Q: How does it feel to win your first NACL title?
Yuuji: Very, very good — people call us stage chokers, so it felt great. It feels pretty good to prove it to them because we’ve played well on stage and we’ve been working hard. So, working hard to like not choke on stage, I guess.
Q: Was the choking the problem in the past? Were your scrims always good?
Yuuji: Our scrims have always been good, and I think last NACL finals I don’t think I played that bad, I was just playing normal. Or, I wasn’t smurfing or anything — I could’ve done more. […] This time, I’m just thinking like “If I pick a carry champ, I’ll just like carry the game.”
Q: Is that why you picked Hwei-Nidalee? That was kind of insane.
Yuuji: Okay, we were saying that they might pick Renekton-Nidalee, since it was match point and they were losing. They’d been playing scaling champs and just losing lanes, so we expected them to play aggressive in Game 3, which is why we [drafted] that way.
Q: What were you thinking with the jungle picks this series?
Yuuji: I think in Game 1 I wanted to test out a fast clearing jungler and see how they played around it, and in Game 1 it went pretty well. They weren’t playing aggressive, they weren’t doing anything creative to actually win the game. I thought to myself “I should just play carry champs this series” after Game 1, the fast clearing junglers.
Q: How are you feeling about the Americas tournament?
Yuuji: Sometimes, we scrim Tier 1 Latin American teams, and I remember doing pretty well. So I think we won’t run into problems against LLA Tier 2 teams. I think we’ll be pretty good against them. In Brazil, I was actually watching their games and it looks like they play pretty well, so we’ll see.
Q: I know you’re shredded, were you fit before being a pro?
Yuuji: Not much, when I was in high school I was pretty fit, I used to play volleyball a bit —
Q: Like Haikyuu?
Yuuji: Yeah, like Haikyuu. I actually watched it first and then started playing volleyball.
Q: What position did you play?
Yuuji: Setter. [It’s like jungling, kinda] I’m trying to help my team and stuff.
Q: After you came here, you played with Philip, who you defeated today. How does it feel to face a friend?
Yuuji: It doesn’t feel like that much, but I would say it’s so fun going into a game like “I’m going to shit on a former teammate; I’m gonna shit on a friend.” I’m more excited to play.
Q: What makes this team work? I don’t think anyone really expected it.
Yuuji: When I first came in, I didn’t expect to instantly go second. I was expecting if me and Spirax play, we could be at least top 3, because I believe we’re both good enough to carry games. I was trying a lot to help the team, and make sure we were on the same page […] I think some players aren’t really good at finding wins, and I think I’m really good at just grinding out wins in regular season.
Q: Does that mean you think you’re the best jungler in the league?
Yuuji: I’d say so, yeah. I don’t think it’s kind of close.
Q: How do you think you match up to LCS junglers?
Yuuji: I’ve scrimmed them a few times, but when I’ve scrimmed them I’ve scrimmed TL-FLY, so they were kind of shitting on us, you know? So I can’t really tell.
Q: To finish off, do you have any fun stories with the team?
Yuuji: One time I was late for a scrim, so we had to run a mile. After that I think Zyko was late for a scrim, so we had to run 2 miles. I think me and Jerry ran the 2 miles and we were kind of chilling, but I think Zamudo and Zyko were just kind of dying because of how hot it was. And we couldn’t leave till everyone finished.