Verdoyance on Elite Series win: "It's been a long journey"

In case you missed it, this past weekend saw the fourth season of the Gfinity Elite Series come to a close in London, and while AS Roma and Method claimed trophies in FIFA and Rocket League respectively, Team Vitality were the side to emerge champions in Street Fighter V after a grand final with ExceL.

We recently spoke with their player Verdoyance about the performance, and here's what he had to say.

What does winning the Elite Series mean to you?

It means a lot to me and my teammates, we all worked really hard for this. In a more personal way: I came all the way from the challenger series (a series of tournaments where you've got to do your best to get picked by the professional teams to be able to participate in the Elite Series) so it's been a long journey with lots of hard training.

Our path wasn't easy we had to beat both former champions Nordavind and ExceL which made the victory even better.

How tough were ExceL?

They were very scary! Infexious is a machine and you know that he's always going to be ready! Hurricane has been incredible this season, I think he has won EVERY single match! Brian is a hard worker and always has something in his pocket so you've got to be ready for everything. Also he's the one that launched the ExceL machine, the one that you want to put in the first match to give confidence to the team; they both played very well. We had to bring our A game to be able to defeat them. Linkexelo is always delivering and TKR was on fire this week.

Are you happy with your performance for the whole season?

I definitely am! First I want to thank Team Vitality and my teammates for picking me in the Draft. I come from Lille, France, and being able to play for the best French esports team is an honour. I was playing a new character this season (Blanka) and it takes a lot of time in Street Fighter to play a character efficiently! Thanks to the Challenger Series my Blanka got stronger because I was able to play competitively in the weeks before the Elite Series!

I'm happy we won the whole thing and I'm so proud of the team.

How do you guys work together as a team?

We were talking between us on the match-ups, watching replays of the teams we were facing to figure out our opponent's habits, taking notes, practicing match-ups with the French community, and being honest with each other when we were not comfortable playing certain matchups. Communication was the key.

What is your training like?

A lot of playing obviously but you also have to take care of yourself before a competition. Eating well and doing sports is important - you've got to be mentally and physically ready.

What does the future hold?

I guess it would be something with a lot of salt bae poses and a lot of good street fighter matches!