EDward Gaming lost their opening series in Valorant Champions 2022 against Paper Rex. Despite an impressive showing from the Chinese outfit, which happened in light of Qu “Life” Donghao’s untimely absence and Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao’s subsequent substitution, the Chinese representative now sit on the edge of elimination as they must avoid another defeat in order to extend their stay in Istanbul, Turkey for a little while longer.
Soon after facing PRX, EDG’s IGL Haodong “Haodong” Guo spoke to the media in a scrum interview about their participation in Champions thus far, working with Smoggy as their stand-in, and much more.
Pedro Romero, BLIX.GG: Coming up against the Masters: Copenhagen runner-up, how did you feel in preparation for Paper Rex for this series?
Haodong “Haodong” Guo: We just watched their past matches. That’s it
BLIX: Looking to the lower bracket in Group A, who would you like to face between Leviatan or Team Liquid and why?
Haodong: I would love to compete against Team Liquid because I watched ScreaM play from my childhood.
BLIX: When did you last play PRX? What were your takeaways from this recent series?
Haodong: The latest scrim between us and PRX happened almost over six months ago, so we pretty much forgot about it already.
BLIX: Playing with Smoggy as a sub, do you feel that was something that contributed to the loss against PRX today?
Haodong: I don’t [think] us losing to PRX has anything to do with our sub. It’s our first international LAN event ever so we were a little bit nervous during the first map and that was pretty much it.
EDG’s IGL Haodong “Haodong” Guo stands on the stage with fist raised at Valorant Champions Istanbul(Credit: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games)
BLIX: Speaking of your VCT international debut , how’s the mentality within the team? Do you think the team progressed nicely along the series?
Haodong: I think we were full of energy in our mind, and after the first map, we just forgot about it and concentrated on Icebox. That’s what what we did during today’s match.
BLIX: In the opening map of the series, EDG and PRX played in Pearl, the game’s newest map. As one of the two teams that have played pro for the first time competitively, how different is it compared to the other maps in the game?
Haodong: Competitively, you can’t just rush into the bomb site. It’s more like you have to play more slowly.
BLIX: A lot of teams are looking at EDG as a threat. Is that something you guys view as pressure to deliver because of your dominant performance during your LCQ matches?
Haodong: I don’t think there’s going to be any pressure on us due to the high expectations or whatever. We’re just going to do it step by step ourselves.
Keep your eyes on BLIX.GG for more highlights and interviews from Valorant Champions Istanbul.
Feature Image: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
