Version1 players discuss what went wrong in loss to Korea’s NUTURN Gaming

The Korean region is showing its strength as they move forward in the upper bracket after a close win against Version1.

All signs were pointing to Version1 winning the matchup after Map 1, but NUTURN Gaming were able to turn the tide and take the 2-1 victory with two overtime map wins and now will move ahead and face Sentinels.

Although V1 entered Masters with stand-in Jamal “jammyz” Bangas, they had a strong beginning to their upper-bracket win. They beat out Crazy Raccoon in their first match, and then upset Team Liquid. NUTURN have handed V1 their first loss, forcing them to regroup and fight their way through the lower bracket in order to reach the grand final.

“[NUTURN] have obviously been competing for some time,” IGL Anthony “vanity” Malaspina said after the match. “Their [IGL Kang “solo” Keun-chul] and [Jung “peri” Bum-gi] have been playing tactical FPS games probably longer than [Erik “penny” Penny] has been alive, to be honest. So I think they have the experience edge.”

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Map 1 on Haven showed off V1’s dominance over NUTURN, with a score of 13-3. The map lasted a little over a half hour, one of the shortest in the tournament so far.

NUTURN seemed to wake up halfway through Ascent, and V1 let them back into the game. After nine rounds, it looked like V1 were going to dominate Map 2, but suddenly, NUTURN were able to take five rounds in a row before giving up one to V1.

“I think we were just better on Haven. I think they came back all of a sudden and we got sloppy and complacent and uncomfortable,” Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro said after the match.

V1 pointed to the middle of Ascent as the turning point in which the team started their downward spiral. After showing their dominance on Haven, the team got comfortable.

“We were up 7-2 on defense on Ascent and then we let them back into the half,” vanity said. “We shouldn’t have let them back into the game, but we kind of let our foot off the gas towards the end of Ascent, and they’re going to punish you, they’re a great team.”

Toward the end of the map, the score started to ping pong back and forth between the teams, and V1 were unable to hold on long enough to secure the map and the win. Even though vanity and Loic “effys” Sauvageau had multiple clutch plays, including at least two rounds where effys won as the last player standing, they lost the map 14-12.

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In the end, V1 ended up losing Ascent to NUTURN gaming in Map 3 on Split which also went into overtime. NUTURN finished strong and dominated V1 toward the end of Split.

“I think, in the end, our loss came down to inexperience against their playstyle. Obviously we’re going to be disappointed, but it’s not like it’s tournament-ending. It’s an upper bracket match, but we still have the lower bracket to go,” vanity said.

Effys had an amazing match, but his clutches weren’t enough to keep V1 afloat.

“I think we started off strong, and then we got a little too ahead of ourselves on Ascent,” effys said. “[NUTURN] played really well under pressure, teams usually crumble when their backs are against the wall, but these guys didn’t. These guys fought really hard for it, and they weren’t scared of making plays.”

V1 are no strangers to the lower bracket, but they will have to win three straight to get to the grand final for a match against the winner of Friday’s NUTURN vs. Sentinels matchup.

Lead image credit: Riot Games