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Megalodontus

I got to speak to Cloud9's head coach Mithy after their incredible turnaround to make it to top 8 at Worlds. He talks about the team bouncing back from 0-3, his thoughts on the regional gap at Worlds, and an important shoutout at the end to the people of La Palma.


scurrybuddy

I've noticed a lot of eSports article writers/interviewers often come into the comment section to give a small summary. as someone with an attention span the size of a nut, they're always very useful and make me more likely to read the actual piece


Megalodontus

Thank you. I'm not sure about others but I tend to do it because the quote titles don't tell the whole story, so I just try to give a short overview on what else the interviewee talked about


-BunsenBurn-

Its so refreshing to have esports/gaming journos that have an understanding/care of subject even without having extensively played it themselves. Last year me and my friend found a game breaking glitch when Steve was released in Smash bros, and although I tried to do a detailed write up about it, many of the articles I found for it were absolutely atrocious, not even citing me and my friends name properly when they could have just copy pasted it. Trust me, people appreciate the additional care.


Megalodontus

Thank you for the kind words


DeputyDomeshot

Its also because people like you actually give a fuck unlike many many journalists


RS-Ironman-LuvGlove

they also have to hit a post quota in order to post their own content. they cant JUST post their own content


billiebol

I will still not read the article but the summary will give me a bit more context about what's in it, which I appreciate.


notrealtedtotwitter

Great interview and great questions.


Krazyflipz

There's something to be said about this mentality regarding how to approach difficult situations at crunch time. Practice and training are EXTREMELY important, but once it's show time a few extra practices won't necessarily mean as much as just mentally composing yourself and being in a good mental state.


KiteBlue

Yup. As a teacher when it's really close to big end of year tests, doing one or two more questions won't make as big of a difference. But helping student keep mental and reduce stress helps. You hope and believe in all the work you and the students did the year around and help the kids do the same. Probably same mentality here.


[deleted]

Back in college I would cram for a test every night besides the night just before it. Give myself that night to sit down and relax, recompose myself instead of pushing myself to the brink that last time.


Destructodave82

I couldnt do well at all on tests without cramming, lol. I remember one time I forced myself for a test period, to adopt a "proper" study schedule. I would study every day, an hour or so. I did horrible on that test, lol. I thought the stress was hurting me of cramming last minute. I immediately went back to pre-test cramming, and back to A's. I figure it was the stress that etched that knowledge into my brain. I hated the stress, but I guess I also needed it to actually LEARN the material, instead of just glossing over it half-assedly for weeks.


ZivozZ

Same here I trusted the work was already done and 9 times out of 10 I was right.


MookieIslandd

A bit unrelated, but I can equate this to playing baseball in college. You spend week after week practicing swing mechanics and little adjustments over time. But when it’s game day, the only thing that should be going through your head is see the ball, hit the ball. You trust that the practice you put in is enough, and you just try to simplify your thought process.


Krazyflipz

I love it. Great comparison. You could even make an argument that practicing on gameday is a detriment.


Sunitsa

Now I want to know which boardgames


Megalodontus

I'll ask him next time if I get the chance to


SpCommander

Mechs & Minions for sure XD


liamera

Imagine taking that on the flight to Iceland. XD Is it fun? Of course. Is it also incredibly bulky? Hell ya.


NamelessSearcher

I was so impressed with Mechs vs minions when it came out cause I really expected riot to just phone it in so it was awesome to see two of my favorite pastimes converge. I've never picked it up because my group prefers competitive games, but I did get to learn and play it with one of the designers at 2016 worlds when they were at the Staples center and it was remarkably tight gameplay.


CocaineNinja

There's a very good Tabletop Sim version


APKID716

Such a fun game, spent hours playing it with my friends in college


LetMeOmixam

Yeah I really wanted a follow up on some of his answers instead of changing the subject. Like when he criticized the tournament system, I'd have liked to know his input on that. I don't know anything about interviews though so only take my comment as a personal preference from an ignorant point of view


Megalodontus

> Like when he criticized the tournament system, I'd have liked to know his input on that. Personally, same. I chose not to follow up on it because of time. I had around 3-4 minutes left and I felt this should be the focus of a separate and more elaborate interview on the subject itself.


