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Interview with C9 Mithy: “The skill between regions is getting tighter”

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Shortly after the MSI Group C Stage concluded, where Cloud9 finished 4-2, we had the opportunity to interview Cloud9’s strategic coach “Mithy”. We talked about how Cloud9 has adapted to the MSI meta and their surprising win against DAMWON KIA.

Written below is the transcript of Mithy’s interview. Bold font goes for the media’s questions and standard font signals Mithy’s answers. A word of thanks also goes to Max Nam who translated for us during the interview.

What are some of the challenges in adapting to the MSI meta and how has Reignover coaching remotely changed the team’s approach to these challenges?

The challenges within MSI is just the same as playing with the new meta. We just first have to figure out priorities, what comps beat what, and what champions beat what so it just takes a while because of COVID sort of like being in Europe or North America during the offseason, which is very important to us because we don’t want to get burned out for Worlds too. It’s just those that made it a little bit hard. The first week was just rough like we didn’t have the best read on what worked for us and so on. It’s been a process but I’m happy that we managed to pull through this second week and we have a shot at the Rumble stage.

You mentioned struggling early during this group stage. How did you turn around that momentum and what match was the toughest for you?

I think all of the matches were tough in one way or another. The things we did were just self-reflect on what works for us, what other teams have been doing too, gather all of the information, keep an open mind, and figure out a plan that we can agree upon for this week and that’s what we did. It turned out good.

Were there any specific mindset changes you guys had to go through to have a more successful run in the second half [of the group stage]?

Umm, no? I mean, we were just figuring out the early game. We’ve been working hard with the players. Veigar and Reignover are basically coaching remotely. There’s really not much of a change except that [Reignover’s] not on stage drafting and leading the drafts and so on; but overall, we were trying to do what we can, right? I think we’ve been doing a good job so far and we’re getting better at talking and synergizing about what we want to do early. Things are slowly coming together I’d say.

In the last MSI, NA managed to reach the finals. Although that was two years ago, how do you see your chances of winning it this year for the region?

I think we should take things one step at a time. That’s what we’ve been doing for this stage and that’s what we want to do for the next one (Rumble). I don’t think it’s very healthy to start looking so much into the future and we should just focus on our next match.

This year, Josedeodo and Newbie came to the LCS. How do you see the level of LATAM teams and do you consider that more players of that region can one day join the LCS?

I think players of any regions can join the LCS and the Latin American community sort of shares our server in America. It sucks for them because they have to play with high ping, but if they’re able to show their skills with that disadvantage, then they can come to NA and show up as Josedeodo did. I’m just super happy for myself in being a Spanish speaker, you know. I’m just super happy that this happens and I’d be more excited if more of the players came over.

Which team do you think will win this MSI?

Uhh, Cloud9? [laughs]

And which team are you looking forward to playing against in Worlds 2021?

I don’t actually care. That’s a good question. I don’t know. I feel like I don’t really have the mindset of  ‘I want to play against Fnatic’ or ‘I want to play against G2.’ I actually don’t care. I don’t know. It’s weird. [laughs]

Do you think the previous synergy between Perkz and Zven has helped C9 in any way?

Of course. It’s probably easier for them to talk to each other and figure things out. Most importantly, I think there’s a mutual respect that they have for each other and the trust that they can achieve great things together and I think that’s what really pulls players through tough times. I think they have that because they won things already together, so yeah, there’s that.

You mentioned early-game changes and getting on the same page in that phase, what specifically do you guys need to work on the days between this phase [and Rumble]?

Overall, having better plans out of early and being able to build consistent leads or getting a consistent crab, honestly. [laughs] Everything that has to do with the early game like where we ward, how we track enemy junglers, what sort of set plays we can bring into the equation, learning from the other teams who are doing a very good job at that, how they manage their wave cs and what they do with them. Just learn with the experience of getting s**t on, honestly. [laughs]There’s so much of it that we have a different competition in NA and there are some things that I think we do quite well, but there are some things where we are a bit lacklustre on. Coming here and being able to experience teams that do that very well is an enlightening situation for us and we just try to get as much as we can from them.

Having advanced to the Rumble stage under this new format instituted by Riot, what do you think of it? Is this beneficial for the teams in the lower regions or everyone altogether?

Well, I’m not a fan of best-of-one’s. I understand it’s good for viewership but I don’t think they represent League of Legends as a whole. But it makes for exciting games, so there’s that, I can’t really argue with that. I personally think that this is the best way, in terms of the group stage, like how we can include the minor regions because the level of League all over the world-the gap is getting tighter and tighter in terms of individual skill and game understanding, mostly. I think this is a great step in the right direction and I hope to see more of this, like having international and national events or something like that. All of this is great, right? But yeah, I just don’t like the best-of-one’s. That’s just what it is, I guess.

You guys obviously had a poor start to the tournament, but then you turned it around. How was the team’s mentality and general atmosphere after the first couple of days at MSI?

We were very happy to win our last game because otherwise, it would have been pretty scuffed. Generally speaking, we didn’t have a good read on the meta and I was very frustrated about that too because if I was playing instead of them, I would feel the same way. The games were just hard to play from draft also. We just had to take some time to reflect, be open-minded, look at what other teams are doing, try to learn from them, and theory craft as much as possible. The overall mood was good. We were just taking things one step at a time. We take one game after another and I don’t think anyone was very upset about the situation. It’s just what it is and we just came here to do the job, you know? We just have to go into every game with a winning mindset regardless of what happened the day or the game before.

How is Blaber taking the international stage in his first event as a starter? From the outside, it looks like there’s a little extra pressure on him. Is that the same sentiment in the team or pretty much the same?

I think for the first few days he struggled. He sort of got a bit unlucky but we also got double crab’d by DWG KIA so it was just a rough [first] game. Then in the second game, he felt traumatic that he was going to get double crab’d again and then he just suicided basically and ran it down. Ever since then, he has been feeling a bit comfortable and I think he had a very good Morgana showing against DFM today. He’s been playing really good. For this last game, I honestly don’t know what he was thinking or what he was doing, but after he inted the first two times, he had two sick Rumble ults so he was doing alright. I just think he needs to get a little bit comfortable, which he is already. I think he’s maybe a bit too comfortable, but when the stakes are a bit higher and we play the Rumble, I think he’s going to do more than well.

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Shay Robson is a Co-Founder of Gamezo. Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, he's also a Journalist for Dexerto covering news across all verticals including gaming, esports, and entertainment.