DSG Ido: “The roster that I have, I believe in. If I didn’t believe in it, I probably wouldn’t have taken the spot in the first place.”

Q: What are the emotions like after being eliminated? How expected was this?

Ido: It’s definitely hard to feel good about not making playoffs in general. I think I said it [when I joined], but probably making playoffs would have been a nice starting goal. So not making that definitely sucks a little bit.

Q: Can you give an example of something you changed when you came in as a coach?

Ido: So when I first started, I thought that the team didn’t really see anything the same way.

And I thought, “Well, we could just start with one system to get everyone on the same page and make sure that everyone sees the game the same way.” That system was grubs. We got, I think, pretty good at grubs. But then grubs went from six minutes to eight minutes, and then it’s not really the same objective anymore.

That was the first example of something that we really tried to nail down, and then that went away, so that kinda sucked. But then we started trying to implement that into team fighting — like our team fighting systems, our objective control systems. We did make some progress on it in scrims.

Obviously, it’s hard to tell when we just kinda got mogged 2-0 today. But I think at least the LYON showing was pretty decent, I would say. And that, I would say, is kind of our our true form, that one. Today, we just kinda kinda suck.

We dropped the ball on about everything that we had improved on.

Q: Does the NACL promotion/relegation tournament create pressure to perform?

Ido: I mean, there’s definitely levels to it. I think we’re not, like, a strong LTA team right now. So it’s only natural for people […] to kinda theorize how we would already start matching up.

To be completely honest, [though], it doesn’t actually weigh on my mind at all. I think going into each week, the only thing I really care about is improving, and trying to show it on the LTA stage. When the relegation tournament happens, obviously, that will be on my mind; it’s not something [I think is] a bygone conclusion.

For sure, there’s some some strong teams in the NACL who could challenge, especially LG, Dark Zero, even Near Airport if they get things together. But right now, we’re just taking it one week at a time. I wouldn’t say that’s really on anyone’s mind.

Q: Could you name your favorite thing about each player?

Ido: Castle really likes to bother Lawrence a lot. It’s his favorite thing in the world when Lawrence is sad, actually. It really makes Castle happy to bother Lawrence and make him upset — whether it’s putting his foot on his desk, kicking his desk, kicking his chair, whatever it is to make Lawrence frown.

For some reason, that brings him a lot of joy. And I think it’s really funny too.

For Lawrence, it’s kinda the same thing. It’s just hilarious to watch him get bothered by Castle and watch him get bullied by Castle. I’m a bystander. I don’t really care what happens. It’s just funny to watch.

With Felix, Abbedagge, he likes to take a spoonful of olive oil before he play. […] Just raw dogs it. He doesn’t care.

Q: Like, once a day, or before every scrim game?

Ido: Once a day.

That would be that would be crazy if he was doing it before every game […] I don’t think he knows why he’s doing it, I’m gonna be completely honest. I asked why, and he [asked] ChatGPT the benefits of olive oil.

With Jerry, I like to bully him about basketball all the time because he thinks he’s a shooter, and he’s not a shooter. And he thinks he’s a ball handler, but he’s not a ball handler. And he thinks he can drive to the basket — but he can’t do that either.

All he’s good [at] is defense and talking like he’s good at the game.

And then Jae, he’s really fun to get along with. He’s kinda like the regulator of the team. If we’re too up, he brings us down a little bit. And if we’re too down, he tries to bring us up a little bit. And I guess that kinda comes with his veteran experience. I think he’s a good leader in that sense as well.

Q: How involved is Toast with the team? He seems pretty busy.

Ido: I think Toast actually watches the scrims more than people think he does.

I don’t know if he watches them in their entirety because it’s, like, eight hours, and he’s busy. But he definitely takes notes and keeps tabs on it almost every day, I would assume. Sometimes he’ll just send a message in the in the Discord saying, “Good day of scrims, keep it up.”

Or if we have a good showing in a match, he’s like, “Oh, that’s what I’ve seen in scrims from you guys. Good job.” But, yeah, like you said, he’s pretty busy, so personal interaction with him [is] next to nothing.

I think especially right now, he’s really busy. At the beginning, I think he had a lot of free time, launching the team. But right now he’s caught up in in other things as well.

Q: Are there roster changes on the horizon? Is it up to you?

Ido: As coach, and especially a newly appointed coach, [when I came in] it was like, “I can work with this. I can do this.” And I still believe that now, funny enough.

I would like to see say that this DSG that I’ve watched in scrims this past month has been a completely different DSG than I’ve seen before. The game in scrims at least seems coherent, and people [seem] on the same page more times than not. On stage, you’ll have the LYON series where we do look really good, aside from a throw. And then you’ll have the 100T series today where we just get completely mocked.

It’s hard to say how much a roster change would really impact that when you would just be putting another putting a player into the same situation where everything’s still disjointed.

So is it a roster issue? To be completely honest, that’s not even up for me to decide. It’s just the roster that I have, I believe in. If I didn’t believe in it, I probably wouldn’t have taken the spot in the first place.

So, yeah, I believe in it. I’m still gonna work hard to do what I can. And then beyond that, it’s just kinda above me.

Q: Do you agree that FLY is the strongest team in the LTA? If so, why?

Ido: Yeah. I think we’ve already kind of been the the inaugural punishment of Bwipo’s Yorick that is now kinda sweeping across every league. Not like he started Yorick, but he was kinda one of the original picks of it, and we got a bit violated by that Yorick.

To that point, I think not only is Fly really strong individually, they’re really strong as a team, and they have X factor. And we’re only talking about Bwipo.

We haven’t even gotten to, like, Inspired’s champion pool. Like, he can pull out Nunu. He can pull out Fiddlesticks. He has also a pretty big champion ocean.

When I go into drafts vs C9 and TL, I can pretty accurately understand what they’re going to pick. Just look what they’ve been picking, and then they’re going to pick it in that same order, with the same rotation of champions.

When you go into a fly series, there’s always always that kinda, like, voice in the back of your mind like, “Oh, fuck. Is Bwipo gonna play Volibear? Or is he gonna play some messed up champion Castle’s never seen before?”

Or even Inspired: “Does he have… Oh he’s dropping jungle. This is kinda scary. What is he cooking up right now?

Q: Or Busio’s Rumble support.

Ido: Yeah, right. Azir’s next. Quote me on that when he picks it. Not from scrims, I didn’t see it [there].

So yeah, […] I think they’re really creative, and I think Inspired is, by far, the frontrunner for MVP. I’ve seen how he comms on EG, when I was there a while ago. That guy is micromanaging the whole team, kinda telling everyone what to do, where, when, why.

So when he’s having a good game, it it doesn’t really feel like there’s any gaps in what they’re doing. […] It’s gotta be Inspired for MVP.