Interview with Impact: “I think against the LEC we still have a good chance”

Before LCS Finals weekend, Impact of Team Liquid took the time to talk to The Game Haus about his past series, the coming weekend and even his favorite Pokemon. Thanks to Impact for his time and best of luck this weekend.

(This has been edited for clarity)

You had a banger of a series against FlyQuest, which sadly had you on the losing side. Talk to me a bit about your matchup with Solo and what went right and what went wrong in your mind.

With not Solo, but I think just in general our pick and ban was the problem. For example, we gave up GP, right? When we played Zyra and Kog. That was not great, in terms of our pick and ban. So last game, we gave them Mordekaiser but take double tank like Ornn and Volibear. But we still had a chance to win. We didn’t have the right focus teamfight wise or not focus on who our target was or how we could engage. I think that’s why we lost.

It definitely was a close series. Looking forward to this week you’re gonna be playing Broken Blade who has brought out very different picks than what you’ve seen during the rest of the Summer in the Jax and Lucians. Do you feel that you will still be able to play the “Impact” style of League of Legends or do you think you’re gonna have to adapt?

I don’t think it matters too much right now, because jungle meta changed. And mid meta kind of changed too. I think people are not picking carries too much because it is too risky against AP junglers like Eve and Lillia. It is really easy to die if you play Jayce or Lucian. I can see that not mattering, so I’m confident against Broken Blade.

So you feel like you will still be able to play Ornn, Mordekaiser and Shen into some of these more carry picks?

Yeah, definitely. I mean next patch might be different if Shen gets nerfed for something, but I think it’s still meta.

Let’s focus more on TSM as a full team, without obviously giving away any strategies. What are you as a team going to be focusing on in order to send them to Play-Ins at Worlds instead of you?

For me, it’s just not dying to topside because they’re trying something. They like to dive or they like it to try something top side most of the time. We just have to realize it early and then just stay aware and play better.

Okay, so you’re feeling pretty confident going into the series?

Yes.

You know the LEC and LCS have a continual grudge match going into Worlds, do you think LCS is going to perform better than the LEC at Worlds?

I think against the LEC we still have a good chance. But when I watch the LPL, I am not so sure, they’re actually really good. Some people say that China just likes to fight, right? But every fight has a reason actually. They make the decision. They’re always at the dragon but then the object is actually jungle monsters. They’re just going to let everybody go there and try looking for a fight. If there is no one there to contest then they know where the enemy is going to be and they knew what was there. I watch them and go, wow, they played that good.

China’s looking really strong, to say the least. Looking back at the LEC,  who would you say is the best team right now?

I would say G2. But we need to see them come back. They have not had a great time during the regular season. Now lets see if they can come back. I hope they can. I would like to play them again. I would like to scrim them again. But I would like to play against the LPL more.

I like to end every one of my interviews by asking about every pro player’s favorite Pokemon. Who is your favorite Pokemon?

People normally just say Pikachu or some basic one. I forgot his English name. I know the Korean name, though. (Impact translates to English here) S, n, o, r, l, a, x.

Oh, Snorlax! The big guy.

Yeah I like that guy.

Yeah, me too. Thank you so much Impact for taking the time today. And for everybody out there make sure to watch the LCS this weekend, as he and Team Liquid take on TSM.

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