FLY Bwipo: “I push everyone else on my team to level up. […] I think [Coach Bwipo] is inevitable. I want to do it.”

Q: What did you do in the off season?

Bwipo: So I traveled to Europe for Worlds — everyone that I wanted to meet, I got out of the way there, and I just went back here to LA and had a jolly old good time. […] I like streaming, and I plan on doing it more regularly. It’s start of the season, so I need to get back into the routine — [I have to] go from the gamer hours to actually maintaining a schedule and taking more care of myself than normal, sleeping better, etc. I’ve been having a hard time getting it done in these two weeks.

But starting tonight, after this media day, I’ll be resuming regular streams and you’ll catch me live very often. Pretty much every day, […] three hours a day is what I’m scheduling, so we’ll see. […]

I turned the age of 26 over the off season. Something clicked. [Before,] I didn’t really give a shit about money, assets, anything like that. I just cared about pursuing my dream. And I feel like with FlyQuest, I proved … At this point, I’ve played 5 years of Worlds. Four of those, I made it out of groups.

It’s like an 80% success rate to get out of groups and compete with the teams we’re supposed to be worse than. I feel like the formula has been set. I feel like as a professional player, I’ve set a standard that I can be proud of, and I’d like to now move on to maintaining the standard and focusing on personal goals. Building an empire is a bit a bit a bit much, but building something, because I have nothing.

I don’t own any land. I’m not rich. I mean, all this shit. I didn’t give a fuck about all that.

I really couldn’t care less, because all I cared about was the performance. It was the only thing that I cared about in my life. As long as I had a good performance, I was happy — to the detriment of my own relationship even, many times. And that’s something that I’ve come to realize that I want to balance now.

I’m 26. I’ve had those four, five years, four out of five performances. I think I’m ready to stop doubting whether or not my systems work or not, and stop looking for proof — like “Oh, I need this Worlds. I need this performance to prove to people that I’m that good, or I’m that impactful, or whatever.”

And start realizing like, “Oh, I got it. I’ve got the formula. Don’t iterate on this. Stabilize it now.”

I wanna stabilize the performance that I can bring — a large part of which, I fundamentally believe, isn’t the fact that I’m an exceptional player individually, [but] rather that I push everyone else on my team to level up. I’ve come to realize that it’s my strongest role as a player. That’s also why a lot of people want me to coach.

Q: How much have you thought about coach Bwipo?

Bwipo: For me, I think it’s inevitable.

I want to do it. I have some personal aspirations that I want to achieve as an individual player. I wanna win an MVP split. This is something that I really wanna get done. I think I’ve been in contention of top 5 MVP more than once. […] There’s been that many splits, I think, where people would put me up there — at least in the top five — and I’d like to actually solidify an MVP trophy for myself. Obviously, that’s not my goal. Winning is the goal, but I’d like to have been able to say “I’ve done this.”

So, those kind of personal achievements, I still wanna pursue —and that passion is still there, of wanting to stand out as an individual player. However, the part of me that coaches and and helps people dig deeper into themselves, and the main reason why I think I’ve been very successful in my career, is because I remind people that I will be there every step of that way.

No matter how deep they have to dig, I’ll go all the way down with them or I’ll go all the way up. It doesn’t matter. No matter how far down you have to go to get the ball back on track, I will follow you all the way and I’ll believe in you every step of the way. And I think that’s my biggest strength: I don’t make anyone feel bad about performing poorly. […]

I make sure people are themselves. As a coach, I’m not sure if I’d be able to recreate that, which is why it is something that I’m concerned about when it comes to coaching. But I know for a fact I can teach any single player on this planet how to be a world-class player, should they have the time and the will.

I think any single LCS team, any single LEC team, I could coach to — at minimum — a Worlds appearance within a year. I’m sure of that. Without delving too deep into the systems that I’ve tried to develop to teach people and help [them] understand the importance of what actually wins you a game, I think that a lot of people misunderstand what wins games consistently.

Winning one game, winning two games, winning three — that’s one thing. But winning games over the course of many years, what exactly is that? And how do you achieve it? Because even the people that know how to define it, they have a hard time finding a system that works for everyone Which is fundamentally why I am interested in coaching because I would love to put my system to the test.

I would love to actually stress test the system that I have; to see if I can make a low-class team perform [to] the point of a Worlds appearance. And I do want them to go to Worlds and actually have a showing — not like 100T. So to be fair with you, making it to Worlds isn’t good enough for me. But it would be step 1.

If I were to sign a coach deal, I would want two years. I would want to be head coach, not because I want the title, but because I would want to have the reins on how I how I train my players.

To give you a very simple example without getting into it too much, I would not run the same scrim schedule as everyone else does. I would not scrim every single day of the week. […] What I care about most is just the fact that my players can recreate certain situations in the game that are favorable for them. I think that you can practice this in solo queue. A lot of people pretend like you can’t. The thing is, the amount of resistance you encounter whilst playing your game is what makes a difference.

