LYON Isles on Chovy: "He is a transcendent player — the best in the world"

This must be very frustrating, but you went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the world, if not the best team in the world. How are you feeling?

I mean, to be honest, I didn’t play too bad today. I thought the laning phase in game two was obviously a big problem, but it was a matchup we were a little bit unfamiliar with and we were trying something a little experimental, and it didn’t really end up consequential. So in hindsight, it didn’t matter that much. But I think the biggest thing for me personally was just in game two, that one fight that we lost — I think it was maybe the second dragon in the bot river, where our Vi got engaged on first. I think if Saint and I had been a little bit more proactive, if we were flash ulting with Akali or hitting in first and I was flash ulting there, we could have been the ones engaging first and trying to create a good fight with Vi. But I think we just didn’t see the angle beforehand, so when the moment came, it was just a little bit too late.

So you feel a bit more frustrated about game two than game three?

Actually, at least for me personally. I mean, obviously it sucks to lose, but I have to look at what I think I could have done differently. And a lot of the issues in game three — obviously everyone can communicate and try to point the team in the right direction, but Gen.G was just fantastic. Playing side lanes in game three, they navigated the mid game unbelievably, given the fact that they were behind and didn’t have grubs.

I think there’s no team better in the world at doing what they did in game three. So we lost to, as you say, the best team. So it doesn’t feel crazy. And it was frustrating how close it was. I think to get three winning early games against this team is a huge overachievement, but you can’t not be frustrated.

Since that wasn’t an elimination match, did you feel you could play a bit more freely? Compared to the HLE series at MSI, for example, could you play with less pressure today because you still have a safety net?

I mean, not exactly, to be honest. I think I always try to carry the same intensity into every game. And when you play against Gen.G, you know that if you miss an opportunity, sometimes it can be just as bad as doing nothing. Like, if you miss some opportunity when you’re ahead, that can be the same as letting them — any angle you give them, they will take. They’re just fantastic. I do think that they were a little passive in game one. It was not a game I think should be so easy for us, but I think Qiyana was just a little bit too passive in that game. And I think we had some good preparation to kind of capitalize on the style that we thought they would play.

Is it a team you study a lot?

Talking about watching Gen.G’s games, I think there’s no one better to watch, right? When everyone thinks they’re the best team in the world, they’ve shown time and time again their pedigree, their standard. So everyone has seen all their games, I’ve seen all of them, and we scrimmed them, and they’re unbelievable. So I’ve seen a lot of things, and I think we came into the series with the ways that we wanted to win. We had a lot of priority on mid bans, trying to shut down Chovy — I think a lot of people probably would have noticed that in our drafts — and picking jungle matchups where our jungler is going to have agency and is going to have, I guess, a good time if the early game goes okay. I think it’s something we drafted well, but I guess it just felt a little bit tricky.

Canyon told me that it feels like Xin Zhao isn’t a big priority in the meta right now. And yet you picked it, because it’s one of Inspired’s tier-one champions — he said he feels like Inspired has his own picks when it comes to champions, whatever the meta is. Would you agree with that?

Yeah, I mean, I think Inspired is probably the best Xin Zhao in the whole world. I think he just understands the champion to a degree that other players don’t. He just understands when the champion is strong. The champion might be fundamentally and mechanically quite simple, but he understands so well how to get to the critical waypoints, how he has to fight. He coordinates the team around it so unbelievably well. He just really knows where the win condition is. It’s just something he’s great at. And I think when he’s given this agency and a strong champion, he’s just great at finding the right moments.

In the LCS finals you were playing a lot more melee supports, but today you went double ranged bot lane for the whole series. Is that something you and Berserker have been feeling more confident about, or was it just how the drafts played out?

I think it was mostly just how the draft played out. A lot of the reason, I guess talking about our draft priority as well, is we wanted to have counter pick mid in many of the games. So the best way to do that at some point was just to one-two a duo and blind a top laner, and try to — or three-pick a top laner when we have priority. So if someone had to pick, it was going to be us, we were just going to pick a duo together. And usually it’s easier to pick the duos that are with the ranged bot laners together than it is to pick a melee. Particularly in game one, they took the Jhin, which is like the priority. And once Alistar was gone as well, I don’t really want to blind pick Nautilus with no bans or something and so many champions up. So I think that’s just how it ended up. But I wouldn’t say it’s a confidence thing. I think we’re confident in many lanes.

One thing I notice with LYON is that you always seem to find your way back into games through huge team fights, especially around objectives. Would you say that’s the area where you’re confident you can match any team in the world?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, it definitely depends on the champions we pick. I think some comps are more competent than others. Like I said, when Inspired is playing Xin Zhao, I think these comps look perfect when we play them. It’s a style that fits us. And when he plays Wukong as well, I think he’s really great at trying to dictate the play that way. But when the responsibility is shared a bit more, sometimes it can be a little less clean. I think coming into this tournament, it was something we were working on, and ever since the LCS finals, I think it’s gotten a lot better. Just playing as a coordinated team has looked much better for us.

Going back to MSI for a second, because against HLE you were one game away from a massive upset in a BO5 — and that was an elimination match. Back then it almost felt like you got a bit nervous when you were so close to winning it. Did it feel any different today?

I mean, I was not expecting game two to go as well as it did after game one. I thought we just had a nice early game, we got a nice advantage. They were just a little too passive, they didn’t find the right angles they were looking for. But against HLE, I thought they kind of just played a little bit below that level. Obviously, we played fantastic on that day versus HLE. I have no regrets, really, looking back at it. But I think today we generated some of our own leads, which is something I’m really pleased with. It was not really them creating leads on us and then us coming back, which is how we won that critical game three versus HLE and I think also how we kind of won the second game versus them. But today I think we had leads, and it was kind of our game to lose rather than theirs, which is a little bit frustrating. But it’s still nice to know that we can still do it, I guess.

That’s what I wanted to get at. After a series like this, and adding the HLE series to it, do you think you’ve definitely proved to yourself that you can beat any team in the world?

I mean, I do think some teams have better matchups for us. I thought Gen.G was going to be our toughest matchup. I think Chovy is like a transcendent player. I think he’s the best in the world — probably the best player in the world. I think Keria’s arguable as well, I think he’s also fantastic. T1, I think, is the only team in the entire world where their support is their best player. And Chovy in mid lane is just unmovable in any matchup. Blind pick or counterpick, he’s just unbelievable. And because of that reason, I think it’s just so hard for any team to play against him and to draft against him. So we thought going into this that Gen.G would be our hardest matchup of the tournament. And to have it be so close is obviously gutting, but it’s also encouraging.

Your career trajectory has been kind of insane — three years in the LCS, the last two on mid-table teams, and now you’re a huge part of this LYON roster, going toe to toe with the best team in the world. Have you had time to realise how far you’ve come, and what made the biggest difference for you as a player?

I mean, every time something like this comes up, I always just credit my teammates. I think Berserker and Inspired have been instrumental to my growth this year. It’s still so hard to show up on the day and have a good performance, even in spite of all the practice you do. The pressure is really on, and I was lucky today to not feel so nervous on stage. I was actually feeling pretty comfortable yesterday — I think I was pretty shaky against KC, I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was just the expectations.

And today I felt a lot more comfortable, and I think the reps in, and getting the confidence from my teammates to know that I’ve been playing well in scrims and people are behind me on the team. So I think just a little bit of confidence for me, and the nurturing of my teammates over this year, is what’s led to the results you see. But yeah, it still sucks.