(Banner image: Ubisoft/João Ferreira)
Soniqs netted North America’s second win in 12 matches with a 7-4 over Invictus Gaming early Tuesday.
The key to the victory and the element Soniqs hopes will keep the team alive in the group stage? Returning to their roots. In a Ubisoft-organized press conference, Seth “supr” Hoffman explained that while Soniqs has a reputation as an aggressive team domestically, they didn’t play their game on the first day of competition.
“We were more proactive and aggressive,” said supr. “...On our first day yesterday, I think it was a case of jitters and a little bit of playstyles we’re not used to seeing. We were very slow on attack and on our defenses we were pretty much being pinched every single round. We weren’t contesting a lot.”
If there are two teams you don’t want to cede ground unnecessarily to, it’s BDS and Ninjas in Pyjamas, Soniqs’ day one opponents. Both matches were not close, with Soniqs only scoring a pair of rounds in each.
Will going back to a hyper-aggressive style mean Soniqs can peel a win off BDS later today and keep their groups hopes alive? Maybe. It’s not totally outside of the realm of “possibility.” What is certain, however, is that what they were doing the first time around won’t work. The meta favors aggression, says supr, and the team plans to play into that.
However, even when returning to roots, it might not be enough. Soniqs can beat Invictus again — they’ve done it before — but they need a win over either French superteam BDS and Brazilian juggernaut NiP, a tall order given Soniqs’ performances in Mexico and now Sweden.
(Photo: Ubisoft/João Ferreira)
“We know we’re still in this,” said Alexander “Yeti” Lawson. “It’s [their matchup against BDS] obviously a big game for us. Like what Seth said, there’s going to be the adaptations and changes we need to bring into our playstyle for the rest of the group stage.”
If the North American teams have looked unprepared coming into this tournament, well, that’s because several Soniqs members say they are. The practice in other regions is simply better. The EU Challenger League team Soniqs scrimmaged before the Major gave them better practice than any domestic team.
“It’s not the sole reason a lot of NA is struggling at this tournament, ourselves included,” said supr. “But I do think there is a drastic difference in the non-tier 1 competition in Brazil, EU, and even in APAC.”
Whatever the ultimate combination of reasons, Soniqs’ playoff chances are hanging on the edge of a knife. They need to adapt, and fast. Yeti says they’re taking some lessons from their first matches with BDS and NiP into account for the second time around.
“Specifically, on defense, on the maps we’ve played, we’re giving up too many zones for free,” said Yeti. “...[Other team’s defenses] are fighting for every zone tooth and nail, layering it to where they can fight zones, kill [attacker] utility, then fall back and play around deeper utility in site.”
Supr takes this concept a small step further, stating that they’re giving their enemies too much “respect” — in more ways than one. In NA, Soniqs is known for being brash in-game and scrapping for map control. They need to get back to those roots and not play like their opponents are on a different tier than them, says supr.
After all, Soniqs are right here in the Major too.