KC Busio: “I’m still from NA and I still feel like an NA player, of course. Don’t feel abandoned — just watch my stream.”

Q: That felt like a bad series — like KC lost all the early games, and G2 tried to throw all the late games. I’m not sure if you felt the same,

Busio: For sure, that was a very bad series, especially for me. Every game was “Some big disaster happens early game, and then we have to come back from it.” In one of the games, we did. In the second game, we almost did. But yeah, overall, that was quite disappointing.

Q: Since your nailbiter five-game series at the end of Winter, do you think something’s changed about either team’s level to bring it to this result?

Busio: I mean, it’s hard to say. For me personally, especially in this game four, we didn’t even get to play the game because I messed up [early], so that part is definitely an off day — big, big individual mistakes. That kind of thing.

Maybe the earlier games, like, in one of the games, probably our prep or draft wasn’t that good —not really either playing what we’re practicing, or we just had a bad read on some situations or champions, so I would say it’s a mix of everything.

Also, in terms of team play, they just have, you know, they have more time together as a team. Their team play is better than ours, and we’re still working on it, so a combination of all three of those things made today look very, very bad.

Q: What does team play mean to you? To you, does that mean telling Caliste he’s okay to walk up or knowing when Canna is going to TP into a fight?

Busio: I mean, that could mean team play because it’s a very vague term, but what I mean by team play, because I actually think our team fighting is pretty good. It’s more like… 

The way we make plans around things like crabs, dragons, early objectives, getting vision, stuff like that — all the non-exciting things, I think they do better than us. And that’s something we’re working on every day, you know?

For example, their jungler is getting leads just because we’re not really covering Yike’s jungle very well or helping him in that way.

Q: Like in the Skarner game?

Busio: Yeah, for example, our camps are getting stolen under our noses, stuff like that. In the Vi game, when they’re three manning Yike in his jungle and killing him, they’re getting those kinds of angles, but we’re not getting those kinds of angles when we have some advantage.

This is what I say what team play is. It’s synchronizing our like advantages and timers together to get the best result. I would say that’s what team play is.

Q: Who do you think takes it between KOI and VIT?

Busio: It’s pretty close. I think Vitality seems to be more on a roll. I think they can win, but also KOI has more experience in higher level playoffs and whatnot. I can see their playoff activation kicking in.

Q: In terms of experience and accomplishments, though, VIT also has Humanoid and Carzzy.

Busio: Yeah. Yeah, I guess. But, I believe that MKOI’s roster has been together for two years plus. This is their third year. So like, you know, that’s why I say that.

Q: Do you think G2 would 3-0 VIT, in that case?

Busio: No, I would not say so. I mean, as you saw, even when they had huge leads in this game, they’re overplaying, getting punished, and potentially throwing. So I don’t think they’re gonna 3-0 if they play like today, because once they had leads … Like, they were very good at getting leads, but sometimes they were giving too many angles to come back.

So probably not a 3-0, but [that said], they just experienced this, so now they’re going to work on it.

Q: KC drafted pretty differently from G2 this series — are picks like TF the result of experimentation early in Bo5s, or is this a confident read on the meta? 

Busio: I mean, I’m not sure to be honest because I’m not that involved in draft personally. I don’t have very strong opinions in draft because yeah, [we try] to see the champions– these champs have this advantage, these champs have this advantage, these guys need to play through this, these guys need to play through that, and I don’t focus too much energy there.

So I’m not sure exactly, but, I believe, you know, from the series we have some some learnings for drafts, but mainly it was gameplay. I don’t want to blame draft, of course, but one game we probably had a bad draft.

Q: Does it feel like LEC drafts are stylistically different from LPL/LCK? I’m not sure how much you follow other regions.

Busio: Yeah, I watch the games, but I’m not super focused on the draft, you know?

Q: Got any opinions on LCS?

Busio: Yeah, of course. FlyQuest is very exciting to watch, you know? FlyQuest is very exciting to watch — I think they’re the most fun team in the West.

Q: Do you think FlyQuest is going to make it to MSI? Hoping for the Massu reunion?

Busio: Yeah, I very much hope that they make it.

Q: Speaking of, when are you gonna start picking some fun champions on the LEC stage? You picked a couple in EWC.

Busio: Yeah, I played Vel’Koz and Janna.

Q: Are you still dedicating scrim time towards unique or fun champions? You famously picked Azir support early in your career, but you now get praise on the meta champions too — are those the main focus?

Busio: I think I do both. My preference is usually just playing what I play in scrims onstage. The more reps I have in it, the more comfortable I feel. In terms of specific picks, I, of course, have a couple unorthodox picks. You saw the Vel’Koz. Of course, I wasn’t spamming it in scrims, but I played it a couple times, so I knew what I was doing. Same with Janna.

Q: You just had a good angle for it, so you picked it?

Busio: Yeah, it’s kind of that. Like when I just see something, just, oh, this champ’s an option. And also these situations mainly happen when I’m dropping to 4-5, you know, it’s like my teammates get a priority champion. And then on the 4-5, after they ban out like the standard ones, you know, I can pick something a little bit more, more crazy. And that’s usually where it happens. But yeah.

Q: Your message to NA fans explaining your choice to represent Poland at the ENC was really nice. Any messages to those fans who are still rooting for you — or maybe miss you?

Busio: My message to the NA fans is that … I’m still watching the LCS, you know? I enjoy it a lot, especially FlyQuest. I’m still from NA and I still feel like an NA player, of course. Don’t feel abandoned — just watch my stream. I’m very NA. 

Header Image Credit: Riot Games

Transcription assistance from @misaagamizz