After an impressive run through the NA VALORANT Champions Tour Challengers series, Immortals were among the first two teams eliminated from Masters One last week. And for duelist Andrew “ShoT_UP” Orlowski, that’s “totally unacceptable.”
When discussing what good can be taken from this experience, the former CS:GO pro chose not to opt for a “good PR response.” Instead, he held nothing back on his team’s performance.
“Us losing how we lost [was] really disheartening so I have no idea what changes we’re planning on making,” ShoT_UP told Dot Esports. “This was fucking awful, we played terribly… it’s just totally unacceptable. I can probably make something up, like ‘oh my God, the boys really went out there in the server and tried their best.’ But our best is not getting shit on by 100 Thieves and Luminosity.”
Immortals were also taken out early in last year’s First Strike main event, leading to a couple of key roster changes. The organization picked up in-game leader Nicholas “NaturE” Garrison and Rhett “Kehmicals” Lynch and enjoyed incredible success during Challengers One and Two, beating teams like Envy, Sentinels, and Luminosity along the way. But it came to a screeching halt at Masters after falling to 100 Thieves in the quarterfinals and Luminosity in the lower bracket.
While it may be time for Immortals to go back to the drawing board, there are still multiple Challengers and Masters events to compete in for those coveted circuit points. And ShoT_UP believes putting teammate Kehmicals in a better position is essential to improving the squad’s performance.
“Kehm is sometimes having really low impact, in terms of stats,” ShoT_UP said. “I think he’s being put in unwinnable positions a lot of the time… I know that Kehm is way better than what he’s showing on the scoreboard in some of these matches, and it’s not a him thing, it’s a team thing.”
Throughout Masters One, Kehmicals did have some stellar games. But he also underperformed. Against 100 Thieves, for example, Kehmicals went 22/22 on Ascent followed by 7/18 on Haven. Against Luminosity, he went 19/16 on Split, 20/17 on Haven, and then 9/17 on Bind. And ShoT_UP is adamant the “number one issue” Immortals need to work on is supporting Kehmicals as a team.
IGL NaturE believes “confidence is a really big issue,” which affects how Immortals play in key moments.
“We’ll start good sometimes and then other times, we’ll just do completely awful where nobody’s going to peek anything,” he told Dot Esports. “I think the issue is we have to keep going back to the fundamentals and trust one another.”
The NA VCT Masters One event continues this Friday, March 19, where FaZe will take on Sentinels in the upper final. For the lower bracket, 100 Thieves will face off against Gen.G and Envy will go head-to-head with Luminosity.
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