FLY Gryffinn: “From my perspective, I’m still really confident in our abilities. I think that we’ve been working hard.”
Q: Do you think there’s actually something to be concerned about right now?
Gryffinn: Mmm. Hard to answer. Obviously result-wise, we’ve not had the best results so far. So in that aspect it’s like hard to argue — I could see from an outside perspective it’s concerning. But even in today’s games, I think we were in good positions — winning positions, we just made mistakes in teamfights. I thought today, maybe the Wukong game was hard, but it was still playable. And then I think that the Ambessa game was a pretty free win. I felt so strong in that game. If we just had a normal team fight, I would definitely just carry. And even in [that] game, we made a lot of mistakes.
But it depends from what perspective you’re talking from. From my perspective, I’m still really confident in our abilities. I think that we’ve been working hard. We still have three weeks until playoffs, so I think we still have time to fix our issues. But obviously, yeah, I can see the cause for concern if you’re a viewer — obviously, it doesn’t seem promising.
Q: The narrative’s been about how FLY can’t put the brakes on; that you guys need to learn how to slow the game down. We haven’t seen that happen, though — is that even what you guys are working on right now?
Gryffinn: I think it’s easy to spin that narrative because it does make sense — obviously we’re a young team and since there’s more rookies you can assume [we] will be more… not random but more…
Q: Aggro?
Gryffinn: Yeah, aggressive. And I think it’s something that we’ve tackled and I think there is a lot of randomness that tends to happen when we overplay. Each of us see opportunities and that tends to cause overplay or disrespect. Maybe if we were more reserved on timers when a game is already won, we would [win more] — like Week 1 against Lyon, I was not reserved in Game 2, where the game was ruined. So I think that is true in some aspects, but I think overall it’s a little bit overblown.
Even if you look at the games today — the games were pretty slow, I’d say. Decently slow. There weren’t a ton of random fights, all the fights were around objectives. It’s easy to just simplify it and say it’s one problem. But I think League is a really complex game and there’s a lot more nuance to it. It’s easy to spin it off as something that’s very broad.
Q: I guess after everyone saw the Week 1 throw against LYON, that stuck in their minds.
Gryffinn: Yeah, because at the end of the day, the pro game has a much higher level than people realize, and when people don’t have that knowledge and see the nuances in every single scenario, they just default to what is the most flashy, the most obvious mistake. Whereas there’s a lot more small mistakes that people might not [recognize], like positioning mistakes and stuff like that.
There’s a lot more nuance to the game that people don’t see. So it’s obviously easier to see what’s the flashiest [mistake]. But yeah, I think we’re working on that.
Q: Against TL and C9, Gakgos got targeted really hard; both teams were permanently ganging up on and diving him. I imagine it was expected, but was the plan to cover him more or to crossmap?
Gryffinn: I mean, at least in today’s games, the top matchups were just Jayce-Gnar, which is hard winning. Then Zaahen-Renekton, which is just scaling. Both lanes [he’s likely] to die early. In the second game, we did pretty well like cross mapping and in both games we had scaling comps, so early game, we were just looking to neutralize and then scale.
[Since] we had scaling comps, it’s obviously gonna be harder to match or be proactive — you’re just looking to just trade gold and stuff, so that was also a symptom. And then in last week’s game, in the early game of game two, they went on bot lane. Game one was me failing a top dive. So I think it was just really bad early games, at least for last week, so it’s hard to say that with certainty. There’s a lot more factors outside of just play style.
Q: How do you feel about facing DIG/SEN next week?
Gryffinn: I mean, it should be both free wins. It’s two matches in a week, so it’s obviously important.
Q: To me, Dardoch and Hambak have looked pretty strong — is it just easy to win because it’s lane diff across the board?
Gryffinn: I think it’s hard to say because it’s hard to look good on a bad team, right? [There are] the top three teams with LYON, C9, and TL. They’re going to feel stronger to play against, and their junglers are going to feel better because they’re just better teams.
And when I play versus the bottom teams that we smash in scrims, it’s hard to feel like they’re good, especially as a jungler — also, it’s harder for jungle to look good on a bad team. They have to adjust to their team as well, so you don’t know if the mistakes they’re making are their own fault or the team’s fault. It’s harder to be impressed, I guess. When a jungler is on a bad team, it’s hard to really show off.
Q: Are you annoyed that SR gets to go to Mexico City and you don’t?
Gryffinn: Nah, I’m not really annoyed. It just has to do with scheduling, obviously. We actually have a pretty cool content idea planned for that weekend, so I’m looking forward to it.
Q: Do you prefer to play two worse teams in a week like this, or two better teams later in the season?
Gryffinn: I don’t think it matters that much. Obviously we played all the top teams already, so now we’re playing the weaker teams. And last split, I think we played C9 and LYON in the last two weeks.
I think it doesn’t matter. At the end of day, you’re playing seven weeks, so you’re gonna play against everyone.
Q: Isn’t it easier to save the better teams for later, though? You can scale to improve and take down stronger teams.
Gryffinn: In a way you could say that, but playoffs are still coming. If you play [the top teams] early, you scrim them for the rest of the season, so now that we played all the top teams we have really good scrims.
Q: There’s a lot of hype around FLY’s level, but what’s the issue with stage performance? Do you think it’s about confidence?
Gryffinn: It’s hard to say. I think — for two splits now — all the top teams are kind of close. Now TL looks stronger and [for] LYON, we’re not too sure because they haven’t had Inspired. I think it’s hard to say until more time has passed.
Q: Anything else you want to say to FLY fans?
Gryffinn: I mean we’ve been doing pretty well. We haven’t had the best run, but I’m still confident, honestly. We can easily be one of the three teams that goes to Worlds. I think we’re top 4 right now. Hopefully we [play cleanly] for the rest of the split against the weaker teams.
Q: To make Worlds, you just need to be better than C9 —
Gryffinn: — any of the three teams, yeah.
Q: Yeah, but C9 should be, on paper, the weakest of TL, LYON, and C9, right? Or do you not see it that way?
Gryffinn: Honestly, maybe I’m a bit biased because of EWC. Technically we’ve beaten TL and LYON, but we haven’t beaten [C9] once in an official match. Last split we had a winning record against every team in scrims. Obviously we beat the lower tier teams, but even the top teams, we were just positive winrate — like around 55 to 65%. I think they were all beatable and I think they still are.
In this split, we’re not doing as well in scrims, but for me, I see them as all beatable. Most people think LYON/TL are above the rest right now, but I played against them. I think they’re all beatable, so that’s why I’m not trying to just beat [C9]. I think they’re all playable.
Transcription assistance from @delfidotwav
Header Image Credit: Riot Games
