The Initiator: Sebastian “Fiend” Molina talks winning the championship at GGTech Invitational
By Cameron Bray
Rebirth’s Fiend talks transitioning to Valorant, winning recent GGTech Invitational
Yesterday I interviewed Sebastian “Fiend” Molina, a Chilean professional player for Rebirth Esports, which won the recent GGTech Invitational in South America. He and his teammates took home the grand prize of $1,500 after sweeping Undead Gaming 3-0 in the grand final Thursday, July 2, and now Rebirth is looking like one of the best teams in Latin America.
Fiend comes from the highly competitive world of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), which is a very different game from Valorant, so he’s had an interesting experience transitioning over to Riot Games’ new shooter.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length:
Bray: When did you first start playing Valorant? Did you play in the pre-release beta?
Fiend: I played in the pre-release beta. I think I started playing like one week after the closed beta and the North American keys started arriving for everyone. I've been playing since the day and I don't think I’ve taken a break. I think I've been playing each day since then.
How much do you play each day?
Today I think I’ve played for like four hours, five hours, but I used to play like eight hours or 10 hours sometimes, most of the day.
What drew you to the game? What do you like about Valorant?
I think what I like most about it is it's pretty Counter-Strike wise, in the sense that aim is really important. (Riot Games) didn’t mess up doing a bad shooter, they followed the steps correctly, and I think that’s good. With the abilities, there are some abilities that do damage and everything, but they tried to replace the utility, using Counter-Strike in a different way. Like, for example, the smoke grenades in Counter-Strike block vision, but in Valorant, it’s really unique because they block vision but you can enter the smoke and in the smoke, it’s like an open box where you can see each other. They did a really good job with that.
So what was your first impression of the game when you played during the beta?
I think I liked it at first. It was kind of hard for me because I come from PUBG, which is not like Counter-Strike, it was hard for me to get used to it. I felt like I was at a huge disadvantage against Counter-Strike players, because they had most of the basics and fundamentals of the game, but it was a really enjoyable time. The first few weeks I started playing, it was enjoyable. Everyone was starting, no one knew so much about the game. Even if some players had an advantage, it was a really complex game, it doesn’t matter where you came from. It’s a new shooter, and you have to learn it.
What was the transition to Valorant like coming from PUBG?
I think Valorant does something unique, besides Counter-Strike, in which some weapons have ADS (aiming down sight). You can aim with the right click and everything. That was really good for me in the sense that in PUBG every weapon you have to aim. Counter-Strike players weren’t so used to it.
In that sense I think I was comfortable. I think in the ability sense of the game, it was fine. I’ve never been in trouble with using abilities, timing them and shooting at the same time, so for me it was comfortable. But I still struggled coming from PUBG, in the sense that you aren’t used to walking that much or holding angles. In PUBG, you hold angles, but you hold angles once you enter a fight and once you’re shooting at each other. But in Counter-Strike, you start holding an angle before you see someone. So that was the worst thing coming from PUBG because you have to adapt.
What are your thoughts on Valorant since it’s come out of beta and they’re starting to add more content and make some tweaks?
I think they’ve been doing really good work with it. They’ve been taking a lot of feedback from the players, not only pro players or people aiming to be a pro, just everyone’s feedback. I think they’re taking it the right way in the sense of the new Agents and the new maps — they’re all good. Even the old maps, like Split, they’ve been doing patches.
Instead of balancing the Agents — like they do in League of Legends, for example, where they do patches, a Champion is overpowered, they nerf it and it’s dead, basically — they haven’t been doing that. The Agents are all fine. Their balance is based on weapons, maps, structures and timings, but they aren’t nerfing Agents — and I think that’s fine.
What are your goals as a team right now?
So with my team, I only knew one teammate, before he was a pro PUBG player: the other three, I never knew them before Valorant. I’ve only started knowing them since the Latin American server was released. We’re a really diverse mix because we have two players who come from PUBG — me and the teammate I told you about — and the other two came from Apex and Counter-Strike. We started playing together and we learned a lot from each other, because we have different views of the game. And since we started seeing that Valorant has a really good future, we were like, “OK, do we want to go pro in this or do we want to just chill or whatever.” But we started doing really well in scrimmages. We started doing really well in tournaments. So it was like, “OK, let’s compromise. Let’s start playing and aiming for the best.”
