Tanizhq of SMB: “I hope Riot sees that having EMEA bunched together isn’t actually the best option going into the future.”

Following months of anticipation, Masters: Berlin kicked off with an all-EMEA meeting between SuperMassive Blaze and Acend with a chance to step on the right foot and hold a partial lead of Group A. Unfortunately for SMB and its head coach Tanishq “Tanizhq” Sabharwa, who all travelled to Berlin as the first Turkish delegation ever to compete in a Valorant international LAN, they lost 2-0 to fall within one loss of outright elimination.

Even after displaying flashes of their trademark aggressiveness, SMB couldn’t supersede their glaring coordination issues which were made evident in their opening series in Berlin. Such was the unfortunate theme that Tanizhq identified against Acend.

Shortly after suffering that opening defeat, Tanizhq spoke with The Click for an exclusive interview about the series, the significance of SMB’s participation for Turkey and its fans, and speculation to format changes through the division of EMEA into three separate regions.


Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. I’d first like to know how your time in Berlin has been so far, from the hotel stay to preparation work for the event’s games.

Tanizhq: Berlin has actually been pretty cool. All of my German friends have told me not to come to Berlin because it’s one of the worst cities in Germany, but it’s actually fun. The team has been riding around on the electric scooters, just touring Berlin in the evening. It’s been really fun.

In light of that, we’ve seen pictures of what the set-up is like not just in teams’ individual camps but also on the main stage where coaches gaining a POV look onto each of their players. What is it like to navigate through all of those facets both within and outside the main stage?

Tanizhq: Because the head coach (9999) is actually on the main stage, I’m backstage with a similar setup and I can switch through the player cams and everything. But anything I need to say to the team, I say it through him. That’s a little bit annoying especially during our tactical pauses because I have to say [strategies] to him and he has to process and translate it in his head to Turkish, and then he has to say to the team, which takes a bit of extra time, to be honest. But at the hotel, it’s fine. Our bedroom has turned into a practice room which is interesting.

Looking into the series, you underwent a rough first map but then recovered with a slight turnaround in the second map by winning seven straight rounds after starting off 0-5. Even so, how did that stretch eventually go wrong in the second half of that map in which you guys fell in Ascent and lost the series?

Tanizhq: We just started making small mistakes which Acend were really good at punishing. Things like not trading when we’re pushing B lobby or–just in general, there’s just a lot of little mistakes we made which we’re going to review basically as soon as we get back to the hotel so that should be fun.

One of the rounds that essentially encapsulates the series is the loss in Round 4 during Ascent. Were those the kind of mistakes that you identified as one of the major problems for that series?

Tanizhq: Yeah, that round is going to stick with me for a while because we were 3-2 up. Especially on an eco [round], we retrieved some good guns and then we even had all of A site and then we just decided to go to B where we had no info, so it was a bit–I don’t know what the decision-making was about that and I need to talk to the team as to exactly what they were thinking there because that needs to be fixed ASAP.

tanizhq with fan
Courtesy: Tanizhq/Twitter

Looking into the team’s participation in the event, you’re representing Turkey within the EMEA, a region that’s sending its first team to an international tournament for the first time in Valorant. What has it been like to represent Turkey and its fans for Masters?

Tanizhq: It has been insane. The Turkish fans have just been absolutely crazy. As the other teams went out, like BBL, Oxygen, Futbolist, we got all of their fans as soon as we qualified so it’s been pretty cool. There was actually a fan who flew all the way from Istanbul to Berlin just to meet the team and everything, but he can’t watch the games because there’s no audience allowed so it sucks for him, but that level of dedication is just crazy.

And it’s very surprising considering Valorant’s presence within Turkey. First-person shooters haven’t struck a chord historically with Turkish fans, but for this to happen with Valorant, it’s such an eye-opener. What does this team’s participation mean for the continued growth of popularity for Valorant in Turkey?

Tanizhq: From Gambit and us qualifying, I hope Riot sees that having EMEA bunched together isn’t actually the best option going into the future. And I should just really hope that we can always have a Turkish team and always have a CIS team at every major as a way to give them their own individual slot.

Courtesy: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

That is one aspect I’ve been looking to dive into because, as you mentioned, there’s been a debate over whether different regions should be bunched together like EMEA. Do you feel that this sort of sentiment of a possible separation exists elsewhere in Turkey and not just within this team?

Tanizhq: I would hope so. I know the CIS region is a little bit like that because you have Gambit right at the top but there are other teams who really want to go like Na’Vi, Team Singularity, and forZe, but just because they aren’t at Gambit’s level doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of beating many of the teams here, you know, like from the other regions, who do have their own qualifiers. I’m sure it’s going to be the exact same mentality in Turkey, where if Oxygen didn’t make it through EMEA, maybe they would’ve beaten KRU or Paper Rex or whatever.

Do you think these different regions should receive at one or two spots within next year possibly?

Tanizhq: If it’s similar to this year where it’s four slots for EMEA, I would like to see two for EU, one for CIS, and one for Turkey. That kind of makes sense to me and I hope that’s the case next year because Riot has been good in taking feedback, but I also get that they can’t just change up their whole schedule because people are saying so halfway through it.

Looking into your coaching trajectory, everybody knows about you being in Team Heretics and then moving to OG for a little while before eventually joining SMB. Going from being one of the best EU teams for Stage 1 and then transferring to OG, what were some aspects you learned from your two previous stints that you are now putting to use in SMB?

Tanizhq: I wouldn’t say I learned much from OG because the team had a fundamentally different style from what I thought would help them progress. I’d say we used a lot of the stuff from Heretics on SMB because, with me and pAura, we do think quite like that old Heretics team. We even used some of the old setups from the original roster and that’s basically all we brought to [SMB]. Apart from that, it’s a completely new team, so we had to adjust everything to your current teammates. You can’t just copy-paste tactics, comps or anything from older rosters.

Once again, thanks for speaking with me, Tanizhq. We’re almost out of time for this interview, so do you have any final words to share with anyone?

Tanizhq: Thank you all for the support. I actually got so much support recently not only from Turkish fans but the general Spanish and European community, which I haven’t really experienced before. In Overwatch, I didn’t have that sort of following so it’s really cool to see people supporting you actively on different platforms and hoping you’re doing well.


That’s everything we discussed in this interview. If you’d be interested in more, you can click here for more Valorant articles, or visit our homepage here and see what else catches your interest.

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