FENNEL 2zzy Interview

As someone that wants to provide more exposure to the Japanese scene to the international audience and out of my own curiosity, I decided to start doing player interviews. My first interview is with FENNEL’S 2zzy, who previously played for Lag Gaming and competed under the FENNEL banner in various VCT tournaments. I’ll try to improve and bring as much as I can to you all!

Your first VALORANT team Lag consisted of you, KuuKai, Flax, sakurai and toru. Your first couple of tournaments were victories, and you even faced off with Jupiter in a final. That’s an impressive start. What do you think the reason for your team starting off so great being was?

2zzy: I think it was because we had been practicing as 5 since beta. I think we had a head start on other teams, and we were able to have better training.

How many of your teammates on Lag did you have previous experience playing together if any?

2zzy: It was my first time playing together with the Lag players. I played with KuuKai and other players that I knew the names of but had never played with beforehand

As a player, the agent you play the most is Sova. Do you think there is any difference in play style between Sova players in Japan?

2zzy: Yeah, for example CR Medusa is a Sova player that’s more about aim while on the other hand, TENSAI from my team is a player who’s really good at skill usage while returning damage in fights, For a player who is really good at using his main skills, I think there are many different ways of playing, even if it’s the same character (Sova).

Is there a Sova player in Japan or worldwide that you look up to?

2zzy: I think Sinatraa’s playstyle is really interesting. Also ShahZam’s playstyle is really smart. As a Sova player he has a good playstyle I think

As 2020 went on, your team had decent placements, you weren’t the best, but you were consistently near the top. Later on however, your team started to do worse in tournaments. What caused your performance to get worse?

2zzy: At the time after GALLERIA GLOBAL CHALLENGE was over, there was a period before the next games where we tried various things. REJECT and Vision Strikers from Korea were doing doing really great, so we had no idea what playstyle we should aim for. The reason why we got worse was that the things we had built up until that point were suddenly broken down, and it took time to rebuild something new.

At the end of the year, you ended up leaving and later on joined FENNEL. How did that come about?

2zzy: After leaving LAG, former CR player Tonbo, who was in the same situation as me, reached out to Jinx and Envy so we could make a team together. We sent out emails to different organizations to find a place to belong to, and the one that we felt fit us best was FENNEL. We sent a lot of emails saying “Would you like to make a VALORANT team?”. It felt like FENNEL was the team we should go with.

Did you have any other team options other than FENNEL?

2zzy: We could have potentially gone somewhere else than FENNEL. But the organization that was closest to our vision, and the way we wanted to become, was FENNEL.

Compared to the rest of the world, Japan is unique because there are a lot of teams that have not only Japanese players but Korean players as well. What what is like transitioning from being on a team that speaks Japanese only to a team that speaks multiple languages, outside and inside of the game?

2zzy: Honestly it was really tough (laughs). In the beginning CLZ hardly even understood the basic English that Jinx said like “Break, Recon”, so it was really tough (laughs).

I saw on Twitter that Insomnia (mixed team from Japan) use English to communicate in the game. Does FENNEL use English, Japanese, or a mix of both?

2zzy: Right now it’s changing to Japanese, but in the very beginning the entire team spoke in English. When it’s only Japanese people left to clutch, they’re talking in Japanese, and when it’s only Korean people left to clutch they’re talking in Korean, so we’re using those 3 languages.

Your results in the Group Stages of tournaments were usually good. However, come playoffs your team was usually one of the first to be eliminated. This really surprised me because While you weren’t the favorites, some of the teams you lost to were similar in skill level such as first gaming. Why do you think the results were not as good?

2zzy: It’s all about communication, you know. In the beginning the Koreans didn’t understand English words like “Break, Recon” and in the Group Stage, winning through your personal strengths like your aim for example, won’t cut it come Playoffs.

Recently, TENSAI joined FENNEL. He is also a Sova player. Is there a difference in style of play between you two?

2zzy: I don’t use Sova the most, and He’s not my specialty. I’m a player who uses a lot of characters. I’d say that in comparison, TENSAI is a specialized Sova player, who has a deeper understanding of playing him, and has a grasp of the character and his Recon arrows.

The current FENNEL roster has 8 players. I don’t think there is any other team with that many players currently. As a member of the original roster, how did this come about?

2zzy: FENNEL representative Hotoke wanted to make the team internally competitive like in Overwatch, so he added new members.

Do the players that don’t participate in matches help in any way with practicing for future matches? Such as giving advice on different agents or something?

2zzy: Of course they help if asked to. TENSAI goes to college at the same time, so Envy fills in for him when he can’t play, but doesn’t do anything special generally. Especially now that VCT is in progress, there is nothing special to do. There’s no rivalry, but I think competition occurs in terms of feelings. There may be action after the tournament is over. I don’t really know yet.

Your team signed meltdown as an analyst, something you didn’t have before. What’s he like?

2zzy: He’s an analyst and a player who is good at researching and grasping the characteristics of other teams. He’s also good at finding the good and bad parts of a team. I think he’s a person that is good at scouting, is used to coaching, and can analyze extremely well.

Do you scrim with Korean teams at all?

2zzy: We scrim with Korean and Asian teams.

Is there any noticeable difference between scrimming with Korean and Japanese teams?

2zzy: I’d say that Japanese teams feel passive. They are somewhat modest and skill-oriented. They take a fighting style that emphasizes coordination as opposed to China, South Korea and South-East Asia, where they use their own personal strengths more. Of course they also use coordination, but the striking thing about them is that they use more aggressive play-styles than Japan.

Since there are so many players, there a player on the team that you get along with more than others?

2zzy: I think I’m familiar with TENSAI the most, followed by Jinx and CLZ. Me and TENSAI were cool before joining FENNEL.

What’s TENSAI like?

2zzy: TENSAI is a really strong and interesting person. He’s a person with a strong heart who went by himself on a student exchange to Japan from South Korea, and didn’t make many Korean friends in Japan in order to improve his Japanese.

Would you say the new FENNEL is any different from before going into the upcoming playoffs? If so, how?

2zzy: What was different from before was the change to Japanese for communication. I think by using just one single language, coordination becomes better.

Much love to 2zzy for being my first interview EVER. It was nerve-wracking being in a call and asking questions but fun at the same time. Follow him on Twitter!