SR Fudge: “Scrimming against [FlyQuest] for three days or something, we went like 0-15.”
Q: Pretty chill win. Did you expect to 3-0?
Fudge: I didn’t expect a 3-0, especially because we struggled a lot throughout the whole split to close out games.
Once we get to those late game 45, 50 minute bangers, it can go whichever way, so I wasn’t expecting us to play as cleanly as we did. Plus, [in] game one, I think we played pretty poorly in terms of the early game fights and stuff, but games two and three, I’d say we closed out relatively cleanly, so that felt pretty good to me.
Mainly, not even the fact that we three-zeroed, but just because we closed out the games like we should have. Obviously, it could have been better at all times.
Q: It felt like Sniper had a really bad series, and you’re putting the final nail in that coffin of his split. Did you talk to him after?
Fudge: Oh, I talked to him after the games about the whole Game 3 swap situation where they put Riven into Varus-Neeko and Ornn into a Smolder 1v1. And […] I don’t know why. I feel like if they needed to draft a bot lane that needs to swap because they can’t lane, then you should never pick Riven.
He picked Riven before they decided that they wanted Smolder-Alistar 4/5, and they gave us Neeko on [B4]. They banned Poppy or something, which makes sense I guess, because they [have] Riven, but this [still] feels really bad.
There’s nothing you can do in that game, really. If their bot lane doesn’t swap, then maybe they’re just going down 45, 50 CS and Smolder can’t play the game because their matchup is too bad. They have Maokai jungle versus a Mundo jungle, so jungle 1v1 is just winning [for us].
I talked to him about that a little bit, and I was like, ‘I feel like you guys didn’t really play for Riven when you picked Riven early on into a matchup that’s supposed to be pretty winning.’ And then obviously once he’s behind, he can’t do anything. He’s just catching waves [while] I’m unkillable.
But in terms of feeling bad for them, I don’t feel bad for all of them. I only feel bad for Sniper because after that third game, I know what it feels like to be in an unwinnable situation and it’s just a really bad way to lose. It feels really bad to lose [and] play that kind of game where it’s slowly losing – [you] can’t do anything, can’t make plays on anyone. That’s a drafting problem, I think, from them in that game.
But also, they don’t need to put Smolder and Alistar into me. They can just match, and they’ll [just] go down 30 CS and Riven can play the game, but they didn’t give Riven that opportunity, so I felt bad for him in terms of that. But overall, I mean, that’s just the nature of competition. I don’t really feel bad for them overall.
Q: It’s built up into a lot of criticism of his play online.
Fudge: For sure. I mean, he’s definitely gonna get a lot of hate just because all three games he was useless, right? I mean, the Gwen game, he was actually doing well now that I think about it — he was playing team fights well.
But the Renekton game and obviously the Riven game, he was kinda useless the whole game. I think in the Renekton game, they just misplayed team fights. You lose team fights, you lose the game. And the Riven game, I don’t think any top laner in the world would have done that well on Riven in that situation, so I would never blame him for that.
But that’s just the reality of competition. You’re gonna get flamed. You’re gonna get blamed. I wouldn’t say that he’s the only problem on that team at all.
All of them have problems, in terms of the way they play. […] The thing that was weird to me is I feel like they played very slow comps. Game two, they played the Azir, Xayah-Rakan type scaling draft, and then the Jayce, Maokai, Smolder type draft. I just really feel like 100 Thieves don’t do well in those drafts. I felt like [game one] was the closest because they were playing champions that find random angles: Taliyah, Naafiri, Gwen, Leona, these kinds of champs.
That’s what they excel at, [so] I was surprised to see them prioritize a very scaling-heavy draft. Maybe it was just because they thought they were playing against us, and we don’t know how to end games, [so] they thought scaling would just be the better option. Not sure.
Q: How much of that is improving by getting crushed by FLY?
Fudge: I think a lot of it was. Playing against FlyQuest is like […] you’re not playing against a team that just wins lane. It’s not like they’re just winning lane straight up 1v1, they’re just playing well with tempo and playing really well on seeing information and then acting accordingly on the map.
And then obviously in teamfights, they play well. Scrimming against them for three days or something, we went like 0-15. […]
They play really well in scrims. In a lot of the games, we had that same issue: […] maybe 4 or 5 of those games, we were in a winning position (up 6k, 10k gold in mid game) and then we just couldn’t close.
We made mistakes, we got caught. We got Baron, we couldn’t end the game, and then we lost. Considering that that was our focal point of scrims was understanding our team comp and how to teamfight and Baron usage, […] I think that we improved on that a lot. I would still say we have a lot of work to do, but it’s definitely improved a lot, and I think scrimming FlyQuest is a big part of that.
I actually don’t think C9 or any other team is nearly as good as FlyQuest is in scrims. When I play against FlyQuest, it’s way different.
Q: You and Team Liquid will be competing for FlyQuest scrims since everyone else is out and also bad. Any message for TL?
Fudge: I mean, I think scrimming C9 is good too. I’m fine to scrim both of them. Any team that’s better than us, [I’m] down to scrim. […] Hopefully, we get more FlyQuest scrims [than TL]. I’m praying we get more FlyQuest scrims because I think they’re the best practice we can get.
Q: How confident are you feeling going into TL since you’ll have a week or so to ramp up?
Fudge: Last time I played against TL, I think I inted a little bit, at least in the Jayce game.
Didn’t play super well, but I don’t think that they do anything super special. There’s nothing specific that they do that is better than us necessarily. I think they just generally play pretty good, nothing to watch out for.
It’s really just about how we play for me. If we play clean, don’t go for desperate angles, [and] draft comps that we’re comfortable on, I think we play well. But when we draft champions that we’re not so comfortable on, or when we feel desperate because we feel like, ‘this matchup is hard and I need to make something happen,’ then we get really far behind, that’s when we lose games the most.
I think a lot of it is just about mentality, internally for all of our players, how we move into the match against TL. I think we all have confidence that we can beat them, and I definitely think we can beat them. I don’t think they’re super clean.
Q: From the outside, it looks like Impact is having a weaker split than usual. Are you ever thinking that this is a point you can take advantage of?
Fudge: I wouldn’t say he’s a weakness. Playing against him, at least in scrims and just in general on stage, I wouldn’t say that [there’s] anything that he particularly does that’s bad in laning phase. Obviously, on certain champions, like tanks and stuff [since] they’re the most stable and less about pure mechanics, he generally plays better. But even on those carries, I think he plays well.
He has a decent champion pool. There’s nothing super easy to exploit, so I wouldn’t say I’m gonna gap this guy 1v1 and beat him in lane every single time. But I will say that playing against him is way easier than playing against, like, Bwipo or Thanatos. Mainly Bwipo, because I think Bwipo works really well with his teammates to get leads for himself. Honestly, after scrimming FlyQuest, it’s like you lift 250 pounds or something on a bicep curl, and then you’re going down to like 50 pounds against every other team. That’s how it feels, at least mentally. […] It just feels like […] they’re just not gonna exploit you as hard if you make mistakes.
