C9 Inero: “Going MSI or not, even if we went in second place, doesn’t matter too much to me.”
Q: How are you feeling about missing MSI despite finishing second?
Inero: I mean, going MSI or not, even if we went in second place, doesn’t matter too much to me, to be honest. I do think it’s cringe how it’s split up now, but you know, it is what it is. We’re so just pressed about the fact that we missed first. […] It obviously could have gone either way today. Last time we played FLY, it could have gone either way too. But yeah, just blows. Just blows to lose.
Q: Was C9 tilted going into game five after how long game three went?
Inero: No. No, I don’t feel like we were tilted at all. I feel like we were feeling good in both games four and five. That game for the most part, just talking about how we cringed it. We just made it worse than it needed to be, and that’s alright. We had full control over that game. Our team is pretty mentally resilient. We don’t have huge tilting issues at all.
I think our team is really good at staying in it, staying focused, focusing on the next thing. I think the guys on our team that have a lot of experience are really good leaders around that, keeping everyone focused and locked in. Nah, I mean, I’ve been on teams where you can get tilted in a series — this team is not that at all, which is really nice.
But all we did is just focus on the next game, talk about what we fucked up on, said it was cringe, but it’s all good, doesn’t matter. We just go next game, just focus on that. Our team is feeling good. I mean, you can see us on stage in the last one or so, just laughing. But also, we’re joking around. It’s still like, we’re locked in, focused, but it’s not like we’re, what the fuck, guys? How did we lose game four? Or how is game three this close? It’s never like that at all. Our team environment’s really good, and that’s why us and FLY are so competitive.
Q: Thoughts on the narrative that C9 vs FLY is standard versus creativity?
Inero: I don’t care about it too much. I think our team is pretty standard. I think a lot of teams play that way. I think FLY does make creative angles on side lane. They’re always looking for it, always looking for something creative in the game. It’s good. It’s a good strength of theirs that they clearly have. But for example, this game, when we had a big loss at one of the dragons on mid lane, that wasn’t a standard play. We lost a whole lot in that play.
Q: The one where Blaber went in deep for Massu?
Inero: Yeah, yeah. There, we’re thinking of a creative play. They’re not thinking of us [doing that]. We were looking for something creative in that.
Q: That’s the accusation, right? That when C9 goes for creative stuff, they’re caught off balance.
Inero: I mean, I guess, yeah. But that’s just one play, of everything to happen. Just misexecution. We don’t have to do it. And as a coach, obviously, we’re gonna push that we shouldn’t do this play when we have them checkmated on this. They have to come into dragon, they have to come into us.
But our team looks for creative stuff. It’s not what we prioritize looking for. It’s not something we’re super tunneled on trying to make ourselves more and more creative. We wanna add things we can do in the game that are creative — we don’t see it as an “our team isn’t creative at all” type of thing.
Q: What was the vibe like after game five?
Inero: I mean, it’s pretty sad. Everyone’s really beat up over it. We’re losing a game five, we were up 2-1. So the series is ours to win. No one’s gonna feel good after it. I don’t think anyone’s angry, pissed off at each other for doing anything. It’s a team game. We all make team decisions. We all look for things together.
One person messes up, the other guy supports it and brings it up and gets us back in the game, and it was back and forth constantly. The mood is sad. The mood is gonna be sad. I’m beat up over it. I’m hella depressed that I lost again in the finals, but it is what it is.
Don’t think anyone is tilted or angry. It’s just, we gotta look at these games. Things we die on, the things that we know that this team does and that we’re expecting, and we die to it. That’s gonna be hard. We look for plays and mess up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t. You gotta look at why this is happening and fix consistent errors.
I think FLY’s got really great things that they do that we should learn from and that we should get better on and abuse. And we’ve done that really well to split to catch up to them and do better. Just have to do more. Team will be sad, but we have to move on and get ready for internationals.
Q: What’s the plan for the break? Go to Vancouver to scrim MSI teams?
Inero: I mean, that’s completely out of my scope. I don’t think there’s even gonna be much of a break, to be honest, no matter what. Going from now to EWC is like a month away basically, to when it starts, I think. It’s not much time to break. We gotta stay focused and locked in.
I’m unsure if we’re gonna be going to Vancouver. I don’t think that would happen. I think if we’re scrimming teams, we’re scrimming just from LA. See what happens there. I don’t know specifics yet. I don’t like to get too far ahead of myself ever. I don’t like to think about anything that’s coming next. I have to focus on what’s in front of me. And right now, it was finals in front of me and not MSI.
Q: Between games, after the losses, who helps get everybody back on track?
Inero: It’s a group thing as a whole. Reapered’s obviously there handling the discussion with the team, talking about like, let’s focus on this, let’s do that. I usually handle talking about what our plan is for draft, what do we wanna do about this champion, this champion, this champion that are up. There’ll be power picks in the series. Usually, me and Blaber go back and forth a lot with that because mid jungle, very important piece going into these games. Obviously, talk with bot lane for what’s left.
But yeah, if you’re looking for who kinda sets the mood and the vibe, usually Zven’s pretty good at straightening everyone up. Like yo, we gotta focus this, we gotta do this in fights, etc. Reapered obviously comes in as head coach, talks about what he wants to talk about, what we gotta focus on as a team. So it’s a team effort on it, but that’s basically how it goes.
Q: What gives FlyQuest an advantage over C9?
Inero: I don’t wanna go too much in-depth with it because there’s still a season to play. But their mid game is really good. What they do around getting advantages there and finding angles on side, finding ways to get just small, incremental leads is really good.
They’re very solid on that. I think they’re better than any of the other teams here right now at doing that and finding leads through it. So that’s really the big thing for them.
Q: Is there anything a player said that stood out today?
Inero: God, I mean, my brain is in a complete fog after the series, you know? I don’t think anything super stands out. I was honestly just really happy, especially with how like, Loki’s a rookie coming in. He’s in a stressful position, of course, and he stayed level-headed through all of it. I think our team does a good job of supporting, picking everyone up.
Like I said with Zven, Phil, those guys are veterans on the team. They’re always a solid force on bot lane, so you always know they’re gonna do well. Blaber, mid jungle combo is extremely important. Those two work off each other really well, and Blaber does a good job of uplifting him. Loki has always kind of been the guy who kinda leans on, you know, what do you guys think I should do? And I’ll do that, and I’ll play this, whatever.
He really wants to be a team player, but he stayed locked in. I was really happy that he didn’t give in to stress. He didn’t let it overwhelm him. He always talks to me about nerves. Like, he’s nervous today and nervous because of this. And I think he did a really good job of getting over that. I don’t think he let that be a factor for him at all today.
