for.
With SP looking a bit like a dark horse coming into the semi-finals, what kind of preparations will the team be making?
DeCapitate: We’ll definitely watch the games and look at exactly how NUS lost. Like whether it was superior aim, whether they just got outplayed or out-rotated. These are the things we’ll be focusing on. Individually, we’ll probably continue doing as we have, which is scrim every once in a while.
As for the two games that you won, what were you able to take away? Were there any weaknesses that you felt had to be shored up?
Domino: First off, we don’t have our main line-up. We’re playing with a stand-in for now since our other player isn’t free, so we’ll be looking to iron out playing with him, get the team chemistry in. Otherwise, there might be problems with communication where we aren’t on the same page. But on that note, I will say that it went way better than I expected. Stanley, foxcle, slotted in and fit our playstyle very well and overall, I don’t think there’s not too much to do.
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