100T Goldenglue: “I didn’t do a good job of […] controlling the conversations. Like, Smolder into Varus-Neeko? What the f*ck?”

Q: The Game 3 draft felt desperate. Do you agree?

Goldenglue: No, I do agree. I think, going into Game 3, the draft did feel desperate. And I don’t think I did a good job of controlling the conversation, because […] there was a lot of things that I didn’t agree with, but a lot of other people felt strongly about. 

And I didn’t do a good job of, I think, centering, grounding, and controlling the conversations. Like, Smolder into Varus-Neeko? What the f*ck? Yeah, that Game 3 draft is… It is desperate, yeah.

Q: How much were you, as a team, expecting to lose today?

Goldenglue: We had two weeks of scrims, right? I think the first week-and-a-half of scrims were actually really good. We had some of the better games we had. We were taking scrims off the top half of the league. 

But, as of two days ago, we had two players starting to feel unwell, and then we basically dropped eight games in a row. We basically were focusing more on trying to make them get the most rest as possible before the match. 

If you had asked me three days ago, I would have been very confident we were gonna win. If you asked me yesterday, I would say it’s definitely […] possible. 

I didn’t think we were gonna lose like this, no matter what. I didn’t think we were gonna get 3-0’d. I thought it was gonna be a slugfest. I thought this [series] could easily go four or five games. 

So, I think to say [that] we’re coming in in a weak position, and that we’re underdogs […] would not be true. […] 

It’s about how we bounce back from making mistakes [that decides] who’s gonna win. And I think we didn’t really do a good job of that in-game, or going into draft Game 3. 

Q: Since it’s offseason, how much is the question of a roster change in your head?

Goldenglue: I mean, we definitely have to consider it. I think with how we performed, and getting sixth place, […] I wasn’t expecting our season to end here, but it’s definitely not something we can completely avoid at least thinking about. […] We’ll definitely be doing a Korean boot camp, as well, to make sure we’re in the best shape we can possibly be [while] going into the last split.

Q: Does the potential of 100T leaving the space weigh on you at all? Are you able to make roster changes, or are you forced to make them?

Goldenglue: That, I haven’t really been thinking about that much. And also, I don’t really have any updates yet on what’s gonna happen. So, it’s not something that actively weighs on my mind. […]

Obviously, I don’t know what the future’s gonna hold after this split. Hopefully, we’ll find that out soon. But it doesn’t really change my opinion on what we should do for the team, besides lean into the idea that this could be our last split. 

Obviously, we don’t even know yet. But I think that the last dance kinda theme or story is a pretty powerful narrative. And that’s really all you can control. […] 

Make sure you get the most out of it. Control what’s controllable.

Q: Game 3 was pretty unplayable for Sniper, even on his undefeated Riven, which sparked a lot of criticism. How do you make sure that doesn’t crush a player?

Goldenglue: When we were in draft, obviously, we had Jayce flex pick, right? And he was saying, “Riven’s insane here into Ornn.” 

And I was trying to talk him down from it, just because I know – I don’t think – Riven’s insane into Ornn. Like, you can get push, but you’re not gonna get a massive lead on Ornn. And also, obviously, lane swaps are gonna be on the table for the Ornn team. 

So, I think the one thing I told him was [to] try not to be too overzealous of certain niche counterpicks, like, when we also did the Irelia into Gnar and it didn’t work out. 

I think he can be a bit overzealous when he sees a flashy champion and […] an opportunity to play it, rather than waiting longer and mak[ing] sure you’re actually pulling out those champions when you have all the information and you know it’s really good.

That’s kinda what I told him. And obviously, I still want him playing those flashy characters, but you need to make sure it’s actually good when you pick it. 

Q: And it’s not like Riven’s gonna get banned out, either.

Goldenglue: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think so. Also, Jayce pushes in Ornn, and we’ll get prio, and probably get more of a CS lead than Riven [would]. And we already have Jayce locked in. 

Yeah, I don’t think they’re ever gonna ban Riven there. Like, ever.

Q: In Game 2, when they got the Millio, what was the reason for banning Jayce instead?

Goldenglue: I think that was the kinda discussion we wanted to [have], like, “Do we wanna ban two tops or two supports for that game?” And I think that I was more – well, I wasn’t actually sure which one was better, banning Nami, Millio. Because Jayce is a really good matchup into Renekton. And if they [picked Jayce], they would have prio. 

I think, also, people have been playing a lot of different supports with Lucian. […] Nami and Millio are the obvious ones. But if you look globally, people play melee supports with Lucian right now, [too]. It’s not as one-sided [as] Nami, Millio every game.

So, we thought getting top a better matchup could’ve been more important, or was. In that time, we thought it was more important than banning the sups and trading melee supports, [or] giving them a melee support.

That was kinda the thought process behind that one. I think it can go either way. […] I think the game feels really hard, too, because we kept looking on the mid […] and we didn’t use our numbers advantage. Like, Annie could not play that game versus Azir-Sejuani. And I think if we abused that matchup more, and just kept pushing in Annie [before] moving our sidelane to mid, we should always have numbers advantage. 

And they kinda did the same thing. They got numbers advantage, and they moved top. But I think we kept looking on the Millio, and then we kept trying to kill the Lucian-Millio without Azir there. Azir was supposed to be our champion that carries, […] and we kept fighting without Azir. 

Especially [with] how we played the game, it does look like, “Oh, why the fuck did you guys give them Millio, Millio’s just carrying these fights.” But also, [it felt like] we had the wrong idea […] when we got to the mid-game. 

So, yeah, I think that one is understandable. I think that one I could see going either way. […] You can ban Nami-Millio, or you can ban the topside.

I do think the Renekton was… pretty strong in the game? But I don’t think that necessarily had to do with the top bans too much.