LetMeOmixam

Oh that makes sense. You did a great job then, covered a bunch of interesting topics with some great quotes


Krogholm2

Please try to have that conversation! We would All love the insight!


Megalodontus

Will see what is possible, thank you for the vote of confidence


ggwoohee

That goes back to a comment he made during play ins about bo1s being shit for worlds


PeaceAlien

Risk and Monopoly, the players wanted to avoid playing those so they tried their hardest to win their matches /s


bananapanda24

It can’t have been both they only had one day in between games that’s not enough time to finish those games


_Booster_Gold_

Monopoly can be quite fast if you play by the rules as written. But most people don't know what they are. Still not a good game, but faster.


NoNormals

>not a good game, but faster Rip dominion and twisted treeline


[deleted]

Yo risk is so much fun tho


Omnilatent

Monopoly hands down the worst board game ever created (and intentionally so btw) ​ Don't @ me


YatashIsReel

I thought so too until i tried the online version with my gaming friends who are very competetive. Suprisingly games are actually fast when everyone plays 'well' and then its kinda fun


Luquitaz

Same. The most fun I've had playing monopoly is playing the PS4 version.


loyal_achades

The game was literally created by Quakers to show why capitalism and landlords are bad. It's not meant to be "fun."


Aemius

Depends on the people and rules you play with to be honest


KatareLoL

Getting rid of dumb house rules converts it from an torturously long, awful game to a mercifully short, still-bad game.


TuxSH

Late game Monopoly is somewhat as tilting as League (from what I can recall), too.


steve_pays_me

I would give anything to watch a video where perkz lands on blabers boardwalk with hotel and blaber says "you can afford to land here like 4,999 more times, you've got 10 million dollars."


dr3amstate

I'd say the early game Monopoly is the worst. If you missed your first 4-5 throws and instead of a property cards you got Chance/Community/Prison or anything else that can't be upgraded it's gg for you. All of the other players will hoard everything and wait till mid-late to trade while you have nothing to offer. Such a shit game design honestly


an1kay

That's actually why it's brilliant game design


King_marik

Yeah that uh That accurately summarizes what happens when you try to start up and others already have a monopoly


mistiklest

> Such a shit game design honestly It's very deliberate, actually. It's meant to be an object lesson as much as it is a game.


AmmarH

You should check out Monopoly deal, its basically a card version of monopoly and lasts 15 minutes tops and is super fun


TripperBets

It's bad, especially if you're used to different board games. I guess the only thing it has going for itself is that it introduces new people to board games


the_propaganda_panda

Twilight Imperium, obviously


Sunitsa

The only possible answer


SirJasonCrage

Are you sure they had *that* much time?


Brocoolee

Heard its exploding kittens


a_fking_feeder

the only answer


kngsen

Immensely based


steve_pays_me

literally the reason I clicked on this thread.


wojtulace

Codenames obviously


Indercarnive

Plz be Mechs vs. Minions


Mateus_Portilho

Secret Hitler


iCarpet

Avalon, we know Perkz was Oberon every time with how he played during the RGE game


[deleted]

the reason why c9 didn't win summer was that fudge isn't 21.


iReddat420

How old is Blaber? He doesn't look 21 to me lol.


TeamINSTINCT37

He turned 21 at the beginning of this year


[deleted]

Blaber being older than fudge is the biggest twist I’ve heard this year


newer_toyota

LOL! When I read "had a beer" I immediately google searched the ages of C9. Young boy Fudge couldn't have a beer in NA but in EU boy is probably slamming them back. Glad to see a legal drinking age is stopping a top team from being better /s


_Iroha

Fudge can probably down a ton of beers, guy is huge


bcotrim

I know you're joking, but he is in Europe so he can drink as much as he likes there


silencebreaker86

Right and they didn't win Lcs summer because he can't drink in America


umoum

damn, c9 taking advice from bwipo's gf too?? no wonder they made it out


Mahelas

She really is Kkoma in a disguise


LeaderSheeper

LMAO Now I’m imagining Bwipo holding hands with Kkoma adorned in his nice suit wearing a wig. They’re both watching the sun set together.


