100 Sniper: “I’m trying my best to just create some spice, to do all this, and… it just sucks there’s not more of me out there, I guess.”
Q: How are you feeling about your champion pool?
Sniper: Compared to Worlds last year, I definitely feel much better. I’ve gotten better at a lot of champions, to be honest. I know what I’m good at, I know what I’m bad at. And, yeah, my champion pool has been much better than it was summer split of last year, for sure.
Q: Was that an offseason grind or did you just pick up more champs over time?
Sniper: Honestly, I think I was definitely playing a lot of champions like Rumble, for example, during the off season. My Rumble is, like, actually pretty good now, and I can play it. Rumble specifically, I got really good at him, [but] I haven’t played him yet because of the offseason. I think it’s just me not getting in my head, to be honest.
Q: Who do you favor in LYON vs TL and why?
Sniper: Honestly, I feel like it’s sort of even. Both teams have their strengths and weaknesses. But I I feel like, honestly, Licorice has been playing really good recently, and the rest of the team is also pretty good. They may catch TL lacking. It’s sort of 50/50.
Just depends on what champions LYONS (sic.) gets. If Licorice is on Rumble, I think they’re gonna win.
Q: Wait, Lyonz or LYON? The player or the team?
Sniper: Oh, I’m so stupid. I literally played with this guy in solo queue, and he’s, like, pretty good in solo queue too. But, yeah, sorry. The team LYONS (sic.), I was referring to the entire team.
Q: The team is just LYON, singular. he named himself after the team.
Sniper: Oh, wow. That’s interesting. I didn’t know.
Q: Does decreasing LTA viewership/fandom bother you at all?
Sniper: I don’t really give a frick. You know what I’m saying?
Like, sure, the league is declining. It sucks. I wish it wasn’t. But at the same time, I’ma just keep being myself. And wherever that gets me, it gets me there, I guess. That’s kinda the way I see it. You know?
Q: A lot of players do very minimal interaction — why do you think that is?
Sniper: That’s a really good question. I feel like it just depends on the player’s personality. I know this is an obvious answer, but if you’re an outgoing person, then you’re just gonna [be willing to] tweet random things. You’re just not gonna care what people think.
But I do feel like a lot of pro players care about what other people think, and they’re scared to post this. They’re scared to reply to that. They don’t wanna come off as a Twitter gremlin or whatever it is. So I feel like there’s just a lot of … not insecurities, but just lack of confidence.
They’re scared to get out of their comfort zone. I don’t know, I don’t mean to sound like egotistical. I’m just a player. I just do my own thing.
Q: It feels pretty low effort to interact more — like with the recent fanart we’ve seen, which I know you’ve tried to interact with — but it still seems rare.
Sniper: I know what you mean. And, like, I definitely agree with that. I feel like I could definitely be doing more. I could be streaming more. I could be tweeting more. […] I do that sometimes. I don’t do it all the time.
Q: But it’s so valuable right? Don’t you feel like other people should do more?
Sniper: I mean, 100%. Like I said, at the end of the day, it just depends on the player’s personality. And if they’re not outgoing or they don’t have much confidence, they just CBA with all all that kind of stuff.
So, I mean, I can see where they’re coming from, but I definitely agree with you. The players in the LTA should definitely put more effort into at least tweeting, you know? At least just posting couple times a week, you know, on match day, all that kind of stuff. So it definitely pisses me off when we can definitely do more. […]
But it’s not gonna work with a lot of pro players. I’m gonna be honest with you. Literally like 90% of them are probably just gonna just agree with you and [do nothing]. I just wanted to let you know that.
Q: If you play to the crowd… doesn’t it bother you that the crowd’s getting smaller?
Sniper: It definitely bothers me for sure. I mean, it sucks. Like, whenever I look at VALORANT … you literally come to the LTA studio, and there’s fricking 300 times more VCT fans. I’m like, “What? Wow. Is our game just dead?”
I mean, I don’t know. I’m trying my best out here. I’m trying my best to just create some spice, to do all this, and… it just sucks there’s not more of me out there, I guess.
But, again, you have players like Massu, for example. He’s definitely a bit shy when it comes to tweeting and all that kind of stuff, but he’s one of the best ADCs we’ve ever had in North America. So it works out for him. You don’t necessarily have to be, like, [extroverted].
Q: Thoughts on the “Sniper always on the phone” allegations?
Sniper: Ay, ay *does the caught hands* I mean bro …. I’m, like, addicted to dopamine. You know what I’m saying? So, like, whenever whenever we’re doing draft, for example, I have have so little impact on what I’m gonna play because […] they’re extremely good coaches. They just know me. So sometimes I CBA, just go on my phone. Instagram… yknow. […] Whenever you go on your phone, it’s just a habit.
Q: Is this something you’ve been working on?
Sniper: I mean, I don’t see it as a problem or anything. Like, obviously, I shouldn’t go on my phone, during scrims or whatever, but it’s not, like, an egotistical thing, you know? Whenever I see the opportunity, *mimes scrolling frantically on his phone*.
