MiniBoo: “I’m just happy that I could learn for two years from Boo, and now I can learn from nAts, because there is a lot to learn.”

In joining Liquid, Dominykas ‘MiniBoo’ Lukaševičius has stepped away from the safe haven of playing under his brother, Ričardas ‘Boo’ Lukaševičius, to a new opportunity in a young Liquid roster.

Now under the leadership of Ayaz ‘nAts’ Akhmetshin, MiniBoo delivered a top-fragging performance against Karmine Corp in the middle-bracket of VCT EMEA Kickoff to get Liquid’s first win of the season.

Esports News UK spoke to MiniBoo after the testing series to get his thoughts on the match, nAts’ leadership, wayne’s VCT debut, and how Liquid can improve throughout the season.

Was never worried for not even a second! #TLWIN

With an intense comeback, we take this series 2-1.
Job's not finished yet. Still got many kinks to iron out and get through the bracket💪 #VCTEMEA pic.twitter.com/vHGcYogpoO

— Team Liquid VALORANT (@LiquidValorant) January 27, 2026

Congratulations on the win, Miniboo. So I saw you getting pumped during the match. How do you feel?

Yeah, obviously, I’m feeling happy. We won the game, so the effort was paid off. So, I’m feeling happy.

In terms of not so happy, going back to Abyss, what do you think went wrong for you guys on the first map?

I think we just played a bit like NPCs, you know? Just auto-piloting, and we were just scared of taking fights. And that led us to the result that we see.

“We were practically thinking about how to win the round, not falling into the easy decision, but finding the harder decision that led us to win the round.” – Miniboo describes Liquid’s mindset shift on Breeze

On Split, a much more comfortable map for you guys. We saw some big plays coming out from you in terms of flanks and like 3k’s. How are you feeling about Split? Is that going to be your home map for this year?

I mean, as I think I said in this or the previous interview, like, it’s not about the map. It’s not about the comp. It’s about how you approach the map.

I believe that even if we go to Ascent or Fracture now without any preparation, it depends on how we face the map.

Like, we could have the best preparation ever, the best draft book, but if you’re not playing the game, it really doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t go close to winning any map.

It’s just about how we approach the game, and if we can replicate our mindset from Split, then we can go to any map and win.

How do you gather your nerves and go on to WIN after a rough loss? You LISTEN to @nAts__ss 🐐

Map 3 soon [BREEZE]🦀 pic.twitter.com/Stczy21Nox

— Team Liquid VALORANT (@LiquidValorant) January 27, 2026

Can you describe your mindset and what you’re thinking within the team during that map?

I mean, just actively thinking ‘What’s the win condition?’, how to counter enemy play style, refreshing the picture on the map, you know?

Having good comms, fundamentals, and just playing the game; not being NPCs, not autopiloting, but actually proactively thinking about the solution and how to play against the enemy.

“I think nAts is a really proper athlete. I think it’s really not popular for an athlete to be as professional as nAts is, because the community here… They really don’t care about things outside the game, like nutrition, physical activities, sleep and stuff. And I think Ayaz [nAts] is a big professional in that, and I admire him.” – MiniBoo on nAts

On Breeze, even when you were behind, you were often getting the opening kills. There were so many 5v3s lost at the start of the map. Were there mix-ups happening there?

I mean, I think that what happened is that we were a bit scared of taking the fights when it’s 5v3.

We gave up a lot of space, nd the enemy had so much space that we were actually at a disadvantage, even though we were 5v3, because we gave away the space.

They just played in there, and it just took us too much time to get the space back, so they just closed out the rounds, winning on time.

“Everything that I have, coming into the Liquid, that’s all their impact.” – Miniboo on Boo, neilzinho, and weber

Can you describe how you got your confidence back in the map to pull off the comeback?

I mean, we took it round by round, and we actually took the fight to them.

Once we started taking a real fight, comfortable fights, we started killing them, instead of being way far back, them peeking into us, rather than us peeking into them.

