LYON Dhokla: “We just need to redeem ourselves and get ready for playoffs.”

Q: Were you expecting it to be a close series today?

Dhokla: I mean, realistically, no. On paper, it should be a 2-0, right?

Nevertheless, I think we just fundamentally made so many errors in fights — we were completely [disconnected] on how we wanted to contest dragons [and] crabs early.

It really showed in this series that we don’t really have a cohesive plan, at least on stage, of how we’re going to contest every crab.

Q: Do you think this was a new problem this week, or an existing problem you’ve been dealing with, that DSG exposed?

Dhokla: I think it’s just that they were more prepared on how they wanted to fight for objectives and [take] skirmishes. I mean, Game 3, we overchased for the kill onto Jayce where we pretty much could have gone crab plus dragon off that [position].

And then the top fight which pretty much decided the game, we misplayed completely. Me and Saint, I think just had bad ideas of how to actually play that skirmish, because we knew Mundo had no flash, but we wasted spells on the Jayce when we knew it was a completely free kill.

So, and we know that the 3v3 is coming in advance, like everyone’s going to fight for that crab [but] then execution just wasn’t there. After that fight, you know, we don’t outscale them and they already have a massive lead — and a dragon — on us. So yeah, it’s pretty tough from that point.

Q: Berserker felt you guys don’t have clashing plans in-game, because Inspired almost always makes the calls. Did you feel LYON suffered from that today?

Dhokla: No, I don’t think we necessarily have clashing ideas. I think we just misexecuted — at least in Game 3, the crab fight was just complete misexecution — and I feel like we’re pretty aware of what’s gonna happen for the majority of the game. 

It’s just, you know, we got outplayed in the teamfights that mattered, and that’s that.

Q: Do you know how the rest of the format will work?

Dhokla: I have no idea. We are 1-2. I don’t think we’re out.

Q: You’ll face the winner of DIG-SR tomorrow, in a Bo1. Thoughts?

Dhokla: Well, it’s kind of good that we can try to fix our mistakes today; it feels bad when you have to sit on it for a full week and not adjust. For me, I’m kind of happy that we get to play again — but at the same time, I didn’t expect to be playing so [soon].

Q: That’s interesting — I feel like most players prefer taking more time to fix issues.

Dhokla: No, because I feel like in scrims, we do a decent job of being connected. Today, it just fluctuated on stage — again, so many games are decided by crab right now; just getting good condition for the objective right before it spawns […] and we just needed to execute around that better.

I feel like [playing] tomorrow will be a good way to [fix] what happened today.

Q: You’ve played with many of the players on both sides of that series — are you rooting for one of the teams? Who do you think will win?

Dhokla: I don’t know … I’m not really pulling for anyone there, I think.

I mean, both teams don’t want to get eliminated so fast, us included. I think everyone’s just going to be laser focused.

They play tomorrow, and then they’ll play [against us] right away. […] We’ll be locked in. Our playoff lives are on the line as well, so it’s very important for us too.

I’m not sure who’s going to win. If I had to guess, maybe… I don’t know. After today, it really comes down to just who’s more prepared to take these fights and skirmishes, cuz the game is pretty decided on [the 5:30 crab]. It’s very important that you have good condition around it.

Q: As an expected top team, have you scrimmed much against teams like DIG and SR? Sometimes, it feels like stronger teams have better reads on top teams than lower teams.

Dhokla: I feel like we’ve looked into them [a good amount] this week — we’re going to feel confident about it, [but] we were really confident going into today as well.

We really have to laser focus on the execution around when the game is being decided — it’s very early in the game. We need to have a good gameplan [of] what we’re going to do to facilitate that. I think today [our] execution was just terrible.

Q: Mechanically?

Dhokla: Game 3 was a prime example. We just should’ve killed Mundo. I could’ve played the fight better too — I could’ve flash Q’d onto Mundo. I thought he was one HP, dead and [that I] had to peel Aurora.

I mean, yeah, we just didn’t play mechanically well.

Q: In the situation where you picked the wrong target in a skirmish, was that mechanics or gameplan issue?

Dhokla: [For the gameplan], we preemptively knew that we were going to focus Mundo. [But] it’s just execution — like, “Why didn’t we actually kill Mundo when he has no flash in river?”

I mean, he’s just a free target. We knew Aurora was going to TP in. We knew he had no flash. Everything is pretty much known [but] we just didn’t execute. Not much to say after that [happens].

Q: Final message to fans ahead of tomorrow’s match?

Dhokla: Obviously, none of us expected us to be in this position. It’s very frustrating to lose like this, especially.

I feel like we just need to redeem ourselves and get ready for playoffs. Hopefully we can have a good review session tonight and showcase how we play in scrims — at least for one game tomorrow — [and] that we’re dominant, because I think we have the potential to be. We’re just not showing it right now.

We just need to get our shit together and show up on the day.

Header Image Credit: Riot Games