Liquid’s Matias “Kurev” Riffel: I actually thought that I was reaching my cap as an IGL. […] Bringing in Stressado, he showed me new concepts of the game. And by trying to learn more things it was a really good way to get my capabilities even further
Coming into the ALGS Championship under a new team Matias “Kurev” Riffel has been making waves with Team Liquid, but his journey from South America has brought him across multiple regions over the years before settling with the Mexican team. Today we’re diving deeper into his career, the learnings from his time abroad, how he feels about the South American region, and how his coach Stressado has helped him improve.
So starting off, how’s you’re time in Japan been for the Championship so far?
Yeah great! We’ve been doing boot camp in Tokyo and everything in this country has been awesome. Apart from the cold everything’s, been great. Coming from Argentina where we have like 40 degrees in summer, it’s insane to be here. Every single time I go out I’m like this is too much for me.
Diving into things, you first competed in South America for two years, and when the South American Pro League was dissolved, you instead moved to Europe for the split to compete. What made you take that risk to move regions?
At that time I wasn’t that experienced, and I basically got an invite from Stalizy who’s been competing for like the far the past four years. He’s been to multiple LANs and I thought this would be a nice experience to not only learn the game but also more about life. Going to a different country and being with a teammate. It would be a really good experience to be with someone who is focused on the same goal. So I think I didn’t see it as a risk.
To me, it was more of a curve in the learning experience. I knew that it wouldn’t benefit me at the time because of all the money that you need to spend to go to a different country. Plus we moved to London, which was really expensive, one of the most expensive cities in the world. But I wanted to learn about life, like being 100% focused on a goal.
When you moved to Europe, was it a more difficult region to compete in?
Of course, yeah. While you could see that we weren’t much apart as individual players, they were killable, you know. But it was the little details that you don’t know in a different region. Every detail counts in competing situations. So I learned a lot, not only for my individual play, and to do my best, but as a team, try to up your teammates’ games and work on synergy. There was also the fact that I had to speak another language so it was a bit different. But overall it was really good experience. I liked it.
After one split, you’ve moved back to South America. Was there a particular reason why you’ve moved back after just one split?
So I made the decision based on our performance. We didn’t do good. I realized this was not working out. And I didn’t want to risk my career with this. So I decided to go back to my region to “keep farming bots”. So that’s what I had in mind. I’m going to go back and build a very strong team with very good players and teach them the things I’ve learned while in Europe.
I was wondering about this, since after you moved back, you won your official ALGS tournament in South America. And with this win, you’ve also qualified for the LAN’s. This team then went on to look like one of the best South American teams in a while who had a good shot at performing at the LAN. What do you think made the difference?
I knew for a long time ago like the players that I picked up, that they were really good players. They just didn’t have the discipline initially to keep going at it and try every single time, do VOD reviews, practice, and to keep playing after scrims, getting to know each other. So the big difference was that I didn’t see them as a part of work but as my friends too. I treated them the way that they needed to be. And of course, we didn’t see everything as friends, and at the end of the day, it is still work. So we tried to put in the effort where we needed to, just become the best in South America.
Obviously, Rostermania had happened after the Split 2 Playoffs, but do you think you could’ve even reached for better results with that roster?
I actually thought that I was reaching my cap as an IGL. I didn’t know how I could take into account as many concepts as I would’ve liked to. So I thought I needed a new coach who could teach me new things that I couldn’t learn by myself. So bringing in Stressado and he showed me new concepts of the game. And by trying to learn more things it was a really good way to get my capabilities even further, you know? So I think we had more chances with my South America.
But now I feel that the roof of learning is much higher with Team Liquid. Both my teammates, Neazul and Jaguares are so experienced. In addition to having a coach who is as good as Stressado. He’s so clever, he’s always focused on what you are doing, what are you thinking, and where things are going through your head in the match, so you can focus on the right things.
So while we could have gone further with the South American team, North America is a better region overall. You can do and learn a lot more different things than in South America.
What’s actually interesting here, when you moved to Team Liquid North and South America were merged as the Americas for the BLGS, do you think that helped the South American region to level up their play?
Of course, but there’s a double-edged sword here while there are so many players better than you that you can learn from during BLGS, You’re playing on 200 ping from South America, And as a player that has played both on low ping and on 230 ping, you can notice the difference.
Playing on 200 ping doesn’t only make your mechanics worse, but you’re so focused on trying to do the things that you normally do, but with a time difference of like 200 milliseconds. You’re essentially playing in the past. It is so different, so difficult to play. It slows down your mental. You cannot think as you always do.
I think it is better for the players that are really good, but worse for the players that want to get into competitive and try to be a better version of themselves.
Speaking on that, if you had the power to change how Pro League was structured for Year 5, what is the wishlist you’d have for the South American scene?
I still think that it is really difficult to merge two regions because one region is going to be be on a disadvantage because of the ping so there’s not really a way to fix that. I think Americas as a region is a good idea, but it’s not executable in the way that you’d want it to. It’s almost as if the Americas region would become an excuse that kills off the South American scene.
I don’t think there’s a way to fix the current situation anymore, which is partially the fault of poor execution from the organizer, but also the players in the scene. So what I think now is that it’s a good change for year five to have both Americas, It would still be really bad for South America. It’s not good for new players, but for the players that are already settled and that are really good, they have be a bigger chance to move on.
So in a sense, maybe you’d ideally create a funnel where the top players go on to play in the Americas, while still keeping an entry for new players.
Exactly, I think that would probably be the way to go.
It’s interesting I’d say, having played in the EMEA BLGS, it is interesting to see how people come into a system where the level is way higher, but you end up learning and climbing.
Exactly! I think Europe is actually one of the better examples, where with how big the player base in competitive is, you have so many different types of players, they’re from almost everywhere, and there are so many different languages.
Which creates a big community of players that are on the second tie. You get a chance to get new teammates, you can improve with these guys. And you keep learning from all these different players who view the game differently. There’s like a higher roof in terms of the skill ceiling. So I think we could all learn a bit from Europe in this scenario.
