Despite a 2-0 loss to Acend in their opening match of Stage 2 in the 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour, OG LDN UTD are still confident in their abilities. OG’s Michał “MOLSI” Łącki said that his team can beat anyone if they’re in a good mood and they’re playing their best VALORANT.
Still, the competition is stiff in the Europe, Middle East and Africa Stage 2 Challengers. OG will need to rally after the early hiccup and net themselves some wins in the round robin group stage. The goal for the team is making playoffs. MOLSI thinks if they reach playoffs, they can make Masters.
“I feel like the other teams are not that strong for now,” MOLSI said. “We can use the weakness of the enemies.”
OG LDN UTD vs. Acend
In the first match of Group A, Acend came out of the gates swinging and took a convincing victory on Map 1, Icebox.
“Icebox wasn’t that good for us,” MOLSI said. “Their team comp was really new for us. We never saw Reyna and K/O on one team before on this map.”
Acend weren’t the only ones to bring out a new agent composition. OG became one of the first teams to play VALORANT’s newest agents, Fade, in the VCT. In spite of the loss, MOLSI still feels like Fade can be competitively viable given the right circumstances.
“If you play [Fade] on some maps, you have to have her and Sova,” he said. “That’s the way I see it.”
On Split, the game was more contested with OG even netting themselves a massive early lead. Ultimately it wasn’t enough as Acend closed out the match in overtime.
“I think Split was more winnable,” MOLSI said. “We had some miscommunications and lost some eco rounds.”
The Group A competition
The reigning international champs from 2021, Acend are a team that are still finding their footing after bringing in two new players, Ondřej “MONSTEERR” Petrů and Vakaris “vakk” Bebravičius. MOLSI said that, even though MONSTEERR and vakk are strong players, Acend will not be able to recapture the fire that led to their Champions run.
“I think [Acend] are pretty strong, but I wouldn’t say they will achieve the same as they achieved with the first lineup,” Molsi said. “Times were different, they had something no one else had.”
Even still, MOLSI said that the team’s hardest matchup in their group was Acend, who they now have out of the way. He also has his eyes on G2 Esports, saying he’s wary of their experience. The third team MOLSI’s tracking is FunPlus Phoenix, though OG were able to beat them in Stage 1.
MOLSI on the new OG LDN UTD
Like many of their competitors, OG also made a change to their lineup prior to the start of Stage 2. They brought in Tautvydas “hype” Paldavicius. MOLSI said that hype’s biggest strength is his flexible agent pool, especially his willingness to play Cypher, Killjoy and Viper.
“I think hype has a very good champion pool for us,” Molsi said. “That’s the good thing about him, he’s not stuck to one agent.”
Hype is also half-Lithuanian — though he lives in the United Kingdom — making him a good culture fit for OG, who are all Lithuanian with the exception of MOLSI.
“It doesn’t even tilt me,” MOLSI said, “because they don’t speak in the game in Lithuanian. So I don’t even notice I’m playing with four Lithuanians.”
