Colombia's journey at WESG came to an end, as they finished their group with one win and three losses. However, the team showed what they had in store, as they took their matches with group favorites VG.CyberZen and iGame.com to close scorelines.



sam_A hope to show up at more events in the future

Half-way through the day we got a hold of Jesus "⁠sam_A⁠" Taboada, who talked to HLTV.org about the team's recent move to Vault, their experience at WESG, and their future considering Juanes "⁠sickLy⁠" Valencia's departure to Miami Flamingos.

How did you prepare for WESG and what kind of goals did you set for yourselves?

We tried to get some organization for making a bootcamp, but we didn't get any support, so we just practised online, playing on NA servers, ESEA, scrimming. Our expectations for the tournament were - since we got a really easy group, we tried to get out of groups and see what happens, but we definitely wanted to get out of groups.

You've played quite a lot of close maps but only came out on top one of the times, how are you satisfied with your performance here, especially after taking VG and iGame to close results?

Since we're not a pro team; we don't have salary and stuff, we did really great against iGame and VG.CyberZen, but I don't think we're satisfied with what we did. But we're definitely gonna learn from this and use it as international experience, this was our first. I hope we have more and that we can do better in the next tournaments.

After playing your first LAN, what do you think the team is good at and what does it need to improve, to take it to the next level?

We have a lot of talent in the team, really young players like 16 years old being able to play against pros from China like VG and TyLoo - we scrimmed against TyLoo, didn't play a match but scrimmed against them - and also iGame. The more important thing for us is the support from the brands, and getting an organization. We played close games against them, so I think we're able to compete at a top level - I mean, I don't know if at a top level, but at this tournament we were able to compete. That's really important. We didn't come here as tourists, we came here as players and we competed for the wins, but didn't make it.

You spoke about organizations and salaries, you've been picked up by Vault recently, what is going to change now that you're with the North American organization?

We actually don't have salaries with Vault, they're just paying for our league fees in ESEA and our Premium. Having a gaming house would be a great step, but that's really hard and I understand that. But I think we have the talent and the potential to reach a good level, I hope we find our way with Vault, so we can reach the pro level.

You mentioned a gaming house, do you think moving to North America will be a possibility at some point?

We didn't talk about that with Vault, I don't think we're capable of doing that, we talked with the manager and he didn't put that on the table. We're not moving to NA, we're just staying in South America playing in NA like we always did, and play ESEA Main and see how it goes. Keep practising, keep getting better.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about the change you went through recently, as sickLy is going over to Miami Flamingos. How is that going to change team, how will you deal with it?

I think it's going to be a big change, because sickLy was one of the leaders of the team and he was also the captain. So he is a big influence in what we're doing in practice and the style we play. But we're gonna fill the roster with burn1ng, who was playing for us in Brazil, so I think we're going to try to fix those little details in our play. I'm not sure if we're going to put him as a lurker, that's the role that sickLy does, but we're gonna manage to pull it off with burn1ng, he's a really good and talented player, really young and dedicated to the game.

Now that you mentioned the roles, can you run me through how the team works, what the roles are?

spamzz is the first entry fragger, points is the second entry fragger, he's also a really good aimer, so he usually plays the rifles. spamzz is also the second AWP player. I'm the main AWP player and also the IGL for the team. In this tournament I was the IGL, but before that sickLy used to lead. Now I'm taking over since he's leaving soon. And Daveys knows how to play support and he also knows how to entry, so he's like a support player, but he's really good, he has a lot of aim and a lot of potential. He's good in the tough situations and the clutch situations, so he's like a star player in our team even when he's the support player. And sickLy was the lurker.