KOI Jojopyun: “There’s good things in NA, and I love playing in NA. And EU is pretty fun too. I’m just focusing on winning.”
Q: What’s your favorite color?
Jojopyun: My favorite color used to be green when I was in elementary school, but now I’m not sure. Now I never really have one. It was green, but then it kind of just faded away, and then I never found a new color. So I would say green.
Q: How have you dealt with the hate this year and last?
Jojopyun: I mean, to be honest, I don’t use Twitter too much. I only use it to tweet, so I don’t really see it. But I think just any talk is — I think as a pro in any sport, there’s always gonna be haters and some will be always personal, and there’s also gonna be fans at the same time. So I think I just understand that no matter what, there’s gonna be fans and haters, so I don’t really care too much. And at the end of the day, it’s just entertainment.
I don’t see too much of it because I only use [Twitter] for my brand and for tweeting and stuff. I don’t really scroll that much, so I don’t really know how much there is.
Q: What made you decide to take content and being a personality more seriously this year?
Jojopyun: Yeah I mean, just understanding how grateful I am to be in this position. There’s so many fans that always wanted me to stream and do more content, so that’s one thing that I was thinking about ‘why am I not doing’ and all this stuff, and then I just did it and sent it. So, I would just say it’s more of that, to be honest. It’s more of I thought I wasn’t able to balance both, but in the off season, there’s so much time. So that’s why I’m streaming, like, last offseason, when I never really streamed like that. So I think just understanding that I can balance both, you know. In the season, it’s the in season stuff. And in the off season, you can always do it [streaming].
Q: With how C9 turned out, do you regret not going to FlyQuest last year?
Jojopyun: Not really. I mean, of course, in hindsight, it’s easy to say it sucks and everything, but I think I learned so much through playing in C9 too. And there’s a lot of good people in C9 and also my teammates. So, obviously, it sucks that we didn’t even make it to worlds with that roster, it’s easy to regret it, but I don’t regret it, because I learned so much from the experience.
Especially even the off season thing with all the drama coming out — I think I matured a lot in that way because I thought it was bullshit, what was being said. And then I [realized] I could take this and make myself more mature and grown up. So I think that helped me too, and I think everything happens for a reason.
So it’s easy to say in hindsight if I lose on any team. Oh, “What if I took this other offer? They did so much better,” all this stuff. But at the same time, I have to focus on what I could have done better, because I could have done so much better on C9.
Q: What has it been like gelling with your teammates?
Jojopyun: Being with the team has been great. Obviously, they’re all Spanish, but they speak English all the time when I’m around. So it’s been pretty easy to mesh in. I think everyone’s outgoing, so it’s easy to bond pretty naturally. It doesn’t feel forced because we’re teammates, it just feels pretty natural. So I think the whole process has been pretty smooth.
Q: Do you have any, like, especially fun stories, like, stuff you’ve done, hung out outside of league?
Jojopyun: I mean, yeah. But I don’t know if I can say it, to be honest […]
Obviously, we make jokes and stuff, but there’s not not one particular instance that like, stood out more than others. But I think no one’s afraid to make jokes, and everybody is pretty funny. So I would say everyone’s a comedian.
Q: People are now rating KOI much lower than they did in winter split, sometimes lower than 4 or 5. Where do you think you’re at as a team right now?
Jojopyun: I think we’re still finding our ground. In scrims, we’re playing much better as a team, and we’re on the right path. I think last split, we had a lot of problems, but this split, we’re really fixing it. It sucks we couldn’t show it today, especially. I think there were hints of it in game two, but even game two, it could have been much better.
I would say we’re definitely contending with the spots. We just have to show it on stage because our scrims have been going well and our progress has been showing. So, yeah, once we are able to show our results and scrims on stage, then I think it’ll be much better.
Q: What do you think makes the difference between scrims and stage? Because for every team, it’s different.
