vision on Ground Zero matching OCE's Top 2: 'We know we have it in us'

It was a sombre mood in the Ground Zero camp on Sunday night. For the sixth time in a row, rivals THUNDER dOWNUNDER played gatekeepers at a tournament — except this time, it was in person at the DFRAG Wildcard LAN.

The 1-2 (19-16, 4-13, 20-22) loss was certainly the closest GZ had come to knocking TdU off since the incredible best-of-five CCT Season 3 win back in November 2024, but that feels like a distant memory.

To rub salt in the wound, TdU came back and did it again on Monday in the ANZ Circuit Autumn LAN. Once more, GZ pushed the series to a third map, but they couldn't close it out when it mattered most.

But these losses aren't dissuading Ethan "vision" Hoult in any way. Vision believes the gap to TdU and SemperFi above is all but non-existent, and as he said to DFRAG after the ANZC Autumn loss, he believes GZ is a good day away from claiming a LAN title.

We'll start with the DFRAG Wildcard LAN finish against THUNDER dOWNUNDER. You guys have built quite a strong rivalry against TdU these last few series with some crazy results, but that LB final loss seemed the toughest of all.

“We were all pretty upset. Well, not upset… I feel like we pushed ourselves as hard as we could. We had a lot of match points, so it was pretty disappointing when you look at it like that.

“It was kind of the result we were expecting at the very least, but we definitely could have taken the series. We're a LAN team, we feed off each other's energy a lot, so we felt more confident we could get the win here.

“That's where a lot of our consistency comes from. If we're having a bad game, it’s usually the energy. It’s always fun when on LAN and we can feed off each other and share talk, you get some more stakes on the line.”

GZ fought back against TdU on Anubis, and it’s not the first time we’ve seen a big comeback from you guys. Where does this resilience come from?

“We just kind of know how we play from practice. We’re confident taking the game round-by-round and I don’t think we ever let the score matter to us.

"As soon as we click in and find a groove, we can come back against any team, for sure.”

It’s abundantly clear Ground Zero is third in the region by a significant margin, and that margin to the top two is razor thin and closing by the day. Where do you think the edge is for TdU and SemperFi?

“Right now it definitely comes down to individual consistency, we all kind of agree. A few of us, including me, can fall short in some of these games… it's a hard thing to pinpoint why.

“We're just kind of playing around with different styles and different ways of setting each other up. We can definitely break through.”

This is the first big VRS season down in OCE, what with the DFRAG Open Series giving the region a more consistent schedule and setup. How have you guys approached talking about VRS, is it something that comes up in discussions?

“For us, it's definitely being where we expect ourselves to place. We should be outright third right now in Australia, we know we can beat all of these teams. We’re not expecting much out of something like a major, but we want to take it game-by-game and see where we can go.

“Our main goal would be to qualify for more Asia-based LANs or other international events, and just be as consistent in competing for them. At the very least, more LANs — we love to travel.”

How is life outside of the server for you and Ground Zero? How much time are you able to afford to commit with outside elements like school or work affecting the squad?

“We’re not a full-time team, and we're not salaried right now. I'm studying personally and most of the boys have jobs, so [CS] is not as much of a priority as it is to the other teams.

“We all just see it as fun. We enjoy spending time together and competing as a team and we all want to get better, and then hopefully that can get us to a more sustainable full-time spot in the future.”

On an individual level, how do you see yourself following your SemperFi exit? You’re putting up some of the best numbers of your career this year with Ground Zero — are you happy with how you’re travelling?

“I didn't have many resources to work with [on SemperFi]. Everyone kind of knows SemperFi is definitely about setting up the big guns, and I was the least experienced, which is fair enough.

“I took it as a learning opportunity, and now I’m taking the theoretical and macro understanding back to the other teams I play for. I have a lot more space in this team and I think with everything together I’m feeling better about my personal performance.”

I’ll ask the obvious: Goals and expectations for ANZC Autumn and beyond?

“We want to be taking out SemperFi and THUNDER dOWNUNDER, at least one of them. We know we have it in us to beat both and it all depends on whether we can convert these really close, clutch rounds."

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“I think we bring the energy, I think we're really resilient. We can be consistent when we're around each other, and it's just gonna come down to the day. 

“A lot of close rounds are keeping us apart from these two teams, and I think we can fix that.”

Vision and Ground Zero will seek another round of revenge on Tuesday, March 17 as they navigate the ANZC Autumn 2026 playoffs.