LYON Rigby: “From my point of view, I was low-key opposed to changing Dhokla.”
Q: Game two [versus Sentinels] looked stressful. How did the team feel backstage?
Rigby: It wasn’t that stressful because our win condition was gone pretty fast, so someone has to make an outplay. We didn’t attack when we had to, and we lost the position where we should be ahead. So I was just waiting for someone to make an outplay.
Game three, we [would] have side selection. Draft will be so favorable for first pick so I was just actually chill.
Q: How would you rank Sentinels among other LCS teams? They seem better than the lower teams but not on the LYON/C9/TL level.
Rigby: It’s not about being above someone or under someone. Their playstyle is so similar to last year’s Nongshim in LCK. [Once] they get strong side, they perma look for picks and plays. That’s how [Nongshim] made it to [Legends] group in LCK Summer. But they fell off pretty hard as the season proceeded. I see a similar approach from SEN.
Maybe the main reason is their weak laning phase, honestly speaking, but It’s a good style to kind of cover up for that. At the same time I think like the real strengths of Sentinels is that they are trying a lot, you know? They’re not afraid to pick something if the situation seems right.
I think along with the playstyle, having a massive champion pool is what could make them good, but I don’t think it’s gonna last for long unless their laners start to play lane well.
Q: Who do you think has a massive champion pool? All of them?
Rigby: Huhi plays a lot of champions. Impact is playing Varus, Smolder top. They’re trying to do what we did and Lock-In.
I don’t know, they just feel like they’re down to play anything. Their bans are pretty fixed because they can’t play into certain champions, but they can pretty much play anything into anything. They’re not afraid to mess up and lose lane because they have a way to come back into the game after losing.
That’s why I think they’re confident to pick different picks. Their approach to making compositions is pretty okay, but their playstyle cannot win championships in the long run. They need to fix laning issues if they want to make Worlds.
Q: Inspired talked about wanting LYON to thrive in chaos. Would you say that’s similar to Sentinel’s playstyle? Are they your opposites?
Rigby: No, it’s completely different. We try to snowball and force plays when we’re ahead because we do think highly of lane prio. But what Sentinels is doing, they’re picking champions that can get away from laning phase, Ryze, Bard. You can just roam, push and move.
They’re making a play while sacrificing something to have a strong side, which in general means that you’re gonna lose something for the play. What we’re aiming for and what Sentinels are doing right now is completely different. The way Sentinels play has a weakness and it’s pretty clear what their weakness is.
We are pressuring with the lead. If we get a lead, we’re gonna make it bigger and bigger and win the game with it. But Sentinel’s approach is that [if] they’re losing something, they’re down to lose it even more to at least have a winning side.
[I don’t think their style of losing game states is really good, honestly.
Q: Mid-season roster moves are uncommon. Can you discuss the thoughts behind replacing Dhokla?
Rigby: Dhokla has had pretty rough games, and like rough games make your decision making bad. The more confident you are, the more [decisive you are] inside the game. But if you’re not confident, you’re not making any decision — you’re just like, “I can do this, I can do that,” [and] follow the team, whatever.
He’s been in that situation, and that was a struggle for our team. Everyone in interviews talks about, “We just want to play our game first — [play] your champion first, and then we’re gonna think of how to win with your champion.” But Dhokla has been struggling in that aspect.
Our owners were looking for a competition for him, because that might be a driving force for Dhokla to play better.
And then, ah … it wasn’t—
From my point of view, I was low-key opposed to changing Dhokla. If you were to swap Dhokla for someone, I was opposed to that because [Dhokla and Castle] have different strengths and weaknesses.
I didn’t think the gap between those two was really big. The criteria [of what] they’re good at is really different, but the gap between individual players isn’t big.
For Dhokla, if anything, he just has to get better at laning — which he knows how to do, but he’s just struggling at the moment because of confidence or ego battle, sometimes based on the matchup that he has.
Q: And it can be risky to change it mid-split, right?
