LYON Inspired: “If you think that a team with me on it will be bad, then you are a bit crazy.”

Q: A lot of the criticism around the team is that you guys may fall prey to “ego” or “individual-focused” mistakes, do you feel like that’s what happened in Game 2?

Inspired: I don’t think so. I think our bot lane was just winning really hard so they went for the 2v2 dive. That was a bit ego, but I don’t think that’s going to be our issue long term, because I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.

I think they were just winning really hard so they went for a dive when they knew that [enemy] jungler was most likely not there. I mean, it’s their decision to make a play like that. I would just remind them that the game stays really good if we just didn’t do that.

[Also,] I think Saint just kind of played a bit too aggressive after we killed the Vi; I think it was kind of unnecessary, we just were a bit too hasty, and I think our draft is just not easy to play into theirs after we make mistakes like that.

So… I don’t know, I think it was a decently hard draft to execute, because it was easy for enemies to make picks, they had a really strong team comp and I think they played fine — I think they’re not a bad team. I think teams like Dignitas, obviously in scrims will be worse, where there is more like laning phase stuff going on, but I think Palafox did a good job on Taliyah, never dying, never putting himself in a bad situation. He played side lane quite well and he just farmed well.

So I think overall Dignitas played fine in Game 2. I think Game 1 they just had a pretty bad draft, and I think we played really clean, so [there] was not much counterplay. 

Q: And I mean their bot lane is obviously much less experienced than yours, right? So they just got kind of stomped. 

Inspired: Yeah, I mean their bot matchup was also not too optimal. Like overall their draft for bot lane was… pretty bad both games, they kind of ff’d on laning. I think if we just played a bit slower in Game 2, [it’d] look very similar to Game 1, but we were too hasty, and yeah — we’re gonna work on that.

Q: There have been narratives about you guys clashing because of egos — have you seen that?

Inspired: No, I didn’t see any of that. Wait, do you mean the narratives?

Q: Yes, the narratives.

Inspired: Oh, I saw the narratives. Yeah, they’re pretty funny. I kind of like that people think we are not going to be good.

I mean, if you think that a team with me on it will be bad, then you are a bit crazy.

If you say that we’re not going to win, I can respect that — I think it’s not a free win for sure. I think Team Liquid and C9 and FlyQuest […] are pretty good, so if you say that we’re not gonna win, I would have no problem.

But … saying that we might have issues and be a bad team? I think that’s a bit funny.

You have to also keep in mind that we are not playing with a top laner of our first choice. Obviously we wanted to play with Zamudo, and we believed in him. But after the [visa] situation, we had to find an instant sub and we just thought that Dhokla is the best available option.

I think he’s doing fine but it’s not like he was our first pick, so we are also playing with that disadvantage.

But I think we are gonna do just fine — I think we are likely to win, [but] I don’t think it’s sure. I think, in my head, we are favorites — and anything else will be pretty sad — but we’ll see. We have to play really well to win.

Q: To me, C9 looked pretty solid against TL, and they’ve had way more scrims together. Doesn’t that mean you have to be at a stronger base level to catch up?

Inspired: I think C9 is kind of low. I think, yesterday, they just got lucky to win. I also think CoreJJ played both games pretty tragically. Like Game 1 they had a free win — and I didn’t see how they threw it — but they had a completely free win. 

I think APA made a hero play — respect to him. I think APA is a player with zero fear. I think as a player he’s not that good, but his advantage is that he has zero fear. There’s not that many players like that in the league that don’t care about losing; he will play really aggressively when he thinks he’s strong and I really respect that. But I don’t think that type of playstyle can work against really good players. You have to be aggressive, but you also have to be passive sometimes. So yeah, respect to him, he solo carried that Game 1 because if he didn’t make some crazy plays they would not come back.

Game 2, I think CoreJJ’s laning phase was just really bad. I think when they committed to playing Tahm Kench for lane with Jhin, you can’t afford to lose lane like they did, and the game kind of snowballed from that. So I wouldn’t say C9 is like, crazy good. I think they’re gonna punish your mistakes for sure, because they are good individual players, but I don’t think they are crazy good.

Q: I’ve said this before, but I feel like you’re the player who loves League the most out of any player I’ve ever talked to. You watch the game — across different leagues — so much.