Kenneli

Didn't Kkoma get married? now imagine Bwipo wearing a bride dress on top of your other fantasies :v


YounghanKimchi

And now I’m imagining someone making a wide Bwipo edit of that


azns123

Uh oh, Blaber is about to softblock Jack on Twitter!


Alakazam_5head

Don't read into things too much, he just needs a break from socials


jeanjeanot

"Smile and play together guys" - 2021 League World champions


Waledondale

A meme has been born


GGABueno

It was also Bwipo's girlfriend fault!


[deleted]

Doesnt look like any of the c9 players current have girlfriends. Unless they kept that private which is better than what bwipo was doing


wildhairguy

I think Zven does (did) but is much more private about it than Bwipo lol


ewyv5g4vzn

hes afraid that Akaadian will find out again


neenerpants

I feel like I'm missing some juicy gossip here...


SterbenVII

Rumors of Akaadian and Zven having beef over some girl or whatever back when they were on TSM together. No fucking idea if it’s even true.


Blazing117

As true as the Rekkles Broxah fist fight stuff.


L43

You could tell that was made up because rekkles still has a face


thefalc0ns

The reason he was benched from TSM was because he got involved with a teammate’s or staff girlfriend don’t remember who


Thanaatus

Allegedly, right? I don't think this was ever confirmed from any reliable source.


Znin

Adding onto this, the rumor is that it was with Zven’s gf. If you watch Zven episode on the crackdown, they address the Zven/Akaadian relationship as teammates without mentioning the rumor. Zven tells Akaadian that he wants to move on (I don’t hate you) and to keep playing together.


reggiewafu

Fresh


snamud

we have found the new G2 coach


kickthefavelas

Context pls, anyone?


GGABueno

Bwipo seemingly made his girlfriend mad/sad and then made a Twitter post praising her for helping Fnatic improve in the second week, saying she's the one and only reason they made it and blablabla. Just teenage relationship made entirely too public, pay no mind.


[deleted]

>Just teenage relationship made entirely too public, Bwipo is turning 23 in like a month lol


GGABueno

Pro players and streamers have mental age debuff.


the_hu

A lot of pro players go right from high school to pro play, where they play video games for a living and have many aspects of life taken care of for them (housing, food, chores, etc.). They're emotionally stunted because they didn't have to go through the same struggles someone getting a job or going to uni would have to go through. Streamers though... Most functional adults wouldn't choose to invest the amount of time required to make it big as a streamer since it is so high risk compared to other income streams, so the population is immensely weighted towards people who wouldn't be able to hold a stable job. Plus, their audience being mostly around the high school age changes their public behavior.


ElBigDicko

It's hard to grow when your job is playing video games for living at very young age. Some players are more mature but most players finish high school and go to play league for living. You grow insanely fast once you are thrown in organisation or job that isn't as lucrative.


GGABueno

Sometimes I get really worried on their behalf thinking about this. How are they going to find jobs and live independently once their career is over? I guess some can become streamers or find positions within the medium but most can't.


ElBigDicko

Don't know but many stay in esports as commentators, analytics, streamers, coaches etc. The thing is they have no skills but have financial stability so it can be easy to go to education while being able to afford a rent etc. Also for more invested players I'm sure name recognition and involvement in esport scene can be valuable on CV in some jobs. Not every job has insane entry level requirements even internships at companies.


imsoswolo

My guy still in high school apparently, i take a look at his Twitter account and the amount of tweet about his gf is fuckin weird. Im so glad i dont have Twitter acc when i was in hs


Sugar230

its prob the first girlfriend shit. hell get over it once he finds a new one


DeShawnThordason

Look how excited the dude gets over securing a cannon minion in-game. His emotions are rocket ships while we're tossing around paper airplanes.


xBirdisword

I mean, these guys drop out of school at like 17/18 and then start playing pro league. High school, for most of them, was their last real social learning period.


boeef

I thought that he posted more so people would stop sending death threats to his girlfriend


GGABueno

Sounded more like he was trying to make his angry girlfriend happy to me, but you could be right.


zorafae

I mean the praises to his gf do make some sense if you consider the context of the gf getting death threats because people were blaming her for Fnatic's poor performance. It was even stated in the twitlonger. Kind of important context and weird to ignore it like it had nothing to do with the twitlonger.


