FLY Bwipo: “Right now, I think we’re the fourth place team in the region. I think 100T, C9, and TL are better than us.”

Q: How was the offseason?

Bwipo: Lots of thinking. Got to do a bootcamp and practice. I’m happy about that. Not quite at the level I wanna be yet, so we’re working on that. But pretty satisfied. I’m doing alright.

Q: What level do you think you’re at right now?

Bwipo: I mean, right now, we’re the fourth place team in the region. I think that 100T, C9, and TL are better than us. That’s my opinion currently. I think the reality of the matter is that we first have to accept that.

After we accept that and we work on ourselves, we’ll be able to level up and get back to being the top dog. But I think that ultimately, being honest with what your shortcomings are is the first step in order to improve oneself. You can’t improve yourself if you don’t see a problem. Pretending like we’re the second best team, we’re owning, and we’re great […] doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?

You gotta first realize we’re fourth place. We lost to 100T. We had a lot of holes in that series, and we got exploited by a team that should have been worse than us — that, by all means, can be worse than us.

But as of right now, I think that they have a team plan. I think that’s what we’re lacking really. Well, I say teamplay, [but] I have a fundamental explanations for the struggles we have. I say “teamplay” in interviews because obviously I don’t wanna dive deep into our team dynamic or the problems in our team dynamic — because I think that that’s just simply bad ethic. You know, maybe a couple of years ago when I was a bit younger and more naive, I’d explain to everyone what I think is exactly wrong with our team. But, unfortunately, I’m gonna have to restrain myself here and try to behave more like a more — how do I say this? — veteran player.

Q: Is that a present tense “fourth place” or a past tense “fourth place”?

Bwipo: Both. I think that we’re still, suffering from the issues, personally. That’s my opinion. And I think that ultimately, no point in talking yourself to be bigger until you’ve proven it on stage. We’re gonna be playing TL in the first week — it’s going to be a great opportunity to show ourselves and the rest of the world exactly where we stand.

Q: So what changed? Did C9 and 100T get better, or are you and TL just stumbling?

Bwipo: No. I think that ultimately, one has to dissect what makes a good game of League of Legends at a professional level. […] To break it down for you, I think that great League of Legends starts from — and I think this is for any team game — [giving] everyone their own responsibility. People have to accomplish that responsibility and play well in that specific metric of “This is what you’re supposed to do and this is what you’re supposed to avoid.”

It’s the same for any sport. Look at basketball, you look at football, you look at baseball, it’s the same thing. You’re supposed to accomplish a certain thing and you’re supposed to avoid a different thing. That’s how it works.

Usually, when you play a competitive sport, your opponent’s trying to accomplish the same thing you’re trying to accomplish. You have a goal you’re trying to meet. So fundamentally, in League of Legends, you’re trying to get stronger as a character. You’re trying to farm as much as you can on your carry roles, […] and you’re leveraging that strength to get neutral objectives. When you get neutral objectives, you snowball that strength into a win. I think, fundamentally, we struggle to identify where we gain a lead and then play around that player, and use that player’s strength to [translate] into an objective.

I think that we’re too rigid as a team. That is my opinion.

Q: What do you do for fun with the team?

Bwipo: Well, when I bootcamp, I’m a bit of an elitist: I don’t do anything outside of playing the game and practicing hard. So, unfortunately, the only thing I did with my team is have dinners. I didn’t really go out and do stuff.

I know my teammates went to go to a mall or something, and they they did some pictures and stuff. That is not for me. I … How do I say this? I come from a culture where everyone’s expected to pull their own weight, and you keep trying to pull more weight, but kind of in your own lane.

Imagine you’re trying to pull a hundred pounds and you each get assigned 20 pounds each to pull. I come from a culture where you kinda just in your own lane, in your own solitude, focus on pulling that 20 pounds. And then as you’re pulling the 20 pounds, you try to add more and more weight. If you’re used to pulling 20, then you pull 25, pull 30, you pull, you pull, you pull.

When you get to the finish line or you get to the end, you find out how far you pulled by the end. So I can’t say that I’m of a similar culture where I’m around the team like that.

And maybe that’s a problem on my end. I’m glad you brought it up, because that’s probably a discussion I should have with my teammates. For me, focusing on oneself and making sure that one is at the absolute peak of their individual responsibility they were given [is the key].

