SR Palafox: “I fucking hate some of the casters and the way they talk about me. […] I’m a little bit spiteful, but I know how good I am.”

Q: Did DSG play well today, or were you guys just bad? I was pretty impressed with them, to be honest.

Palafox: I think they played like garbage.

Q: Relative to their level? Or in general?

Palafox: Relative to their level, they played well — I just don’t think that they’re that good.

I think that if you go back into the game, we were choosing some pretty poor fights and just getting randomly caught out, really. I just don’t think they’re very good because even though they had a pretty big lead, they had members overextending. They made the game very winnable for us.

So I really think if you get a lead with their team comp, you should really look to push the advantage — but they really just did nothing for 20 minutes straight.

Q: In the Yunara game?

Palafox: Yeah, in the Yunara game. Oh, wait, was the second game Yunara? […] Game 1 was more like, we closed it on ourselves already. Did you see what happened mid lane? Again, we just killed ourselves.

Q: Didn’t the draft look hard in that game for you guys? Yunara with peel into several low range champions?

Palafox: This is just some information on Taliyah first pick: The champion can cut people off and make it so the enemy team can’t hit you, so one person is guaranteed dead. Skarner or K’sante will die.

They’re not like […] true frontliners, like how the game used to be played.If that’s the case, and we can kill their frontliner with just Kaisa, Xin Zhao, and our support, that means that on the next engage, it will be 4v5. And it’s really not so simple for them to play if we just get the team fights.

There was literally one team fight where it was playable from them, and it was because me and Kai’Sa were split off, and Kai’Sa needed to be in the group in that fight. Kai’Sa was on mid tower hitting, I was looking for a wall angle. My wall angle ended up being kind of ass because Kai’Sa can’t DPS when they’re split.

If we just play front to back they just can’t win, really.

Q: The teamfights still looked close throughout though — and Tomo said that DSG got a lot better.

Palafox: They have.

Q: Where do you rank the bottom teams?

Palafox: I think that right now, DARKWINGS is a bit of a rookie. He doesn’t have a big champion pool, so he’s a bit abusable there. […]

Yeah. Makes it harder in Bo5’s. Even in this Bo3 — they trolled their draft in Game 3. Just straight up. […]

They thought DARKWINGS could drop and just play Hwei into Ori and … the matchup is not easy, you know? It’s not solo queue. I’m not gonna be some dumbass who lets you play for free.

So I think there’s some misconceptions, I guess, on their end there. On top of that, they almost — how do I put it? — they almost waited to lose the third game. It literally felt [like] they’re just waiting to lose.

When that type of stuff happens, you can probably put them on the same tier as DIG, but I almost wouldn’t. I would say DSG and TL are the same style to me.

100T is probably the worst team [in the league]. They’re… I feel like they’re kinda just going through some issues right now. I’d like to see them step up a bit. I don’t know if you can feel it too, but something feels a little bit off. I don’t know.

Q: So you’d put 100T below DIG and DSG?

Palafox: I think in a head to head … How do I put this? Dignitas is just stupid.

DIG will go and fight everything without ults, without win conditions. They’re like, “If we can fight it, we wanna fight it.” It doesn’t make sense. It’s like LPL style. It’s really stupid. Honestly I don’t know what’s going on with our coaching staff over there, but it happens. Or maybe it’s like players, but something’s a bit weird.

I think DSG is more like … You know how TL used to play where they’re AFK, but they’re slowly trying to win, get lane leads, etc? I think that [DSG] kind of reminds me of TL in a way. I guess in order, 100T [last]. DSG and DIG can probably beat each other.

Q: DSG and DIG are playing next week. What do you think?

Palafox: Honestly, that one’s probably gonna be a banger, you know? A banger in a fun way. And then I think TL is just the better version of DSG, so TL is obviously in a higher tier — and I think we’re better than TL.

That’s not a question for me, you know? I think we’re just better. And I think FLY and C9 are still top 2, and we’re just trying to break into that tier. 

Q: 100T just picked you.

Palafox: Fucking poggers. Alright!

Q: Thoughts?

Palafox: I hope … honestly I kind of want them to do well.

I like a lot of players on their team. You know … River, Quid, FBI, and Sniper — I really want them to do well. Hopefully, they step it up and we can have some good matches.

Q: So, for your match next week, there’s some Sniper news — oh, you already know?