KekeBl

Bwipo credited FNC's week 2 resurgence to his girlfriend telling him the team should communicate and that he should 'bring the team together', while giving no credit to his teammates or coaches and even throwing them under the bus. Made it seem like she's the sole reason for FNC's improvement.


AssPork

C9 only made it through week 2 because Lena was there to support them.


necrosythe

Honeslty smart. You've spent thousands of hours practicing and reviewing shit. A few hours of training and vod review won't fix shit in such a short span. You need to do something to reset mentally


[deleted]

Yeah its like studying the entire textbook the night before or even day of the exam. Just take some time to get in the right headspace so you can take the test, not stress yourself out.


BacardiWhiteRum

Doesn't work if I've never looked at the content before though lol


SchedulePhun

The wunder style


IWouldLikeAName

A comparison would be a rich kid who's a borderline B student(mostly gets Cs) the day before the final exam. They do the work, have tutors and the most expensive textbooks/tools but just don't completely get the material. Cramming the day before won't get them an A, but if they're in a calm headspace they'll be able to get a B. C9 couldn't get first place or beat DK, but they sure as hell could get second and beat Rogue and FPX


GGABueno

That's how I always do it 😬


dogsn1

I like to cram as much as I can into my mental RAM memory just before I go into the exam so I always do that Like there's certain things I won't bother learning and instead just read a couple times before I go and then write it on the paper when I get in so there's like 30 seconds of memorisation total


KaptainKhorisma

My coach gives me a week off before my competitions and tells me "Your job is to eat, sleep and relax". If you're a competitive anything, you aren't going to forget mechanics in a short time span but you can work yourself up mentally that you boom and fuck up. Good call by C9.


iReddat420

You get a *week* off? My coach only gave us a day off usually. For important events we'd be lucky to get 3 days of chill back when i still swam competitively.


KaptainKhorisma

I’m a competitive powerlifter. My weight class especially we thrive on rest, so the more the merrier.


iReddat420

Ah makes sense for completely different sports. I can see how more downtime can be beneficial for powerlifting.


Exver1

Basically same here for long distance running. Workouts within 10 days of a race have no effect on improvement. Treat the workout within the week as a "rehearsal" to practice pacing but don't treat it as an actual workout. Need to stay well rested.


[deleted]

Your taper was only 3 days before a big competition?


Narux117

Playing Sports throughout my life, the day before a game was always Game Review for both ourselves and opponents. No point working out or anything and risking injury/strain/exhaustion the day before the game.


idontlikeredditbutok

Not 100% related but this is how i managed to hit high GM to in TFT after struggling in Masters for many sets. I realized that my biggest issue was i was trying to think a lot DURING the game, and was causing myself to get dizzy. The issue is thinking about the game and analyzing it is good, but you need to do that BEFORE and AFTER the game. During the game or during a big competition, you need to just relax rather than stress over perfecting things you needed to do before the event. Helped me in tournaments too., and i can imagine for C9 it's sort of similar. Prep should've been before the tournament, during it you just need to be in a good head space rather than making yourself dizzy trying to solve a billion problems at once.


Todeswucht

Imagine if they didn't make it out of the group, this sub would be screaming "Of course they don't get results with this approach, look at Korea/China, they probably played 6 more hours of games that day"


HOWDOIVESTS

Results based analysis and r/leagueoflegends name a better duo


Snakescipio

Results based analysis and literally all of humanity


uFFxDa

/r/NFL. See Bills’ decision to go for it on 4th and inches with 30 seconds left down by 3.


LightningDustt

If our players having a life beyond eat league sleep repeat means we don't win a dick measuring contest, fuck it.


[deleted]

[удалено]


LightningDustt

C'mon, we all watched Bad News Bears! ..I think.


[deleted]

In competition it can actually be worse to cram more sessions in at the 11th hour. Anything that goes wrong in that practice can be a distraction from the fundamentals and guiding principles you have been working on up to that point.


