BLG: Losers Press Conference Highlights Thread

Daeny: In terms of draft, I should do better — I think we used too much energy in previous two series. My condition today was really not good. I am really sorry. When my players are losing focus, I should be more strict and help them but I didn't.

Especially in Game 5, I understood their draft priorities [...] but I was hesitant. I want to tell everyone that it's important to show your level of competitiveness in-game. I hope they can overcome this hurdle. This loss is not on you. I didn't do well. I want to tell them this.

Daeny: I think [my players] are all geniuses. They all played really well; I talked to them a lot about gameplay and draft, and I hope we can assign each person's role and mistakes clearly. This is our goal. It brings us closer together. Even though we didn't win, we showed our potential and our level of competition. We want BLG to be a truly competitive team at Worlds.

HLE: Winners Press Conference Highlights Thread

Zeus: I think both yesterday and today, had one of us not had our level of experience, it would've been really hard [to win]. We all know how to stay calm when behind, and that allowed us to win.

Gumayusi: Had LYON made it to the finals, I believe they would've also put up a really good fight into BLG.

[note: If you're curious, this is all the Chinese and English questions. The HLE transcript is shorter since the Korean media questions were never translated into either langauge]

Live Translation + Transcriptions by NAmenCentral (tttttyuc and arshgoyal13)

Interview by Arsh Goyal, from NAmenCentral

Q: I’m still stressed right now. What the fuck was that? Oh my god.

Dylan Falco: I'm not too stressed. *laughs* I've been to a lot of international tournaments throughout the years. I didn't think we were heavy underdogs coming to the series, honestly.

I think we played pretty well and drafted pretty well. But for us, we want to be better than this and win future series.

Q: I believe you — even on the coach cams you looked really chill the entire series. But it did, seemingly, get really stressful in-game. On both teams, players were making high-pressure mistakes. Caps walked into a trap right at the end!

Dylan Falco: Oh, it's definitely hard to play on stage — like very close late game scenarios. But we are also very really experienced. Caps is relaxed in the comms in those moments. So I think it's in those moments where the experience — for both teams, for T1 as well, they're very experienced too — comes through.

I also think in those late game scenarios, we were probably favored from the draft, so it made it a lot easier for us to make some mistakes still, or have a close gameplay, and then still win.

Q: The start of Game 4 looked completely doomed, but were you thinking “Our late game condition is quite good, no worries!”?

Dylan Falco: No, like obviously at that point, usually, especially against a team as good as T1, when it [looks like] you're going to lose the game, you start prepping for the next game.

Q: Did you start prepping Game 5?

Dylan Falco: I think, yeah, always. But as soon as they threw a bit and it became even, then you start thinking, “Oh, we actually have a window this game.”

Because I think Kled-Viktor in Game 4 are really outscaling enemy champions. As long as we could somehow deal with the Caitlyn, I think we had at least a chance.

Q: I’ve thought about this before — in a series this entertaining, and that close in the final game, is there a point to locking in on Game 5 prep during the game just in case?

Dylan Falco: We are using a lot of the time [during] the games to prep the next game draft for sure. But we're also human. If we feel like we're gonna close, or have a chance of closing the series, we're gonna watch, right? So we're kind of multitasking. We're doing both. We usually take a bit of focus time in the middle of the game, once there's a clear winner or loser, to prepare for the next game for sure.

We obviously had a plan for Game 5 if it went there. Thankfully, it did not.

Q: A top 4 placement doesn’t mean you’ve met your goal yet, but it’s pretty historic. It must feel good to prove the doubters wrong.

Dylan Falco: That’s the fourth Bo5 we’ve won against LPL and LCK teams this year. So, I guess we’re even or winning in series against them.

Are we the favorites to win the entire tournament and win Worlds? Maybe not. But I hope, at least, people understand that we are competitive, and we can win on good days, against any team. 

Q: 3-0, 3-0, 3-2, 3-1. And the 3-2 team looks the weakest by far.

Dylan Falco: Oh, TES? Yeah, I think that game had a lot of draft and nerves — and mental stuff, probably — from both teams affecting it. I think if we were to play them on good drafts, good mental, we would probably [both] show a better performance.

Q: Any final message for G2 fans?

