KC Yike: “Everyone wants to do better. We don’t wanna be the worst region in the world — it kinda sucks.”

Q: Did that feel as tough as it looked? I know GX are supposedly good in scrims, so…

Yike: Yeah. I mean, even though they have this reputation of being good in scrims, we know that we are, on stage, a stronger team [but] I think they played good. We played … not as good as yesterday. We could play much better.

So that’s the biggest problem for us, I think. We just have to stay consistent. […] Game 3, we played pretty good overall. Game 1, we had a good comeback. Game 2 was just… we forget about Game 2. That was just an unlucky game.

Q: Is making Worlds gonna be easy, then?

Yike: I mean, I will never say it’s easy. I wanna be more humble this split. I think if we work hard, we are gonna achieve what we want.

But GX is for sure one of the stronger opponents in the LEC right now. It’s just, there’s like… I don’t know what it is, but it’s something they’re missing on the stage games where they are just underperforming more than us, G2, KOI, Fnatic. They, I think, are a strong 5th place — but they need something to get above that, and I don’t know what.

Q: How does it feel not making MSI, then having to watch another team ruin EU’s reputation from First Stand?

Yike: I mean, it for sure felt very bad because we didn’t even have a chance to show how good we could be at MSI. But still, it’s really hard to say because we lost fair and square to KOI, and maybe we would have done even worse at MSI. Like, you never know.

But for sure, watching it from home felt bad, especially watching Europe lose these games. It was just looking so … so rough to watch. You would never know what [would’ve happened if we went] there. So we just have to move on, I guess, focus on Worlds. At least that’s something we can go to.

Q: Do you watch NA?

Yike: Yeah, I watch a bit of the LTA. It’s mostly like the, I guess, FlyQuest and Cloud9 games. Otherwise, I don’t watch as much. It starts a bit later here in Europe, so it’s hard to watch all the games.

Q: What do you think of the level compared to EU?

Yike: I think I like the level in NA. I think watching the top teams, for example, I said like FlyQuest and Cloud9, they actually look strong, and I think that’s what we kinda needed in Europe.

Like, for example, last year […] besides us and G2, like when I was playing in G2, it was not really good competition to have. You couldn’t get yourself stronger by scrimming, like, Fnatic or whatever.

They were good, but they couldn’t push us to our limits, I guess. And in NA, I feel like the teams can do it. I feel like FlyQuest, Cloud9, and Team Liquid […] actually push each other to become stronger, and that’s kind of what we missed.

And this year, it’s a bit better, but I mean … *laughs* NA looks good right now, so I can’t say much.

Q: You don’t think the region is improving with this top 4? It looks competitive.

Yike: Yeah, I would believe so. Especially after this MSI performance, I think everyone in Europe kinda woke up a bit — because sometimes we have this mindset of, “We’re not worse than NA.” Like, “NA is the worst region, blah, blah, blah.” But we are actually, stats-wise, from this year at least, worse, at least at MSI.

I think we have to do better. Like, everyone wants to do better. We don’t wanna be the worst region in the world — it kinda sucks. We all wanna just improve more and more now. And in scrims, I think we’re doing better. Teams are more tryhard in scrims, they’re not trolling as much, they take it as seriously as they can, and that’s what’s important for us. 

Q: Is it weird for you, being the veteran teacher for young rookies like Caliste and Vladi?

Yike: Yeah. I mean, for me, it for sure feels weird. Since I joined the roster, I knew it was gonna be that I am one of the more veterans in the team. And in G2, I was really the youngest guy, the rookie and everything.

So I had to learn a lot from G2. So now I just wanna use those learnings to help both Caliste and Vladi, because Vladi is also very young. There’s just one year [between] them. And, yeah, I wanna make them as good as possible. I wanna help them as much as possible to become very good, because I see so much talent in them.

I see so much potential in them and this roster, and I really don’t wanna take it for granted. And yeah, that’s why I really wanna work as hard as possible with the whole team. Also Canna, Targa, even though they also have experience — communication things with Canna, and with Targa, just how we play jungle support together. It’s just very important for us to really prove that we can be one of the best teams in the West.

That’s that’s the goal right now, and we wanna win the summer split. We wanna go to Worlds. We have so many goals, but the main thing is just to keep working on ourselves and take everything step by step. 

Q: Some argue it’s even harder to be the veteran for you — because Caps “did everything for you” on G2. Was it actually harder to adjust when you left his side?

Yike: I believe Caps is probably the most creative player in the West. Like, he always talks about the game, always finds very good ideas, very good solutions to everything kinda. And playing with him was… yeah, in the beginning, for sure, it was like a bit of a cheat code. He kinda did everything for me. He helped with a lot of things, and I’m really grateful for having him as my mid laner and playing with him.

And yeah, coming now to KC with different team, different mid, there were more things I had to learn for myself — I had to understand that, “Oh yeah, people can’t help me with this, help me with that, and everything.”

And it’s also easier for me to give my own feedback to Vladi for example — it’s hard to know if I can give feedback to Caps because he’s kinda the GOAT. It’s weird for me to try to teach Caps things. But with Vladi for example, the things that Caps helped me with, I can help him with as well. I think I improved so much from that, and I learned so many things. So yeah, there’s just good things from that.

Q: How much of the narrative about beating or proving yourself individually against Inspired (the supposed best) or Skewmond (your replacement on G2) or Razork/Elyoya (maybe the best in EU) do you think about?

Yike: I am on socials sometimes, of course. And yeah, I mean, I’ve seen these comparisons between all of these junglers and all. But in Europe, it’s always comparisons between me, like Razork, Elyoya, for example. Now there’s also SkewMond in there.

And in the West comparison, it’s always usually Inspired who’s the one everyone hypes up the most. He’s probably had one of the most successful careers, and he’s been very consistent. So, it makes sense that he’s one of the most hyped ones, and it would be fun to play against him. I think I only played against him once, last year in EWC.

And I mean, I won that one, so that was nice. But it was a while ago. So for me, it would also be fun to play against him because he’s the one that people think is the best jungler in the West. And yeah, it would be nice to be able to feel myself because I’ve played a lot against, for example, Elyoya, Razork, and SkewMond. And I beat them, they beat me, of course. So it’s hard to know who’s the best in Europe — I would always believe I’m the best, obviously. I would always think I’m the greatest jungler.

So just going international and playing versus NA and winning against them because, so far, I don’t know. I lost against Team Liquid at First Stand as well, so it’s not been looking so hot for me. So I just wanna prove myself to be better at international stages. Like, in MSI, usually I’m good. But last Worlds, I don’t remember what happened, but we lost, so that was sad.