TL Yeon: “If one [player on FLY] plays bad, I think they might even collapse, the way they play. But yeah, I think they’re a very good team.”

Q: This was an expected result, maybe, but were you also surprised by FLY vs SEN?

Yeon: Uh, yeah, I didn’t really watch the games yet because it didn’t really have any impact on today’s match. But I was surprised.

Q: What do you think of the FLY matchup?

Yeon: To be honest, I thought FlyQuest is always a very aggressive and weird-idea team, and their fundamentals are actually quite good. If one of them plays bad, I think they might even collapse, the way they play. But yeah, I think they’re a very good team.

Q: Thoughts on Massu? You guys have a lengthy rivalry at this point.

Yeon: I think individually he’s very sharp, very clean. He makes very good plays, plays on the limit. I do think he makes a lot of mistakes, [but] it’s inevitable, when you’re looking for high-tier plays on the limit, that you make mistakes.

I think all of the best ADCs in the world play that aggressive style, but it can be [dangerous]. But he’s one of the better ones at it, especially if your team can support you more aggressively and give you confidence. I think it’s very good. But, yeah, I just think he’s been playing well overall.

Q: What’s the difference between his style and your style? Maybe you’re known more for laning and he’s known more for teamfighting? But that doesn’t seem right anymore.

Yeon: Oh, do you mean lane or game? To be honest, I think FlyQuest’s entire identity is to just play five aggressively most of the time, most of the game, as long as you don’t die, which is very good.

And for me, I just play whatever is in front of me, mostly. If I have the opportunity, I will do it. If I don’t, then I probably won’t do it. I think it just goes as far as my mindset [at] the time of what I think will win the game.

Q: Cryogen has also improved a lot — they’ve been 2v2 killing almost every series they play. What do you think about him?

Yeon: He’s definitely way better than I thought he would be initially. I think usually rookie supports always struggle because support is just an innately hard role in my opinion, next to mid and jungle. I think he’s been playing quite well, from what I’ve seen.

Q: Core’s known for being smarter, but maybe less mechanical, than rookie players like Cryo. What do you think about the 2v2 matchup stylistically?

Yeon: Honestly, you can tell how good a player is by their fundamentals in laning, and it seems like Massu and Cryo [are good at it] – and I assume the coaching staff have helped them a lot with the fundamentals of laning phase. I do think when I lane versus them, they understand the fundamentals.

You can tell when [players] understand it or not, [regardless of] if they play well or not. Some other bot lanes would not have the fundamentals down as a pair, as a duo, but I think it’s very good that [FLY] went straight to the fundamentals of laning phase.

And I think CoreJJ is especially one of the people who understands the straight fundamentals of early laning phase and matchups.

Q: Out of this remaining top 4, who seems strong? Who seems beatable?

Yeon: Like I said in a lot of other interviews, I really do think it’s whoever shows up on the day. If one particular individual plays better on the enemy team or the ally team, usually they’ll just win. 

I think a lot of [teams] are quite balanced at the moment, so I think just one overperformance from one player can change an entire series at the moment — between the top four.

Q: Would you say that’s what happened against LYON?

Yeon: In that one, I think… I actually think that one was just a standard game of a five-game series, back-to-back objective fights. It’s hard to say. Let me think again.

It was a lot more than individual [overperformance]. I think it was just how well [coordinated] we are as a team versus how well [coordinated] they are as a team and how good we’ve got down our individual fundamentals as a team.

Because I think in that series, it came down straight to the fundamentals of teamfighting and objective focus: Dragon, Baron, Grubs, Herald.

Q: Was it time for Spawn to bring out the belt after that? Angry Spawn time?

Yeon: Oh yeah, he was definitely angry, because I think we did not want to win the last game.

I think we had a lot of opportunities to make a lot of plays, but I think we were very advantageous for the majority of that game. I just don’t think anyone had the courage to actually do anything.

Q: Courage?

Yeon: Yeah. If you watch it, I don’t think we made any active plays even though we were actively stronger than them and we were in a good spot. Even when we were in a good spot, we actually just didn’t play to win. That’s what I would say.

Q: How did you guys work on that in the break, then?

Yeon: The bigger portion was the new patch. I think we’re adjusting to the new patch — [that was] more the reason why we lost. I think that’s something we’re working on currently. [Courage] was more like a side thing.

Q: Today looked better, but was that just because Shopify’s a weaker team?

Yeon: Yeah, I think it mainly [went this way] because Shopify aren’t really the best team at the moment.

I think the level they show in scrims is not really accurate to the performance they show on stage. I think we had a lot of easy moments. […] I don’t know what’s wrong with them, but we had more time than we should have, I think, to react to most of their plays.

So this is not like a real series win for me, I would say. A win is a win, of course, but in the sense of what I was expecting, it was not [enough].

Q: You don’t feel like you really proved anything?

Yeon: Yeah. I think that we played fine — we played well — but I think it was because they underperformed more than we overperformed in this one.

Q: Into FLY, does their style mean you want to play more aggressive and confident, or do you want to wait for them to make their mistakes?

Yeon: I’m not sure what will happen yet. I think it depends on what we’re going to be drafting.

We mainly just play around what our drafts are. If we have the opportunity to do so, then we’ll do it, obviously. If not, then we’ll play what’s in front of us.

Mainly, we just focus on what is in front of us at the moment.

Q: So Spawn chefs it up, and you eat whatever he puts in front of you?

Yeon: Yeah, he’s mainly asked the players to be more vocal in draft. He was trying to give us what we want to play.

So it’s like a two-way interaction at the moment.

Q: Do you have a message for Gryffinn or for Massu for next week?

Yeon: Gryffinn?

Q: Yeah, for Gryffinn or for Massu.

Yeon: Why Gryffinn out of everyone?

Q: Because Gryffinn feels like the mascot of that team. Am I wrong?

Yeon: Yeah, he’s very troll. To be honest, at first I thought he was a little bit annoying because he’s just like a little kid zoomer, but I think he’s matured quite well.

Q: He’s not even that much younger than you, right?

Yeon: Really?

Q: How old are you? 22? 23?

Yeon: No, I’m 25.

Q: You’re 25? Oh my God.

Yeon: Yeah I’ve been playing for a long time now. At least seven years.

Q: Yeah. He’s younger than you. I mean, he makes the other players on his team feel old.

Yeon: When I listen to him speak, I don’t know if I could handle him — but he definitely has my respect as a teammate. What he said on the weekend was quite nice to hear.

Q: For Cryo?

Yeon: Just lighting up the mood and saying, “Look to your right, look to your left.”

Q: Yeah, that was really cute. Do you give Naruto speeches for the team?

Yeon: Only Jake does that. No one does that shit.

Q: No one in game? Do you think you need someone for that role?

Yeon: Maybe. Is that what’s going to make us beat FlyQuest?

Q: Other than TL, if you could pick one of the teams to send to MSI, if you wanted NA to do the best possible, who would you send?

Yeon: I would want to send FlyQuest, I think. I would just want to send FlyQuest mainly because I think that type of aggression does better internationally than regionally, and they have way more experience to learn if they make it. So I think if I had to send a team, it would probably be them. […] If only we won that game 5 [against LYON].

Q: Any final message for TL fans?

Yeon: Hopefully we bring a title back in spring and we make MSI … and thank you to all the sponsors! Honestly, you guys should get our jerseys as well if you haven’t already. I don’t know if you can order it again, but these jerseys are so nice. They’re so comfortable. Thank you for supporting us.