Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen helped Envy’s VALORANT team eliminate his former squad FaZe Clan from the NA VCT Stage Three: Challengers Playoffs yesterday. And after that match, Marved talked with Dot Esports about their preparation and his thoughts on the team’s next game against XSET.
Envy have consistently been one of the top teams in North America and are one match away from qualifying for Masters Three Berlin. They started the tournament with a win against TSM before being sent to the lower bracket by Sentinels. But they have successfully fought their way into the lower bracket’s third round after defeating FaZe last night.
Just before VCT Stage Three, Envy revamped its roster with former FaZe player Marved, replacing Kaboose in the starting lineup. Marved was a crucial part of the FaZe VALORANT roster and was an excellent addition to the team, helping them qualify for the Challenger Playoffs.
Envy weren’t guaranteed to face FaZe in the tournament, but both teams finally crossed paths in the lower bracket, much to the delight of fans everywhere. The first map of the series was a back-and-forth affair, with FaZe finally winning in overtime.
“I’ve never played FaZe and it was very tiring,” Marved told Dot Esports. “They really do test your limits.”
FaZe picked Bind for map two, which meant Envy needed to beat them on their preferred choice. But Envy and Marved played FaZe in scrimmages multiple times before the event and were confident going into the game. Marved commented on BabyJ’s Breach pick, which, in his opinion, left the team with few options.
Envy won Bind and kept the momentum going into map three on Ascent.
“We were obviously very tired because of the two close games, but we knew we could take Ascent,” Marved said. “We knew we were the better team on Ascent, and it wasn’t really a problem.”
And Marved was right. Envy won the map 13-8 led by an impressive performance from crashies, who dropped 27 kills. Winning a professional match likely feels great regardless of the circumstances, but Marved admitted that beating his former teammates was a nice bonus, despite “loving all those guys.”
But Envy haven’t secured a spot in Masters Three Berlin yet. XSET are the last obstacle in their way to earn a spot in the next international VALORANT event and they won’t be an easy obstacle.
“I’d rather play against Rise because I think XSET has a lot of gimmicks,” Marved said when asked who he would rather face in round three of the lower bracket. “They have a lot of setups you’ll never see, and they never show them.”
XSET defeated Rise in the second round of the lower bracket, however, and will be Envy’s next opponent. Envy and XSET will face each other in round three of the lower bracket in the NA VCT Stage Three: Challengers Playoffs at 6:30pm CT today. The winner will move on to the lower final, while the loser will have to fight through the North America Last Chance Qualifier.
