MKOI Jojopyun: “I can’t forget my roots… I would say I’m still NA and EU both.”
Q: How’s China? How are scrims going? (Jokingly) Are you 5-0ing Gen.G every block?
Jojopyun: I mean, China’s going pretty good. I think the hotels in China are pretty crazy, to be honest. I think it’s better than any place I’ve been to. So the experience is really nice, the food is good. The scrims, I won’t be too cocky. Maybe not 5-0 Gen.G, maybe like 4-1, 5-1, but not a 5-0.
Q: Have you gotten to meet any of the LCS players yet? Have you hung out with Kacper (Inspired) at all or has it just been all work, no play?
Jojopyun: Yeah, I got to see 100 Thieves for like a quick couple seconds, but we didn’t really have time to say anything because I was leaving. I got to see Inspired, I got to talk to him a bit. So yeah, we got to talk a bit.
Q: I want to talk about Inspired a bit because you two are among the two closest players, I think, in the West. I don’t know if you know, there’s a meme that every time Inspired does an interview, regardless of if it relates to you, he’ll bring you up. Have you seen this?
Jojopyun: (laughs) No, I haven’t to be honest.
Q: Yeah, every interview from Inspired, it’s just the Jojo Glaze Fest. What do you think about this?
Jojopyun: I mean, it’s understandable, you know, playing with somebody like me, you kind of have to, so I understand.
Q: So then what do you think about the KOI vs FLY match? I know you guys wanted to face each other before at MSI and you didn’t get to. So I assume you’re really hoping to face them now.
Jojopyun: Yeah, I mean, for sure, I really want to verse any of the NA teams, especially FlyQuest because, of course, I think FlyQuest is the better team and they have Kacper (Inspired), so it’d be much more fun to verse them. And it’d be a really good match, to be honest, for the West to watch, because I mean they 3-0’d G2 right? But I do really know how to verse FlyQuest and I think I match up really well against them, so it would be really good to verse them.
Q: Do you think part of matching up well into FlyQuest is because you think you’re strong into Quad and you know Inspired and how he runs the map?
Jojopyun: Yeah, I have a really good idea of how Inspired wants to play and I also think that I’m very comfortable versing Quad, which leads me to do my own things and play to my strengths. So, of course, they’re a very good team, but I think we also know how to beat them. So we have our own game plan. They have their own game plan. Whoever executes on the day will take it. And I think it’ll be really exciting for the fans to watch too.
Q: In terms of playing to your own strengths, right now you’re being called the best player on KOI right now by a lot of analysts, for example Caedrel and Vedius. What do you think about that and what do you think helped that turnaround? Because at the start of the year, I feel like you had a weak debut in LEC.
Jojopyun: Yeah, I would say for sure my winter split, I was very bad, at least to my standard. And I wasn’t even close to a top tier mid in the region. And I was for sure the worst player in the team.
I wouldn’t say right now I’m the best player on the team. I think honestly, it’s any given day, I think the whole team is very good. And especially on stage, at least on KOI, every player shows up on stage. So I wouldn’t say I’m the best or anybody’s the best, but I would say that just looking at my own individual performances compared to winter, I’ve improved a lot, so I’m happy for that.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Because I do think on a lot of days, Alvaro will just carry hard with just a random engage and just carry the game. Supa will just out-teamfight the enemy ADC really hard and just 1v5 the game. I’ll just do my own thing and get my lead and try to carry that way in some games. And of course, Yoya will just make some crazy plays or some really good ganks. And Myri will also just carry games very randomly, no matter what, especially in really hype moments. So I would say everybody has their strengths. I don’t think there’s like a ‘best performing player.’
Q: At MSI, you got a shout out from BLG Knight, in terms of your laning and your strengths as a player kind of surprising him. How do you feel that your laning strength ranks among the mid laners at Worlds; where would you rank yourself?
Jojopyun: I think there’s a misconception of what Knight said about me. If I remember, I think he actually complimented my side laning management, like the way I manage the side waves in that sense. So I felt very grateful that he said that because sidelane was my weakest point and I really tried to work on it.
