Esports
Anubis Gaming won Red Bull Campus Clutch after an incredible 3-2 reverse sweep in the finals. Here, they talk us through their path to victory.
After months of playing in multiple qualifiers for the event, Anubis Gaming made it to the final stage of Red Bull Campus Clutch and won it all after being two games down and facing three match points. The West Asia and Africa representatives had some wins under their belts in their own region, but this was the first time that they performed on the global stage.
We caught up with the champions just after their victory to ask what their next steps are in the esports world and what kind of personal growth they experienced during the tournament.
“It took us about two weeks before the tournament to get all the paperwork sorted to make it to Madrid," says Ayman 'Tuna' Mosaad. “While we played together a lot beforehand, we didn’t have that much time to practise before the finals started”. Tuna tells us that at first, the team forgot how to play proper VALORANT as it’s been so long since they practised together. “However, after the first few matches, we really saw things beginning to come together – that was really amazing."
Coming into the tournament, Tuna explains that his team had a great deal of confidence, “Because they all think they are so good individually.” Tuna saw things differently: “I saw all these big teams coming from the USA, Korea and Europe – and they’ve won their qualifiers as well so they must be amazing”. For Tuna, it seemed like an uphill battle at first, but his team pushed him past his doubts. They told him that they would be able to make it far into the tournament because they have the motivation to play against anyone, anywhere, at any time.
After their big Red Bull Campus Clutch win, Ziyad ‘zizox’ ElSawaaf explains that their next step is to qualify for the VCT tournament in their region: “Our main focus was winning this tournament, so we didn’t take the time to try to qualify for the other big events yet”. They will start preparing for the qualifiers from now on and set that as their main focus for the upcoming months.
Red Bull Campus Clutch is a tournament focused on university and college players, but the Anubis Gaming team are keen to continue their esports careers after getting their degrees. Amr ‘fr0st’ Mohamed tells us that he first wants to make his family happy by graduating but, “after that, I want to try to live the esports life and live my dream.”
Tuna tells us that he wants to be an esports professional for the rest of his life. He explains that he’s realistic and that it’s definitely not going to be easy since the internet back home is not optimal for a fast-paced FPS like VALORANT. “We’re going to have some issues with the ping at home, but I’m really looking forward to doing our best to qualify for the next LAN event”.
A tournament like Red Bull Campus Clutch is also a great way of learning new skills while you’re competing with your team-mates. For zizox, this was to improve working together as a team: “When someone else is feeling down, I’ll try to bring his mood up. A tournament like this brought us much closer together – it feels like a home and we’re family now.”
Fr0st also tells us that he learned that it’s important to never give up, no matter how dire your in-game situation is. After being behind 0-2 in the final, they were still able to push through the mental barrier to bring it back with a 3-2 victory.
On this note, unexpected challenges often give rise to creative solutions. Problem solving is a great skill to have, both inside and outside of the gaming world. Tuna tells us that after they lost to South Korea, they felt a “waking-up” moment where suddenly they felt the need to go over what went wrong. Even though they were already through to the semi-finals, they did a VOD review. For him, it was great to see the team come together, even after a loss.
Things weren’t easy for the Anubis Gaming team, from having trouble getting the necessary visas to the completely different playing environment in a different continent. However, the team couldn’t be happier with how things have turned out. They're more motivated than ever to qualify for the next LAN event and show the world once again what they are made of.
