DIG Tomo: “After we eat sushi, [Quid and I] just walk to the pier, enjoy the breeze, just watch the waves.”

Q: How was the offseason? What did you guys get up to?

Tomo: We went to Korea. Did a little boot camp for, like …

Isles: Eighteen days or something. Right?

Tomo: Something like that. Eighteen, nineteen days. […]

Isles: It was [a bootcamp] on the cheaper end, truthfully. But it was —

Tomo: Nice and cozy.

Q: Everyone in one room, sleeping bags, I get the picture.

Isles: No, no *laughs* nothing like that. The living area, our place was actually really nice.

Q: Any fun activities in Seoul?

Tomo: We went to a Korean library in a mall.

Isles: Yeah, there’s apparently a fairly famous library in a mall. It sounds kinda silly, but it’s [a real thing]. And then we got a tour at GenG HQ. […] We did scrim mostly challenger teams, but we did scrim the DNF LCK team.

Q: Thoughts on the eXyu quote that DIG’s roster will blow up by the end of the year?

Isles: Well, Lawrence did have some history, with our topside in NACL. I didn’t play in that league, so I wouldn’t know.

Tomo: I wouldn’t know either. I mean, bro’s kinda stretching. I mean, he’s trying to punch up, obviously, because I think everyone ranks him as the weakest team.

Isles: Yeah, I think most people have said DSG or Lyon are last, right?

Tomo: He has to hype himself up a bit and cope a little, you know? But that’s chill.

Q: You two are always so reserved. Like, what gets you excited? Have you ever jumped for joy?

Isles: *just laughs*

Tomo: Yeah, when I beat C9 and went to Worlds. That was a good feeling, I have to say.

Q: How are the team vibes/friendships developing?

Tomo: I’ll say I think the Korean boot camp definitely made us more comfortable with each other. I think we all opened up a bit more during Korea, and so far, it’s been pretty good, I’d say.

Isles: Yeah, I do think we get along. I will say, if you’re familiar with last split, I was definitely more [friend-y] with my teammates from law split. Even, Tomo with 100T — they got along really well, right?

Tomo: Yeah.

Isles: We have a different dynamic. It’s different, but I think we still get along well. And the team dynamic is definitely different —

Tomo: I think especially in Split 1, there were a lot of issues with visas and split plans and stuff. And Sheiden Came really late, so we never really got a chance to just hang out.

Q: So do you guys hang out outside of game stuff? Like Shopify was going to play pickleball today—

Tomo: No… we don’t do that. We don’t go that far.

Isles: I mean, the Korea trip was enough on that front. I mean, most of the guys besides me go to the gym after scrims oftentimes, so they’re doing that type of thing.

Q: You don’t like going to the gym?

Isles: I do, there’s not enough time, I think, in my day. It’s not worth sacrificing just [from a] time management [perspective].

Q: Tomo, I heard from Quid that you two go out on cute dates to Santa Monica pier. What’s that like?

Tomo: I mean, we just go out to KazuNori every once and then, the sushi place. It’s relatively close to me, so I like it personally — and he’s been craving sushi too. It’s just a nice little adventure, kind of.

After we eat sushi, we just walk to the pier, enjoy the breeze, just watch the waves.

Isles: Well, this is my first time hearing of this.

Q: Your ADC’s heading out on a moonlit walk with the enemy mid laner!

Isles: Crazy romance.

Tomo: I’m plotting.

Q: Do you have a favorite sushi roll?

Isles: I don’t eat sushi.

Tomo: Sushi roll? Uhhh…. I don’t know.

Q: You were craving sushi, and go there consistently with Quid… Oh, so the sushi isn’t what matters. I see.

Tomo: Well, everything’s good on the menu, you know? I just get the six [roll] plate. Yeah. And then you just munch.

Q: How’s reuniting as a bot lane?

Tomo: I think for me, Split 1 was mostly lane swaps. In terms of 2v2 dynamics, I think we still need to work on how to min-max our 2v2 situations, because we hadn’t really been playing [many of those] in Split 1. So, just need to work on that, I think.

Isles: It’s true, the meta nowadays is very centered around grubs oftentimes, or trades of that. A lot of the time, it will involve rotations, including bot lane. So laning phase oftentimes will last for literally three minutes. Then one bot lane will appear top lane, and then one bot lane try might try to match that bot lane, and that bot lane will then end up bot lane. The laning phase has never been shorter, at least in recent years.

So there’s definitely some laning stuff to iron out, but, I mean, it’s true that some of the groundwork/base synergy and stuff is still there. Some stuff remains unsaid that would have to be said if we hadn’t worked together before.

Q: Who shotcalls laneswaps on your team? You don’t have veterans who played through them the first time, like TL does.

Tomo: I mean, I’ll say the lane swaps in Split 1 was different from, like, the lane swaps at Worlds. It’s similar, but different concepts. Every team still needed to do their homework and catch up on what’s actually optimal when you do a lane swap, because it’s not just a copy-and-paste of what happened last year. So in that aspect, there’s no real advantage of knowing how it worked last time. Maybe a little bit of the fundamentals, but I think there’s a good enough variety that it’s not just, “Yeah, they did it before, they could do it again.”

Isles: I do think lane swaps of old, many, many years ago, don’t really reflect what happened this split. Like, grubs are definitely an addition that changes game, and the way that you swap or swapped last split — it [all] just kept evolving over time. I think even really great teams — like, when people think of macro, they think of teams like GenG. Even these teams swap in a different manner almost every game. It can be top lane [bot], ADC top lane. It can be some sort of light invade with jungle. It can be vision on one side, vision on another side.

Last year, for example, people did not often invade, for early wards to spot people walk up. But that was something that happened this year. There’s just so many variations that I don’t think the advantage that you might have from playing for longer was really there. It was still all about how much you study, how much you just learn, how much you experiment with, and what you guys as a team agree with.

Obviously, if you have other competitive fundamentals to work on, you might get a bit overloaded in that sense. And I think at times, we were. But […] the narrative makes it sound worse than it was.

Q: Any shit talk for facing SR?

Isles: I forgot who’s on SR…

Tomo: I don’t know those guys. So good luck to them and … wish them the best of luck.

Isles: I’m actually thinking… I can’t think of who’s on SR. Like, I actually can’t.

Tomo: It’s FudgeCakey

Isles: and Palafox. That’s all I’ve got.

Tomo: and Contractz.

Isles: Oh, Contractz. The goooooaaaat.

Tomo: Good luck to them.

Q: You don’t remember their bot lane at all?

Isles: Are they Korean? Oh, Bvoy maybe.

Tomo: And Ceos? Okay, I will say I think Zeyzal was better, but that’s just my personal take.

Isles: Wowww….

Q: We got Brazilian fans blowing up your mentions for the next month, bro. Good luck.

Tomo: Actually, I think Ceos is an upgrade…

Isles: *laughs* Yeah, I think he’s really good. I think he’s really good — Vamos Brazil. We love Brazil.