Guild Esports is competing in the organization’s first international Valorant Lan at VCT Masters Copenhagen and the team’s Chamber player, Saif ‘Sayf’ Jibraeel, said he thinks this tournament will set apart the real squads, or “gods,” from the false ones.
“If this tournament’s about false gods and true gods and stuff, I want to show who’s a false god,” the Swedish player said when asked about what teams he is looking forward to playing against in a pre-event press conference. “So yeah, [OpTic Gaming]’s gonna be awesome.”
The team plays defending VCT Masters champion OpTic in their first matchup in Group A. He also stated that Guild is going to take VCT Masters Copenhagen seriously and that they are going to treat every match the same regardless of their opponent.
Guild are not coming in hot to the international event as they lost in straight games to Fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix in the VCT EMEA Stage 2 Challengers playoffs after qualifying for Masters. The team was dealing with health issues according to sayf, and weren’t playing at their best.
When asked if the team could beat their EMEA counterparts if they face them again, the 21-year-old said that they wouldn’t change much strategically.
“I could call it here first,” sayf said. “If we play against them at this tournament, then they’re not winning.”
Guild’s experience heading into Masters Copenhagen
The players on Guild have experienced a LAN environment before in the previous esports before this Masters event, but most have not played on the top international stage in Valorant. The team’s IGL, Jose Luis “koldamenta” Aranguren Herrero is the only player that has graced the Master’s stage before when he was with G2 Esports.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
But the 29-year-old hasn’t needed to impart too much wisdom to the younger players of his team according to sayf.
“Just in general, I think we know what the vibe is if you understand me,” sayf said. “koldamenta has helped a lot. He is the boomer of the team, you could say. So he’s the father, he makes us feel secure and all that. But in general, it hasn’t been all up to him. It’s about us and our past.”
For koldamenta, the IGL said that he doesn’t have any pre-event jitters thanks to his last trip to the international stage and that the only thing he has said to his teammates about dealing with this tournament is to prepare to be the underdogs against their first opponent.
“We need to take it as we have nothing to lose and that’s what I’m gonna tell them you know, put in their heads before going into the game,” the Spanish player said. “I feel like all the pressure is on [OpTic] and that’s how we’re gonna take it.”
Guild will face off against the North American second seed in the final match of the first day of games on July 10.