MKOI Alvaro on this roster’s last dance: “I see it as an opportunity to finish on a good note”

Can you walk me through what happened after Nice — how you reflected on that final, and on the run you had after qualifying for playoffs?

I went back home, and of course each of us reflected individually on what happened during the year, on why we’re that inconsistent. We came back with different ideas, different approaches, really wanting to have no regrets for Worlds — because as a professional, if you go to an international and you live with regrets, that’s the worst.

So we disconnected for a week, came back and put in the work, the hours. Yesterday alone we played ten games of scrims, which is a huge amount, and a huge amount of effort too. We’re also trying to train better in other ways: we have a better understanding of our bodies now, we handle the times better, we care more about the time zone and about our routines. We have a better opportunity and a higher chance than other teams there, so we’re trying to take advantage of it, already from the bootcamp. It’s been a long week, but we’re more prepared.

How do you explain what happened in the playoffs and in the Summer split in general, now that you’ve had time to reflect and talk it through as a team?

That’s exactly how our season went: in the regular split we go down, then in playoffs we spike — but we don’t fully spike as much as we could. We had series where we actually proved we play the better League of Legends, in my opinion. But in the end, we win 3-0 against KC and then we get 3-0'd. So I don’t think we can consider ourselves the better team, because we’re not capable of that consistency. That’s everyone’s individual aim for this bootcamp: to make it more consistent, to make it a habit, rather than performing one day. I think that’s the most important thing coming into this Worlds.

You arrived on the fourth, so you’ve been here nearly twenty days. How has the bootcamp gone?

It’s been really fun. We went to the FaZe bootcamp here in Frisco, Dallas. At the start we were just playing solo queue, because not many people were playing yet — they still had to finish the LCS, and G2weren’t scrimming yet. After that we started scrimming the top LCS teams, then G2 and some other NA teams. And over the past weeks we’ve been scrimming the teams arriving at the hotel, including the Asian teams. Something really important is scrimming a wide variety of teams, because you see what priorities they bring — teams from Korea have different priorities, China maybe has others. It’s important to get a good grasp of what other people are prioritising, and you get a better understanding of how other teams operate.

A lot of people back in Europe, or in the West in general, still see you as the biggest underdog from the region. Is that fair?

Whatever I say wouldn’t matter that much, because I’m inside the team. I don’t think so — but I understand the narrative, because we’re the most inconsistent. At the same time, at our highest peak we’re capable of competing with the best. And if we’re not capable of achieving that consistency, then we’re not that strong a team. So I’m confident, both in myself and in my team, that when the important moments come we’ll be there and we’ll show that level, because I’ve seen it in scrims and in officials. But I’m also conscious we still have that problem behind us, and that’s what we need to fix.

When you lock in, you might have the best macro in Europe. Could that be the key at this tournament — the thing that lets you outperform the best teams in the world?

Even better than in the Summer playoffs?

For now, yes. Especially when the better teams come, the level rises and the speed of the game goes up — not the speed of the game itself, but of the decision-making. You’re not capable of thinking, then waiting, then thinking: you just need to think, play, play, play. You can’t have that many emotions in between. So we’re the stronger team when it comes to understanding how we want to play. What we need to get better at is adapting — when things don’t go our way, many times we just get stuck on the last play.

We’ve heard a lot that this will be this roster’s last dance. Does that make it even more important to deliver?

Everyone heard that. For me, I see it as an opportunity to finish the best way possible, to finish on a good note. I think that’s what we’d deserve, both as a group and as individuals, and for the org too. It’d be really great if we’re able to end it on a good note. It’s a bit sad that we might not stay the same group — but we weren’t able to accomplish what we wanted to achieve, so it makes sense as well. This is the best opportunity we have now to show how good we are.