AmazingJ: 'My champion pool is only Maokai, Nautilus, and Poppy, so 10 bans is a bit tense for me'
In the opening match of 2017 LPL Spring between I MAY and Royal Never Give Up, I MAY decisively 2-0’d their opponent with the debut of new jungler, Tu “Ben4” Xincheng. Following the match I MAY joined a press conference with Chinese media to answer questions.
In both games, Ben4 used carry style junglers, is this because of your personal style, or did it take into consideration the entire team?
Ben4: Both, partially the team’s style and my own.
Ben4, in your debut, you got a PentaQ on Lee Sin. What are your expectations for the future?
Ben4: The mood is very good. I hope that myself and my teammates can continue to work hard together and cheer each other on.
Before the game, did you expect this kind of performance?
Ben4: I never had this expectation, just thought that if I wasn’t nervous, it would be okay.
Did the new 10 ban system have any impact on I MAY?
Shek “AmazingJ” Waiho: It had quite a big impact on me. My champion pool is just Maokai, Nautilus, and Poppy, so 10 bans is a bit tense for me.
Coach Son “Kezman” Daeyoung slaps the table, and the team laughs.
Kezman: We were worried about 10 bans for a long time because our team’s champion pools are very shallow. Like AmazingJ can only play Garen, Poppy, these kinds of champions. [The team laughs.] In this time, we expanded our champion pools, so the 10 ban system helped us improve.
Coach Kezman, how did you feel about playing against Coach Firefox today?
Kezman: We certainly had to win this game, as Firefox is RNG’s new Coach, and he is very familiar with us. To answer his style, we prepared a tactic, and the results [in scrims] were pretty good. Today’s match also went smoothly.
Athena, in LCK the 10 ban system has made it possible to see many bizarre champions. Did you have to prepare some strange champions?
Kang “Athena” Hawoon: No.
Kezman: No, no, no.
Coach Kezman, what was the reason you added two junglers to the team?
Kezman: First of all, Ben4 performed very well. We also have a Korean jungler who is relatively young. Because of long-term considerations, we decided to introduce two junglers. The possibility of rotating junglers is something I have to look at, as it might become our secret weapon.
Did your new jungler influence your team’s strategy?
Kezman: The style of our jungler changed, so it made our team’s style become more aggressive. Maybe it supplemented our former style. Before, we were more of a late game team. Now, we have more styles. We can now play more aggressively in the early game.
In the last interview, Road evaluated Jinjiao very highly. How do you feel about Jinjiao’s performance after today?
Yun “Road” Hangil: Today we faced Uzi, who is a very strong AD carry. To tell the truth, today Jinjiao played very well. If it were the old Jinjiao, he’d already be terrified before connecting to the game, but today he played very well. So I think Jinjiao could totally become a very strong Chinese AD carry, and he has plenty of room to develop.
Ben4, how old are you? Your voice makes you sound very young.
Ben4: 18.
Today IM played very well. AmazingJ, what are IM’s expectations?
AmazingJ: To play better than last season.
Kezman: Our goal is to beat EDG.
You can follow Kelsey Moser on Twitter @karonmoser.
