C9 Fudge: “Blaber and jojo go for big plays when it’s not needed — but [they’re] ones that win us games when we’re even.”

Q: Everyone looked like a different player today (except jojo) — what changed?

Fudge: I think we’re just more disciplined in our gameplay, and we understand our drafts a lot better, and how we need to play the early game. I think that got a lot better as the split went on.

To be honest, during regular season, we were always a team that got ahead almost every game. I think our average was 1k gold ahead at 14 — but mid game was always bad. Some games, our draft was bad, some games we didn’t know how to play around conditions in draft.

Q: In this series (especially game 2), you made some ego mistakes and threw, but those weren’t the same types of throw as regular season, were they?

Fudge: Yeah, I think a lot of the mistakes during regular season were just us not being good. It wasn’t us thinking […] we’re better and just playing for fun — like game 2, where we’re just inting at their nexus. We were just laughing in comms and saying like “maybe we can end here”. We probably could’ve ended to be honest.

Q: How did you feel about the series as a whole?

Fudge: To be honest, I think their drafts were really bad today.

Q: I also heard they were sick.

Fudge: They might’ve been sick, their drafts were awful though and they weren’t expecting the TF pick. That GGs their draft there. The game 2 draft, I don’t know what the kindred pick is, it’s awful. I think Aatrox blind pick when you have kindred is awful because you have no setup and you’re running into a Jax. Which is awful.

Game 3, they picked Yasuo, and [gave me] Renekton, and their answer to it was Rumble, which — Sniper never played Rumble before. He’s not good at Rumble and he didnt’ play it well. Just a weird style of the game; their whole draft is for Yasuo vs Ahri.

Q: Yeah, that comp was definitely interesting, but…

Fudge: It’s interesting, maybe they felt they couldn’t win standard. But I think it’s just bad straight up. I think that draft was shit.

Q: Speaking of which, you crushed today. Is that going to convince people the Fudge Factor is back?

Fudge: I don’t think they’re going to be fully convinced, like “Oh Fudge is the greatest player of all time”, but I think they’re gonna say “Oh never mind, he’s still good”. Like “he’s still capable of playing”. I mean, the way I play, I don’t really play to make flashy, big plays. I think all my teammates are like that except maybe Vulcan. Vulcan’s a little more calm.

When my team’s losing, I’m not going to stand out because I don’t take big risks. It depends, sometimes in regular season I was in positions [with draft] that were actually useless in game. A lot of games [I was Aatrox or Udyr] in games that were just bad for those champs.

Q: So it wasn’t a bad day, this is their level?

Fudge: This is their level. They played the same as regular season, but they had worst drafts. We had better drafts and we just played better.

Q: So the other teams you’re facing, you think are much better [than 100T], right?

Fudge: I think FLY is a lot better. I think TL overall, their team’s not very good, but they have Impact, [who’s] clearly the best player on the team. They have certain drafts, but [FLY] is better

Q: You mentioned that the other core players are the type to go for a game-winning play, so you don’t need to. I mean, jojo had like 7 of those in the last week, lol.

Fudge: I wouldn’t say game-winning play, I would say they take risks that aren’t necessarily game winning but could give you a lead. I think a lot of the time, when we’re ahead, I play better than all of my teammates because they go for risky plays that aren’t required to win the game. Like in Game 2. It’s not needed, we’re already ahead — it’ll work out anyway.

From the enemy team perspective, the only thing they can do is this, and then you allow them to do that. I think a lot of the reason I’m like that mentally is because I was around @LSXYZ9 a lot, and [he said] you wouldn’t give the enemy situations where they have a chance to win. You just give them no options. I fully believe in that still, the best way to play, but I think if you’re even or behind you can’t really have that mentality depending on your composition.

Q: So you’re the one trying to rein them in?

Fudge: Me and Vulcan both do pretty well, Berserker is also like that, but it depends on what champion he’s playing. I think mainly Blaber and jojo go for big plays when it’s not needed — but at the same time, those players are usually the ones that win us games when we’re even.

Q: Do you think that’s why you get more flame?

Fudge: I think I get more flame because I’m playing positions of the draft where there’s like a 50/50 — the games I don’t play well and I’m in a position to be strong, and the other 50 I’m [reliant on my team] and just look useless

Q: What do you think about top lane in All-pro?

Fudge: I agree that Sniper played better than me, […] I think Sniper should actually be the first [for regular season]. Bwipo/Sniper you can argue, and Impact’s 3rd, but I think Impact is actually better than Bwipo.