BiBiAhn: "A lower bracket run would be f***ing amazing"

CLG Red have been the dominant force in the North American women's scene for a while, however, in the post-COVID era they have struggled to assert that dominance in International competitions. ESL Impact Katowice is the first chance for the team to prove their chops against their European counterparts.

CLG Red were matched up with NAVI Javelins for their opening match. Despite a strong start to their defense on Ancient, they let slip control of the game after half time with their Polish opponents only dropping two rounds on their CT side to run out winners 16-11. Dust2.us' Liam "Slevo" Slevin caught up with Vivienne 'BiBiAhn' Quach after their tough opening loss.

First game of ESL Impact, a bit of a rough start but tell me about your experience in Katowice so far?

So far, I mean after the last game it's now a bit depressing (laughs). I think we just weren't playing our game, I had a few issues at the start which really threw me off that game. But I think a lower-bracket run would be fucking amazing, so I'm looking forward to that. Recent scrims have been good, we have been praccing a few EU teams and we have been doing good in that. Obviously, that didn't translate into the official today but we are going to pull ourselves together I guess.

Those issues you were experiencing at the start is there anything you can tell us about, was it anything serious?

I just couldn't hear out of my left ear at all, for like the first three rounds which really threw me off (laughs).

With it being a Best of one, it can be a bit frustrating in terms of the veto, were you expecting Ancient?

Yeah we were expecting Ancient, not much to say about that.

You will have 9 Pandas Fearless or FURIA next, FURIA are a pretty strong team would there be any worries about facing them at this stage in the lower bracket?

I think it would be more unfortunate for them if they came into the lower bracket, seeing as they are probably the best team in the group right now. We are expecting 9 Pandas.

With 9 Pandas do you think that's stylistically going to be a good matchup for you guys?

With 9 Pandas I think it doesn't really matter, as long as we play our own game it should be fine.

We talked to Goosebreeder, we had her on the podcast recently, and she talked about her time turning into an IGL. What's it been like having her grow into that leadership role on the team?

I think she is doing good so far. Leadership is extremely hard to maintain, and pull off you know so she is learning and we are all learning along with her. so it's slow but we are all going.

You mentioned it's frustrating having the first game being a loss, but coming into this event what expectations did you set yourself as a team?

We wanted to take it slow, we wanted to progress from the last LAN, the last LAN was a bit rough for us. This time we wanted to make it one step more, so that means getting to playoffs for us.

If CLG Red is going to make that lower bracket run a reality, it will need to start with a victory versus 9 Pandas Fearless later today.