Q: Any fun stories with the team?
Spica: Recently, we’ve been playing Secret Hitler, and — this sounds weird — but I swear it’s making us better at League. In the morning we’ll play it or if we have time after scrims, and I think just spending time together, interacting with teammates we’ve really come together.
There were some rough patches with scrims where everyone was just depressed because it didn’t feel like we were improving, but unironically since we picked up the game we’ve been doing better in scrims, I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, […] but I’m happy. Like, at least on FLY, it was like “Okay, scrim time’s over,” and everybody clocks out or just plays solo queue, not really having meaningful interactions.
I’m glad we have something we all love in common and we can share the same interests — it’s really helpful for teammates, if you want to be a good team you have to get along like that, I think.
Q: I know Zven’s the only one staying at the house, everyone else has their own homes, how has it been with the team?
Spica: Yeah, every day he’s like “I need to play more games, I need more LP, do more reps so I can get a girlfriend”, but it’s not working, like we lost today.
Q: I know Zven’s the only one staying at the house, everyone else has their own homes, how has it been with the team?
Spica: Yeah, every day he’s like “I need to play more games, I need more LP, do more reps so I can get a girlfriend”, but it’s not working, like we lost today.
Q: How did the break help you?
Spica: Before the break, we were losing to the top teams, and the games [weren’t] close, but I think over the break we’ve just become so much better as a team. We’re at the point where we can take games off these guys and make it entertaining.
Q: Were the draft reads today designed to throw off TL?
Spica: I think the first 2 drafts, it was pretty much what we play in scrims, [AP jungle, AD mid]. But Game 3, we haven’t played many scenarios where we don’t have that, so we were kind of dizzy. Someone just said “why not just play Kindred/Zilean, just fuck it see what happens” and I don’t think our draft was great but it was my game to win, I had the agency to carry the game, but I messed up.
Q: Did their denial of your marks make it hard?
Spica: I think in competitive Kindred is not really about playing for marks. You’re playing against pro teams — they know how Kindred works, what marks are going to spawn, they know how to respond.
But in the gamestate where I have 2 kills at the start I should just be 1v9.
Q: How does it feel to have the DIGSZN fans behind you?
Spica: I just really enjoy playing with these guys, people say we’re getting along because of the honeymoon phase but our relationship actually got better as we played with each other more. Every day in scrims we’re taking it seriously but we’re having a lot of fun. Recently we’ve been playing board games in our free time, I feel like this is one of the most enjoyable teams I’ve played with in my whole career.
I walk into the office every day and I’m excited to scrim and get better with these guys — I’m enjoying my time, whether it’s playing with them or something other than League.
Spica: Everyone owns up to their mistakes, today after Game 3 I was like “Sorry guys, I should’ve 1v9’d, this was on me”, and Licorice was the [same].
There’s no hard feelings if someone runs it down, we’re not targeting anyone, which can be a thing in some teams under stress. Even today, I feel like we improved a lot and are in a good place. Going in, we were winning a lot of scrims against lower tier teams, but we were like “maybe it’s fake scrim info, but we’ll see”. As we play with eachother more, […] I’m excited to keep improving.
Q: Did the Jensen Zilean remind you of the Bjergsen days?
Spica: They’re a little different as players — Bjerg was more calling everything in the game and Jensen plays any role the team needs really well. After playing with Bjerg I kind of took over that role, so I’m kind of different than I was when I was playing with Bjerg. I’m not necessarily the only one shotcalling, everyone can call something, but me and Isles are calling the flow of the game.
Q: What do you think of the Bugi substition for Tomio?
Spica: It’s hard to say because Bugi has been scrimming with them for a while during the break, and [back then] we were losing to every team, it didn’t matter who, and we haven’t scrimmed them in a while. But in scrims at least Bugi looks like an upgrade, probably because Tomio is a rookie and he can’t call for what he needs or wants, and they have direction. […]
It feels bad for Tomio because he’s a rookie and he’s coming into a team that people see as bad. I think it’s really hard to develop a rookie when there’s a lot of issues, your lanes aren’t winning or you have weak players. […] His situation is really unfortunate, I just wish he got a better shot [like I did] when I started.