Look at it this way: [Whether] you’re riding up a mountain or riding your bike in a straight line, it’s the same idea. One is just a little harder because you perceive up the mountain, but the techniques you want to use are the same.

There’s an optimal way to drive your bike, whether it’s up a mountain, or down a mountain, or whatever. There’s a technique for everything, and these techniques can be practiced in solo queue. I have done it. I consistently keep doing it.

Whenever I have to relearn a wave control/wave management, whenever I have to relearn champion patterns and interactions, I’m doing one-sided learning. I’m learning, I’m noting things down. My partner probably doesn’t give a fuck because that’s some random guy that’s playing solo queue. But what I’m saying is, that’s what I care about for my players — when I would watch my player play week-to-week, and I watch him Week 1 play a matchup then I watch Week 2 and he’s doing the same things, I would say that’s not allowed.

That’s not allowed unless you’re exactly within the parameters that are set as a successful way to navigate that matchup. In which case, keep it up bro. Nice job.

But that’s what I’m saying, [as a coach, I want to be] setting these parameters like “Hey, you locked in this champion. You drafted this. Are you aware what a successful match is for you? How do you set your team and yourself up for success as you’re playing this character? What are the decisions that you need to make to achieve the result of a positive impact in the game? How do you have more impact than your opponent over the course of a hundred games that you’ll practice?”

This is what I want to dig into, as a coach. I don’t have the ability to dig into [it] as a player, which is what I would love to test. This is the stress-testing part of coaching that I would love to do. Unfortunately, because I spend so much energy making sure that I meet those standards that I set for myself, I don’t have the energy to do it and nitty-gritty dig into every matchup for my teammates.

I can’t do that, but what I can do is I can help them understand “Hey, your mind is here. This is where I want you to be. I’m here, and I’ll go all the way back with you to where you are, and I’ll walk the road with you until you’re right in the same space as me.”

You might think that that means I’m dragging people to my headspace, but I think that’s the special part that makes me [who I am]. I am happy to meet you in your headspace if I think it’ll give us a chance to win. If I think it’s our best chance to win, I’ll go all the way back — I’ll retrack all of the things I disagreed with, and I will meet you exactly where you are if I believe. […]

The first player that I ever had this with was Hyli. So, obviously, that’s why it was special to me. That’s why our bond was special; I bought in 1000000% into how he viewed the game, and I followed him the entire way. I had no opinions, I just listened. And he told me this is what I see, this is what I wanna do. And I was like, “Bet. Let’s do it.”

Every year I play with new players, I come to conclusions like, “Oh, okay. So this is how you wanna play the game. I’ll meet you there.”

I’ll give you an example of a player that I adjusted to: Selfmade. He liked to set himself up for the game in the early game, [so] I found ways to make his game consistently very smooth to play. And that’s because I saw his point of view, and I met him on his side of the the point of view rather than mine.

Then you have players like Inspired that are willing to change based on the draft, which is very hard to keep up with if you’re not well-practiced. Based on the draft, he’ll choose, “Do I help my teammates? Do I help myself?”

Being able to maintain a communication level that makes us both comfortable and trust each other, where we’re able to to give that result to each other, especially with how comfortable he is with changing that without even communicating. Because it’s natural for him.

Q: Was Caps like that?

Bwipo: Caps was someone like me back in 2018. Maybe he’s changed, but in 2018, he was very malleable. He would go where the team goes. Wherever the team wanted to go in terms of mindset, he would find them there, and then he would be that perfect player — or try to be that perfect player — for that style.

Yeah. That’s something I really respected about him. I haven’t gotten the opportunity to work with him since, but I’m sure that we would find a way to meet each other and and and do some magic. I’m sure of that. I actually think that’s that’s interesting.

Q: How have you ended up on teams with so many legends?

Bwipo: It’s definitely luck. I mean, I part of it is luck. Part of it is, on FNATIC that we were always the biggest deal — up until G2 took over. But the thing is, even when Caps joined G2 in 2019, 2020, we were still a team you wanted to play on. If you didn’t get to go to G2, FNATIC was a great option. You were proud to play on that team. Even though there was a team that outperformed us, we were neck and neck.

It wasn’t like we were that much worse than them. It was really close. Spring split 2019, when they won MSI, they were definitely a step ahead and we weren’t really competition for them. But I think by summer, we proved that we were, and I think we did a very good job. We played two bo5’s all the way to Game 5, I believe, in 2019. Maybe in Spring next year, [it was the] same thing.

But the point is, by the end of 2020 you knew both teams were worth playing for and they were the teams you wanna join, which obviously means that these Z-Tier talents would wanna join my team, because I was on that team. Now the rest of it has been luck, and I do think some of that luck was created because, for example, on TL in 2022, I had [a really strong lineup] with those players, and I think that one of the reasons why I didn’t have that success with those players [was that] I didn’t employ my strategies/culture to the team.