At this moment, we have a really ambitious mindset — each of us — and at this moment we’re focused on being the best in the region for now.
What’s been your favorite part of playing Valorant so far?
I think this game has something I felt a long time ago, like when I started playing PUBG. I can play it the whole day and I don’t get bored, and that’s really weird because I’ve tried other games … and I haven’t been getting that feeling. But in Valorant, I’m getting it back, and most players are getting it. So I think that’s the thing I like about it the most.
Who’s your favorite Agent in Valorant?
I think my favorite Agent is Omen. I think Omen is a really fun Agent. It’s interesting because he has smokes, he has flash, he has TPs (teleports), he has movements. He’s the most diverse Agent in the game because he has movements, control and flashes. He can initiate fights. He can do a lot of things. The most fun I have in the game is playing Omen so far. He might be my favorite Agent, but I also like the complexity of Sova and using his abilities. Sova’s really weird as well because he’s an info Agent, but you can use him aggressively or defensively. So he’s really entertaining as well.
You and your teammates at ReBirth took home a nice win recently at the GGTech Invitational, where you swept Undead Gaming 3-0 in the grand final. What strength of yours as a team was able to push over the top and give you that first championship?
I think basically the experience and the knowledge of the game because me and “Ernzxr" (teammate Ernesto Rivera) analyze the game a lot. We study the game a lot. We don’t care much about aiming too much because we know that the five of us have a really good aim, and also we’re really diverse in the sense that everyone on the team can play every Agent, to I think that’s really important and we’ve focused a lot on our strategies and meta-game.
On the flip side, what areas are you and your teammates are most looking to improve in Valorant?
Since we all know habitually what we need to do in order to win or what’s our strategy, how to follow it and what our goals are, we’re trying to learn what our teammates have to do. You feel more connected in the sense that you know what your teammate’s going to do and what he’s supposed to do.
At this moment, we’re trying to learn like each other, we’re trying to learn what we can do better for our teammates and we hope to work as a whole team.
Riot Games announces new PAX Arena Valorant Invitational, 2nd Ignition Series competition based in North America
Riot Games announced Tuesday, July 7, that it would partner with well-known events organizer PAX and host the new PAX Arena Valorant Invitational later this month.
The second North American event of the developer’s recent Ignition Series, the $25,000 Invitational will feature 16 professional teams and four influencer squads. Yet to be announced, these 20 competitors will battle it out for the grand prize of $10,000.
The Invitational will take place between Wednesday, July 22, and Sunday, July 26, with the preliminary rounds beginning on July 22–23.
From the preliminaries, eight teams will advance to the single-elimination quarterfinals on Friday, July 24. The semifinals are then set for Saturday, July 25, with the best-of-five grand final scheduled for Sunday, July 26.
The preliminaries will be broadcast through the competitors’ individual Twitch channels, starting both days at 2 p.m. PDT. The playoffs will then be co-streamed live by the tournament hosts — PAXArena’s Twitch and the official Valorant Twitch channel — starting at noon PDT on Friday and 2 p.m. PDT over the weekend. Viewers will still be able to watch their favorite Valorant players’ livestreams meanwhile.
With this upcoming Invitational, Valorant will see the second Ignition Series event take place in North America, after the $50,000 T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown last month. TSM won that event — and $25,000 for its efforts — Sunday, June 28, after sweeping tournament host T1 3-0 in the grand final.
Assuming they’re invited, which they most likely will be, T1 and TSM could have a heated rematch at this upcoming Invitational, so keep a close eye out for them and for the invitations that are announced before the tournament.
WePlay! Esports, Riot Games partner for new Valorant Invitational next week
Ukrainian esports organizer WePlay! Esports and Riot Games have partnered up for a new Valorant Invitational next week, the gaming group announced Tuesday, July 7, on Twitter. An official Ignition Series event, the tournament will take place from Monday, July 13, to Sunday, July 19, and will feature a $50,000 prize pool — an impressive cache that matches last month’s T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown in value.
Eight teams will compete for the grand prize of $25,000.
Six have already been invited: G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Prodigy, fish123, forZe and PartyParrots.
Two spots remain open for qualifying teams. These will be decided by an open qualifier early next week, in which 128 teams will compete in two single-elimination brackets. Challengers will duke it out in best-of-one matches next Monday, with the best-of-three finals for the qualifiers Tuesday, July 14.