I would say laning phase is still my strongest suit. In terms of the world, I mean, I haven’t scrimmed every single Asian team yet. I know for sure Chovy is a great laner, right. I think I scrimmed against Knight recently, I thought he was very good in laning too. But I would for sure put myself in the top five laners in the world — maybe even top three.
But it’s hard because I haven’t scrimmed everybody and also it depends on how you have the impact, what you do with your lane. […] Laning by itself, if you’re talking about just pure, raw, like getting CS leads or getting good states, I would say I’m very good at that. But I think, for example, Faker is not known to do that in that sense, but he uses his lanes to get really good leads for his team or tempo wise on the map, or really good vision control consistently. So you won’t really see it in the CSD or in the EXP gap in that sense, unless it’s a really big gap. So I would say just different kind of priorities.
For example, Chovy would — you’d see the CSD much more often, right? And I think Faker also has the skill to play for that, but he chooses not to a lot, at least when I versed him. So I say it’s different priorities. So it’s hard to say who is a better laner in that sense, because it’s just different priorities, right?
Q: You haven’t been in Worlds since EG. And that was a weird Worlds-
Jojopyun: Yeah, that was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jersey Worlds. I remember that.
Q: True, you also had the sub and all that stuff going on. It was just tough for you guys to perform at the level that people had hoped you would by the end of the year. You haven’t gone back to Worlds since then, but now you’re 21. You were 18 back then. What are you looking forward to for Worlds?
Jojopyun: Yeah, for sure it feels very weird. I haven’t been to Worlds in two years. I feel like it’s been a very long time, and for sure I think I changed so much as a player in and out of game compared to when I was 18 going to my first Worlds.
I have a good idea of how everything works. Everything is pretty much the same as I remember, but my expectations for Worlds, I don’t really have — results-wise, I just know that if I keep focusing on myself and my gameplay, then I will have the best results come anyways, percentage-wise. So I’m not really too focused on the results, just how to keep on improving. I think that’s what me and the whole team are focusing on, at least these days. We have a good shot at Worlds if we keep taking this path and this mindset. And then whatever happens will happen.
Q: At MSI, you talked about how because it was in Canada, it was home turf, you wanted KOI to count as partially NA reps and partially EU reps. How about now? Are you full EU now? Because you have gotten very Spanish Jojo.
Jojopyun: I mean, for sure, I’d say I’m still NA, right? But I would also say I’m still EU in that sense. I think Canada even gave the bigger buff, but for sure I’m still NA, right? I can’t forget my roots at the same time. I would say I’m still NA and EU both. So if NA teams or NA fans cheer for me, if EU fans cheer for me, then I’ll be really grateful for that. So I still think I’m part of both.
Q: It seems like you’re really enjoying yourself in EU and you’re doing quite well. Do you think other NA players should also competitively make that leap to LEC or ERLs, realistically? I feel like you opened those floodgates. Have you thought about that?
Jojopyun: I haven’t really thought about it too much. All I know is that the development in EU, like the ERL, is much better to develop, because academy is not really even a thing anymore in LCS, right? So I would say to develop as a player, I think EU for sure is better. I think for the top teams, it’s very identical in skill levels. So I would just say it depends on the specific team you want to join.
I think I got really lucky to join KOI because their mindset really aligns with mine in that sense, and that’s why I really wanted to join them. I wouldn’t say I just wanted to go to EU just to go to EU. I wanted to talk to all the teams and get to know their thought process and see which ones align the most with mine. KOI was definitely the number one, so that’s why I decided to make that jump.
I think for NA players, it’s definitely an option now. I wouldn’t say just jump to EU just to jump to EU, but it’s important to know which team you want to be part of and what your goal is, what your ambitions are, and see which team aligns with that in that sense. I think for sure it’s an option to jump to an EU team if you’re a good player or even if you’re trying to develop, right?
Q: Alright, thanks Jojo. Enjoy. Good luck with your games tomorrow and good luck with the draw.
Jojopyun: Thank you! I mean, whoever we get, it’ll be fine anyway you know.
Transcript edits by @fluffjwi2