Rigby: I mean, if it’s clearly better, or if Dhokla doesn’t show hope of improving, then the roster change should be better.
Q: Was the initial plan a six man roster?
Rigby: No, no. There were different plans, but I just voted against swapping, you know? And they said that six man is also an option — and I said, “Yeah, sure, that could be fine.”
They were asking me [for thoughts], but it’s not a decision made by me because I’m just a coach; they were asking for my opinion. They said, “What if Castle for Dhokla?,” [and] I said there’s no merit to that [initially].
Q: How do you think this will change the team’s playstyle? Does it mean LYON will play to strongside top now, since people think of Berserker as the team’s hypercarry?
Rigby: That’s a common mistake people outside our team assume. We don’t strong side someone, we just see the situation and whoever we’re playing towards, they’re strong side. Whatever champion can manage the weak side, well that’s gonna be the weak side.
For example, let’s say you pick Aurora top. It has good waveclear, so she can be both strongside and weakside at the same time, so we just decide based on the vision that we have.
I think bot prio is really important these days, especially when Bard is out of the game. So that’s what we always care [about], but just because we have strong bot, we don’t pick tank top just for the safety of having a weak side. We don’t care. We pick whatever best champion that we can pick and we play naturally from inside the game.
Q: How does Inspired decide who to play through? Is he flexible to plans changing?
Rigby: We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do, not to make life easier. Having a weak side is good when we see opponent comps. Let’s say their topside comp is Rumble/Pantheon/Orianna. They can’t kill tanks, so we’re picking tanks and then making Dhokla weak side. Tank, even if you don’t have prio, is gonna carry the game. But it’s not to make the jungler’s life easier.
We at least care about either top or bot prio, because if you want to proceed the game you have to be able to trade crabs on the first round. Second crab, if you get it then you’re ahead, but you need one side of prio. If you can get top prio and bot prio at the same time, we’ll always look for that. Having strong bot means that enemy team will have to match bot, and then if you strong top champion [that wins] 1v1, even if something goes wrong we can always play towards top.
Q: Are there any other LCS teams that can also play for both sides?
Rigby: We’re not good to completely play this way, but I think FlyQuest has a chance to do it, but their bot is pretty bad. FlyQuest needs bot to improve, they go through early game by just picking strong champions, not because they’re good at laning. [Quad] is pretty good. If you want to choose between all three lanes, mid is important as the plus-one to make sidelane plays.
FlyQuest has a shot, and Team Liquid can do it — but they have to change the conservative mindset of [needing a weak side] in order to play strong side.
Morgan is a great weak side player and then he can win lane even on weak side. He’s a pretty smart guy, so maybe it fits their playstyle, but I think their approach [to] what good League of Legends is is different from like what LYON thinks good League of Legends is.
Q: Theoretically, will that be better at internationals?
Rigby: You have to be able to play with anyone if they have a lead. That’s my philosophy, that’s Inspired’s philosophy. That’s what we all agree as a team that we should aim for. Maybe if we come short on something, then we might revert back when it matters. Playoffs, internationals, or whatever.
We [have to keep trying]. Even in Split 1, we were the only ones trying to play with whoever. That’s what won us the [LCS]. Even though we’re struggling [in regular split], we’re gonna keep looking for that. We’ll see what happens and then we’ll adjust as playoffs come.
Q: Do you have any final message for fans?
Rigby: I haven’t done an interview for a while, but I’m really glad to have an opportunity to speak to the fans. We aren’t performing so well based on my standards. I feel like our team hasn’t played a single game on a high standard for a month or so, but the past two days of scrims have been good. Today’s games weren’t clean, but the mistakes [were] pretty easy to see.
So I think we’re actually getting back to where we were at Lock-In, but more upgraded because we’re the only team who [experienced] First Stand. No matter what happens, we’ll be ramping up for playoffs and then I hope you guys support us and then be ready to enjoy.
Header Image Credit: Riot Games
Transcription Assistance: @midjglsynergy