Jojopyun: I think in LEC, teams just fight to their death every single matchup in scrims, and they just, like, ego check or just full send it, especially bot lane, I think there’s usually a bot lane dead by level two. And then on stage, you have that exact same matchup, and it’s level four, level five [but] everyone’s full HP. I just think people in scrims play much more aggressive, and they coin flip a lot more. I think we also had that issue last split.
But I think this split, we’re really trying to get productive results as a team [in scrims], even when the enemy team is just fistfighting, and we’re trying to find ways to keep improving. So I think our mindset shifted a lot into […] “What are we improving on on the day?,” And calculating the results from there, and not the results of just winning or losing — I think it’s going pretty well.
Q: In NA you were known as the best laning mid in the league. It doesn’t feel like you’ve been able to dominate LEC mids in the same way. Is that a function of the meta, fearless, or because the mids in LEC are that much better?
Jojopyun: I think the Korean mids in NA are better at laning, to be honest. I think it’s just the meta. My priority wasn’t laning last split — and my standard just wasn’t there last split in my performance. So I would say it’s much harder to dominate in this meta. Even Chovy, you don’t really see him lane kingdom-ing like he always used to against everyone.
I think everyone knows how to lane much better now, but, of course, there’s matchups where I can still dominate and take over. So I think I am getting back there in scrims. But, of course, today [vs G2], I didn’t show it on stage, and also the matchups were kind of hard to dominate. It’s, like, 50-50 matchups. So I would say in that aspect, it’s harder to dominate for sure.
Q: You’ve talked about how appreciative you are of having this massive fanbase in EU. As an NA player, at a personal level, how has it been for you playing in the LEC and being part of the LEC fandom?
Jojopyun: Yeah. I mean, of course, the LEC is bigger, and I would say they’re much more passionate or the opposite of passionate. Even in the stage matches, it’s always very loud, so I would say it’s definitely new. Of course, the LTA fans, so many were loud too, I would say there’s a lot of similarities. But also I would say especially KOI and KC, the fan base of those two are very strong because it’s not only for the roster. It’s for the whole org, for everything. So they have a bond and everything. So I would say in that aspect, that’s the different part where KOI and KC have their own big fans, and they’re very supportive and watch every single game, I would say that’s the main difference.
Q: Have you thought about, like ‘I’m just gonna stay in Europe for a few more years’. You know, like, Inspired after one year in NA, he was like, ‘I’m here permanently.‘
Jojopyun: I haven’t thought about it yet. I’ve been just focusing on the now, and whatever happens happens. So I’m not really focused too much on what happens in the future.
Q: So no Jojospired reunion thoughts in the back of your head? Not missing your boy on a different continent?
Jojopyun: *laughs* I mean, of course, there’s good things in NA, and I love playing in NA. And EU is pretty fun too. I’m just focusing on winning. So I haven’t given it too much thought, to be honest.
Q: Today you got to face Caps, it’s been a few months since you last faced him. But you got to scrim G2 for sure behind the scenes.
Jojopyun: We haven’t got to scrim G2 because we play them day one. So usually, we don’t scrim the teams we play. And we scrim G2 last split, but so far, we haven’t scrimmed G2. We haven’t scrimmed KC because we [face] them tomorrow. So I think after this week, we’re gonna get really good scrims because now we don’t vs each other for so long. So we’re just gonna scrim each other. So I haven’t played vs them too much.
Q: In the break between splits, did you bootcamp or scrim at all?
Jojopyun: We had a break, and then we came back, like, two, three weeks ago to scrim. So we’ve just been scrimming in Europe for the past two, three weeks.
Q: How does it feel pressure-wise if you’re playing against Caps / Vladi who are playing at this level that is supposedly international class? You say the Korean mids in NA are better, but they don’t get the individual acclaim or results that these two players at least have.
Jojopyun: I think the Korean mids in NA are better at laning. But I think out of lane, of course, Caps is really good outside of lane or side laning. It showed today in game one. And, yeah, I don’t think in lane is the reason why. I haven’t vs’d Vladi too much, but, obviously, they won LEC, and he played really well during playoffs. [But] I wouldn’t say laning is their strength. I would just say the team play and how they team fight is their main strengths.
