Guild Esports’ Valorant coach claims they crushed their underdog narrative

Guild Esports defeated OpTic Gaming 2-0 in their opening match at Valorant Masters Copenhagen, crushing their underdog narrative according to the team’s head coach André “BARBARR” Möller.

Before the event began Guild were not one of the favorites for the event, and were probably the lowest rated team coming out of the major regions.

But the team fought back against that narrative with a clean sweep of the previous Valorant Masters winners in the first day of the tournament.

“Super happy we can finally be here and actually show a good level of Valorant and crush the doubts of always being an underdog no matter the results,” BARBARR said in a post-match interview with Dexerto.

The European squad almost had to play out a third game as their second map, Split, went into overtime before they could seal the win. BARBARR was sitting just a few feet away and could feel the stress himself.

“I tell you, it’s very sweaty. You can hear my voice is almost gone here,” The Guild coach said with a laugh. “We should have closed it out earlier.”

Guild Esports preparing for Valorant Masters Copenhagen

Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Guild Esports notched their first international win and have a chance to qualify for Master Copenhagen playoffs on July 11.

Guild are competing in their first Valorant Masters level event and have one player, Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko, who has never competed on LAN before. While the other may have LAN experience, only Jose Luis “koldamenta” Aranguren Herrero has been on a stage like this before.

Keeping the team calm and collected has been a point of emphasis for BARBARR and the team’s mental and performance coach.

“The ones that have experienced it need to share it and also share their energy that this is not the end of the world… everything we build up about ourselves in our heads is going to be the reality,” BARBARR said.

Guild will have to keep up their mental and remain cool as they head into their winner’s bracket match against KRÜ Esports on July 11 to have the chance to become the first squad to qualify out of the group stage.