Rise Neptune on reaching NA LCQ grand finals, cohesion within the team, and improvement
Last Updated on: 30th October 2021, 09:49 am
As the lowest seed in the VCT North America Last Chance Qualifier, few people gave Rise a chance of making any semblance of noise in the tournament. Save for a Top 6 finish in the NA Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, the team hadn’t convinced many fans to believe they were worthy of vying for the last spot at Valorant Champions. All that was expected of Rise was for them to get quickly eliminated by a vastly superior team and face the reality of how weak they really are.
However, for Rise’s Jason “Neptune” Tran, he viewed their position differently. Thanks to the experience he gained throughout the 2021 VCT season, the team forged a sense of confidence that left them feeling they could beat anyone that stood in their way.
As it turned out, that stretch of invincibility Rise envisioned happened at the perfect time. Having made the upper bracket finals in spite of the odds, Rise continued their unfathomable journey by defeating 100 Thieves 2-1 to advance to the grand finals. With that, Rise is now one series win away from qualifying for Valorant Champions.
After Rise sealed a spot in the NA LCQ grand finals, Neptune spoke with The Click for an interview about the team’s overall improvement throughout this year, subverting expectations throughout the tournament, defeating 100T with a clever trick of deception, and much more.
Deceiving 100T with Rise Neptune’s ultimate
Thanks for accepting this interview, Neptune. By securing victory over 100 Thieves 2-1, you guys have advanced to the grand finals of the NA LCQ. First of all, I want to know how you are feeling right now?
Rise Neptune: “I’m feeling ecstatic right now. I’m really proud of my team. We came in already believing that we could do it and we’re so proud that we pulled it through and showed composure in the last game there.”
This series was essentially a back-and-forth type of affair. You guys opened the series by taking 100 Thieves’ map in Breeze for Game 1 and they returned the favor by taking Ascent in Game 2, thus culminating in that tension-filled Game 3 in Haven. You guys eventually finished it with a pretty stellar play in the final round where you ulted into C to grab 100T’s attention and allow the rest of Rise to take A which was empty. Take me through the comms during those moments. What was that like during that final round?
Rise Neptune: “So basically in that round, it was like a ‘Last round, last round, one more round’ type of thing, and we knew the pressure was on them especially after the timeout. I want to put more of the [credit] on Kevin (POISED), our IGL, because he ended up calling that fake. It’s on him and Ryan (Shanks) who worked together with their minds and that’s how most of our rounds really go.
“We’re not constantly having one guy call things. We’re giving each other ideas to then make the final plan of action. Basically, Kevin ended up making that call because he just has these weird reads. He had like the sixth sense or something and it worked perfectly. They left A and we just got a free site.”
It was just literally a spur-of-the-moment kind of play?
Rise Neptune: “Yeah. Everyone basically pitched their own ideas like, ‘Oh, I want to do a fake C type thing, and Astra can put her wall there too and make it straight so that it’ll cut off the sound.’ Anyone would bring up one idea and then we all kind of pitch in on how things can go and what type of buys they have to get the full overall idea [of execution] and that’s basically what we did in most of the rounds.”
READ MORE: MAD Lions Pad explains how team recovered for Worlds 2021 Group D second round-robin
Rise Neptune on subverting expectations in NA LCQ
Although the team has been on the upswing after competing in Stage 3, a majority of the fans didn’t expect you guys to reach the grand finals of the LCQ. They expected 100 Thieves to make it there instead, so what does it mean for you guys to improve so well to reach this point?
Rise Neptune: “Coming in, we had high expectations. We knew that we beat most of these teams before. We beat FaZe, we beat C9, and we beat Gen.G, and I think that most of the things people said are undermining our skill. We came in confident and this was honestly our expectation with every game.
“We’re like, ‘We’re gonna beat these guys. We already know we’re better. We’re gonna do this. We just play together,’ and that stems from us practicing so much and trusting each other. We sort of exceeded our expectations, but at the same time, we’re coming in with the mindset of ruthlessness and just knowing that we can be the best whenever we’re on. So with that confidence, that brought us here basically.”
You mentioned the general makeup of the team and how you guys worked together in unison throughout your time with Rise. Prior to the start of the tournament. Derrek mentioned in an interview how the team consisted of distinctly individual personalities with some players being calm and composed and others being lively and energetic. How does the team maintain that balance between those two types of personalities in their play during rounds?
Rise Neptune: “So the ones that probably have the most energy are me, POISED, and Shanks, but in practice, we don’t kind of even think about the difference in personality or whatever. It’s more about like, ‘You should know as a pro player when to take the initiative when to be loud, and when to communicate.’
“There are times where you can be quieter and stuff, but even quiet players have to understand that there are times to take the initiative and be vocal, and I think that’s what we’ve been practicing on getting that over with Derrek, supamen, me, and everyone basically. We all keep each other accountable for knowing when to take initiative and communicate.
“We do have those quiet personalities on supamen and Derrek, but in the game, at certain moments, they know when to be loud, they know when to communicate, and it’s gotten way better ever since we got Top 6 in the VCT (Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs). It’s gotten way better since then and I think it helped us build better chemistry.”
READ MORE: V1 effys on becoming IGL for NA LCQ, playing with Oderus, beating FaZe
Rise Neptune to the NA LCQ grand finals
With you guys now being in the Grand Finals, you get to rest and await your next opponent, which is one of either C9, 100T, or XSET. What do you think of those three remaining teams while you guys wait for the grand finals?
Rise Neptune: “I know that they’re all good teams, but most of the time, I never really come in with the mindset of being scared of them. Because most of the time, fear is like something you can control and it’s not really anything. These guys aren’t really better than all of us if we put our 100% in and play together.
“I don’t think we’re gonna end up counter-stratting them because in the past–I think I’ve spoken to someone else before about this–but in the past, we’ve tried to counter-strat players or teams but that kind of doesn’t even really end up working for us and a lot of other teams.
“Teams will switch things up and then if you try to counter too hard then you’re going to run into things that they know when they’re going to switch up. I know that these are some good teams, but I think we’re just gonna come in with the same mindset and maybe know some tendencies and understand that. Other than that, we’re just going to play our game, adapt, and be proactive.”
And it’s that adaptiveness and proactivity that we’re going to see in the Grand Finals. Thank you so much, Neptune, for taking the time to do this interview. Do you have any like final words to share or any shoutouts you want to give?
Rise Neptune: “Thank you, man. Shout out to my whole team. Shout out to all my family. Shout to all the Vietnamese supporters. Yeah, that’s basically it. Thank you.”
