LYON Licorice: “We felt like we were the boys out there. More than anything, that had me feeling good about today.”

Q: Feeling okay about the loss?

Licorice: I think we’re mostly pretty good about it. I mean, I got solo killed in top lane, fucked up, and then my team had my back, they [killed him] with me, so I wasn’t alone. And then, you know, […] we felt like we were the boys out there. More than anything, that had me feeling good about today. When I was on Golden Guardians, we had a similar trajectory in Spring split — we beat the bottom teams, lost to all the top teams. I mean, hopefully, we win Sunday and Monday. Winning’s always fun. We’re gonna do our best.

But, you know, we’ve already beaten all the bottom teams. We just have the top teams to go. So for me, I’m really not feeling that stressed. We’re gonna get lots of good experience in the Bo3s and then even more in playoffs. I’m excited.

Q: Thoughts on the Jesus look? Very religious.

Licorice: *laughs* This is … this is the first time I’m hearing it. So, thank you.

I kind of just… I don’t really style my hair at this point. I just put conditioner and a little bit of hair gel, and then it just does its thing. So that’s … yeah. I don’t know what to say [about looking like Jesus], but like cool?

Q: Has it been hard to “become the boys” across languages? How has that been?

Licorice: I mean, everyone’s been great and everyone’s working really hard. Hena is probably the one who has the worst English on the team, but it’s still really good English. Just compared to everyone else.

He’s doing English classes. Him and Saint, anytime we don’t understand what they’re saying, they’re like, “Please tell me you didn’t understand or how to say it properly so we can communicate better.” So they’re both working super hard on that, which is super awesome to see. And I think Oddie’s English is already really good, and Pepe’s English is already good. I think we’re just starting to gel, and it’s awesome.

Q: Have you guys gone out as a team, done out-of-game activities?

Licorice: Not really. We mostly just play League of Legends and then go home. I think the time that we would have spent doing that kind of activity, we spent going to Korea instead. We didn’t do a ton there, we just played a lot of solo queue.

Q: Was Korea more solo queue than scrims?

Licorice: Mostly scrims, not a lot of solo queue, actually. But all our free time went to solo queue.

Korea was good. I wished that we actually had a little less scrims, because I think none of us really got the chance to try to challenge the Korean ladder — I think part of the fun of going to Korea is trying to climb really high in solo queue. But I think we had a pretty strict scrim schedule, so none of us [played very much]. I think Saint got grandmaster. I was on the edge of GM with a good win rate when we left, and everyone else was pretty pretty close to me.

It would have been nice to have more time to try to all hit Challenger together, but it was good. I think every time I go to Korea, I just learn so much about matchups that, when I come back here, I just feel like I know my matchups so much better. Top lane macro is pretty similar, you have fight grubs, fight dragon, fight grubs, fight rift herald, whatever. Top Lane island feels pretty consistent. But yeah, it’s always awesome

Q: Is that feeling of “being the boys” on stage, trusting eachother, the key to success for you? That also happened on GG right?

Licorice: Yeah. I mean, a large part of it is the vibes. The feeling of being the boys, if everyone has everyone’s back, […] then people will play their best. That’s something difficult to do on stage, because you’re nervous, maybe you didn’t sleep well last night, [etc]. There’s all these different factors that go in.

When you can go up there and feel like your team has your back, it makes such a big difference. But part of it is just having talented players. I think my teammates are really good. I think they were really underrated, coming in. And similar on Golden Guardians, people were really underrated.

And you know, Dignitas didn’t work out, but we were one game away from maybe doing what 100T did and going to Worlds anyways. And then people would have been like, “Oh, yeah. It worked out.” And same with …. I mean, FlyQuest was just brutal. I think it was impossible *laughs*. […]

I mean, it was disappointing that we got fifth [on DIG], I guess, at the end of everything. But the team that beat us went to Worlds and now is now one of the best teams in the region, or seen as top four. I don’t know. I feel like the community is pretty divided on 100T always.

Q: So how did that develop so fast? Was it Korea where you guys just became homies?

Licorice: I’d say Korea was more of a down point in our team’s relationship, actually, and then we kind of have come together more now. I just think my teammates are good dudes, and we just chill together. I can’t really point to anything — it’s not like we’re doing a lot of team bonding activities or anything. Like, the most team bonding we do is we walk to Target or Whole Foods and buy ice cream together. That happens sometimes. […] The simple things do make a big difference, I think. We’re not all gonna go play mini golf together or something.

Q: Do you know everyone’s ice cream orders?

Licorice: People mix them up. And we’re not going to an ice cream shop, [so] we always get the pints. […] I don’t always get ice cream, but if we go to Whole Foods, I’m a fan of the McConnell’s coffee ice cream. I think it’s really good.

Q: Any message to the fans? Have you picked up any Spanish?

Licorice: Oh god. I did a while ago, now I forgot it. I figured out how to say thank you to the fans in Spanish … now I’m totally blanking. […] Thanks for the support, everyone. We’re all working hard here and we feel good about [the groups phase]. So, hopefully, you guys can cheer for us. We’re gonna do our best and have a lot of fun out there.