SR Fudge: “I feel like our improvement is really good. […] We’ve actually been doing pretty good in scrims against the top teams.

Q: What’s your level of confidence going into Summer, after scrims and resetting with Zeyzal?

Fudge: If you asked me five days ago, I would have said I’m not super confident about our current level and that we’ve been doing pretty bad in scrims. But the past three to four days of scrims that we played, I feel really good about, and I feel like our improvement is really good. I think we’ve been focusing really hard on the basic stuff in scrims and the fundamentals of macro.

And we’ve actually been doing pretty good in scrims against the top teams. So I feel pretty confident actually — surprisingly, even though we had to switch up support and stuff. Zeyzal has actually been really, really good at communicating. I think we needed, like, a stronger voice in our team — in terms of what to do in the game, some more direction — and also in review. He’s been really, really good about putting himself out there and keeping everyone accountable. So I actually feel really, really confident with our team. I think our progress has been really good in scrims.

Q: Do you think that space went away after Palafox left the team last year?

Fudge: I think it’s definitely gone away a little bit. In the first two splits, we definitely lacked a strong voice, and I think he was pretty vocal about what he needed in-game and what needed to happen. Same thing in review. And we definitely were missing a little bit of a voice, I think, in game. I mean, we’ve played with Zeyzal before; we know how he talks, how he thinks about the game, and it’s definitely been helpful for our team with him.

Q: How much of that “pushing top teams” is the MSI hangover from TL and LYON, or the substitutions on C9 and LYON, versus actually improving?

Fudge: I mean, I think that there’s a little bit of both for sure. We haven’t scrimmed Lyon, for example, because they just got back from EWC, so it’s hard to say with Lyon. I mean, the rest I don’t think it’s really about how they’re playing. Obviously, how they play is generally very dependent on the day.

In terms of scrims, some teams are like super try hard on certain days, and some teams, clearly — you can tell in their gameplay — don’t really care that much. Or just one player is inting lane or something on a certain day, which makes the games really weird.

For me, it’s more that I think our structure of how we progress the game and how we make plans has really changed in this past week. A lot of it is the structure put in from the coaches in review; regardless of what happens in the scrim game, [we’re] talking about the same things over and over and over and over.

We’re focusing on the fundamental parts of the game and, [in terms of planning], how we adjust and how we play with our plan rather than if the plan was good or bad.

It’s basically about how we adjust to each other and what [we] do, rather than if it’s the best play we could’ve done — there’s been less focus on that “perfect play.” I think that’s even really good for our gameplay as well as players. I think it’s simplified the game quite a bit. I think it can get really, really chaotic and complex when you talk about, like, “Oh, if I did this and this and this …. Triple backflip and outplay this guy …. Blah blah blah … then it would be good!”. Those kinds of talks, I would say, are gone.

Obviously, the other teams make mistakes; in certain scrim games they play poorly and we just win because of that. And I’m not saying that we’re, like, shitting on teams in scrims, but I’d just say that our own performance in scrims is a lot more consistent, and it just feels like [we get] a lot better value there. It feels like I can see the game clearly, you know?

I know what’s gonna happen and what we’re gonna do [in-game] — and if it doesn’t go well, it’s clear […] and a lot less chaotic, I would say. So it just feels better to play.

Q: I was surprised that you guys don’t know each other, honestly.

Fudge: Yeah, no, I don’t really … like, I’ve never seen him before. Honestly, I’m surprised I don’t know him, because obviously he’s on Shopify. He probably doesn’t come by the office, but he does live in LA, right? Is he good?

Q: Yeah, he’s like a top 5 Smash Melee player in the world.

Fudge: Damn, what the hell? That’s crazy.

Q: Peak Fudge was C9 Fudge — fat Fudge. Some people are saying it’s time for fat Fudge to return. Thoughts?

Fudge: Maybe that’s … Yesterday, we went to Topgolf as a team activity, and I ate nachos, chicken sliders, fries, and an ice cream sundae that night. I ate a pizza and a cinnamon roll. I’m on my way, bro. I’m on my way. *laughs*

I do think that, although there’s a lot of jokes about it, there is a level to it where, when you’re fat, you just play [League]. 

When I was eating like crazy, I was like full all-in on the game and I didn’t care about my life outside of it, you know? I just ate whatever I wanted, didn’t care. And I think I am lowkey going back to that mode a bit — like playing solo queue [until way later into the night] after scrims. Kind of going back into that degen mode a little bit, you know? I have been gaining the pounds a little bit, from that.

But, obviously … It’s a joke, in a way, but there’s some truth to it. There’s a level of truth to it.

Q: Your debut mid laner, Perkz, is not Head Coach of G2. Did you see this? I assume you didn’t talk to him about it or anything, but …

Fudge: No, I mean I don’t really keep up with [everyone from previous teams]. Obviously I was surprised because like, I didn’t know he was working with the team until that one review in [MSI, I think], in a Bo5 where he reviewed after they were 2-0 down and they immediately reverse swept. And everyone was memeing about how it was the Perkz review that made the difference.

I mean, he has a lot of confidence. He has very strong opinions on how to play the game, and I think he’s pretty good at, you know, bringing people together — so I’m sure he’ll do fine. He’s smart about the game; I’m sure he’ll be able to figure out what the team needs. I think he’ll actually do a pretty good job.

Obviously, from what [I remember] — it’s been 5 years since I played with him — back then, I would say he could get pretty emotional. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but at times it could affect the team negatively.

Q: Can be good as a player, but maybe not necessarily good for a coach.

Fudge: Yeah, not necessarily a great thing for the coach. Obviously showing emotion can be helpful though, at times, if it’s intentional and we’re self aware about it. I don’t know how he’s changed in five years — it’s very possible that he’s a very different personality back from back then to now. It’s hard to say that obviously.

