Following his week 1 victory, Juan “Contractz” Garcia discussed how he is feeling heading into the Summer Split.
This is the best start to a split GGS has had since they have been founded, how does it feel to start out so strong?
“Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting this coming into the split, especially since when we first entered practice, we were kind of shaky and not really on the same page. But, over the last week and a half, we’ve been playing a lot better as a team. So I’m glad we are off to a strong start.”
You guys ended strong last split heading into playoffs, and like I said started this split strong, but has anything changed from the end of spring up until now?
“I actually think I was the one holding back the team in playoffs, I wasn’t really playing well. Like, I don’t think I adapted to the scuttle pathing very well, and I had a hard time understanding the meta. But, coming into this split, I think I am a lot better. I adapted to things like pathing and getting my laners ahead. So, if I can keep this up, I think that we can go very far.”
The draft of this game was very interesting, they counter-picked Hauntzers Jayce with Pyke top, and then Froggen pulled out his signature Anivia mid, how did you guys feel about this game coming out of the draft?
“I think as a team, we’re really confident in our ability to play games out properly. But, I guess from my side of it, I find it kind of difficult if I ever left top side alone, because if Jarvan ever ganks Jayce, it’s going to be really hard to win. So, I kind of had to sacrifice my own path to protect Hauntzer up in top lane. I still think we could have had better level one wards to scout out Jarvan. But, since we didn’t do that, I had to be sure to get top vision for him so that he wouldn’t fall behind. I think after we secured our top lead with the draft we had, it was really easy to play team-fights from there with Anivia, and close out the game.”
The pace of this game was really slow and controlled, at one point it was 1-0 at 25 minutes and you guys were up 6K gold, is this a style you are looking to play, or did you adapt based on this game?
“Honestly, I think we’re always looking for an aggressive pace, but FlyQuest wasn’t really giving us anything to work with. I feel like they played too safe with their comp and they didn’t use their side-lane tempo to their advantage.”
What are your thoughts on the current jungle meta? Do you want to see it change/if so, what would that be?
“Yeah, they did buff AP champions recently, but it still feels like AP champions aren’t too strong compared to the conqueror junglers. The only one that kind of works is Elise, but even then, you kinda need a Renekton or a Jayce top to really help her excel. I would like to be able to play more AP champions in the jungle without needing a certain comp. For example, I think Taliyah is super strong, but she needs some form of CC from her teammates to really help her out. So maybe something like an Evelynn buff to help out the jungle meta.”
Next week you guys have Clutch and C9, what are you guys going to work on to make sure you have the best chance to win both of those games?
I think we’re just gonna go in to this week of practice with the mindset of improving our basics in the early game, along with improving our warding. We’re trying to make it so we can ward as fast as possible to get early information and take those advantages in the early game. But, I think we will be pretty confident heading in to this weekend, although C9 will be a tough match, I think we’re playing really well right now, so, we will see how it goes.
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