Inspired: I mean, I don’t think I love League, I think [it’s]… just work. I respect people that pay me, like I have to do my job. I’m here to play the best League and, in order to do that, I need to make sure I play well and my teammates play well. I wouldn’t say I love League — I don’t think I would be playing League if I wasn’t a pro right now. Yeah, I think I just have to [play League] because that’s my job.

Q: Have you kept up with LEC much?

Inspired: Yeah, I mean I look at all the regions because like one week ago, I was not sure exactly how the game should be played. So I played a lot of solo queue and I played a lot of, I mean we played a lot of scrims, I played a lot of solo queue, and I watched all the leagues and all the top teams, how they think the game should be played and then I kind of try to decide on what’s good and what’s not and I also keep up with the LEC.

Q: Jojo mentioned that the two of you had discussed the new season.

Inspired: Yeah, I did yeah, I did discuss with him and Impact mostly because I think these two are my ex teammates that have the best knowledge on the game, so I respect what their opinion is and then I can see what they think is actually correct or what I think is wrong with what they’re saying but they can for sure give me good insights from different perspectives on what’s good and that’s why.

Q: Practice for you is interesting, because I know you play only off-role in solo queue, and you don’t have 1v1s or 2v2s for laning practice. Other than clearing practice, I guess?

Inspired: No, I do clearing practice, not against people. I usually just try to do the first clear, that’s all you can practice, like to do it as efficiently as possible.

Recently I’ve been playing only jungle in solo queue, mostly jungle because there was a lot of champs that I needed to learn and be confident with so that I can focus on talking during the game rather than piloting my champ because I think especially champs like Jayce and Ambessa, like I have to focus a lot on my mechanics and I don’t like that when I need to focus on playing the champ rather than playing the game.

So yeah, I play a lot of jungle and also you have to adjust to like new jungle HPs and damages so you know when you can burst stuff, how long is gonna take you to clear the camp, when you can start walking out of the patience range in order to be the most efficient and still finish the camp so it doesn’t reset, stuff like that.

So yeah, right now I’ve been playing jungle, but I also play mid lane or top lane or ADC, support when I feel like some champion can be good or I don’t understand why a certain champion is good to see the potential in it.

Q: Do you feel like you put in way more hours, or think about it more than others do?

Inspired: Yeah, I mean… I just… As I said, I just do my work. I think if you are a pro, you should try your best to win and do anything you can in order to win. When it’s off season, I don’t really watch League, I don’t play League, for the past two years at least. Like in the off-season I don’t really touch League much, I only play sometimes for fun or I just play other games like Counter-Strike or something.

Q: You mostly played CS this offseason? Do you played anything else?

Inspired: Mostly CS and other than that not playing games I guess, just chilling and yeah.

Q: What do you do to chill in off-season?

Inspired: Just going to the gym. This year’s offseason was very short for me, it was like one month only because we had bootcamp in Korea.

I arrived in December, so basically the whole November I spent at home and starting December all the way to Christmas we were in Korea and obviously it’s Christmas and New Year’s so you are just spending a lot of time with family and then at the beginning of January, I instantly came to LA so I didn’t really get to do much. Yeah, so it’s been a pretty short off season.

Q: In Korea, did you guys scrim many LCK teams, or mostly CL?

Inspired: We played only academy teams and I think Berserker’s old team, like the one with Pyosik, on the first day of scrims I think. So yeah, we played mostly Academy teams. I think we played SR, Team Liquid, and C9 too. Like these three NA teams that were there at the same time.

Q: Most people had C9/TL/LYON/SR at the top. Do you have a different sense of the top four?

Inspired: No, SR is not there, like I never valued them highly. Last year they were so bad, they just got a bit lucky. People are saying they were a top 3 team, but if they just lost that Bo5 to C9 like they should have, they would finish playoffs really early.

They’re pretty bad and lucky.

Their strong strength is Contractz and Palafox, they both have no fear, so they were just going forward. I think they don’t really think much, and that type of playstyle is pretty good if you are a weaker team, because you are just going forward and you are not scared.

