SR Reven: “As long as I’m not fired, we will not make roster changes, no matter what.”

Q: It seemed like SR put up a solid fight today against FLY. Even though the team lost, it seemed better than expectations. How did you feel about the series?

Reven: I think you explained it pretty much how I would. And frankly, I feel like the knowers, per se, kind of expected that — I think, in the last PROS episode [they were predicting this]. Obviously, it would have been better if it was on our side, but if I remember correctly they were really up ahead and they started throwing, same thing in Game 3.

I do think, as a team, because they’re all pretty much rookies — at least in my mind, […] even Massu and Quad were somewhat on the back end of the FlyQuest legacy roster — I think they have their own hiccups on how they want to progress the game. When it’s not perfect, they will give a lot of windows.

I think our struggle in both Game 2 and 3 was just how we wanted to fight. We weren’t just quite crisp yet in comparison to them. I think that’s their main strength and it’s basically how it went down.

Q: Spawn said that he sees “no hope” for this SR roster compared to teams like DIG — and it’s a sentiment I’ve heard from other places. What do you think about the team’s drastic dip in results since last year?

Reven: In direct response to that, well, Spawn’s not here to respond to my response. So I’ll just say my own piece. I think there’s 3 big reasons as to why we are the way we are right now.

I think the meta drastically changed. It basically drastically changes every single year, at least in my eyes. Like last year, there were swaps a lot and I do think the game nowadays in 2026 is — because of the quest and a lot of these early game jungle timers regarding like second raptors, second crab, [etc] — early game [focused], which didn’t really work in our favor in the beginning of the year.

And I also think, because of [role quests],  the bot lane meta was primarily enchanters, which it still is. Whereas last year, because of lane swap meta, whether it be through level one or level three, […] basically zero ranged champs were picked at that time. And I think the meticulousness of how you do like, double-ranged matchups in bot hurt us in that regard.

All these things, I feel like we did tighten up pretty good, which I think we showed in this series. So I think our biggest gripe right now is that […] there’s a lot of visible progress, but it doesn’t actually show in matters of tangible results.

We’re still being tied for seventh place or something like that, so that’s the part that sucks.

Also, the third part is — and I’ve said this in other interviews too – Zinie’s not the archetype [of player] that he’s going to hands-check you and has insane mechanics, [wanting] to play through lane, etc. I think he’s a really smart player and [it’s] basically his first Tier 1 experience, first time going abroad, first time learning a new language […]. Mid is a very, very, if not the most important role in the game. So I think actually integrating him into not only our team, but this new region, there were a lot of humps along the way.

I do really sincerely feel like a lot of said issues that I just mentioned have been [improved] — just not up to the standards required yet to win against the competition yet. So yeah, I think that’s it.

Q: Swiffer said that DIG’s plan is to stick with this project — not make roster changes — and try to aim for Worlds. SR’s goal was Worlds at a minimum this year, so does that mean roster changes have to be considered?

Reven: I’ll first answer the very last thing that you said. I’ll answer straight up: As long as I’m not fired, we will not make roster changes, no matter what — at least within my power. 

And then second, [on] the Spawn comment, he’s very valid in saying that we’re the worst team or he doesn’t see faith in the project, or whatever — […] I think I saw that article too. It’s fair, strictly because we have, like, a 10% winrate against them in scrims. Or we used to. Now, it’s maybe 30, 40, something like that. […]

He can call us bad, and the worst team [in the LCS] and whatnot —

Q: His view, having faced DIG, was that they had players like Photon and FBI who were truly top tier and could carry. Spawn didn’t see the same potential in SR.

Reven: Based off of, basically, what you said, which is [the] popular observation of Shopify — whether through luck or because we started having a good run [while] other teams were having implosions and whatnot — we objectively went third in Split 2 and 3 of last year, right?

And then we got a quote-unquote upgrade in mid — so I feel like logically it does make sense [to aim for Worlds], and any lack of progress is basically entirely my fault. I’ve also said in Split 1, there was a great lack of urgency in how we operated both as individuals and as a team. There was a lot of lack of progress there and a lot of that has been fixed.

And I feel like [our improvement is] kind of showing between the cracks, so maybe [Spawn’s] opinion has changed — I can’t quite [say]. But I don’t logically understand why he would say, from a [wider] perspective, that Shopify doesn’t have a light at the end of the tunnel, but Dignitas does. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Q: Is it your belief, then, that you’re the strongest of the SR – DIG – DSG pack at the moment?

Reven: OK, for the DIG one, we already beat them pretty convincingly. […] And, to be fair, to their credit, they’ve taken games off of TL, C9, and LYON — so there’s that.

Then DSG, in my opinion, is the worst team in the league by a lot. Frankly, what Spawn described, I would put DSG in that category for a variety of reasons — whether it be [because of] bot lane or …like, they’re probably losing their best player. I feel like they’re probably by far last and then sure, because of what was seen, it’s going to be us, standings-wise.

If I’m not mistaken, fighting for the 5th-6th-7th spots are us, DIG, and SEN — because even though SEN [already qualified] for EWC, they still [have] the same match points as us or something along those lines. […] In that regard, it’ll just be shown in the next two weeks.

Q: How do you feel about the SEN matchup?

Reven: They’re a pretty weird team. I feel like Goldenglue described his own team as weird too, cause they beat everyone to qualify for EWC, but they’re 1-3 or 1-4 in LCS, or something. I think they almost don’t draft what’s generally recognized as [strong], in my opinion. Basically, they just play for mid-to-late game teamfighting, and if they can get there, they can pull miracles off if they don’t lose [before that].

I think, stylistically, I feel like we match up well in comparison to TL and FLY — I always consider them our hardest matchups because they have good hands and they like fighting, they like stat-checking and hands-checking, which is generally our weakness, which we’re trying to work on.

I think SEN doesn’t really excel in that area [either], so I would say even.