FLY Massu: “We’d go into Gryffinn and Cryo’s room, they would turn off all the lights and just start making noises.”

Q: I am feeling hopeless about the North American region right now, Massu. After the Korean bootcamp, is this the time for FLY to become the best team in the West and surpass G2?

Massu: Um, yeah. I mean, honestly, I thought it would be last split but I ended up falling a bit short so I think this split, I have pretty high expectations for us. I think the bootcamp went decently well — as a team we just got more comfortable with each other. We got some gameplay tweaks. We are more set on how we want to communicate, who makes plans early on, and how we bounce information around throughout the game, and I think that should help us out a lot.

Because I think in Winter Split, it was just… I think we had a lot of lack of experience as well as a lack of knowledge. So a lot of the times we were lost when the enemy team wasn’t just giving us the fights that we wanted to take. And we just ended up in bad situations that just made us fall so far behind in gold and then the game became hard. So I think we got better at that.

Q: Did you get to scrim any LCK teams or mostly LCKCL?

Massu: We scrimmed just LCK CL. We scrimmed Team Secret Whales a couple of times before they left for First stand. And that was kind of it.

Q: Thoughts on TSW? CFO’s performance last year created some high expectations for them.

Massu: After facing them, for sure, they’re like a pretty young roster and it felt like they had a lot of potential, but I wouldn’t say they’re as good as CFO was.

I think that CFO roster kind of just had all the right pieces fall together and they were just, honestly, one of a kind, I would say, especially for that year. So I think it’s a bit unfair to put that expectation on the next first seed, which was TSW. So maybe that’s why they fell a little bit short of people’s expectations. But I think overall they were pretty fine. And I think the more experience they get, the better they’ll be.

Q: With the bootcamp, do you see FLY as the strongest — or one of the top few teams — already?

Massu: I’d say I have a lot of confidence and optimism, but I wouldn’t say I have blind optimism where I’m just like, “Oh, we came back and we’re the best team now.” I don’t think that’s the case. I think we need to keep working hard. We need to keep what we learned in Korea and make sure these habits don’t fall apart, and we keep finding new ways to improve — I think, for sure, we’re a lot better than our first split.

I think that’s natural, because we were a very young roster and we haven’t played together for much time. But I would say my expectations for this split is definitely, by the end of it, to be one of the strongest teams. If that doesn’t happen, then I probably failed pretty hard somewhere along the way.

Q: It seems like you take more personal pressure for FLY’s performance this year — maybe as one of the veterans on the team. Have you noticed that change?

Massu: I think, for sure, [it’s increased] a little bit — because the past two years I still felt it. Of course, as a competitor and as a professional player, the weight of losses ultimately does fall — [or] it always feels like it falls — on your shoulders, even though there’s many variables that could have led to your loss. I think this year especially, I’m taking it in a way where I think we have a pretty talented group of players and a team, and I see me and Quad (and of course the coaches) [as] having more experience; we should be able to kind of lead them in the right [direction] and help them kind of reach the kind of players they can be.

So that’s why it feels for me if, one, I don’t perform to [the level] I know I can, then I’m falling short in that aspect. And then two, if I don’t raise the level of my teammates significantly, then I feel like I also fell short in that aspect. That’s why, this year, I feel like I do have more responsibility [for our success].

Q: It’s interesting — Gryffinn said something very similar after your elimination from Lock-In. Both of you take a ton of personal responsibility for the team’s results.

Massu: I think that’s something that comes naturally when you’re a very driven competitor. I think you always want to kind of, or it feels like you always have the mindset of “If there is something going wrong, then I have it in my power to change it”, and that’s the kind of burden you kind of carry on yourself when you think that you can be a very good player — or just a very good competitor.

I think that’s why when you speak to Gryffinn or many other pros  […] the kind of responsibility they take is on them, instead of just looking at their teammates, and I think that’s part of competition — […] trying to be the best version of yourself. If every single player on your team is doing that, then naturally I think that will make your team the best that it can be.

Q: During your time in Korea, was there anything funny or memorable that happened with the team? Usually I hear about Gryffinn’s shenanigans.

Massu: Let me think, actually, because we [didn’t go out] too much, honestly. We went out like 2 or 3 times during our 2.5 week boot camp. We were mostly just playing solo queue and scrims.

But Gryffinn… I feel like he was holding back a little bit. Like he wasn’t trying, as much, to [randomly] talk to women he found attractive, or stuff like that.

Q: Is his Korean good enough to flirt in Seoul?

Massu: I mean, Gryffinn thinks his Korean is really good — so I don’t think that would have held him back. He would’ve gone up to her [regardless], and even if he doesn’t know how to speak Korean, he would just say super basic stuff.

I haven’t gotten too much of a situation where I could see [Gryffinn’s Korean], but it seems like he understands what people are saying. Quad actually said [to Gryffinn], “Your Korean is better than my English.” So I think that’s pretty impressive.

Q: Even though you avoided Gryffinn’s usual antics, were you able to do anything fun?

Massu: I think horror stories, maybe just like … where we were staying […] all of our sleep schedules got flipped pretty hard — we slept at maybe 4 AM, 5 AM, just because of scrims and solo queue.

[At like 3 AM], we would just play this scary game [sometimes]: we’d go into Gryffinn and Cryo’s room, they would turn off all the lights and just start making noises and trying to jumpscare everyone. Quad was the only one not doing it. Gakgos was doing it. I got roped in, Cryo and Gryffinn too.

Q: You were doing, like, what 13-year-old boys do during sleepovers?

Massu: Yeah, pretty much. […] Gakgos, honestly, was the scariest. He has a pretty big frame and he was making some pretty inhuman noises. 

Q: Out of the rest of the top teams, is there anyone you’re particularly worried about?

Massu: Honestly, when I think about all four teams, I don’t think there’s any team that I’m specifically scared of or wary of. I think each of them has pretty different styles. I think TL plays very heavily around their bot lane, and their bot lane plays their 2v2 very aggressively. So you have to be very on point.

I think LYON likes to spread out and take all the resources on the map. I feel like C9 and Lyon were probably the hardest for us because they were way more coordinated than us, especially C9 since they’ve been playing together for a while.

Sentinels, to me, still seems the weakest of the four. I feel like they’re just a very standard team. Their jungler is creative and tries a lot of angles, but that’s the main thing.

Q: Of course, Busio now has a new lover across the pond, and was top 2 last split. If you meet your goal, how do you feel about a potential MSI matchup?

Massu: Yeah, I mean, for sure it would be really exciting if both of us made it to MSI — maybe we could scrim each other or even get an official match in. Hopefully, after we beat him, I can take him to a movie so he’s not too sad. Should be chill vibes.

Transcription assistance from @misaagamizz

Header Image Credit: Riot Games