Compared to Gambit Esports’ accolade-filled 2021, Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin had a quiet 2022 — M3C had failed to qualify for any international event. They did, however, came close, finishing in second at the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier after losing to Team Liquid.
Starting afresh, he signed with the very team that denied them a place at Champions 2022 for the debut VCT franchised EMEA season. After the departure of brothers Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom and Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom at the end of 2022, Liquid were forced to rebuild.
Former Gambit Esports and M3C teammate Igor “Redgar” Vlasov reunited with nAts, alongside Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel, formerly from Guild Esports.
The refreshed roster did not have a lot of time to practice together, and looked shaky at LOCK//IN São Paulo where they lost 2-0 to veteran Southeast Asian representatives, Team Secret.
Even though they improved throughout the VCT EMEA season, they were not favorites to win — Navi and Fnatic were. Yet, during the playoffs, they first surprised by sweeping Navi 2-0 in the upper bracket quarterfinals. Losing the semifinals to Fnatic, they picked themselves up, defeating FUT Esports in the lower bracket final to book a rematch in the grand final.
There, they defeated their longtime rivals 3-1 to claim to the trophy in an emotional triumph.
At Masters Tokyo 2023, they upset Edward Gaming in the first round, and eventually fell to Evil Geniuses and NRG Esports, who ended their run. In an exclusive interview with ONE Esports, we caught up with nAts to check-in on how he’s been doing on his new team, his experience at Masters Tokyo, and his goals for Valorant Champions 2023.
NAts had one key challenge to overcome when he joined Team Liquid: a verbal one
The last time ONE Esports spoke with nAts was at Masters Berlin in 2021 where he was juggling school, relationship, and an esports career.
Two years later, he is still juggling these three things while continually working towards his law degree, which he plans to complete soon. “After this season, I’m just going to come back and study. This year, and next year, and then I graduate,” said nAts.
He’s been in a balancing act since the start of his esports career, and mentioned that while it was harder to manage at the start, he’s now at a point where he “accepts the situation” because he desires to pursue both at the same time.
Since it is esports season, he’s giving his career a hundred percent until Valorant Champions. “I won EMEA, I won Masters, I didn’t win Champions, but I have the opportunity. We still have Champions to show that we can do better than we did at Masters Tokyo,” said nAts.
He will be going up against many of the same Masters Tokyo teams at Champions and meeting the same players, including good friend Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto from Paper Rex who duos with him whenever they’re at the same tournament.
“Whenever I play ranked with him, it’s always fun. I cannot play serious ranked with him. He is a fun person,” said nAts. “I’m learning a lot of things from every player. When I’m watching someone in ranked, it doesn’t matter if they’re a pro player or not, I’m taking something from them.”
Another player who met nAts and exchanged jerseys is Edward Gaming’s controller Wan “CHICHOO” Shunzhi. CHICHOO isn’t just a huge fan of his, but also sees him as a “teacher” becuase he studies his VODs often, he told ONE Esports in an interview.
“I’ve been in the scene for three years now. Everyone knows how the game works, how the person they’re playing plays,” nAts replied on whether it’s a disadvantage to be studied. “Usually, it’s more about confidence. We’re playing Valorant, so even if someone knows how you’re playing, you just play around that. It works both ways.”
Being with Team Liquid this year, he’s already competed at two international tournaments and the EMEA league, much more than what he experienced the year before. Joining a “big org” that lets him compete at the top tier is a dream come true for nAts, but it wasn’t without its challenges, which included Visa applications, preparations, adjusting to a new roster, and even language barriers.
“In Valorant, you don’t have that much time to talk or communicate. You just have to do things instantly,” nAts elaborated. “When I think about how to translate Russian to English, that was a bit hard. But now, I know automatically. It helped that I talk a lot in English on stream.”
“I hope we show a good result at Champions so that all the staff and everyone at Liquid will not be sad,” said nAts. “I’m happy that I have such a big fan base — people support me even when we fail sometimes, even though I didn’t participate at the international events in 2022, I still have a huge fan base with me.”
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