Jimpphat: It would be very difficult to face Vitality again in the grand final, even if they’re not at their peak

Aurora defeated Vitality 2-1 in the upper-bracket final of StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026, powering into the grand final. In a post-match interview, Jimpphat said the win proved they can beat the very best teams; from the long team talk after their Copenhagen loss to the mental work with ash, the team is evolving into a more confident and more aggressive version of itself. Looking ahead to the final, he hopes to keep the momentum going and prove himself with the “new Aurora.”  

Reporter: First of all, when you came here, you beat NAVI, which was your first win at a big LAN event, but then we saw NAVI get eliminated... Now you've beaten Vitality as well — maybe not peak Vitality, but still a very highly ranked, very talented team. So tell me, what does getting this huge win here mean to you?

Jimpphat:Of course, it means a lot. We've played a lot of really good CS in practice. But at events... up to now, we've always fallen just a little short. That makes sense, though, because we're still a very new team, so we don't expect to beat every top team no matter how well practice is going. Official matches are completely different. So now that we're here, we feel very confident.

Obviously, winning this event would be amazing, for all the Valve Regional Standings points and everything, for BLAST Premier Rivals Hong Kong 2026, for the Major. So we really did our best to prepare for this event, and I think we did that.Beating Vitality now is a huge win. Maybe they're not at their peak, but they're still one of the best teams in the world, and I don't think anyone can really argue with that. So it's a really good win, and we won it with quite a bit of confidence. I'd say Inferno was a bit close, but after that I think we played really, really well.

Reporter: Yeah, I noticed ash said a few words to you after the match, like, "Oh, you were really feeling it today." What exactly was he saying?

Jimpphat: Basically, he was saying that I was playing really actively. I was lurking very aggressively, getting a lot of opening kills, and whenever we were in a 4v5, I was always trying to make a move and find a kill. Like on Nuke, I was always trying to get kills through Door, Hut, and Mid, and so on. That's what I like. For me, it's important that I play aggressively, because that's when I'm at my best.

Obviously, if you're not feeling the game, you can't always do that, but I feel like I've been ridiculously confident lately. I want to take every duel I can, especially against Vitality — they're such a strong team. They play really good team CS, and of course they're individually strong too, but you have to be fearless against them. You can't think, 'Oh, they're so much better than me individually, they're the better team.' The moment you do that, you've already lost.

So you just need to play fearlessly, not care who you're up against, and just take the duels and shoot. That's what I've been doing—trying to play as aggressively as possible—and I think it's been working really well. It's something I've been practicing for a while now, so I want to keep it up because, obviously, the results have been very good so far, so it's looking good. But yeah, it's really about playing with a lot of confidence.

Reporter: One thing you’ve talked about before is the team’s mentality, and how sometimes you lose to yourselves. How would you describe what has changed now, and what changed today?

Jimpphat: I think the whole topic is more about us as a team. Recently, after we played BLAST Premier Open Porto 2026 in Copenhagen and lost to G2, we had a really important team talk, because even though we were playing okay, there were too many mistakes. If we kept doing the same things, there was no way we were going to beat a team like Vitality today, for example, because it was really bad.

As a team, we just came to an agreement: "Alright, we need to get better," because we know the potential of this lineup. We know how good we can be. Obviously, it's still too early to say right now—we're still a fairly new team and all that—but it feels like every player on this team really has a lot of potential.

On a personal level, I’ve talked a lot with ash. He has really helped me a lot behind the scenes; we’ve worked together and talked a lot about CS, certain plays, and how to mentally lock into the game when it’s needed. Especially in big matches. So I’ve kept working with ash, and I’ve also been trying to improve on my own. Obviously it’s been paying off, so I want to keep it going.

At the same time, though, I know you can't play at your best all the time, so there are always going to be some bad matches. Right now, I just want to build on the momentum we've got at this event, especially now. Hopefully, no matter who we face in the final, we can keep it going instead of slipping back into the old version of ourselves we saw at past events.

I just want us to compete as a new Aurora and show how good we can be when it really matters — obviously in the final. So we want to do our absolute best, see how far we can go, take everything we can from this event, and keep moving forward step by step.

Reporter: Yes, this event is a bit unusual, because there will actually be two finals on the last day: the lower bracket final and the grand final. How important is it for you not to have to play the first match tomorrow? Is it a BO5 or a BO3?

Jimpphat: It definitely, definitely has a huge impact, because in a sense you might be warmed up after playing two matches, but at the same time you have to understand that doing that is very mentally draining. Going from a BO3 to a BO5, it's hard to stay fully focused the whole time. Say you win a BO3 2-1, then go into a BO5 and the match is really close...

I think in that situation we have the advantage because we should have more energy, but overall I think it's a good thing. We can prepare more; we have time to relax, see who our opponent will be, and get ready. Hopefully we can get back on the server with that same fire, because in these past matches, even though we haven't had much time to practice or anything, we've been really fired up from the start. That's been one of the key reasons we've played so well at this event. So hopefully we can bring that into the final as well.

Interviewer: If Vitality make it through tomorrow’s match, what do you think it would be like to face them again in a BO5?

Jimpphat: It will obviously be harder, and I think they are the favorites to come through the lower bracket, or the lower-bracket final, and face us in the final. So if we play them tomorrow, this win doesn't count for anything, because then we need to beat them again, and that's the match that matters; that match will show who the better team really is.

But yeah, I’d say they’re the favorites, coming through the lower bracket, or from the lower-bracket final. Still, whoever it ends up being, I think today alone gave us a lot of confidence, because we showed that we really can beat a very strong, top-tier team. So that makes us feel much more confident, and it feels really good.