Melzhet after the DK series on MKOI's missing consistency and Elyoya's mindset

What are your first impressions on the series? How are you feeling?

I mean, I think we didn’t play as good, and it’s what I said, we need to find consistency now. Best of ones is just one game, here you need to be consistent. I think the first game we played better than the second. Of course. I also think the first draft was better than the second draft. And I think we can learn a lot from the first game, because we are still not at the level to play good decisions all the time when things go wrong. I think we were not that calm. Not everyone — I think for example Elyoya was super calm, shot calling super well. But kind of like the team didn’t follow exactly what he was shot calling. And I felt like against BLG we were like way more calm. Everybody was knowing what to do. And then the second draft, I think I tried to give too much comfort, and then the draft is really hard to play out. So, yeah. And that’s for me.

What do you make of DK? They’re a very strong team, yet they hadn’t really shown it in the LCK. At the EWC they did, and they’ve shown it at this tournament, beating T1 and so on. And they’re a very young team as well.

I think they are a team with so much potential. They play really aggressive, and when things work well and when they are on the same page, they are a super oppressive team. As always, the LCK teams have been very strong. It doesn’t matter who is the first seed, second seed, fourth seed.

T1 were a fourth seed every time they won...

Yes. DRX too. I think all of them are really good and they can beat each other any given day. So yeah, if you are not on top of your gameplay, you are going to lose like we did today.

There’s a sequence I wanted to come back to in game one — the soul fight, but not the last one, the one right before. I felt like Jojo was marking Lee Sin. Do you think it should be his job to mark Lee Sin at that timing?

Yes, yes, I know exactly. I mean, we were talking in game that at the end of the day he should mark Lee Sin, and yes, you can mark Lee Sin not as hard as he was marking and get a bit of help from the team, because we were gaining the space on the other side. So when we win the space on the other side, you don’t need to mark that flank that hard, and you can just delay Lee Sin in order to join, so the fight doesn’t happen in a snap. And then we are in a totally chill spot. But yeah, those are the things that we need to keep improving, because those are the things that we were actually working on. And this comp was all about range — and it’s the same as in the last fight, when Kai’Sa did the pentakill. We were already winning and he gave the engage on Nautilus when that shouldn’t be his job. So it’s those little details that look silly, but it’s really hard with the tension. It’s really hard to play those out.

Jojo was often seen as one of MKOI’s biggest win conditions in the LEC. Do you think there’s still more we can see from him at this tournament, and could that be the key to taking this roster to the next level?

I mean, I don’t share that narrative that Jojo is the win condition. I think he gets away with a lot of things in the LEC, and I think now he needs to level up his gameplay. I fully trust on him, he will do it. I don’t think he’s playing bad, but I know that he can do much more. I think it’s more the expectation of the people. I think he will level up for sure, because he’s a really talented player and he’s going to be angry right now. So I fully trust on him. And of course he’s always an important piece for us. To me, I don’t think we’re a team that wins because of individualities. I think we win because we play well together. So that’s why I don’t share too much the idea of we are Jojo-dependent.

Elyoya has always been very vocal about not performing at the level he expects of himself internationally — it’s a hurdle he brings up himself. Yet he’s having a very good start to this tournament. You’ve been with him for three years: have you noticed any shift in his mentality, his form or his preparation heading into these Worlds?

Actually, to me, Elyoya performs really well under certain conditions. Like when he got angry at the end of the LEC, I was expecting him to play well, because when he gets angry and he locks in like, “I cannot play this bad,” then I know that he’s going to end up playing well, because he’s going to put so much power, so much passion. When he works with that passion day by day, it shows. And I think he’s undervalued in this international scene, and even sometimes in the Spanish scene, in my opinion. I think he’s so fucking smart about the game. Honestly, I think he’s the best jungler in the West. And what he’s missing is — I don’t know why this happens, and I’ve talked about this a lot of times with him — he tends to think about himself like he’s not good mechanically, when it’s fucking amazing, when he’s calm and he’s confident. And that’s the thing that he’s getting now, like he’s super confident in himself. He told me, “I realise I’m good mechanically,” and that’s why he’s performing like this now. When he’s confident, when he’s so clear, he’s doing an amazing job, and it’s hard to see because maybe it’s not always going to be the flashy play. But if you understand about the game, how he plays is fucking amazing.

At the start of the year you told me the goal was to be competitive against the Asian teams. The tournament isn’t over, but you’re 2-1 at Worlds now, you’ve taken down BLG, you were competitive in game one against DK. Isn’t your original goal already achieved at this tournament?

Yes, but I’m not happy. That was the first step. Now we are competitive. Now we need to be consistent to actually be competitive, because I feel like we can compete in some games, but in some games you’re not truly competing. I feel like we need to be consistent.

A big thing with this team is that you work a lot on momentum — we’ve seen it in the LEC, we’ve seen it in summer. Aren’t you scared that now you’ve lost a game and a series at this Worlds, you might lose that momentum?

It’s totally possible. Knowing my team, it’s totally possible. I tried to cheer them up a lot, like after the first game. And again, my message to them is going to be, besides the gameplay-wise, that we can compete versus them now. We need to find the steps to make it consistent for us. And it’s not fully given up — in my opinion, we have a really good shot. We still have two more opportunities to go. The same way that I told them, don’t get crazy for losing one or two games at the beginning, is the same as now. We don’t need to insta-qualify 3-0 and that’s it, because that’s whatever. At the end of the day, what matters is going to the top eight, and we’re in a good position to do it.

You’ve never lost faith in these players, despite the setbacks and despite everyone’s opinion outside. Why? What have you seen that people haven’t?

I think what the people don’t trust is because usually their expectations are like, oh, this team is better than this, so they should win every single time. I think eventually League of Legends is not about that. And I might not have the most flashy players, but I see that all of them are smart about the game. And that’s the thing that I see that other people don’t see day by day. Because if you hear them talk about the game, there are a lot of intelligent moves and an intention behind the gameplay.

It’s just, they need to be confident in the other part. And I think that’s the aspect of the game that we are not as comfortable with — like maybe KC or G2 are more willing to take some risks and all of that. And yeah, that’s the character. But I do believe that they are really good players, all of them, and we can achieve good results. At the same time, I understand that other people are not confident, because they see such highs and lows. So it makes sense.

What’s the goal?

First, the goal is top eight. Then we will see.