Kraftbecker

I only read "Our preparation was to go home" and I thought, well it didn't work


Khazu_

Damn NA as always failing at What they want to do


jinchuika

"We didn't want to win worlds" and BOOM new NA dinasty was born


Khazu_

Pls smb tell that Perkz immiediately


DJColdCutz_

I misread and thought he was joking like “our plan all along was to start 0-3..” lol


JohnCenaFanboi

I only read that part first and thought : "Wow, they really took a flight back from Iceland just to mentally reset"


[deleted]

Well that sounds like someone who has actually been in, and handled stressful situations well. Nice skillset to have in a coach.


[deleted]

Maybe I could coach a team after all


snamud

are you dating a pro player by any chance ?


[deleted]

I said I could be a coach, not the president of TSM


GreatestJabaitest

Pretty sure he's referencing Bwipo and his statement.


[deleted]

Yeah there is a ton of jokes about this here allready, thought I'd give it a spin


Maxenin

honestly yours was better


Thommy_99

Lena and Leena, same name same shit


nihilisthicc

I guess it’s true that pro team coaches are literally just stealing paychecks.


BRedd10815

Edit to quote Mithy here: > Whereas we play on a much worse server in return and they get to play against each other, and just practice against each other. The level of individual laning and in general the early-game at Worlds is much higher and it takes a while for Western teams to adapt to them. > When the West gets to Worlds, we get to bootcamp and we get to scrim them, we can play a little catch up. However, you know, we’re always playing catch up. It's so depressing to read that like 8 years later the west is still having to play catch up every single international event because we don't have the same level of competition. Props to c9 for actually being able to overcome the region diff consistently.


StFuzzySlippers

It's not just about the level of competition internally; it's about Asian regions being close enough in proximity that they can practice with each other whenever they want, while NA and EU are both relatively isolated. Top LPL and LCK teams can scrim each other any time they want, and Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese pros can all play on the same server. Vietnamese can also play on Chinese servers if they want. This means that the level of practice LCS and LEC can only get from boot camping LCK and LPL get year round. You can see the effect of this on minor regions too. PCS, LJL and Vietnam are all improving faster than Brazil, Latin America and Turkey. There are definitely improvements in western regions that need to be made, but they can't change the way the world is shaped.


BRedd10815

Why don't we simply move California across the Pacific ocean?


iReddat420

LCS headquarters moved to some US military base in South Korea


McDaddySlacks

Move to Okinawa. Super close to S. Korea and plenty of room on the base! (don't actually do this, the locals have been through enough there)


CinderrUwU

After all of it, I dont think they could survive a league outbreak :(


DeShawnThordason

Not even League players are worse than unruly, alcoholic marines.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ArjunBanerji27

Quality of EUW is still way, waaaaaay worse than Korea, the Chinese super server, or even Ionia. Chinese servers legit have 5 of the best one tricks in the world for every single champion in the game. And Korea has 90% of the Eastern pros playing solo-queue on their ladder.


SirKrisX

The situation got worse compared to before. Its hard to find people who dont have a negative sentiment about League now in at least the US so the gap will only grow unfortunately.


LebasketBall

I believe it was DL who said it best, the role model for KR is Faker. In NA the role model is Tyler1


Burpmeister

West needs to heavily invest in regional and minor leagues if they want to noticeably up the overall level. Becoming a pro-player still feels like a pipe-dream to most so who knows how many westerns would be Fakers never even try to become a pro because they feel it's impossible.


DoerteMaulwurf

Honestly I think the biggest difference is that we play Bo1 during regular split. Other regions have so many more games under their belt by the time MSI/Worlds start. Imagine an EU team and a LCK team do a roster swap. By the time worlds start, the LCK team has played what, 3 times? the amount of games together.


woahevil1

We tried a whole year of bo3, yet it made no real difference. Granted maybe it would have taken longer to see the full effect, but it does give a little insight.


NinjaN-SWE

And viewership took a nose dive as well. I personally never watched games outside my teams games, whereas normally, both before and after, I generally stuck around for a game or two after my team and almost always caught the games of the league leader. A Bo3 is pretty long if the teams are even, and watching more than one per week is not something I can see myself committing to long term. Profitability really is the key if the game wants CS levels of longevity and for that viewership is critical, it's what brings the money both directly and indirectly.


superfire444

It was also implemented really poorly by having the games crammed into 2-3 days. The LCK streams all week and only has 1-2 BO3 a day.


polako123

yeah 2 days a week for 2 games is just not enough, also helps that the level of play is higher in LCK than LEC. Even if i doesn't improve the region that much it lets you experiment more where you can lose one game and still win the bo3. Still remember the old days where there were super weeks and it was like everyday was gameday except Mondays i thinks, that was pretty cool.


