SR Fudge: “I’m gonna beat your ass, boy. Come over here, G-Snipes, you little TikTok lookin’ ass.”

Q: How was that series from your perspective?

Fudge: That was pretty positive. […] Generally, I’d say we played pretty well. Maybe our idea of how to play our champions, in terms of teamfighting and comp, could be worked on. Especially Games 1 and 3, our team fighting was really bad, and the way we played together in fights was pretty poor.

I mean, it wasn’t easy for sure. I think their comp was just better in both Game 1 and 3, personally. But […] I felt decently good about my individual performance. I think I played well in terms of early game. Mid game and late game, I could’ve definitely used my lead a little bit better, for sure. I think the teamfights, especially in Game 3, I didn’t really know how to play in team ights against their comp. It felt pretty hard for me.

I didn’t know how to spread my influence because, obviously, I was really far ahead of Renekton, and Renekton was pretty useless until two items, but it didn’t feel like I could really make a lot happen on the map. Maybe there’s ways to do so, or maybe it was just impossible. I’m not sure.

But I think I mainly have to look at how I can use my lead in those games. Because even the Jayce game, I think I definitely had a really big lead after […] Sejuani sacked camps to gank top twice and put my lane in a very stable position so that I can scale against Nidalee.

Q: Even in the Rumble game, you put out a lot of damage.

Fudge: I mean, Rumble vs Yorick, [it’s] honestly first time I’ve never played that matchup in my life. I didn’t really know exactly how to play, but I thought Phase Rush might be good, so I can chase him down if he ever uses W. Maybe I can kite out or something and be harder to kill.

I’m not sure if it was good, I’m not sure if Comet just makes me win lane harder. […] I mean, Gnar-Renekton matchup and Jayce-Nidalee matchup I have played in scrims, so I was pretty comfortable. The Nidalee matchup is a little hard to play as Jayce early game, but generally pretty comfortable playing those matchups. The Rumble Yorick was definitely a little bit less comfortable, but, I think the matchup itself is just kind of easier to play than the other two.

Q: Have the vibes improved on the team? Damonte mentioned they were pretty bad when he came in — how does this win help?

Fudge: For sure. I think everyone feels like they we played decently well today. And, obviously, we didn’t play super well because, otherwise we probably would have won. But we had a decent idea of how to play the game, and we didn’t make too many errors, I think.

And and everyone individually played pretty well. But as a team, I think we just missed some things. And FLY is obviously a good team, you know? So they punished us well in Game 1 and Game 3, especially. Obviously game two, our comp was just a lot easier to play. It’s very obvious how we play as Maokai, Rumble, Yone — you kinda just place your ult and then play slow and wait for them to end. I would say confidence is is okay right now. I don’t think we’re feeling super depressed or anything like that.

Q: You’ve talked about not caring what people say, but does it feel good to beat Bwipo today after he called you a bottom 3 player in the league?

Fudge: I try not to care, but, obviously, I care.  I’m not gonna act like it doesn’t affect me at all. People shit talking me definitely affects me. And I think it definitely feels good to beat someone that shit talks to you. That’s not really arguable.

If I was a perfect human — I’d probably be Buddha if I didn’t care. I definitely felt good about it.

But at the same time, I know that each game, all that really matters for me is to keep focusing on what I need to improve on. That’s all I think about, every single day, is “What do I need to focus on to improve?” Because, yeah I’m playing against Bwipo, and he shit-talked me and all this stuff.

But in reality, it’s still League of Legends. I’m still playing League of Legends against certain champions, and that’s all I need to really think about to perform my best. I try my best to not let the idea of who I’m playing against too deep into my head. Because, generally, it just takes your focus away.

Q: So why was today so much better?

Fudge: I mean, I was nervous. I was nervous coming into today. There’s a lot of expectations.

There’s feelings of “Is he gonna shit talk me more, if I play bad?” There’s those feelings, right, that you can’t really avoid. You just have to accept that they’re there, and they exist. [You can’t] try to run away from them and act like they don’t exist. They definitely exist.

But, I mean, to be honest, I felt like today coming into it, we have nothing to lose. He’s already called me the worst player in the league. I’ve already played really poorly in a lot of our games. I’ve already been shit-talked by everyone.

What am I so scared of?

[…] There’s nothing to be scared of. So I just came into today, and I tried to play my matchups to the best of my knowledge, best of my ability, and I didn’t play perfectly. I played probably above my usual level on stage, [and] next week it’s still possible that I play worse. So I just need to keep on it.

And I think just trying not to focus too much on the negative, not trying to overthink about the negative emotions, but also not trying to just act like they don’t exist. Because they do.

Q: Any fun stories with the team?

Fudge: I mean, I just love the day to day. Honestly, playing with this team, I feel like that we’re all kind of similar humor and similar mental places as people. We all have the same jokes, have the same interests, hobbies like League of Legends —

Q: What are the hobbies?

Fudge: I mean, hobbies is… like I said League of Legends. Yeah. We have the same hobbies. So we connect on that. I love playing with my team. I think it’s really fun. On some teams I’ve been in, on the scrim day, you kind of dread it.

You don’t really like your teammates that much at times, depending on the teammate. And I think this team, there’s none of that feeling at all, and I really enjoy just coming in the morning and hanging out and practicing. Obviously, focusing really hard in practice, but then afterwards, you know, can still have some fun. And that’s really fun with my team.

Q: What do you do for fun after scrims?

Fudge: For me, I generally kind of just go hang out with my girlfriend or hang out with friends on Discord, generally. Because, obviously, I spend time with my team from 9AM till 9PM. So I do need some alone time or some other people time, to get away from League.

But the whole day, you’re kind of just having fun in the breaks and stuff. I mean, we don’t really do any activities particularly. We kinda just hang around. I have a very bad habit of smoking, so I smoke with my coach, Reven and Bvoy. Nicotine.

Very very Australian habit, I feel like. […] I vape, obviously, but they’re Korean, so they smoke cigarettes.

[Anyways,] I just love hanging out with the team. Regardless we’re here to be the best team we can be, and I just need to focus on is how — for example, today, I think something I can learn from what Bwipo did, and I think his team fighting was really good on Renekton, specifically. I think he teamfought pretty well, and he did what he had to do.

I think that’s something I can learn from him because, you know, sometimes you’re behind as Renekton, and you need to make something happen. And I think he’s really good at that. So I need to look at how he does it, because I don’t think I do it as well as he does, in terms of team fighting and spreading your strength. You can win lane, but if you don’t really spread it that well, you [can’t] carry games. And I think that’s something I need to improve on.

Q: Thoughts on your matchup next week?

Fudge: 100 Thieves? G-Snipes. I love G-Snipes. That’ll be fun.

Q: You got a message for Sniper?

Fudge: I’m gonna beat your ass, boy. Come over here, G-Snipes, you little TikTok looking ass.