Round by round, we build up. We were practically thinking about how to win the round, not falling into the easy decision, but finding the harder decision that led us to win the round.

On broadcast, we got to hear a bit of nAts motivating you. How are you finding his leadership in Liquid?

I think nAts is a really proper athlete. I think it’s really not popular for an athlete to be as professional as nAts is, because the community here… the players are basically being kids and just playing the game, usually.

They really don’t care about things outside the game, like nutrition, physical activities, sleep and stuff. And I think Ayaz [nAts] is a big professional in that, and I admire him.

I think that there are lots of things to learn from him and different ones that, for example, Boo had. I learned a lot of stuff from Boo, and I admire both of these people.

They’re both geniuses in what they’re doing, but they have different ways to approach the game.

I’m just happy that I could learn for two years from Boo, and now I can learn from nAts, because there is a lot to learn.

What things that you learned from Boo are you taking into this Liquid roster?

I mean, basically everything that I know from Valorant, because my journey in Tier 1 started with Heretics, and it was just basically me learning from neilzinho, Boo and weber.

They’re all experienced players, and we were like sponges, and they were like just water, giving us experience and controllable stuff.

Everything that I have, coming into the Liquid, that’s all their impact. All of the things I know is just from them.

“He’s like a flower when it’s winter, it’s closed up, and I think that when the summer comes, we’ll see way more of him, and I think that he’s gonna be a great player.” – MiniBoo on wayne’s VCT debut

I wanted to ask you about your roles in the team. What are we going to see out of you? Are you going to be purely be a duelist? We saw that Kamo was also going Duelist on Split. Are roles more flexible in this roster?

I don’t know… We’ll see what happens…

Going back to today, it seemed like there were some moments, maybe there was a bit of a communication breakdown. Do you think that’s true?

I think that we did decent action on the communication part.

Yeah, obviously, like there are sometimes chaotic situations when enemies are playing quite disruptively, and then you’re forced to like raise your comms and some things are getting lost, obviously. That happens in every team.

But in general, I would say that our communication protocols are decent, and I think that in this game, we did it well.

“I think that Fnatic lost a very key piece to their roster. I think that Chronicle was doing a lot, and he’s a really big part of their success.” – MiniBoo on Fnatic

I wanted to ask you about wayne coming in for the first time; you will have practised with him beforehand. Can you kind of talk about what kind of skills he can bring to the team, and how he’s settling in to the team?

I think that he has a lot of potential. Like it’s his first game in the VCT, and I think there is lots more to come, and there is lots of…

He’s like a flower when it’s winter, it’s closed up, and I think that when the summer comes, we’ll see way more of him, and I think that he’s gonna be a great player.

He just needs time.

2-1 @KarmineCorp happy to have won my debut match in EMEA , took 2 maps to warmup 😅😅 will be better for the upcoming games :))) 😆🙂☺️🙏😎

— Liquid WAYNE (@wayneeeVLR) January 27, 2026

In terms of this Liquid lineup, that was also kind of my expectation: That you guys would get stronger as the year goes on. When do you think you guys will kind of be at your full potential as a group?

It’s hard to actually answer this question because, I mean, it’s really tricky question. Like we could be our full potential in two years.

We’re play two months, we think that we are at our peak, but like there’s more to come.

And I think that every second and every moment there’s like stuff to improve.

So, I mean, I cannot predict when it’s gonna be our peak as a team, but I think we’re gonna take it game by game for now.

You’ll face the winner of Fnatic and FUT. What do you think of those teams that you’ve seen from them so far?

I think that Fnatic lost a very key piece to their roster. I think that Chronicle was doing a lot, and he’s a really big part of their success.

So, I can’t judge yet because I’ve seen them play only one game, and I was like focusing on myself rather than watching them.

But yeah, FUT is also like not showing up good, I think. They’re kind of a question mark team for me so far, but one thing is for certain: you cannot underestimate any team in kickoff. Every team can be a real threat.