G2 Brokenblade: “[T1] are the third seed of the tournament, we are the second seed. So we are supposed to win, right?”

Q: How strong is NA this year?

Brokenblade: So far, we have scrimmed both NA teams, obviously one of them isn’t there anymore. I’m not sure. I think they definitely have their own playstyles and stuff like that. I think. *hesitates* I’m not sure. *laughs hesitantly* Umm —

Q: You can say if they’re bad, my feelings won’t be hurt.

Brokenblade: *hesitates again* I think there’s definitely stronger teams. I don’t want to sound too cocky, we have been scrimming them a lot, […] very grateful for that. I think they will need to really shore up their strategy.

They haven’t been too great recently, I do think there are strong parts of the meta that they like. Lane swaps are good for people who don’t want to lane, if you’re picking champions who don’t want to lane — if you’re picking champions that are not designed to win the lane and you laneswap, then I think teams that are supposedly weaker have a higher chance of winning the game, because their chances that are supposed to lane and [lose in lane] get through it by laneswapping.

Q: How is Chengdu?

Brokenblade: Chengdu is great, the food is great, the people are great. So far I’ve really met a lot of nice people, all the interactions with local people have been very nice, so pleasantly surprised.

Q: G2’s done a couple jersey swaps, who have you met? Have GigaBin and BB hung out yet? 

Brokenblade: Didn’t get to meet Bin yet, we have met with TL so far, I did a little dance with APA, and that was fun. And we did the jersey swap.

Q: How are scrims going? How are you feeling going into the tournament?

Brokenblade: Going quite nice, we’ve had a bootcamp — we were in Chengdu before our designated time, because we were first seed we had more time, so we had a bootcamp in Chengdu as well. We are definitely more prepared than other teams, so I’m excited.

Q: How are you feeling about the champ pools, like with Urgot being picked?

Brokenblade: Been playing a lot of Urgot as well, this champ is strong, very underrated. It was not on a lot of people’s radars. Bwipo has been playing it a lot for a reason; it’s strong. The lane swap meta’s going to define a lot of champions you’re going to play in top lane, it’s going to be important to actually realize what’s good or bad in lane swaps.

But we’ve been playing a lot of lane swaps so I’m very confident that we know what’s best and what’s not and how to counter certain champions in the meta.

Q: What about the level of the eastern regions, especially based on FNC vs TES?

Brokenblade: I do think FNC is performing quite well right now, to be honest. I think they’re overperforming actually, to what I expected, […] it showcases that they’re also here to win and give their best. For us it’s a great motivator, if FNC can beat TES and take some games from them, we also want to showcase that we can go in a series and beat teams such as T1.

Q: Speaking of which, G2 T1 is becoming a classic — how are you feeling about it?

Brokenblade: Playing against T1 is always nice, playing against legends like Faker. You always want to beat those kinds of players. They are the second — no, they’re the third seed of the tournament, we are the second seed laughs. So we are supposed to win, right? For us it’s a good way of finding out where we are in the tournament. We’re gonna have a lot of days to watch other teams play, we’ll be the last team to play in this bracket, so we’ll have a lot of time to watch [meta evolves], and T1 obviously will be doing the same.

It’s a lot about how we match into our opponents. I think knowing who you’re going to play in a week in a Bo5 definitely gives you a direction on what to do, come up with strategies against a single team — that’s great for us, they play a very similar style every game.

Q: Do you have a message to your NA fans who’ve followed you since you played in LCS?Brokenblade: There have been a lot of fans that were supporting me on TSM and still are supporting me to this day, I am very grateful to every one of you. It’s been a long time since I was playing in America. I’m grateful I was there and I’m grateful [for] where I am now, hopefully those fans are still supporting me and will keep supporting me on my journey.