100T Eyla: “We still don’t have River with us in China — he’s been trying to scrim from Korea”
Q: How’s China?
Eyla: China is nice. Pretty good weather. I like the cold, and it’s [Beijing] just a nice city. No big complaints here.
Q: Have you been following any online discourse/tier lists ahead of Worlds?
Eyla: No, I don’t know anything.
Q: Right now, a lot of people are rating 100 Thieves as the worst team at the tournament — maybe that’s to be expected since you’re the third seed from LCS. What do you think of that rating?
Eyla: Not too surprising, I guess. There have been a lot of negative opinions about us throughout the year, so I’m not too surprised. Honestly, I haven’t been paying attention. So if people think we’re shit, then so be it.
Q: What do you think went wrong in the VKS series, then?
Eyla: I think a lot of individual problems showed up on stage. I don’t think we played to the level we should have. Just a lot of individual stuff that made the game unplayable; It wasn’t really about the enemy team playing well — more like if the enemy team even looked at us once, we’d just fall apart. We can’t really win games if we play like that.
Q: Has that been a recurring problem, or was it just a one-time issue that showed up on stage?
Eyla: It’s shown up throughout the year. I think the thing about our team is that we aren’t always consistent, so our form can be a lot worse than what we want it to be. When we don’t try hard or focus enough in practice, it reflects on stage. I don’t think we were playing particularly well or doing what we needed to before facing VKS. Hopefully, we’ve fixed that.
Q: How has practice been going since then? How have things gone so far in China?
Eyla: Horrible, to be honest. I don’t think our Worlds trip has been handled well. There have been a lot of problems. We still don’t have River with us in China — he’s been trying to scrim from Korea, and we’ve been trying to make that work — and it’s been pretty bad.
[Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted on Oct 11.]
Q: There’s a narrative that you guys — especially Quid — perform better as underdogs; you seem to pop off when people count you out. Do you feel that’s accurate?
Eyla: I haven’t really thought about it that way. Maybe people outside think we’re underdogs, but I always thought we were expected to win against most teams we faced in playoffs. We just played poorly against VKS. I still thought we were favorites. Going into Worlds, since everything’s been a disaster, I don’t have any expectations. I’m just focusing on how I play. We’ll see how it goes.
Q: Have you met anyone from other regions that you were excited about?
Eyla: We’re all in the same hotel, so I see a lot of global teams. I’d like to meet the Korean teams, especially Keria, but I’m not really the type to fanboy. Even if I see them, I wouldn’t do anything crazy to say hi.
Q: Would you do a jersey swap though?
Eyla: We haven’t done one yet. I don’t know if we will, but if we do, that’d be cool.
Q: What do you think makes Keria so respected among supports?
Eyla: I think it’s because he’s really mechanically good on every champion. When you watch his gameplay, it’s hard not to notice him. Other supports, like Duro, are really good too, but more like role players — they do their job well, but it’s not flashy. Keria doesn’t fit the “normal” support mold. He plays a lot of carry supports, outplays people in lane, and makes flashy plays, which you don’t see normally.
Q: He’s the kind of support that gives others confidence; makes them want to be a main character support?
Eyla: But, I don’t know if people actually want to be like him, because if they did, you’d see a lot more selfish supports or players who pick around themselves. People idolize him, but not many are good enough to play like him, so they stick to the more traditional role-player style.
Transcript edits by @flomillinoflo
