After loss to G2, C9 White’s Alexis says team needs to play more aggressively

Cloud9 White stepped onto the LEC Studio stage in Berlin for their matchup against G2 Gozen at the first-ever international VALORANT Game Changers Championship with a lot of confidence. But that confidence didn’t translate to a win as they exited the stage having lost to a team that could finally go toe-to-toe with them.

Alexis "alexis" Guarrasi, like the rest of C9, hasn’t been shy about boasting on social media about how good her team is. And why not? C9 White have had a nearly flawless record across six Game Changers competitions over the past two years. Yet, in an interview with Nerd Street following C9’s loss to G2, Alexis admitted that the team might need to do a better job of channeling that confidence in-game.

“When we do start losing a couple rounds we tend to play not as aggressive as we normally do,” Alexis said. “I think we need to just keep playing aggressive even if we’re losing rounds, keep the confidence up in-game. Even though we’re confident out of game it needs to kind of correlate and show in-game, in the server.”

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Photo credit: Riot Games

C9 have rarely found themselves losing in Game Changers matches, so perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising that they played more passively when they found themselves in an unfamiliar situation. They have lost only once (not including one forfeit loss) across 52 matches in six North American Game Changers tournaments. The only team that has beaten them at a Game Changers event is Shopify Rebellion, who also are in Berlin as North America’s second seed at the Game Changers Championship.

“I think [G2] are probably better than Shopify just because they have the ideas to kind of catch us off guard, but like mechanically or even game sense I think they’re probably the same or even worse,” Alexis said.

Read more: Cloud9 White have dominated Game Changers, but they have bigger goals

In contrast to Shopify, whom they have played eight times over the past two years, C9 had never played G2. Alexis admitted that unfamiliarity was a problem.

“Shopify for us is so predictable because we play them so much in NA, whereas G2 obviously we’ve never played them so it was hard for us to go into it with the mindset ‘oh they might pull out gimmicks on us,’” she said.

Alexis explained that the team was surprised by some of what they saw out of G2 on Tuesday. In addition to the surprise Yoru pick on the third map, Pearl, there were a number of other creative things that G2 pulled out.

“I think we were just getting caught off by the flashes and the fake TPs [teleports], but it wasn’t something we hadn’t seen before,” Alexis said. “It just wasn’t something we’d run into on Pearl specifically, and also their Ascent comp was weird but also pretty bad.

“And their Breeze -- I think we played pretty bad on Breeze, but it was like a pretty predictable style -- we just weren’t ready for them to just run at us on defense honestly. We just weren’t prepared for their playstyle because we had prepped for something different.”

C9’s lone map win was against G2’s “weird” comp on Ascent to take a 1-0 lead in the series. After a close first half on Breeze, G2 dominated the second half when they were on defense to even the series score 1-1. On Pearl, G2 just cruised to victory, winning the map 13-3 and the series 2-1.

Despite the loss, Alexis’ confidence was still evident in looking forward to a potential rematch in the final. She said the team would rewatch their match against G2, learn from their mistakes and “prep for pretty much anything” that G2 might have up their sleeves if they meet again.

Photo credit: Riot Games

Fans probably wouldn’t mind a rematch given the hype around C9 White vs. G2 Gozen entering the Game Changers Championship. The first-ever encounter between the two teams was the most anticipated of the tournament. On one side of the stage you had C9 White, a team that had dominated the North American Game Changers scene, winning all six tournaments over the past two years. On the other side of the stage you had G2 Gozen, arguably the top team in Europe, and winners of three of the past four EMEA Game Changers tournaments. It was the classic battle of an immovable object facing an unstoppable force.

Both teams easily won their first matchups by scores of 2-0 to set up their meeting in the upper bracket semifinals of the eight-team double-elimination tournament. With the win, G2 has moved on to the upper bracket final, which will take place Friday. C9’s loss has dropped them to the lower bracket, and their next matchup will be on Friday too.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games