Palafox: I just … We scrimmed [100T].

What I heard was, [Dhokla] subbed in for a Sion game when we were scrimming, and the coaches were like, “Yeah. Snipers just sit taking a back seat [so he] can learn from Dhokla.” And it was like we’re just like, “That’s a weird coaching decision.” And then Sniper played the block — oh, wait. No, he didn’t. He played, then Dhokla played 1 or 2 more games.

But it was … I don’t know. It’s kinda weird.

Q: Does it make the matchup easier?

Palafox: I don’t think it’ll really matter, but I think it makes them harder [to beat] just because of honeymoon phases.

The vibe I’ve been getting is that some people on the team might not like Sniper or might not agree with him — or think he’s just too chill or something. And you can kind of see Sniper’s whole demeanor has just been a little bit more depressed. 

So, yeah, it can help change up the vibe when something like that happens.

Q: You’ve consistently outperformed expectations for a while now — is that just because the team’s doing better? Is there something else there?

Palafox: I mean, I think that matters a lot; “team is working, so I look better” is important.

But … there was something that happened in the C9 series. I was playing Ori versus Taliyah, and I was [2 levels up and 1k] gold up. I was shitting on Loki. And we took a really bad fight in botside, [then] Loki could play the game. […]

It’s super early, [level 10 to 12]. Our conclusion was that I should look to connect myself, but I feel so strongly that when I’m in carry positions, I need to be able to tell my team exactly what I want them to do. So in that case, I’ll just tell them, “Don’t fight. I’m going to tower dive Taliyah. It’s not possible for this guy to play.” I’ll [say that in] the game, and just give them that confidence to not make bad decisions. Right?

I don’t even think the fight was necessarily bad that we called, but it wasn’t the best thing we could do in the game, and it made it so the enemy team could play. So I think that game kinda changed my perspective on a lot of things about me playing carry champions vs me playing utility champions.

Also, to be completely honest, I fucking hate some of the casters and the way they talk about me. Let me put it this way: They talk about an Annie stat against Quid where I was down a 140 CS and I won on Annie.

Dude, I played that game well, and I’m only down so much CS because we [overrode] my call for someone to go top and not give him two towers. And [in the moment], I was like, “Okay.” But I obviously look bad in that because now Azir gets a thousand extra gold and two extra waves. 

I went from 20 CS down to 80 CS down because I can’t even stand in the lane anymore. And this also goes hand in hand with me calling stronger even when I’m on utility champions.

Like, “No. We’re doing this. I’m not allowing this champion to get more accelerated.” Honestly, I think it’s good, because there’s only one player in the league that can make turbo decisions that are always right, and I think it’s Inspired.

Otherwise, teams really need to work together to make the best decisions. 

Q: Inspired is just the exception — he can call anything, and he’s always right?

Palafox: Yeah. I mean, you saw … It’s not even that he’s right. Well, a lot of the time, he’s pretty smart, [but] even if he’s not right or it’s not optimal, they still play to the condition, and everybody plays for it.

That’s what makes the call good. So in the Annie game, even though I went down a bunch of CS, it doesn’t really matter.

I played for the condition and we still won. It doesn’t matter. But we could’ve optimized for sure.

There’s also a stat where I missed a bunch of Ahri charms. Half the charms that they posted got flashed. I’m missing them, but they’re getting flashed? Like, what? I really hate caster criticism like that.

Like, it’s just so obvious that you don’t watch or enjoy League anymore. All you wanna do is shit on people. So I don’t know. […] If you do care, you shouldn’t try to bandwagon and be negative. You should try to be positive about good plays.

And I think honestly, my stats and the absolute 1v1, I’m winning lane against most laners in mid initially. Or I’m getting the short end of the stick, and I’m first picking and getting counter picked, and I’m going down CS, and that’s fine. That’s just the way my team functions. And if I go even, then it is what it is.

Q: So it doesn’t affect your confidence — you’re more just spiteful?

Palafox: I’m a little bit spiteful, but I know how good I am — I don’t think it matters what casters say, [or] what fans say.

Because at the end of the day I practice 5 scrims plus a night block, for most of the week. I play fucking well in those. We beat C9 and FLY — we kind of go back and forth with them. And in those scrims, honestly sometimes I’m getting shit on, sometimes I’m shitting on them. Like, that’s just the way League is. It is what it is.