This is something that I want to focus on [for] myself because this is what made me the most successful player that I’ve ever been. 2019, ’20 were my best years because I excelled exactly that. I was extremely good at pulling more weight than I was initially given. And as a result, I made it easier for my teammates to play well. That’s not to say that sometimes I didn’t make it harder for them — I definitely have ups and downs. I know I’m a flawed man and a flawed player.

Q: Did you and Hyli not hang out outside of work/the game on Fnatic?

Bwipo: We did not. Just the game. I think I would spend, on average, ten or fifteen minutes a day with him outside of the practice office, and that would be walking home together. […] The way our team worked, and the culture we kinda set, was extremely peculiar — compared to what I’m used to in other teams. And it’s why I’ve been trying to chase [that culture], I’m trying to understand how I can do better.

Now, I do wanna clarify that when I am in the office, I make great efforts to connect with people and build trust within the game. […] Having trust and a good bond with your teammates is extremely important. So I relate all my trust in the game.

For me, [the ideal trust] very simple. I don’t care if you’re gonna have a good game or a bad game. And I’m the same way. I can 0/6 or I can be 6/0. When I’m 0/6, I’m gonna show up and you’re like, “He’s gonna do his job. He might not do it as well as he should, because he’s feeding, but he’s gonna do his job.”

And when I’m 6/0, it’s like, “Oh, he’s gonna carry way more than he’s supposed to.” That is the guy I try to be. I try to show up always. I’m always gonna show up and I’m gonna do the job. And if I do a poor job of it, you get to laugh at me and we laugh about it together. And if I do a good job, we get to celebrate that together.

Q: Since it’s so unique, do you think this was a function of unique personalities on that team?

Bwipo: Oh yeah. Me, Hyli, and Rekkles were the perfect storm, I think. I really think the way we work together, and the way we all … I don’t know. Maybe it was a culture thing. Maybe it was a personality thing. But I really think that was the reason that team performed as well as it did for those three years, with that core of 3 players.

I made that very clear to Fnatic and everyone that I ever talked to. I think that the way we set the culture — because I do think that the junglers and midlaners who played with us got sucked into that culture until they had a similar mindset — [helped us find success].

I think 2018 might have been a bit different. I don’t remember too well because it was my first year, so I didn’t have as much influence on the culture. I was just kind of a follower, I was just practicing hard and doing my thing. But I know for 2019 and 2020, a big part of that is, like I said, everyone’s individually pulling their weight, and you’re free to be who you want to be and do what you want to do. We don’t care.

You can play what you want to play. You can just say I wanna play this in draft, and other people will come in and help you accomplish that. So a big part of my success was that I would pick very often in the first three. I’d play Gangplank, Aatrox, or Ornn very often in the first three.

And then we would be able to go 4/5 and find better picks for Rekkles, because he had a more counterpick-oriented champion pool. That was a team strategy where, individually, how you get there, how you pull the weight, we don’t care. You know?

Like, you don’t have to show up at meeting. I mean, team meetings we had, sure. But we didn’t really do team dinners often. We didn’t really hang out and watch movies. We didn’t do activities all that often.

It happened, but it [wasn’t] something that happens frequently.

Q: So that’s your ideal approach for FLY?

Bwipo: I’m trying to create a culture similar in FlyQuest because, I mean, that’s what worked for me. The most important part, the reason why this culture worked for us, is that there was an unshakable amount of trust in the players. So I think in the 2018 run, the amount of work we put in individually, (me, Hyli, Rekkles), that’s what built the trust. The reason why Hyli trusted me as much as he did and […] we both trusted each other, is because we would spend 12-14 hours a day together when I was bot lane.

When I was bot lane, I would spend all my day with him. Obviously later, in 2019, ’20 that wasn’t the case. Like I mentioned, we’d go to the office, we’d practice together, we’d talk together, we’d do our thing, and then we would leave. But originally, when the trust was being built, there was a shitload of effort being put into making sure that we were on the same page and we were playing the same game. I don’t think we have that right now.

When we were in at Worlds 2024, when we were performing really well, and we won summer split, there was a lot more of this [implicit trust]. And I think we lost that.

Maybe it’s due to the expectations, because this is something that kills a lot of teams, in my experience — or makes a lot of teams worse. You come off a great Worlds run, you come into Spring split, and you have really high expectations of yourself and your teammates. And when you don’t live up to those, it just goes downhill and it keeps going down.

You’re getting put under a bit of a lens; people are gonna try and abuse you a bit more because you have clout. Teams are trying to beat you specifically, and you’re not really understanding why you’re unable to reach that performance [again]. I think that’s why we’re currently at a fourth place.