Heretic’s Nukkye On Winning First Strike, Being The Best EU Team, And More
Just minutes after winning First Strike Europe, we sat down with Team Heretics' Zygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas to discuss their victory and to reconnect after our first interview ten days prior which had been recorded after their successful qualification for the regional finals.
Once again being reflective of their situation, nukkye shared his team's and his own process to get where they are now. According to him, it took nothing short of "three months of non-stop practice, all the tournaments we signed up for like the Spanish ones, two insanely hard qualifiers which we lost in the first one". Nukkye, whose relief was apparent throughout the interview, showed an outstanding personal performance during the Grand Finals against SUMN FC, top-fragging and scoring the highest ADR for his team.
When asked about the preparation behind his success, the Lithuanian player had an unorthodox yet commonsensical answers. He said: "Honestly I'm a bit different than everybody else. I would say, the most important thing for me [...] to have a good day is food consumption. [...] Also, sleep is very important" quickly adding "Coffee! For me coffee is very important. Like the first cup of the day is important" while nodding knowingly. In terms of the mental game, he shared that it was important for him to think that he was going to be "ready and willing to destroy."
One of the major key-events to happen in their run-up to the event remained the loss during the first qualifier against Ninjas in Pyjamas. Much like in our first interview, nukkye reiterated the importance of having experienced defeat. He said: "Honestly, it was an eye-opener as I said. We fixed all the things, regarding mentality, regarding some tactics and some setups. The most important small bits that we missed during the period we were preparing for the qualifier. It was an eye-opener."
Moreover, nukkye mused about the happenings within the game such as their opponent playing Viper, playing Icebox for the first time in officials, being called the best team in Europe and more.
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Image via Team Heretics