E-sports

Kielvj Sees Great Potential in Xianyou Gaming

By Ramon Domingo - July 11, 2024

The former MSC champion can sense great potential in the Chinese region.

After three years, former MSC champion Kiel “Kielvj” Cruzem returns to the international stage with Xianyou Gaming. As the first seed of the still developing Chinese region, many were curious to see how well they’d do. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it past the group stage but even when behind, the team was still able to impress.

“We did our best but we need to fix a few things,” said Kielvj. “We’re winning so much in the early game but can’t close it out so we just need more training.”

Kielvj won MSC 2021 with Execration and had a good showing with Omega Esports before moving to Xianyou Gaming. As the veteran of the team, many are curious to see if he can shape the young squad into MLBB heavyweights. 

Kielvj Sees Great Potential in Xianyou Gaming
Xianyou Gaming’s Kiel “Kielvj” Cruzem (left) together with teammates Liu “zzzed” Chenjian (center) and Lin “Yione” Haifeng (right) during the MSC 2024 opening ceremony. (Photo from Esports World Cup)

That sounds like a tough task but for him, being back on the international stage only invigorates him.

“I don’t think there’s extra pressure, it’s actually exciting. All the teams will be really trying hard because it’s a big prize pool and you’re fighting against the world. So if you win, you’re the best.”

Possible Contenders in the Future

Xianyou Gaming actually had quite a few standout moments despite getting eliminated early in the tournament. In their very first match against Falcons AP.Bren, they were incredibly close to actually taking a game off of the reigning world champions. It’s just that, as Kielvj said, their inexperience got the better of them but he believes that there’s more opportunity for them to grow.

“My team actually plays really well even though MLBB in China is still new. We scrim a lot and pay attention to the meta,” says Kielvj. “In terms of talent, they’re good. We just need time to build our chemistry.”

Kielvj Sees Great Potential in Xianyou Gaming
Xianyou Gaming focuses on a match in the MSC 2024 group stage. (Photo from Esports World Cup)

The biggest hurdle for them right now is, unsurprisingly, their communication. “It’s really hard for me to adjust. Not everyone in my team knows English so I’m adjusting and they’re adjusting, we’re doing our best to understand each other.”

“After every game, we go over our comms. We try to fix problems like ‘how should we understand this gameplay?’ Sometimes if it’s easier to understand in Chinese I’ll learn it in Chinese, but if it’s easier in English we use English. So it’s really a back and forth.”

In the end, Kielvj believes that Xianyou Gaming can really go far in the future. As disappointing as the results may be, he knows that the team gave it their all and that’s what matters for a developing team.

“I think we were an 11 out of 10. We really did our best, so we won as a team and lost as a team.”

Banner photo from Esports World Cup.


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