[When] I came in, […] I didn’t really wanna step on anyone’s toes, which is a complete antithesis to who I am. I step on everyone’s toes all the fucking time. Hell, I’ll step on your toes, and I’ll make you reconsider why I did it.

The thing is, I really wanna win. And when when I notice that someone is getting triggered, when someone steps on their toes, I like to sometimes step on their toes on purpose and look them in the eye and be like, hey. I know you hate this, but why? What makes you feel so bad about it?

Like, I help you understand how I can help you understand that, like, this is going to happen, and I want to help you do better. And that’s in many different ways. Obviously, I’m I’m talking myself a big game here. I’m just another guy. I come to the office.

I’m lazy in in certain aspects. I have my flaws. I 100% take accountability for that. And I think the way I take accountability is by really proving to people how much I want them to succeed. Because every single person on my team, as far as I understand, and I’ve been fortunate for this, I don’t think I’ve ever played with a player that I would look at and be like, “Well, you my friend have no hope. I cannot work with you. I cannot get anything out of you. Even if I try, we’re gonna be a six place team.” I’ve never had that.

So coming back to your question, how do I find these players? It’s definitely luck too. Massu might as well have been one of those players that just didn’t have that cap where it’s just like, “Holy shit. This guy could be him.”

I do think I make him comfortable to find his way there himself. Being comfortable with who you are, the champions you represent, the way you play the game — this is how you distinguish yourself. The reason I think that Massu is distinguishing himself is because he has those characters and he really believes in himself when he plays them. And I give him as much space as possible to do that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect. I grief him all the time. But when it comes to outside of the game, I could grief him for twenty nine days in a row, and with the kind of relationship I try to build with [everyone] — I hope he feels the same way — he could grieve me twenty nine days in a row and on thirtieth, I’d still believe in him. No questions asked. I’d be there.

I’d go through the motions. Everything we discussed all the time. If if he griefs me twenty nine days in a row, same thing. If I grief him twenty nine days in a row, I hope it’s the same way too.

I want that kind of bond with my teammates where it’s like, “You do what you believe in. You’ve made me believe. I’m fully bought in. I’m fully committed. Nothing is going to change my mind until my year is over,” at which point we’ll have to reevaluate, and I’ll have a conversation with them.

But fortunately for me, yeah, somehow I find some really sick players. […] I think Quad [and Busio are] the same way. Yeah. I really see the good in there, and I wanna bring it out.

Obviously, meta is a big deal. You know, you need to have the right meta in order to do that and show up. I think I’ve had a long career because I’ve always been able to identify the strengths in my team, and I’ve been able to kinda draw out that guy. It’s like, “Hey, in this meta, you’re going to have to be the person that takes the most responsibility, and I’m gonna help you take as much responsibility as possible, and have you do it in a way that makes you comfortable.”

Q: How do you balance such different personalities (shy, quieter players like Massu and Quad vs more assertive players like you and Inspired) when you’re trying to make everyone comfortable?

Bwipo: I think the the biggest strategy or the the way our team works, fundamentally, when it comes to giving feedback, is that you have Nuke, Mithy, Inspired, and me that have the strongest opinions. We don’t even necessarily agree. But the funny thing is is that, whoever speaks on the matter — the first person that will speak, everyone will listen to. And if everyone is agreeing enough with it, it’s like, “Makes sense. I’m on the same page here. I could get on the same even if I disagree with the formalities or the nitty gritty. The message he’s trying to send, and the essence of what he’s saying, is exactly how I feel about it or very similar to how I feel about it, so I’ll allow it.”

If it’s a simple point, you have Nuke bringing it up. He’s like, “I want you guys to do this in this situation.” Then me, Mithy, and and Inspired will be like, “Yeah. That makes sense. Good enough,” and we won’t have to step in. Sometimes they’ll bring up their discussion point, and then you’ll have [me or Inspired disagreeing with something specific].

You have the system where like all four of us kinda filtered down the learnings we want our rookies to get. That’s our system. I think all of our rookies, by the time it’s been filtered down, have the opportunity to say, “Hey, I disagreed with this. I like Gabriel’s opinion more,” or “I like Mithy’s opinion more,” or “I like Inspired’s opinion more.” They kinda get to pick their side of the same idea but a different flare from one of the veterans.

And sometimes they just have their own. They’re like, “Well, all of you guys are talking shit. I don’t wanna know. I don’t wanna hear about it anymore. I’m gonna do this. Good luck.”

And that’s something I really empower because for my team. There’s a point where you have to say, “I’m doing this no matter what. Because this is who I am, and I have to do this to be comfortable on my game and stage.” Because you know it’s not gonna change. Highest DPM wins. If that’s who Massu is, or that’s who Quad is… Fuck it. I’m gonna meet you there. Even if though I disagree, it doesn’t matter, because that’s who he is.