Heretic’s NiesoW on First Strike: “I don’t care who we play against”

Underdog team Heretics has been shaking up Valorant’s First Strike EU main event over the past few days. 

Yesterday, the Valorant community was shocked to see Heretics come out on top after a close back and forth against Team Liquid. Today, Heretics came back and defeated top team G2 Esports. But Dustyn “niesoW” Durnas doesn’t see it as that surprising. While G2 and Team Liquid are well-known organizations, the Valorant scene is anyone’s game. 

WIN.gg spoke with the up and coming German Valorant pro post-victory to find out more about the most exciting new esports scene in the world right now. 

Was the victory against G2 an outcome you guys expected? 

niesoW: We don’t care who we play against. We just go in and do our game. It’s still a young game so we really don’t care who we play against. We are prepared. We do our stuff. 

While the scene is new, Team Liquid and G2 are very well-known organizations. Can that be nerve-wracking going into the match? 

Usually, they play to not lose. They just don’t want to lose and we play to win. We have nothing to lose. We are improving every day. We just give it our best. 

How did you end up beating G2?

Good question. After that Bind, we just said to ourselves, “Guys, we don’t care. We are doing fine.” Even after that 6-6 score we still felt we could do it. Don’t give up yet. 

What are your team’s strengths? 

We are really good friends. We trust each other. We believe in each other. And we all have a lot of individual skill. 

You were previously a Reyna main. But you switched to Sova. What made you switch agents for this tournament? 

I only play Reyna on Split now. There were just different plays we wanted to make. We just wanted to change and switch up so we have more agents to select. We want a bigger agent pool.

I think Sova is a must-pick on all maps except on Split. So much info and you can retake with his arrow. It’s really good. 

68

What were you playing before Valorant? 

I played Overwatch. I played Rainbow 6. I played a lot of Counter-Strike too, but this was my first time playing on a competitive team. 

Do you feel playing Overwatch helped you better utilize agent abilities in Valorant? 

I don’t think it’s Overwatch. I think it’s all the different types of games I played. It gave me the game sense to use the abilities. 

Valorant is your first major competitive scene. How are you enjoying First Strike?

It’s still young. You can’t really say much. There’s no LAN right now. It’s all online. We have to wait and see.

Riot is doing a really good job with First Strike. It’s really another level. The skills of the other players. ScreaM is insane. Mixwell was insane. There are so many good players to watch out for. It’s a great showcase for everyone. 

What matchups are you looking forward to going forward?

I really don’t care against who we play. It’s going to be a good game for sure no matter what.