DIG Srtty: “Everyone here is serious about winning, and you can feel it in everything we do.”

Q: Any fun story you want to share?

Srtty: These last 3 months, 4 months, playing solo queue, while maintaining top 10 on the ladder, I was actually doing stats homework and calc homework while I was laning. On paper.

In one game, I was laning against Fudge, we’re playing Irelia into Swain. And I died, like, at level 2, and he was like, “What is going on?” I was like, “Bro, I’m doing stats work right now.”

I was top ten on the ladder while I wasn’t even paying attention to the game. I was just doing homework. […] I had one account in top 10 and one account in top 50 while I was doing that. And then I let one of them decay, and then I had played on an account that I didn’t do homework [in game] on, and I hit 81% win rate, top 50 on that account. I finished 2 entire notebooks with [stats homework].

Because I had, no real algebra, stats basis. Going into it with no foundation of algebra when it’s a UCI class is [pretty bad]. And I had to learn everything myself because it was all online.

Q: How has it been adjusting to Tier 1?

Srtty: I like the fact that everybody’s putting in more effort in Tier 1 than I ever saw people put in Tier 2. And it’s very structured in the way that they approach things. I feel like [everyone is] a cohesive unit, and they try and balance things out so that they can work properly.

Q: What are the changes in your life now?

Srtty: Well, even the time outside of scrims is not used just, like, spamming solo queue mindlessly, but instead viewing and actually trying to make intentional changes to what I’m doing inside of the game. It’s a much more rapid pace of progression due to the intentional nature of the actions that we’re taking. I have a lot less free time. I’m also waking up at, like, 8 AM every day because of our schedule.

Q: Are you working out with the team yet?

Srtty: We aren’t doing the because our coaches just arrived yesterday from Korea. But I’m definitely down to do the workouts and stuff. I enjoy the gym, and we’re 5 minutes away from an LA Fitness. So it’s pretty easy.

Q: You’re living at the DIG house?

Srtty: So there are 2 houses right now. 1 has 3 players in it, and the other one has the coaches and will have Sheiden in it too. And then we’re all gonna be practicing from the house that I’m in.

Q: What pulled you towards Rigby in the offseason?

Srtty: [Rigby] is very hardworking and very smart — secifically about the game, he’s very, very smart. I also thought that the team that I’ll be on would probably require one import just due to the talent pool in NA. I’m a big supporter of native talent, but I think we all have to be real for a second and look at the mid laners and be like, “Okay. You know, it’s pretty bad.”

Q: Yeah. With Jojo leaving, especially.

Srtty: Yes. There are not a lot of native mids who would be able to compete internationally, and that’s the important thing, international. There are players that can compete at an LTA level and be serviceable, but I have never been the kind of person to look at just LTA. But I would like to do well on the international stage coming out of the LTA, and I think that having a player who is able to compete — on an individual level — at the international level is really important. With that, it would probably be a Korean [player], and Rigby is fluent and able to facilitate that.

Q: So was Keine a pick that you advocated for after watching Worlds, or did Rigby bring him in?

Srtty: He did, but at the same time, I’m never gonna blindly trust somebody saying, oh, this guy’s good, right? That’s just dumb.

I actually went and I watched his VODs myself, and I VOD reviewed what he was doing and if he was good or not. And I came to the conclusion that, yes, this guy is bloody good. This guy’s good at what he does.

Q: Looking at the NA top laners, how do you feel going up against the best?

Srtty: I think the talent pool in top lane right now is actually really, really good, for a region like NA. I think that on average, NA tops are probably better than the EU tops right now.

Obviously, there are some players like, Brokenblade who are very, very good over in EU. And I mean, no disrespect to the European top laners, but I think that on an average level, when you look at Impact, Bwipo, etc, you see that the NA pool is also pretty good right now.

As for individual matchups. I’m not really scared of anybody. Actually, from laning against them recently in scrims, they’re really not that good, which was kind of surprising to me. In my head, [I was like] “Holy, this is LCS. Like, this level of play is gonna be insane. I’m so excited.” And then I just make somebody just base at level 2, and I’m like, what the fuck is going on?

Q: You’re known for a deep champ pool, has that kicked in with Fearless?

That’s true, but also, it’s Best of 3 Fearless, not Best of 5. So there are certain champions whose power levels [are too high] inside of the game, and you’re gonna see those champions traded. If you’ve been watching LPL, you would have seen that the same champions are traded every single game. I think there’s gonna be a very similar trend in NA, [so] I think Best of 5 fearless is when it’s gonna get really cool.

You’re gonna see people like Sniper pick Riven and stuff. Because, right now, you don’t wanna pick Riven into K’Sante. You don’t wanna pick Riven into Renekton. You don’t wanna pick Riven into Poppy. You don’t wanna pick Riven into XYZ.

When those champions are all out, he just picks Riven. And that’s when it’s gonna get really cool.

I think Best of 3 Fearless you might see some interesting picks every once in a while. In top lane, maybe less, just because it’s so isolated and punishing. I don’t think [there will be] that much variance in top lane specifically inside of Best of 3.

Q: How have you adjusted to lane swaps? It must be a massive jump from NACL.

Srtty: Well, lucky for me, I decided, “Hey, I’m gonna play in houses with CoreJJ.” So, he kind of got to kill me under my tower over and over again until I eventually was like, “Okay, so I can’t do this, this, and this. But if I do this, it makes it harder it makes it harder for him to do this.” And then I can win versus them in lane swaps, you know?

But when it comes to top laners, I’m getting really, really good at them, like, right now. […] There’s only so much you can do in lane swaps. There are only so many variations that can happen. As long as you’re aware of all the variations and not being caught off guard by something, I feel like it’s pretty easy to put yourself in a decent situation.