SR Reven: “No PR statement, it’s actually been a very linear progression, [… it’s] a very steady process.”

Q: Reven, I like the hat [E/N: it’s a yellow corduroy cap]. Looking stylish. How you feeling? How’s the day going?

Reven: I had my interview canceled, and then it got uncanceled. So at least I’m here for media day. I was wanting for three hours, and now I get to do something. So I feel active.

Q: What’s the team been up to? You guys practiced through the break, right?

Reven: We started early, but we didn’t scrim once the season was over. I think we started scrims 10 days ago. Before that, we had a two week period where we still came into the office every day and played solo queue. [Ceos] has been here roughly two weeks.

Q: How is Ceos’s adjustment with the team/Split 2 prep going?

Reven: Like, no PR statement, it’s actually been a very linear progression, which I really like. On most esports teams, progression is very “One day good, one day bad,” and you don’t really know. But I think [it’s] a very steady process. I think big props to that is the two people that came new, Ceos and Damonte. Ceos is a very mellow person, but he’s also meticulous. […]

Damonte is on his third team, third chip arc. And, without going into too much detail, we call each other the yin and yang duo, because I think we cover our strengths and weaknesses, overlapping the areas that we want to be filled. So, even though I’ve only worked with him for two weeks now, he’s at the top of the list of the people that I’ve worked with so far.

And Ceos, just obviously coming in from Brazil as a three-time [back-to-back] champion. He already knows what he’s doing. He’s meshed well with the team, and it’s been a pretty good process so far.

Q: Has Damonte been working with Palafox, like he did on NRG, or is it wider in scope?

Reven: I think, at least from my perspective, he provides a lot of structure and a lot of good vibes. Also, of course, he was a successful mid laner in his player career, so he does look out for naturally mid lane specific things, but he’s not only looking at mid lanes. He’s also helping and looking out for a lot of the general team stuff, I would say he’s a master of all trades.

Q: Now that you’ve been scrimming, how strong are you anticipating you’ll be?

Reven: I think it’s pretty clear to […] the public that there’s basically a mix of the four strong, the two middle, and the two weak — without naming all the teams, you get the gist of what I’m saying. […] I don’t know if a lot of people would us [in the middle two], but I think just seeding wise, I guess people would say normally DIG and us, but I actually think LYON are pretty good.

Q: So do you think you’re better than LYON?

Reven: Well, in theory/reality, we even though we weren’t anywhere near “good” — nor did we function as a team well — it was still good enough to beat them at the time. Obviously, they’ve had more time, because I’m pretty sure they’ve been practicing a lot even during the offseason, [and] on top of that, I think they went to Korea. And even if they didn’t, I heard that they were still scrimming, whether it be Tier 2 or some other [teams].

So, yeah, I think [LYON] have a good core of vets that know how to play the game, and then the Koreans that came in [can] play the carrier position — they have a pretty good overall structure of a team. And even though we did, at the time, manage to beat them with them having [only] a little practice, I thought they performed pretty well as a team. Similar tier, but if I had to choose a team [between DIG and LYON], if they were to face each other, I would give the upper hand to LYON.

Q: Do you think they can break into the top 4?

Reven: I mean, yeah, I don’t see a reason why not, honestly. […] It’s just everyone in the bottom four’s goal to break into the top four. [But] if I had to choose, besides us, for who would be the most competitive, I would imagine it’s LYON for me, personally.

Q: Have you guys done any non-League activities together?

Reven: We actually tried to have our first non-game activity day today, because no one’s scrimming today. But, Fudge, unfortunately, got sick. So we’re probably not gonna be doing [pickleball]. And, because we’re pretty close to the beach, we were considering that too. But we’re also just hammering in a lot of scrim practice because of how the transfer from Brazil and the Visa process [went]. We’re very late on schedule compared to the other teams. We’re just trying to get a lot more scrim practice in — as much as possible with night blocks and stuff — every day. I think our last 8-9 days were just scrims with no off days, and the day before this was our first off day in two weeks.

Q: As a coach, how did you adjust to the format changes?

Reven: We’re looking at Bo3’s in Split 2 now, and I think everyone finally came to the agreement that most teams, are doing the two block [scrim] structure, 1 fearless and 1 non-fearless, because 3 weeks are Bo1, and afterwards is Fearless Bo3.

Of course, it’s a competitive disadvantage compared to other regions. But from where we stand, we just need to get there first to even consider the discrepancy of practice between our team/our region compared to the others.

I’ll just say whatever happens will happen. I think Mark is a smart guy. I’m pretty sure he understands what would be competitive wise, but there’s a lot of scheduling issues [etc]. So he has to take that way more into account — do we just wanna see whatever bottom tier two teams play a 5 game or 3 game series, for three hours of time?

All I care about is like, “What’s the format?” and “How do we prepare for that?”. And then we just go from there. Like, “Is this better for us?” is just a question that’s not only above my pay grade, but not something that I should really think too much about.

Q: Do you think the Fearless extension helps or hurts you?

Reven: I think the first three weeks of non-fearless segments will actually help us, because it’s only one game. I think it helps us really define how we want to function as a unit, regardless of the fearless structure. […] We’re just prepping our best card for that one game, and I think a lot of that has already come into effect, especially in terms of practice — it sort of simplifies how we want to progress as a unit.

Whereas when it’s fearless, there’s this clear tier of people picking and banning certain things. And then the second and third game are almost randomized in a sense, because there’s so many […] variables that come afterwards. So I think just not only preparing for a team, but preparing our team has been way more simplified.