Dylan Falco: Just thanks for watching and supporting us. I hope we can go all the way. We definitely feel like we're capable of doing it. But I hope you guys watch us and cheer for us.

Editor's note: This isn't the full interview. It's just 4 AM and I have work in a few hours, and I won't stay awake long enough to release the rest today. Figured this would be relevant tonight.

Q: How do you weigh KC’s mistakes — Canna getting solokilled, Caliste’s positioning — in this series? A lot of people have argued today was a significant underperformance.

Spawn: I don't think KC played poorly at all. I think we played well. If you look at Morgan, he solo killed Doran twice in a game and they still weren't able to beat us. A solo kill does not cost your team the game.

I think they're an insanely talented lineup. I respect that team from top to bottom, and I think it's built really well. Reapered is a fantastic coach.

We came in, we prepared well, and we beat them. As I said a million times before, I had not lost to Europe. We weren't planning on doing it. I think North America is better than people give [us] credit for, and we're here to show the world that — so let's just keep the journey going.

I don't think us beating KC diminishes the fact that they're a fantastic team. They also 3-0'd DCG to get to where they are in this tournament, and they put up bloody good performances against T1 as well.

I'm sure they're all shattered and disappointed, but they are a very good lineup. They're world-class. This victory against them should be a proud moment for us, not a diminishing of the LEC, because I would hate that to be the case.

Our players played well — we deserve respect. Their players are world-class, and they're a very good lineup. I'm very proud of my team for beating them.

From NAmen, interview by Arsh Goyal

Quote from NAmen, interview by Arsh Goyal. Full asset day interview will be out tomorrow/later.

Q: Thoughts on C9? You’ll have to face them once you’re back in NA.

Yeon: Wow … They got some money, eh? That's crazy. Four coaches, seven players — that's a lot of money. In this economy? God damn!

Usually I do think having an extra sub or [6th man] players is quite good, but I’m not too sure about this one. I did think that APA played quite well overall, besides like the Finals [weekend], so it does feel quite weird — and quite bad, I think. But it happens, I guess. 

And then I did think that, if they're going to make a change, I thought they definitely [wouldn’t] just stick to a 7 man roster; [I thought] they would do a 6-man. So, that’s even stranger for me. But overall, I do think that the idea is not, like, the worst thing in the world.

Twitter highlight of interview for NAmen by Arsh Goyal

Q: Does the LYON Castle move make them the top team everyone was expecting?

Spawn: Yeah, I mean, I really like Castle. It wasn't any [secret] — people would know that we actually tried out Castle quite extensively in the offseason. Like, I actually think the guy's just a brilliant player, so I think it definitely makes them better.

I think that Castle is one of the best top laners in the league; one of the only people that can go toe-to-toe with Morgan and Thanatos. So it makes [LYON] better immediately.

Top lane is easier to introduce into a team than it is to introduce a new jungler, like we had to do with Yuuji last year, so I think that will have more success than we did.

Also, Reignover has just done it a couple of times now — he did it with APA, a mid laner, [which is] quite hard, he did it with Yuuji, a jungler, [which is] quite hard. Now he’s doing it with top lane.

So, like, he has a lot of experience introducing new people mid-split into a team. I have a lot of confidence that Castle will do well, and I think it does make that team better. 

Q: Does it make them scary?

Spawn: To be completely blunt, no. I don't think it's scary. Like, honestly, I don't think so. Like even when we played playoffs against LYON, they came in with a way better strategy than us. They beat us on the day, but none of those games were like, “Wow, we can't win this game.” I was like, “Oh, we're actually fucking up and they're beating us,” but I felt like we were driving a lot of those games, so I don't think they're a very scary team.

Honestly, FlyQuest is, to me, the scariest team at the moment — I feel like if you mess up against FlyQuest, you actually just lose the game. They genuinely have four people that can carry the game. 

Q: Which would be all four of the players not named Cryogen, because he's a support?

Spawn: Correct. [But] also, not just the support role — Core can carry the game. I just don't think Cryo is ... He's a supportive player. He's not the person that's going to take over a game if you give him good angles, good picks.

But obviously he does a great job with Massu [...] he sets up Massu for a lot of success. I think all the other four players are, like, genuine pop-off players. If you give a two-level lead to Gryffinn, there’s just no chance you’ll win the game — he knows how to play so well with it.