Derek: "We were honestly aiming to be top three here"

Nemesis were one out of the two Southeast Asian teams at the Skyesports Chennai Esports Global Championship 2025, having qualified through the regional qualifiers along with Deep Cross Gaming. After a loss to BIG in their opening game, Nemesis saw off Arise to make the third place decider game.

Unfortunately, they went down to Deep Cross Gaming in the third place decider game but Nemesis' Derek spoke about the team's experience in India, takeaways from the LAN and more.

Commiserations on the loss Derek. Talk to me about the T-side here, because you kept getting shut down by DEEP CROSS.

I think we had a straightforward game plan going in. But I think everything was just not going our way. We tried some new stuff, some old stuff. Also one factor is, they were winning a lot of duels, and we were losing that.

You had a very late game yesterday. Did you maybe wake up tired from it?

I will say No. I think we were in a good mental and physical condition today, waking up. So I don't think that was a factor.

ImpressioN talked about how important this third place finish is for you guys considering VRS. Are you happy with the fourth place finish you ended up with?

Of course we are not satisfied at all. We were honestly aiming to be top three here. We were looking really great in our scrims, heading into this tournament. Our practice was going great. And once we were here, something changed definitely. I think it could be the tournament pressure. It was just not how we were usually playing.

ImpressioN obviously brings in a lot of experience, a lot of energy into the team. How important do you think his role is in the team?

Of course he is the captain and IGL. He is very important, you could even say the most important in our team. But also, at the same time, he is one of five. So we try to view everyone equally. Even in calling situations, we try to view everyone as equals. It doesn't matter if I call, or ImpressioN calls, or w1nt3r calls. We try to respect everyone equally. Of course, ImpressioN is still a top dog in the team.

Any takeaways from this tournament?

Yes definitely, there is a lot to review on. Mostly individual and macro stuff. It was mostly going fine. It' just a lot of individual decision making that was pulling down our performance. And that is what we need to review on, to hopefully get a better placing in our next tournament.