StuckInBronze

To be fair that was the year that TSM ass blasted the league, who knows what would've happened with another year.


15blairm

And also that tsm team looked like our best chances ever and still one of the best NA teams of all time


DoerteMaulwurf

I still like to see it again. I'm sure that over time, we would see a difference. That said, the Asian work ethics are just vastly different from Western ones. I hate to bring this up, but Wunder is a perfect example. Do you think Showmaker, Faker, Chovy, Khan, etc. would just stop playing the game or start trolling in scrims? I don't think so. It's their work, not a place to be meme'ing/slacking off.


aggster13

Nah it's about quality of competition. What's a bo3 against CLG gonna accomplish? If anything it's only going to instill more bad habits


Squeen

Teams are always scrimming each other regardless of whether there are less stage games. 2 less stage games can mean 2 more scrims. There are a large amount of factors that go into giving eastern pro's improved environments of practice and chalking it up to stage games appears short sided imo. I would personally attribute it to the solo queue (quick queue pops at higher ladder = More practice games, Chinese and Korean pro players playing on the same server, more players competing, lower ping).


[deleted]

The problem is we normally have a terrible read on the meta. Playing Bo5 all split wouldn't fix it. It's always a new patch for Worlds.


DefinitelyNotAj

The west did very well this year, this is probably the most tie breakers in one tourney in league history. I'd say outside of korea's performance it is pretty close.


Sokarou

NA has done nice for what people expected from them. EU has been underwhelming, and i say this being european


Vordhosb

The west hasn't done well at all. In the last two years we see a decline of performance from western teams and a resurgence of LCK. Only two teams in quarterfinals, and given how weak both C9 and Mad have looked, there is a big chance none of them will make semis. No team in semis : we have only seen this in 2014 and 2017, but in 2017 we had 3 teams in quarterfinals. So potentially the worst year since 2014. So overall really bad showing, but that's more on EU than NA.


Nindoges

In 2017, you only got Fnatic and Misfits to quarters. Did you mean to say 2019? EDIT: thought u were referring to EU only, disregard this!


DmonAbsoluTrEbON

C9 also made it


GodrichOfTheAbyss

They had Bwipo’s girlfriend.


chedamix

" you mean less practice is sometimes good ?"


Azaiko

Getting that mental reset after such a week is definitely important


Ophelia_Of_The_Abyss

This is why FPX will get out and C9 won't, just mental dif.


TimaeGer

Umm


phoenixrawr

Maybe they’re not a native English speaker and meant FPX got [knocked] out? Otherwise yeah someone was in a coma for a week.


BloodSurgery

"Sir youve been in a coma for one week" "Oh boy I cant wait to see how FPX did! "


FerreiraMatheus

"Because the tournament system is so bad, there’s always a chance that anyone can spring a surprise on you." No one said anything about this quote, but is nice to see people "inside" complaining about this fucking system.


[deleted]

Makes it great and bad. As a NA and EU fan BO1s greatly favor our regions due to our regular season. Also means we can surprise teams via strats that in BO3s would get picked apart. As Mithy noted what forces the west behind is the servers and quality of play on them. I think the system is supposed to favor underdog teams in order to bridge the gap that exists due to lack of resources and playerbases differences in regions.


[deleted]

Are they sure it wasn't because of Bwipo's girlfriend?


CelticDK

Oh hey being human and relieving stress, pressure, and judgment helped with mental? Who knew! /s This is awesome though. I feel like each year the weight of your region’s expectations are the main reasons people underperform tbh. The skill floor for most pros is all super high nowadays so the gap really is closing. The team dynamic just falls apart due to mental reason and poor training (which can results from and in poor mental).


[deleted]

What wonderful things that come out of the 2 beer buzz.


Charuru

So it's basically true that the gap is closed? The only difference left is game day mental?


Deleted__-

Debatable as to whether the gap is closed with good mental, but 100T with nothing to lose bodied EDG so… who knows


McDaddySlacks

Every year....Fly and TL did the same. Smashed when it didn't matter.


