SuperMassive Blaze’s Brave says ‘We will be prepared for Acend’ at Masters Berlin

SuperMassive Blaze managed to keep their heads afloat at VALORANT Masters Berlin. The Turkish squad overcame Paper Rex in their group’s elimination match on Wednesday, Sept. 15, with a 2-1 score, sending the Singaporeans home after a nail-biter series.

While Eren “Brave” Kasırga is happy with the victory over Paper Rex, he was critical about his team’s performance.

A narrow victory against Paper Rex

“I still think we weren’t that good. The matches were close; we didn’t expect that,” Brave told Upcomer. He cites his team’s communication as their main obstacle. When the players are communicating smoothly, he explained, they will emerge victorious against almost anyone.

A trump card up SuperMassive Blaze’s sleeve seems to be Breeze. In the series against Paper Rex, Brave and his squad dominated on the tropical site, winning the map 13-2. “I think Breeze is ok for our playstyle,” Brave said.

According to him, SuperMassive Blaze committed to learning the map when they saw the announcement of VALORANT’s seventh map, Fracture. “We needed another map!”

“We didn’t have much time to learn the map, but the results were good in practice.” With Baran “Izzy” Yılmaz in the lineup functioning as the team’s sniper specialist, Breeze is right up their alley, Brave continued. “It’s a big map, it has a lot of open space.”

But it was Brave himself who got his team across the finish line in the final game. On Split, he picked off Paper Rex’s players one by one, completing an ace. He recalled his thoughts with a smile. “I felt like I had to do something. [Paper Rex] had the advantage, so I told Izzy to hold my right side. I peaked left, and then I got the ace.”

Brave is confident his team will defeat Acend

Getting the ace has given Brave much-needed confidence for the next series on his team’s menu. For the second time in the tournament, SuperMassive Blaze clash with Acend. The winner of the series advances to the top eight. The loser goes home.

The first time the two met, Acend came out on top, surprising Brave: “They played so fast. We expected them to go for fakes, but they were going straight for it.”

Brave said he had learned a lot from the initial face-off between his team and Acend. He highlighted fellow Turk Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek as the standout player on Acend’s roster, but acknowledges Acend’s overall strength: “They make for a really good team because they set up cNed a lot. But without cNed, they’re still pretty good.”

Once again, Brave underlined the importance of communication on his team. “We re-watched our match against Acend and we saw the mistakes. They were communication mistakes. All of them,” he explained.

With more scrims under their belt and stage matches to review, Brave is certain that his team will perform better in the rematch against Acend. “We will be prepared for Acend this time. The result will be different.”

History shows that Brave’s confidence isn’t misplaced. SuperMassive Blaze did beat Acend in the VALORANT EMEA Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs. With a final ticket to the VALORANT Masters Berlin playoffs on the line on Thursday, Sept. 16, the sprouting rivalry is heating up.

When asked for a concrete prediction, Brave pointed out that the first map would be the deciding factor in the series. “The team that wins that, will have the momentum behind them. If we win the first map, it will be a 2-0 for us.”