After the victory against Immortals, I had the chance to sit down with TSM Lost, ADC for TSM. I was able to ask him about topics like comparing playing in NA to OCE, playing with multiple teammates with playing multiple years of playing experience, the best bot lane in the LCS and more.
The questions I asked TSM Lost will be in bold font and his answers will be in standard font.
You’ve played in NA, and you’ve played in OCE, can you tell me the differences between the two regions in your opinion?
Infrastructure. One hundred per cent. It has everything to do with infrastructure. I think back in OCE it’s way more barebones, it’s kind of just like the homies, your manager, the coach, the guy who runs the org, and maybe a couple more people and that’s it, whereas here there’s a huge facility, a lot diversified into a ton of different games. So there are just a lot more resources here, so players can play on a good PC, peripherals provided to them, more money, more people, just bigger.
Speaking of transitioning from OCE to the LCS, there are lots of players on TSM that have been playing for a long time, like PowerOfEvil, Huni, and SwordArt, has their experience helped you transition to playing on a bigger stage, and in a bigger region like NA?
Yeah, of course. My team has always helped me in review to up my game. I think in particular I’ve been talking a lot more with SwordArt just in general, just throughout the seven months we’ve been playing together, so I think it’s in particular to him that I have changed the way I play and I see it in a different way. So there is a lot to learn, and I think still (I’m) still not where I want to be in terms of skill level, but we’re getting there.
Playing off the SwordArt point there, I was able to talk to Neo last week about how playing with Aphromoo has helped him improve his gameplay and he said his macro. How has playing with SwordArt helped you improve in your game?
I think playing with SwordArt has helped my laning phase more. I think I pay more attention to small details, and see matchups in not the same way that I saw them before because they aren’t as black and white as they always seem, because when you watch it’s so easy to like this side wins or this side wins, but there’s always a lot of intricacies that I missed out on before, so I think that’s a skill that I picked up playing with SwordArt.
Switching gears a little bit, looking at the league, there’s a lot of bot lanes that seem really strong, like 100 Thieves with FBI and Huhi, Team Liquid with Tactical and CoreJJ, what in your opinion is the strongest bot lane besides yourself and SwordArt, and what do you look forward to play against?
I don’t know, I don’t think it’s that easy to tell. I don’t think that there is a definite strongest bot lane. A lot of people would point to 10 0Thieves, but in my opinion, 100 Thieves, C9 and TL all have very competent and strong bot lanes, so I don’t know, I’m not sure.
Going on champions in the bot lane, we’ve seen a lot of people complain that ADC’s aren’t strong enough on reddit, the items kind of suck, do you think that playing as a bot laner in pro play that it’s a weak role or a strong role? Where do you think that the role stands in the grand scheme of the game?
I’m not one to complain too much you know? I don’t think that ADC is too weak, but it is a meme, and I also personally like to complain that my role sucks, like 1v1’d by the enemy support or their jungler with three fewer items than you takes you out, but I don’t think that AD is bad. I do think that there is some argument to be made about it because Ziggs is coming into the bot lane, a champion historically from another role in your lane, your lane is pretty weak, but I wouldn’t say that about bot right now.
Let’s go back to the beginning of the spring split, you’re coming in to replace Doublelift, and now we’re in the middle of Summer Split, in your estimation, how do you think you’re fulfilling the role of the replacement for Doublelift on TSM, and do you think there is anything that you can improve on looking back at the last year of play so far?
I think Peter, or Doublelift, has played so many years in the LCS, at that high level for the league, that I think it’s pretty hard to draw a comparison to how far I’ve gone as opposed to how much he’s achieved because I played one season on EchoFox and now this is basically two and a half splits in the LCS, which is far less the amount he’s played.
I’m not one to compare too much anyway, so I think it’s, you know, just kind of the journey that I’m going on and hopefully, I make strides and I make splashes in the league and show that I’m a top contending AD Carry. I think I haven’t done the best job at showing that, I don’t think I’m in contention for the top two or best AD, and I really do want to be there, so I’ve still got a lot of improvement to do, and more shows to make.
Last week during a post-game interview, NXI answered in response to how he wanted to be remembered, he said he didn’t want to be remembered for anything specifically, is there anything that you want to be remembered for?
I do want to be remembered, I want to be remembered as, you know as the end goal ideally in the imminent future, as a top AD Carry in NA, and hopefully, a top AD Carry in the world one day.
Friday last week was deemed “Upset Day”, a lot of the bottom teams were beating the top teams, and it seemed to continue through the week into this week. D you think it’s a matter of the bottom teams getting better or the top teams getting complacent?
I don’t think the top teams are getting complacent. I just think overall the LCS internationally hasn’t been amazing and honestly, we aren’t the best region right now, we aren’t a super top region. That being said, the top teams will slip up, because we’re a top contending region. I think you would see a very big difference between the top teams and the bottom teams, but as you can see a lot of the top teams are slipping up, and the bottom teams are stepping up, in my opinion, so congratulations to them but, you know, our top teams are definitely having some bad blunders during the week but we’re all human, it is what it is.
Last question. To all the TSM fans out there, that maybe after the couple losses they get concerned, after the wins they are feeling a bit better, do you have anything to say to them from you to reassure them going into the rest of the season and into playoffs?
All I can say is we’re doing our best, you know. We’re putting in as many hours as we can. The amount of work being put in is not in question honestly, we’re practising pretty hard honestly, and whether or not that practise translates to better play, and us being the top team or a very strong team heading into playoffs is up to the practice and how well we play, but we can’t guarantee that, but all we can say is we’re just doing our best.
