Image via Ubisoft
After losing the first map on Villa, the Soniqs came back to win their match against Elevate showing great adaptation and huge gun-fight potential in the process. Simultaneously, Spacestation Gaming pulled off another comeback in almost identical fashion as the Six Invitational 2020 champions defeated Natus Vincere.
In a Ubisoft organized press conference after the match, the Soniqs player Alexander “Yeti” Lawson explained where the team struggled on Villa, which was the North Americans’ pick.
“Villa was kinda hard for us because it’s a bigger map and we are used to rotating and contesting the entry and they didn’t have a set entry point which is really confusing for us on defense, so I would say that was an issue for our defenses on Villa. On attack, I think we tried to do too much in terms of map control, I don’t think we were focusing enough on the objective, they had many people running around and kind of making it hard to take map control,” he explained.
Mistakes are part of the learning process, and the Soniqs learned their lesson just in time. Despite Elevate catching off guard the North Americans with their aggression and their exotic line-ups, the NAL champions adapted just in time.
“Going to Clubhouse and Oregon, we tried to minimize our takes on attack, and on defense we had to stay and fight these guys because they don’t have entry players, they try to show pressure that makes you want to leave as a roamer, and they get their kills on the cut offs or the players lurking, so if you stay and fight them you can either get your kills because they are not very organize[d] in their roam clear, or make them stall out. Same with Oregon,” Yeti said.
Elevate tried to weaken the Soniqs’ attacks by banning Finka in every map, an operator that has been used by the two best-rated players in the team in this event, Pablo “Gryxr” Rebell and Richie “Rexen” Coronado. Yeti thought that the ban was “kinda funny”, he thinks Finka is “a really good operator, who brings nades, a ridiculous gun, and a huge multi-kill potential” but they didn’t go through a bad time without her because “she can be replaced with any other operator with nades.”
Paramin “sprOnigiri” Suwanwattana praised Gryxr's ability as “Gryxr is a very good player at defending the site alone by himself.” The 21-year-old finished with 39 kills next to his name, a SiegeGG rating of 1.35, and completed two clutches that kept the Soniqs alive, especially on Clubhouse.
“Both DZ and TSM stuck to the plan, but the Soniqs were really good at adapting things during the game. If we attack them from one spot they will try to make it stronger for the next round. I think that’s what makes them difference,” revealed the Thai player.
Despite the loss, Onigiri revealed that “the mindset is the same”. “We want to go as far as we can go, it’s a different experience for us,” he concluded.