I don’t exactly know what’s going on in G2, so it’s hard for me to say anything about that, but I do think he’d be a pretty good coach. Honestly, a lot of his strength as a player was bringing the team together — it wasn’t necessarily all about his skill as, like, an individual.

Q: In NA, Photon and Castle were both top laners praised for their individual play on worse teams, and now both got dropped. Denathor came in for Photon, which might be pretty surprising. Thoughts on those changes?

Fudge: I mean, in terms of like, Photon-Castle, personally, I don’t think Photon was very good. I think, especially when it came to like towards the end of the split, I felt like he was not so good in lane and it was pretty clear that he had some issues in terms of cohesion with his teammates. They weren’t really playing off his waves, they weren’t really playing well off his timers, or he would do things that his teammates weren’t aligned with. 

I also heard [about] some internal issues with him in terms of, like, personalities. In terms of Photon, I think it’s a fair change from Dignitas.

Q: Do you know much about Denathor?

Fudge: Denathor, I played against him a lot in solo queue — quite a bit in solo queue. Personally I think he’s, individually, not very good. Obviously, you know, he’s played in Tier 2 most of the time, so he’s not going to be up to the same level individually.

I have heard that he’s quite good, comms-wise, in Tier 2; I think that was one of the things i’ve heard from some people. I’m not sure if that’s just a Tier 2 thing — because, obviously, once you start playing with veterans, they might just start taking over.

Q: And it’s not a common top laner trait, either.

Fudge: I mean there are some really good top laners [who comm a lot] — Bwipo, Impact are generally seen as pretty vocal. I do think they play with their teams really well.

Q: We talked about it a bit, but thoughts on Castle and Dhokla? It feels like Dhokla just keeps defying expectations.

Fudge: Castle, obviously, I have no idea what’s going on there. He should be in the league, I think. He’s good enough to be in the league. I mean, I assume there was just some shakeup with him leaving LYON — his reputation got damaged a bit [after] LYON, because he didn’t win any games when he played, and then he wasn’t really a player on the starting roster, I guess.

In terms of people’s opinions about Dhokla, I do believe [in terms of] individual laning stuff, he’s not the best top laner in the league. But it is very clear that when LYON plays with Dhokla versus, for example, when they played with Castle, there was a level of cohesion that wasn’t there [without Dhokla].

And it does seem like when Dhokla plays on, for example, on 100 Thieves previously, they… they just simply play better as a team. […] Results get better. Gameplay gets better. And obviously, like, it’s not necessarily that he’s stumping lane, you know?

He definitely doesn’t really stomp lane — I mean there’s certain games where he ints, [and] there’s certain games where he stomps. But it’s rare, right? It’s just kind of … he’s stable. He plays with his team well

He’s definitely I mean, like he doesn’t really like stomp lane. I mean, there’s certain games where he ints. There’s certain games where he stumps. But it’s rare, right? It’s kind of just like he’s stable. He plays with his team well. That’s kind of my general opinion on Dhokla.

I don’t think he’s super hard to play against like in lane compared to Morgan or Thanatos, but he’s stable. He clearly brings something that’s not seen [on broadcast] to his teams, because results don’t just change for no reason. Obviously, there can be criticisms about his individual [play] at times, but I think he’s clearly [deserving] of the spot. That’s without a doubt. […]

And to bring it back to Denathor, I played a solo queue game with him maybe two nights ago, and he didn’t re-ward for the enemy jungler after he hit a full clear and he died to [the gank], so I was not very happy with that when I was playing jungle for his team. I pinged all the camps perfectly and he didn’t ward, which upset me very much. That’s all I have to say about that.

Q: The meta’s looking super creative — especially in bot lane. The community sentiment is that Bvoy is a very traditional Korean ADC, excelling on the core meta picks. How are you guys adapting to drafting differently in the meta?

Fudge: I’d say that part of Bvoy is definitely inaccurate. I think he’s definitely really down to play the off-meta stuff, [though] I do think his best champions are clearly the ADCs. His Ezreal, his Lucian, his Corki, he’s the best on those champions in terms of his whole pool — which is natural. As an ADC player, you’re going to be the best at the classic ADCs. But he’s really open to playing off-meta stuff and bot lane; I do think that’s the biggest difference right now. Both the mages and the support champions, mainly the mages I say. [For support], it’s only really Camille that’s been, you know, the big difference.

Q: You were known as a super creative player early on C9, but you’ve stabilized a lot since then too. How much weight does SR put into drafting and learning new approaches?

Fudge: I would say that there’s clear strengths and weaknesses to playing, the creative champs. Obviously, the weakness of trying out new champions is that you’re going to focus less on team stuff and you’re going to focus more on your own individual stuff. For me, I think I have been less creative over the years compared to like on C9, where I was playing Irelia top and Fiora top quite a bit, and I was playing, you know, that kind of style.

Bot lane, [though] I think we got to keep our minds open because I think bot lane, especially, is very different. And I think Bvoy is definitely not what people think he is, in terms of traditional — I think he’s very, very open to playing all this stuff. And I think you have to be, frankly, because I think that’s just the meta right now.

People realized support can just roam and go anywhere they want, and ADCs have to play alone — and Bvoy is down to play alone and play the troll champs. Let’s keep our minds open for all this split. I think everyone’s going to have to be a little wacky. And for me, I personally think that although draft matters, what matters most is gameplay and cohesion.

Q: If you were to bet on who C9 starts this weekend, who would you pick?

Fudge: Well, first of all, I don’t take bets. Second of all, I’m assuming right now it’s going to be Tactical-Loki.

Header Image Credit: Riot Games