Next, the six invited teams and two qualifiers will compete in a Swiss-style group stage, happening from Wednesday, July 15, to Friday, July 17. The semifinals will take place on Saturday, July 18, with the grand final set for Sunday, July 19.
Several of the invited teams are still filling their Valorant competitive rosters. G2 recently signed Ardis “Ardiis” Svarenieks, who previously played for fish123. And Ninjas in Pyjamas have only two full-time players on their roster — Emir “rhyme” Muminovic and Niels “luckeRRR” Jasiek — so we’ll need to see not only which teams win the qualifiers, but also which players the invited teams sign over the next few weeks.
After some difficulty Riot Games releases first “Ultra” skin set in Valorant — Elderflame — for $90 purchase, making player’s guns, knife look like fearsome black dragons
When Riot Games tweeted from the official Valorant Twitter account a six-second video of what appeared to be a black dragon’s head, many fans of the game scratched their heads, wondering what it was.
Some — as they saw the video Tuesday, July 7 — wanted it to be a teaser for a new Agent. Whether seriously or sarcastically, as if to make a pointed suggestion toward the developer, Oscar “Mixwell” Cañellas Colocho took to social media.
“Aggressive agent please,” he wrote on Twitter, retweeting Riot Games’ new teaser video.
French esports club Team Vitality also hoped for a new Agent, commenting “New agent?” with a short video on Twitter, while ESPN Esports simply couldn’t look away.
Sadly, they were all proven wrong in their eagerness for a new Agent, who will likely arrive sometime in August or early September when Act 2 of Valorant Episode 1 is released,
Others were proven right in their theorizing, as Riot Games revealed the next day — Wednesday, July 8 — that it was a new skin set headed for Valorant, boldly called Elderflame.
Elderflame, which becomes available in the game’s store today for 9,900 Valorant Points, or roughly $90, is the first “Ultra” skin set available for purchase in Valorant and makes each of the player’s guns look like a fearsome black dragon. It retextures the knife as well and makes each of the game’s firearms look like it’s shooting flames, instead of bullets, when fired.
With Elderflame equipped, roars, sounds and other animations play each time the player fires, reloads or equips a new weapon. In terms of sounds and visuals, the Elderflame skill set is extremely detailed and impressive, with dragons spreading their wings and grabbing magazines in their claws, among other features.
The price of the Elderflame skin collection may be steep, but fans said they’re ready to pay, with Mixwell tweeting out a cash-ready GIF of “Shut up and take my money!”
Interestingly, as Polygon reported yesterday, the Elderflame collection proved frustratingly difficult for Riot Games’ designers to develop. A “real pain in the ass,” Polygon’s Austen Goslin wrote in the headline.
Riot Games’ developers wanted the Elderflame skins to be fair, so customers wouldn’t suffer lag in-game, and they wanted Elderflame to feel fair to other players.
“Ultimately, you just want to win your game,” Valorant producer Preeti Khanoklar explained to Polygon, “so [finding] what’s going to look cool but not be ‘pay-to-lose’ has been a challenge.”
Another challenge, Valorant art lead Sean Marino said, was trying to ensure both that the guns looked like dragons (with Elderflame equipped) and that they resembled the base weapons (without skins) players recognized.
“Silhouettes are really important,” the artist said. “This one definitely pushes the boundaries of it. But we tried creative things like with the Frenzy and we’re like, ‘How can we fit a dragon into this situation?’ And we found a cool opportunity to take its tail and wrap it around the bottom of the magazine to put it into the correct shape. That way, if someone sees it on the ground, they immediately know what it is, and if you see it in first person you know what it is.”
Rexturing the heavy sniper rifle the Operator proved especially challenging, Marino said, and Riot Games almost scrapped it from the Elderflame collection.
“We were on the verge of cutting it, because it’s the only dragon that has wings,” he explained. “It was like, if you open up these wings, now it takes up all of your screen space, and that compromises competitive integrity.”
Cameron Bray is the lead writer for The Initiator, a recently created newsletter about Valorant produced by Numlock News. He also contributes to No Bid Nation, a new sports blog about William and Mary basketball. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @spike_cameron or send him an email at cameron@numlock.news.