SR Damonte: “Maybe the league hasn’t gotten better. But getting worse, I’m unsure of.”

Q: Obviously you expected to win today, so when did that start to shift? What do you think happened?

Damonte: Before this series, you know, we expected the games to be very close. I feel like stylistically, us and 100 Thieves are not too far apart. And from scrims, they’re relatively even a lot of the time. 

It just feels like it’s always a slugfest when we play them. And a lot of it comes down to just individual skill and team fighting and […] a lot of individual skill when we play them. 

I expected a long series. I didn’t expect to get 3-0’d, so it’s definitely a surprising result. […]

Honestly, I think from a draft perspective, stylistically, […] both sides drafted the same comp three games in a row, where they’re really on the attack and we’re really playing with one main carry and trying to [play] front-to-back. 

Honestly, reflecting on that part, I think that might have been a mistake. Because I don’t think that’s our strength as a team either, this front-to-back playstyle where we have to defend all their flanks and we need to mark the enemy champions that can create chaos for us. 

I think even when I was in the middle of watching the game, I was starting to realize very quickly [that] we kind of played into their strengths a lot. And I think that honestly has a big, big reason for it too.

Q: A big part of why people doubt you is that C9 and TL faltered while 100T randomly went from worst to best; they feel the league has degraded in quality since MSI. Have you felt the quality of your opponents change as SR has improved?

Damonte: You know, I’m really unsure if the league has improved. I think it definitely hasn’t gotten a lot worse. I think I’ve heard this narrative a lot, that the format has just made everything worse — which honestly, there’s credit in that, because of the strength of schedule for certain teams [who] got worse practice than others. 

I do think it is a lot of excuses. I think truthfully, just the big name teams in the last three years have fallen off a lot — the individual prowess of how to play the game. 

Like, let’s say like the top teams that ran LCS for so long — like Team Liquid, Cloud9 — I think historically, these teams have just outsmarted everyone. They play the map really well. But I think in 2025, with Atakhan, with Void Grubs and all of these changes, it’s almost dumbed down the game to a certain extent, where individual laning translates really hard into objectives. And then it’s kind of opened the playing field for everyone. 

Maybe the league hasn’t gotten better. But getting worse, I’m unsure of. I think that it just seems like that because teams like Cloud9 and Team Liquid are just not the top dogs anymore.

Q: I want to talk about your somewhat-controversial accusations about FLY’s apparent weaknesses, and what you thought about Bwipo’s response.

Damonte: So, I made one of those accusations. I think I said it on the PROS podcast. I think honestly, FlyQuest is a great team. They have five amazing players and they understand how to play together. They’ve been doing it for a year and a half. So when I say the cracks are forming in FlyQuest, I think it kind of means [that if] the other teams that are playing against them are able to get a draft that goes with how they want to play, I do think FlyQuest can lose.

I will say that I think FlyQuest, if you had to put percentages on “Can Shopify beat them?” or “Can 100 Thieves beat them?” it’s always gonna lean heavily in FlyQuest’s favor. 

There were times where, when you scrim FlyQuest or when you play FlyQuest on stage, it’s almost just like you can’t win. But it doesn’t feel like that anymore. And I think that feeling is spread across the top teams right now, especially for us and 100 Thieves. 

But to FlyQuest’s merit, I think, the way that they play the game, the way that they see the game and approach the game is just top tier. And I’m truthfully just really happy that they’re in the league, because it gives us all a team to kind of [seek] and aim towards and copy, in a lot of ways. 

It’s all in friendly competition. I think I’m trying to throw pokes at them. I think when I make Bwipo have a visceral reaction to an interview, it’s good for everyone else in the league.

No, I think Bwipo is an amazing character. And in 2024, when I worked with Bwipo, there’s so much that I took from him that I applied to my current team. To me, he is the epitome of “hard work beats talent.” And that guy works really, really hard. He deserves to say whatever he wants. Yeah, he’s incredible.

[Editor’s note: This interview was conducted immediately after Shopify Rebellion’s loss to 100 Thieves, well before Bwipo made sexist, ignorant comments on stream.]

Q: So, if everyone’s getting closer, do you think that’s because FLY’s dropped down without international/top-tier competition to play against? Or have they pulled everyone else towards them?

Damonte: I think FlyQuest has pulled everyone towards them, honestly. I think there’s a level of stagnation that happens when you are the best team in the league, and when you have players like them who have been to Worlds many times. 

You know, I think they can suffer from lack of motivation during the regular season or make excuses on format, and these kinds of things will temporarily hold them back. But when you think about Worlds-caliber players and players who do it year after year, these players know how to turn it on when it comes to playoffs, when it comes to qualifying, and when it comes to internationals.

Q: Looking ahead to LTAS matchups, what do you think of them at the moment?

Damonte: Yeah, I’ve been watching LTA South. I can’t say I know all the details of all the players and everything, but we would say we casually watch LTA South.

I think LTA South just feels a bit more random than the LTA North right now. I think the biggest hiccup right now for LTA North is 100T finally started trying again, another good team. 

For the LTA South, it’s hard for me to say something confidently, because I don’t have the best scouting or the best knowledge on the whole region and how everything’s gone. But when a team like FURIA pops off so hard in the middle of the year, and then flounders a lot like that, I think it goes to show that maybe the results that are going on in that region aren’t too consistent. 

So I think it’s almost a — 

Q: Well, TL floundered after making it to FST, right?

Damonte: Yeah, but when was TL last the best team in the league? It’s been a long time. First Stand was eight months ago, eight-and-a-half months ago. 

I think Team Liquid falling off eight months [ago] versus the three months that Furia’s seen — I think it’s a big difference. And also I feel like the meta has just changed so much that it feels like we’ve experienced two different League of Legends this year.

Q: So you’re confident going into the LTA playoffs?

Damonte: Well, since you’re asking me now — and we just got 3-0’d [by] 100 Thieves — to be honest, I’m not super, super confident. I can’t really say in this interview, “Yeah, we’re going to 3-0 the LTA South team.” 

I think truthfully, the next 8 days are going to be a big grind for us. We have a lot of discussions that we need to [have] as a team; kind of figure out what went wrong in this series and what we did wrong with our approach.

Transcription help from @eonmoons