DIG Palafox: “Believe it or not, this is […] one of the best I’ve felt in terms of like my hands in a while.”

Q: How hopeful was the feeling, despite the loss, after Split 1?

Palafox: I mean, I think there were good vibes for everybody. The reason is that, like the split was three series long, and we played our first match with like FBI and Ignar, like two days after they flew in, and our second match, we won nine days after they flew in. It’s not like we had two and a half months. And the top side of the map, who have been here.

Obviously, we were still scrimming, so we were able to get individual practice. But yeah, if your whole bot lane is gone, like the scrims are basically just mechanics, like the meta is like completely bot-centric right now, so it is a bit tough, with how the meta is. I think you can see that Photon is doing really well, eXyu is doing well, and I’m doing well. I think it’s just a matter of putting pieces together and having good synergy.

Q: Do you feel like you’ve proved the doubters wrong, at this point, about your ability to play in the LCS?

Palafox: I still do think I have like a lot a lot to prove because it’s just been a short split — like three series isn’t too much. I mean, ideally, I just want to get away from that narrative.

Q: Regardless, it’s always a good feeling to shut them up, right?

Palafox: 100%. I think, in anything anyone does, [it’s true]: Proving somebody wrong, who thinks they’re right, is like one of the best feelings in the world — and I think anybody knows that.

People want to say that they have the answers to [how every tournament will go], but it’s actually just not that simple. I think you can kind of see it with internationals — like, people just always have no hope for the West. G2, puts up a great performance, right? And like Gen.G goes down in like a 3-0. I think it’s just not as simple and straightforward as people see it. 

Q: When you beat SR, FBI and Ignar yelled “FOR PALAFOX!” on voicecomms — supporting you after a tough 2025 with that team. Do you still feel that rivalry, or do you feel like you’re settled in at DIG? Is SR just behind you?

Palafox: It is for sure a rivalry. It’s probably one that I’ll always feel, to be completely honest — maybe until things change on Shopify, right? But it’ll probably be that way until that happens. Our first match this split is against Shopify. I definitely don’t want to lose that one. I think everybody’s just like putting in hard work to try to do better.

Q: On general team strength, do you agree with the idea that any team could potentially win the split? Everyone feels so close.

Palafox: I think the only thing that people can say for sure is that there are teams that are more likely to win this split, and are likely to do better. I could see every single team getting to the point where they can win, because I don’t think that there’s such a skill gap in the players.

I think the problem with a lot of teams is that they need like a driving force on their team — like LYON has Inspired. C9 right now looks a bit shaky, and I think there are a lot of reasons why C9 looks shaky, but I think that they just don’t have a clear, cohesive idea of how to play the game, and it doesn’t really feel like they’re meshing as well as I would imagine, together. 

Q: Is that based on what you saw during Lock-In, or based on scrims?

Palafox: It’s just my whole assessment from both. I think there’s a lot of public stuff and a lot of stuff that maybe I could read into, cause obviously like even I read into stuff [online], you know? It just feels like [C9] are shaky.

It [also] feels like TL is a complete coin flip, to be completely honest. 
They have really good players, but I’m not sure — it almost feels like a lot of teams have a couple of players with an ego on them, and it actually leads them to being a worse team. When right now, I think the only thing that matters for a lot of teams is just like liking the people you’re playing with and like, just coming together as five people, you know?

Q: How much faith do you have in the team this split? It feels, honestly, like DIG can do a lot.

Palafox: I’ll put it like this. I think Photon is a super good player. He’s just been on quite a few bad teams. I think you can see it from his performances, like the Kennen game that we played before we had FBI and Ignar, he almost solo-carried that game.

eXyu, he’s a super logical and methodical player, and if he can get the game on his own pace, I think he just does a really good job at like controlling the game and looking for fast-paced angles.

For me, I think that for the most part, I’m not really gonna lose to anybody in lane […] I’m 50-50 [in almost] any matchup, and my strengths come from how I play in team fights and my understanding of what everybody’s supposed to do in a comp.

Vic is the same thing; I don’t think Vic is ever going to lose to anybody in lane, and he gives people a win condition to play through because he’s very vocal about what his strong points are.

And I think pairing that with Ignar, he’s really good at connecting with people and like putting down vision and playing tempo.

When you add that all together, I think we have like a really good understanding of macro and how to be there first. And we might stumble, you know, in [some] aspects, but I think we actually have like a pretty big like leg up on people, [in terms of] being able to actually like see the game more clearly.

Q: It feels like you should do really well; on paper, DIG should be extremely consistent in a league full of dangerously shaky teams. Are you feeling that come through in scrims?

Palafox: To be completely honest, we did stop scrimming for a bit in the off-season. Right now, it feels like we just haven’t played enough solo queue. And we get in really good situations all the time. But we always put ourselves in a good situation, and then somebody will do something weird. Believe it or not, this is actually one of the best I’ve felt in terms of like my hands in a while.

I think my fundamental understanding of League has grown a lot to the point where it’s not so much about like hands. Like I’ve played against Malphite in scrims, right? I’m not so old that I can’t flash like a point-blank Malphite ult, you know? In my eyes, like, that’s natural. I think anybody should be able to do that. And I think, hands only come in very, very rarely.

Q: It’s not just about mechanics, it’s about how you make decisions with your mechanics.

Palafox: Yes. That’s the thing, I actually think specifically, me and FBI are quite good at understanding what each other should do, [so] we both actually make correct plays, for the most part.

Like on Shopify, part of the reason [it could look] like I’m inting was a break in a formation that’s really awkward — that shouldn’t happen if they understand what you’re supposed to do. So somebody else can make you look like you’re completely griefing, but, a lot of the time it’s [people not] doing their jobs.

Transcription assistance from @flomillinoflo

Header Image Credit: Riot Games