“I Hope We’re Going to Have a Legendary Battle” — Gury on Facing KC and Yike

MVK Esports were called as the weakest team on paper coming into these play-ins. The LCP’s third seed swept FURIA 3-0 in their Worlds debut, with their jungler taking MVP honours and a quadrakill on Lee Sin along the way. DPM Esports caught up with Lương “Gury” Hải Long after the win to talk about the invades that broke FURIA’s jungle, learning under SofM, and a KC side waiting for them tomorrow.

Congratulations on the win and on the MVP award. A lot of people saw MVK as the underdogs coming into this match against FURIA. Did you expect it to be that easy?

Even before the match we were pretty confident playing against them — but we just did not expect such a clean win.

In game one, FURIA spent four bans on you. Did you expect them to treat you as the main threat?

I was very surprised when they spent four bans on me right from the first game. I think they might have watched too much LCP.

So you’re the guy to beat in MVK?

I don’t think I play as well in the LCP as I do at Worlds. Worlds has probably given me a passive boost.

You also landed a great quadrakill on Lee Sin in your very first Worlds series. You said you wanted to show Tatu who the real Ronaldo is — do you feel like you proved it today?

In games two and three you went for early invades into FURIA’s jungle. What was behind that plan — is it something you often do, or was it based on scouting?

FURIA’s jungler pays special attention to their bot laners. So we planned a draft where we could spend more time causing trouble for their jungler, so that he couldn’t help their bot side.

Overall the team showed great map ideas — saving time in game one, creating advantages and snowballing in the other two — plus some very clean mechanical plays. After a stomp like that, what lessons are you taking from today?

The biggest lesson is that we managed to overcome the stage mentality. Aside from me, I have four rookies who just had their first performance at an international event like Worlds. So it’s a really big gain for us.

What does this young team need to improve the most to make it out of the play-ins?

We’re really going to need a lot to get out of the play-ins, because our opponents are really tough.

Before we talk about your next opponents — what is it like working with SofM, learning from a legendary jungler who played at the highest level? Does he focus on you in particular during practice?

SofM is actually a very tough teacher, but he knows a lot about the game and he usually tells us to practise champions ahead of the meta. He’s also pretty hard on me, because he has the same role as I do — he knows he has a lot to teach me, and I take a lot of feedback from him.

Were those early invade plans in games two and three built together with him?

Those jungle invades are something we’ve been doing pretty often, both in scrims and in the LCP. SofM didn’t tell us exactly to go at their jungler — it was more “do something, and don’t let him focus on the bot laners.” We came up with invading him ourselves.

What are your thoughts on KC, since you face them tomorrow?

KC are actually a top contender, and I have no idea why they ended up here as the third seed. They’re a pretty tough opponent and I’ll try my best tomorrow to beat them.

kyeahoo mentioned he knows your mid laner Chika from DRX Academy, that he loves him and sees him as a little brother. Did you know that, and has Chika told you anything about kyeahoo?

Chika is actually a pretty funny guy, but he has never mentioned such a thing.

Tomorrow you face Yike, who didn’t have the best match individually today against C9. Did you get a chance to watch it before your series?

I managed to watch all five of their games against C9, and I think their jungler is a pretty tough opponent. I’ll have a hard time tomorrow.

Last question. Any message for the opponent you face tomorrow, and for the Western fans watching?