Goonjar on facing Evil Geniuses: “We’ve played them multiple times this year and they don’t really pose too much of a threat”

The top 16 teams from the 2018 Call of Duty World League Championship have begun play in the double-elimination bracket—and Lightning Pandas are already rolling.

After a 3-0 showing in Pool A, which included an upset win over Team Kaliber, Lightning Pandas ran through Lethal Gaming in their opening match of bracket play earlier today. The four-time CWL Canadian National Circuit champions were swift in their takedown of Lethal, who put up a fight in the third game of the series but still ultimately fell in sweeping fashion.

After yet another win, Lightning Pandas assault rifle player Jevon “Goonjar” Gooljar-Lim talked with Dot Esports.

Your match with Lethal was quick, but what do you guys still need to improve on?

Goonjar: In the Lethal series, I think that they were just not as good as us at all. The CTF was kind of close, but we proved our dominance in the second side—got three caps in a row and they kind of crumbled under the pressure. I think they might have got nervous because this the biggest stage they’ve ever played on.

Things we need to improve on is definitely becoming more consistent in Hardpoint versus the top teams and making sure we have our SnD game down because if we win our Searches, then we can beat anyone.

Who would you rather play—Evil Geniuses or Vitality?

I’d probably rather play Vitality just because they’re the newer team and they probably don’t have too much chem together. But I wouldn’t mind playing EG—we’ve played them multiple times this year and they don’t really pose too much of a threat—we just got to play our game.

How did it feel beating Team Kaliber as a former player?

Obviously, it felt good to win. It’s not like it felt better because it was Team Kaliber. It just felt good because they won the last tournament and it felt good to beat the reigning champs—I think that was the best part about it. They won S2 playoffs and then in the first game of Champs, we beat them. That was good.

What did you as a team improve on since the Last Chance Qualifier where you struggled?

At the LCQ, we kind of just went in underestimating most of the teams. We were the No. 1 seed and we didn’t play to our full potential, and teams were taking advantage of that. Coming into Champs, it was an eye opener that you have to take every team seriously—no underestimating teams and that we got to play 100 percent and to our best.

Lightning Pandas will face Evil Geniuses tomorrow in the winners bracket quarterfinals.