After a tumultuous Sunday, proGears team enVisioN, formerly known as VexX, will continue to pressforward with the addition of Loviel “Velly” Cardwell as theircoach to address their issues. Shortly after losing to Lethal Gaming, numeroustweets from the players, which have since been deleted, began tohint towards the team disbanding. Community members and otherpro teams showed their own disappointment at the thought ofone of Gears esports more promising teams calling it quits beforethe Gears 4 season even began.
Damn VexX was a good squad
— 혼자 clerkie (@thisisclerkie) September5, 2016
I spoke with Christopher “Domez” Guzman togain a bit more insight on why emotions ran so high on such apromising young team.
What were the issues the team was facing that ultimatelyled to a near team split?
To be honest, after coming back from Columbus, I felt likepeople weren’t taking constructive criticism anymore and that theywere never wrong. The lack of practice and scrims was also startingto become an issue. When you have a team full of young playerslike us, that is kinda expected to happen. Lack of experience mayor may have not played a huge factor when playing in Columbus.
We [were] one of the two teams to [have come] close tobeating ENEMYGG [now] known asOpTic Gaming atthe LAN. We were up 2-0 on the tie breaker map against Enemy afterour Enigma6 matchup,and we went into that match thinking we were the best and thatEnemy was garbage in order to not give them too much respect and bescared of fighting one-on-one fights with them. We knew ourshotguns [could] compete with theirs.
Confidence is key. I’m also to understand that you guysare trying Velly as a coach?
Yes, we are, and we will start using him today. He kindahelped keep us together because he sees potential in us. Gilbert”Xplosive” Rojofrom OpTic alsohelped keep us together; he spoke to us and told us why we shouldstay together.
I later caught up with Velly, former Major League Gaming pro forGears of War to gain his insight on the matter and prospect ofcoaching such a young and promising team.
What led you to want to coach this team?
I approached them two weeks ago with a proposal. When theydidn’t place top-four during the first qualifier, I saw huge flawsin their playstyle, but a ton of upside in terms of skill. I feellike they can honestly be a top-three team if they corrected badhabits. For my first time coaching a team, it’s a little odd.I’m used to playing, you know? Fortunately, we all have the samemindset in terms of success and that really pushed me to want tocoach them.
What things do you plan to do as a coach to help thisteam reach the next level?
I plan on helping this team learn how to play smarter. Theseguys fly around the map and take unnecessary fights, which is whatseparates them from the other top teams. I don’t want to be the guythat walks in and says “YOU’RE GOING TO DO THIS MY WAY” but I wantto help by lending helpful advice which will hopefully encourageone of them to step up as a leader to identify situations that callfor them to slow it down and when to push with numbers. Theyhave the skill, they just need to add situational awareness, whichis what they currently lack.
This will be a trial run with Velly as the coach to see howthings work out. enVisioN’s first test under a new coach willbe in this Sunday’s GameBattles 2K Series. As of now, theycurrently are in the top-four for pro points, so another 2Kwin will place them within the top-two.
The enVisioN roster is as follows:
Christopher “Domez” Guzman
Anthony “DeToX” George
Jarid “Neglectant” Breuninger
Ahiyah “Hooligin” Lyte
Loviel “Velly” Cardwell (coach)
What do you think about the enVisioN roster? Let us know bycommenting below or tweeting us @GAMURScom.
