NRG’s Ethan and hazed Eager to Face Off Against OpTic in NA VCT Stage Two Playoffs
Despite a grueling lower bracket run in the NA VCT Stage Two playoffs, NRG’s Ethan Arnold and James “hazed” Cobb have expressed their desire to go head-to-head against the reigning Masters Reykjavik champions: OpTic.
Following their victory against Ghost Gaming on Friday, the NRG VALORANT duo spoke to . When asked about their preferred opponents, both players mentioned OpTic, citing their past success against them as the primary reason.
According to hazed, “We give [OpTic] a lot of credit internally for getting us out of a slump that we were in. I’d rather beat OpTic in the grand final though, since they’re my friends.”
Ethan added, “We probably match up the best against OpTic. I feel like everyone in the server is a CS:GO player, so it’s easier to understand what’s happening compared to playing players from other games. There’s more randomness, and those players are always more difficult to read.”
Specifically, Ethan mentioned that they wanted to avoid facing FaZe, as NRG has struggled against them in scrims, with a record of “2-15” in favor of FaZe. Ethan described FaZe as an “incredible” and “scary” team, who are unpredictable and hard to read.
Beating OpTic is undoubtedly a challenging task, especially for an NRG team that has experienced significant fluctuations in performance throughout the stage. After adding Ethan, NRG had a strong start, going 8-0 in qualifiers and defeating TSM in week one. However, the team then suffered multiple losses to XSET, Ghost, and 100T, failing to reach double-digit rounds in any of the six maps played.
Hazed explained, “We really tried to be diverse and meta-changing with our comp. We tried a lot of creative ideas, which I personally think were pretty good. We just didn’t execute them well. So now we’ve gone back to what works.”
Ethan mentioned that the team was making “bad fundamental mistakes every game,” but after a month-long boot camp, things started looking up. NRG’s recent victories against The Guard and Ghost came in crucial do-or-die games. Despite the pressure, the team remains composed.
When asked about his younger teammates facing pressure, hazed stated, “[They’ve handled it] better than I would have if I were them. We have guys that like to mess around and keep the mood light in high-pressure situations.”
Whether it’s OpTic or another team, NRG awaits their next opponent in an elimination series, scheduled for Sunday, June 19.
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