TL Yeon: “Going into the series, all 5 of us went into it as if they were the underdogs. I think we fully expected to win today”

Q: In my opinion, you just played the best series of your life. How do you feel about that?

Yeon: More than that, I think I had the best mindset going into the series, because everyone’s going on right now like “Yeon can’t carry blah blah blah”, so I decided to change my mindset. Like, being the frontrunner for my team, going forward at every point. I changed my mindset completely — I just have the mindset where I’m just better than almost all five of their players.

Q: It feels like you and other TL rookies have always been questioned and doubted, why do you think that is?

Yeon: In my first split, I don’t think I was good by any means. I wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t have that carry mindset. I was trying to do one person’s worth, and I can see why some fans weren’t happy. But there are some non-fans who are just like [always] very angry. I feel bad for the fans who actually care and want the team to succeed. But for the people who are angry gremlins, I don’t really care that much.

Q: Do you feel proud of your performance so far this split?

Yeon: If one person’s worth is like what I’ve been doing, where I’m like trying to do my job, now I’m trying to do 3 people’s worth; to be that one who does everything.

Q: So you’re participating in comms and stuff more?

Yeon: Yeah, doubling what my load has been usually, [calling for] what I want and what I need, because I think I can do it. That feeling of “putting your life on the line” during the game is what I’ve been trying to do during practice. Everything, every moment — you gamble everything on it. That’s what I’ve been trying to transition to recently.

Q: Like putting 110% in?

Yeon: More than that, I’d say. I was giving 110%, but this is like there’s no going back. And I’m glad this game showed it at least, but a loss is a loss.

Q: “Not being able to come back” from that effort sounds like you could get burned out. Do you feel that you’re approaching that?

Yeon: I’m definitely getting more tired these day, because of the energy I’m putting in. But I think I just have to get through it. I don’t know if I’ve felt burned out, but I’ve definitely been really close to it during the past years. […] Going into that game 5, the only thing I could think about is that people only care about the winners. No one cares about the losers. Winning is everything.

Q: Do you think you beat the “Yeon can’t teamfight” allegations today?

Yeon: In Spring [2023], I definitely didn’t grasp the teamfight concept as well, but going into Summer Core helped me a lot […] so I think I had pretty good teamfighting, but laning phase was 50/50.

Q: Last year, I always heard that you and Core were crushing every lane in scrims, but not as much these days. Is that because of meta?

Yeon: It’s more of a meta thing, [but we definitely weren’t] trying as hard to smash people in lane as we have in the past couple of weeks.

Q: Do you prefer one of the styles? Scaling vs early game?

Yeon: I prefer being able to play everything. Last night I was actually about to practice a game of Draven just to keep it [ready], but 14.6 came out and it was bugged and I couldn’t play. I prefer to be able to do everything, I don’t want the enemy to have one thing that they can do that I can’t do. […] I even played Seraphine, if I thought it was good, it’s good. Whatever’s best in the game for me, as long as I’ve practiced it once or twice.

Q: So are you still a really big grinder in soloq?

Yeon: I wouldn’t say that anymore, I’ve been trying to pace myself. It was the biggest feedback I was given last year, some scrims I wouldn’t use to the fullest because my condition wasn’t good. Because I wasn’t getting enough sleep, so I’ve been trying to do that more and grinding less. My condition is a lot better, […] it’s something my coaching staff has been really adamant on.

That’s actually why I got this *shows off ring*, it’s an Oura ring, it tracks like my blood or my heart. It tells me when I wake up and stuff. They really wanted me to get it at the start of the split.

Q: Going back to the game, I don’t get the feeling that you felt like underdogs today, is that right?

Yeon: Yeah, going into the series, all 5 of us went into it as if they were the underdogs. I think we fully expected to win today. We were very confident going into the series.

I’ll leak this a little bit, FLY did very well against us during scrims — they were probably the only ones who did decent — and then as time went on they were doing a lot worse. So we were very confident, and I think in a bo5 we’re confident going against them again

Q: Is that all part of that mindset change and energy? Like, the energy from better sleep being committed in game with confidence?

Yeon: I think a lot of people have just been pissing me off recently, with what they’ve been saying. The fans and the Doublelift/Dodo drama as very annoying, and people thinking I’m not that great. So of course, if you think someone’s not good, you have to prove them wrong.

Q: Yeon on his spite arc?

Yeon: Yeah.