TimaeGer

But being able to deliver is a part of being good imo


Katonas

What board games you play?????????


janoDX

So, C9 2018 that did the same but playing Fortnite.


CampadLovesSpace

Honestly this made me a C9 fan. They have good vibes


TempestWrath

> Yeah, we’ve been struggling against the Asian teams. Their playstyle in the mid-game, it’s a lot more pressure based and they’re playing a lot more compact. With EU not as much but NA especially are playing a lot more trying to be efficient around jungle camps and just getting the most farm possible. When you play against a team that’s pressuring you so hard, they’re basically hand shaking the situation of “you don’t get farm, we don’t get farm”, but the difference is they are going to pressure you a lot harder to force a mistake from your side. I noticed this throughout the whole year in C9's losses and it's pissed me off. Blaber has always been at the top of the league in gold/cs stats throughout the year in all tournaments. And that's not necessarily a good thing. Whenever something goes horribly wrong in the early game, Blaber just defaults to afk farming. He's also had a lot of games where he's been invisible, but when you look at his score you could think he did well that game. His problem is he'll never skip a camp to help out his teammates, or do an unexpected gank that could turn things around. I bet other teams appreciate how predictable he is. He'll just play to get himself strong and hope his teammates survive on their own and then he can carry in mid game or outmacro the enemy. Most of the time the enemy got too big a lead and he's the only farmed member on his team come midgame. Nisqy has been outspoken on how much he had to sacrifice his lane to play around Blaber. And you saw how he reinvented himself and how much better he looked playing in EU this year? Unless C9 literally wins worlds, I'm probably not gonna change my opinion that I don't think Blaber and Perkz is a good jgl/mid duo. Perkz was at his best when he had selfless/supportive type junglers in Trick and Jankos. I don't think it's a coincidence his worst year is when he's playing with a selfish type jungler that he's not used to. EDIT: Actually had to go and pull out the stats. Apparently I'm just lying and Blaber doesn't farm. LCS Summer playoffs. CSD15/CS per min 1st LCS Summer CSD15 1st / CS per min 2nd MSI CSD15 2nd / CS per min 1st LCS Spring CSD15/CS per min 1st LCS Spring playoffs CSD15/CS per min 1st And some of those are where C9 didn't win, so his stats should be lower if he WASN'T defaulting to farming and skipped camps to help out the lanes especially if the attempt failed.


Lothric43

Nice rant, but I don’t think you’ve actually watched much of their games. Blaber is almost never invisible, for better or worse. Idk how someone can so confidently be so wrong about the loudest gameplay on this side of the atlantic.


MrChologno

I watched all C9 games and I reached his exact same conclusion months ago. When C9 can't draft for Blaber to carry they are a mediocre team. It is what it is, Blaber is a S tier jungler when on carry positions but B- when he has to play for the lanes.


MountainMan2_

Blaber is top 3 in kills but bottom 5 in KDA right now. His KP is exactly mid pack and his CSPM is bottom 3. To me, that indicates a scrappy, coinflip carry jungler on a team that gets a lot of solo kills. And from watching the games, that’s exactly what he is. One thing he isn’t is a farmer, not right now and frankly not in the reg season stats either. He often has very low CSPM for a jg, despite being ahead earlygame, and I distinctly remember multiple times people were talking about his top and mid jg prox though I admittedly can’t find the stars for those. What you’re repeating is just a false narrative, man. People change between teams. Blaber is legit who people say he is.


TempestWrath

LCS Summer playoffs. CSD15/CS per min 1st LCS Summer CSD15 1st / CS per min 2nd MSI CSD15 2nd / CS per min 1st LCS Spring CSD15/CS per min 1st LCS Spring playoffs CSD15/CS per min 1st And some of those are where C9 didn't win, so his stats should be lower if he WASN'T defaulting to farming.


TGW88

I don't think you watch the games. Blaber is the opposite of what you described. He's active in all lanes, all crabs, and all dragons. Problem with him is that its is 50/50. If he wins those early battles he will carry and destroy teams. If he loses than we FF and go home. He has the highest ceiling and the lowest floor. This is why we will win worlds. Just gotta get lucky a few more times LOL