And yeah, you will win a lot of games that way, but you will also lose a lot of games that shouldn’t be losable. I think that’s why a team like them beat C9 and then lost to CBLOL, I don’t know, third seed I think they lost to or something? If you play like that, that will easily happen.

Q: Do you think Zinie is an upgrade?

Inspired: I do think Zinie is an upgrade on the individual level, yeah. But those type of upgrades are like really big upgrades for scrims.

Like, let’s say, in scrims with Palafox, they for sure had a lot of useless practices, because his laning phase is weaker than Zinie’s, and Zinie is for sure a way better laner. But when you come to the stage, like, the laning phase is not as important.

Like, for example, today, I do believe Saint is like three times a laner of Palafox, but it didn’t matter. Saint was still playing a good matchup with Ryze. I think we overforced one play, then he died once. Palafox did a good job of just farming up on Taliyah, which was really good against our comp and never really getting caught and then going into teamfights so he did his job and yeah, it didn’t show that he has a weak laning phase. That’s why laning phase just matters a bit less on stage and it’s more about teamplay and being aggressive on good timings, not being scared, and that’s for sure the strengths of Palafox. 

That’s why they felt like they needed to make a change because most of the time you play together is during scrims. And if you get mad at each other at scrims because someone is just bad mechanically or bad at laning phase and you replace him for the guy that is better at it, then when he comes to the stage, it might be like, “Oh wow, he’s actually just a bit lost in the game. Like he’s better at lane, but he’s a bit lost and he doesn’t know what to do.”

I still think Zinie’s an upgrade. I think he’s gonna improve a lot and he will get used to playing with people speaking English around him, but it might take a little bit of time for him.

Q: So where would you put Shopify, Sentinels, and DSG?

Inspired: I think Shopify is not that strong, they should be fifth. I think FlyQuest above them for sure. I think Shopify should still be better than Sentinels. I think DSG is still worse than Sentinels.

Q: What did you think of SEN-DSG yesterday?

Inspired: I didn’t really pay that much attention because the game was super low. Like, all of the games yesterday were giga low. A lot of players were making good plays then making insta bad plays. The game was very chaotic, so it was pointless to review them. It was more of an entertainment game.

I think Impact played really well. I think his K’Sante vs Renekton laning phase was really strong. Then somehow he gets a solo kill in that matchup. So I think he did his job really well.

I think their mid laner DARKWINGS played pretty bad. I didn’t understand the draft as well. They blind picked Viktor, with Akali open. Cassio was not bad at the game. I think he already made a lot of mistakes in the laning phase. Cassio should be really strong against Aurora, especially when Aurora plays with a jungler like Wukong that can’t really affect mid lane early game. And he made two mistakes and he was 0/2 before level 6 even, that’s unacceptable. So he for sure needs to review his laning phase.

So yeah, I think Darkwings played pretty bad and I think that’s why the series ended up a loss, but I still think Sentinels is better than these guys. I think they should be on a similar level to Shopify, like sixth, maybe a bit worse than Shopify, while Shopify being fifth.

Q: With Dignitas putting up a good fight today, where do you put them? Are they still low after FBI and Ignar join?

Inspired: I think if FBI and Ignar join, they’re gonna be a completely different team. Same reason as Palafox, they are maybe not the best laners but they know how to win the game, they are aggressive when they need to be. If you make a mistake in front of them, they will punish you.

 I think then they can actually contest Sentinels and maybe even Shopify for fifth. But right now, I don’t think so. But maybe, who knows. 

Q: Any fun stories with the team lately?

Inspired: Berserker said “It’s better to live and die at 50, while vaping and smoking, than to not vape and smoke and die at 80,” which was very funny.

I disagree with that completely. But he said “Let me live until 50 while smoking and it’s better.” That’s pretty funny.

Q: You don’t smoke or anything?

Inspired: I never smoke. He said that he started it when I think they were at Worlds with Cloud9, so it was very stressful for him and he started smoking. He never stopped. I don’t think he’s gonna quit. I think once you start and smoke for like two years like him or like I don’t know how long it’s been, I don’t think it’s that easy to quit, so he’s lost.

Q: Fair enough. I like watching Berserker play, so hopefully until 50, please.

Transcription help from @rysaphine

Header Image Credit: Riot Games