“I was just very, very tired” - t3xture opens up about Pacific Stage 2, lessons from Masters Madrid, and playing with Global Esports [Exclusive]
Kim 't3xture' Na-ra is a big part of Gen.G Esports, the first-ever Valorant Masters champions from the Pacific region. The player is a key cog in the Gen.G machine as he dashes and satchels into sites with his Duelist gameplay. He was arguably the best Duelist at VCT Masters Shanghai because of his mastery of this role.
Now, VCT Masters Shanghai is in the past, and Gen.G is back to playing against other teams at the VCT Pacific Stage 2. The team started off its journey at Stage 2 by defeating T1 on June 16, 2024.
The match ended with a 2-1 score, and even though his team won, t3xture was tired after the encounter. This was because Gen.G did not have a chance to rest since its return from Shanghai.
Sportskeeda Esports had a chance to speak with t3xture after the match. Here are excerpts from the conversation.
(Note: All of t3xture’s answers were translated from Korean to English by a translator present off-screen during the interview)
Gen.G t3xture talks about winning Masters Shanghai, the Duelist role, and performance at VCT Pacific Stage 2
Q: Hello t3xture, congratulations on your win against T1. What are your initial thoughts about the matchup?
t3xture: First of all, I wanna say I’m super proud of Karon because he played super well today but on a personal note, I think I was just very, very tired, like we just haven’t had many days off since Shanghai, and I think we have a lot of fatigue (that’s) just been built up. But fortunately, we do have two weeks before our next match, so I think we gotta take the time to get some much needed rest.
Q: What was the mental or strategic shift that helped Gen.G make a comeback on Split?
t3xture: Honestly I think we just managed to hold on to our mentals. Also, I think, I think initially this Pacific Stage felt kind of weird? Maybe it’s because I spent so, so, much time in Shanghai, I needed some time to get, get used to this specific stage again.
But I think in terms of the comeback, I think even when we’re down a couple of rounds, we know that we’re a team that can, that always has the ability to come back. We can get those, you know, we can mount those second-half comebacks. So we weren’t really worried, too worried amongst ourselves. I think we just said “Yeah, let’s just keep going and make the comeback happen.”
Q: How did you personally deal mentally with the pressure of entering sites as the Duelist main of Gen.G?
t3xture: Even though the entry position is one that gets a lot of the spotlight, or has all the eyes sort of naturally fall to the entry player, I think these days every team is very smart and understands that if you kill the enemy entry, the round becomes a whole lot easier.
So, even though, on the surface, my job is to enter the site, get kills, etc, I trust my teammates to do the rest even if I die because part of being entry isn’t just to get kills, it’s to pave the road, like open the door for the rest of the team. So I trust my teammates. I’ll just... I throw myself out there into the fire as need be and trust my teammates to take care of the rest.
Q: What important lessons did you and the team take back home after winning at VCT Masters Shanghai?
t3xture: So I think that we could’ve won the whole thing at Madrid but we sort of, like. we just didn’t get the job, we dropped the ball there because I think we collapsed mentally, we collapsed internally. So since that experience, I think we were able to apply what we had learned from (VCT Masters) Madrid at Shanghai because during the Grand Finals. we were down 1 to 2 in terms of map score.
I think the lessons we got from the experience that we had in Madrid allowed us to come back and win the whole thing at Shanghai. So I think that’s the main thing we learned overall from our win at Shanghai.
Q: How was the reception back home once you came back as the first-ever Pacific champions after winning VCT Masters Shanghai?
t3xture: Yeah, I think I received a lot of messages of congratulations from fellow players in Pacific as well as from my personal friends and acquaintances. So yeah, I think all the reception has been very positive.
Q: We saw you become a lot more proactive on Sunset. Was it because you feel more comfortable on Jett or because you feel more comfortable on the map Sunset?
t3xture: Yeah simply put, I think I’m most comfortable and most confident on Jett, so I think I’ve been able to perform confidently on that Agent on the third map.
Q: After Stage 2, the next step will be Valorant Champions. So after winning at Masters Shanghai, how different do you think the competition will be for Valorant Champions?
t3xture: First of all, I’m not taking anything for granted within Pacific. I think there’s, there are a lot of scary teams in Pacific and I think we need to take every match here very seriously. I don’t think any of us is thinking that we’re going to, you know, walk through the competition just because we won Masters Shangai.
So I think our initial task is to get some rest and practice and focus on each individual game.
Q: Speaking of teams from APAC, you played with Global Esports before coming down to Gen.G. and there you were playing on Sentinel Agents. So how did you make that shift into playing Duelists for Gen.G, is this role more comfortable?
t3xture: So even though, I would say, I’m more confident, there are certain Agents I’m most confident on, I think as I mentioned before, the entry position is very difficult these days because of how much better and smarter every team is.
I think last year on GE, even though we didn’t put up the best results, I think playing on an individual level, I think I was more comfortable on the Sentinel role but yeah, I think, yeah I think it was more comfortable last year. But because of a lot of difficulties that the entry player has to face these days.