This interview was conducted before Red Bull Home Ground.

Whether he's performing or not, there is no doubt that Óscar "mixwell" Colocho is one of the most significant figures in VALORANT. He is one of the most popular players in the world, and is known for his large social media presence. However, mixwell is looking to return to top competition with his new roster, Team Heretics. After some difficult adjustments throughout his tenure with G2 Esports, the Spanish player is optimistic about the structure and support of his team. Inven Global spoke with mixwell, to discuss what he's learned in the last year, his thoughts on the new lineup, and some of his recent activities outside of VALORANT competition. 

Thanks for speaking, mixwell. It’s been only a couple of months since you have joined Heretics — what are your initial impressions?

It's been nice, and it's been really fun. I've played with three of the players that I have on my team, and we have really good chemistry. We're enjoying the everyday training, we've been to India together, and so far I've been enjoying every moment.

Obviously, you have the same core as your previous team, but what would you highlight as the main difference playing with this lineup? 

Easily the biggest change for me is that I adopted a more supportive role, and I let the the younger generation shine more in the star roles. I will be more of a team player — much more than before. And I bring my experience to the team to help them grow.

If you were to reflect on your time working with G2 Esports, what was the biggest lesson you learned as a player during your team there?

The biggest lesson I've learned is that you need a good IGL in the team. We lacked leadership. Even if you have the best players, sometimes you will not achieve greatness because the roles are not there. And also, sometimes you need to defend your position. Because I kind of gave up on many things for the benefit of the team. And if you're not comfortable, it damages the team in the end.

When you say you had to make sacrifices, what were some of the concessions that you had to make? How do you contrast that with your role-playing with Heretics? 

It mostly has to do with me taking the IGL role, because no one wanted to do it and we couldn't find one. I knew that it was not good, but they ended up convincing me to do it, and after the games, I got benched. That's one.

Also, I changed from one role to another, one day to the other before a match without being prepared enough on how to do it properly. And we lost that game — it ended up costing us going into playoffs. So there are several things that I agreed to that I shouldn't have.

How would you describe the leadership of Heretics?

It's much better. We have Boo, and he's an experienced IGL — playing as the IGL for OG LDN UTD. He's the piece that we missed in G2.

As you mentioned before, your team has already had an opportunity to compete together — we saw Heretics do fairly well at the Valorant India Invitational. During that event, you played six different agents, which was pretty incredible. Was that unique to the circumstances of that tournament, or is that type of diversity something we will see a lot of going forward?

I think it's gotta be my role to play whatever the team needs. So in India, I had to play six agents, and it was not a problem for me. There are some agents I like more than others, but in the end, if we're winning, I don't care. So you will see that throughout the season.

Now that you've been training together for some time, as well as have some tournament experience, what are the biggest obstacles you foresee preventing the team from being a contender for major events? 

I think we could have won the tournament [Valorant India Invitational] if we had more time to prepare some map. We lacked preparation in some maps because we had no time. Also, we need to be a bit more disciplined in some situations. There were times when we had advantages, and we didn't capitalize on them. But also, Paper Rex is a great team — I'm not taking anything away from them.

What gives you confidence specifically about this roster that it could potentially be an elite team in the future?

Our staff is very good, and we have players that have huge potential and are really smart. Every player has his role. Also, the chemistry inside the team is good, it's way easier to work every day to become greater. And in some teams, it wasn't like that.

Expound a bit more on the Heretics coaching staff. 

Neil [neilzinho] has become really good as a coach. We've had him in G2 before, but that was his first time coaching a big team. So after the experience with G2 and going to NA with Dark Ratio, he got much better. I think he is one of the best coaches in the world, so having him is really good. And also weber — an ex-professional player — as the second man is helping us a lot. Their talent is really good for us. 

On Twitter, you recently posted about how you would like to see a VALORANT World Cup. If you were to put together a Spanish team, who would you like to see on it?

We'd have koldamenta as IGL, me, as well as Fit1nho as Duelist. Kiles, and Lowel or Yurii. That's the only one I'm not sure on. We'll do a six-man team and change depending on the map [laughs].

How far do you think a team like that would go? 

It would surprise a lot of people, to be honest. I don't think they rate us as high as they should. All of the players are really good, and we have really good chemistry. I think we could even win it all — no cap.

Speaking of Spanish players, you did a stream event playing 5-Stack with people such as Elyoya, Razork, and Flakked, who have all competed in the LEC. Who do you think would be most capable to be a VALORANT player?

From that experience, I would say that Flakked is a really good Chamber player — he plays very well with snipers. But that's it. He prefers the Marshal over the Operator, so he's a bit weird in that sense.

Elyoya seems to be really smart. He reached the highest rank of all the players that I played with from League of Legends. So if I had to choose, I would choose Elyoya over the rest.

What was most impressive about playing with him?

What impressed me the most about him is that he was really aware of what was happening, even though he's not a professional player. He sees information on the main map — he reacts instantly. If you ask him to do something, he understands it fast. It's the strengths he has in League of Legends as well. He's just really great all-around player, and super smart. 

Thanks again for the interview! Is there are anything you would like to say to your fans?

Thank you so much for supporting me. Remember that I'm doing vlogs daily vlogs that you can look at on my YouTube. My team speaks in English as well. So if you're an English speaker, you can also check it out.