Havan Liberty’s shion talks about playing on the augmented reality Masters stage

Before VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 3 Masters, Havan Liberty’s Gabriel “shion” Vilela admired his Round 1 opponent Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella from his career in Counter-Strike. He said playing against him now felt almost unreal, especially on the extravagant Masters Berlin stage. The set up uses thousands of LED lights and augmented reality to create graphics for the fans watching from home. For shion, the stage was more of a distraction to Havan Liberty than anything else, bothering his teammate with its harsh lighting at times.

To qualify for Berlin, shion and Havan Liberty had to go through many of Brazil’s best teams, including Furia Esports, Team Vikings and Stars Horizon. After qualifying, the teams he defeated — and those Havan Liberty surpassed in the Brazilian rankings — congratulated the 26 year-old player on making the international tournament. There seems to be no bad blood in the South American country between competitors. Before Havan Liberty and the Brazilian No. 1 seed, Vivo Keyd, traveled to Germany, they met up, hung out and took photos together with their countries flag in celebration of representing the region together on the international stage. Havan Liberty even walked out with the flag on the stage before their loss to 100 Thieves.