Paz – Post Worlds2020 Interview

LOLNINJA
Hey Paz, nice to meet you again!

 

Paz
Hey LOLNINJA, glad to see you again!

 

LOLNINJA
So you’re all done with Worlds 2020. How do you feel now?

 

Paz
I have a lot of regrets. To our fans, I let you down. I am sorry.

 

LOLNINJA
Sounds like you have much to reflect on. Why don’t you share with us?

VS Rainbow 7

LOLNINJA
First of all, tell me about Rainbow7. I thought you guys did a great job and you won. What do you think?

 

Paz
Of course I am happy because I won, but I am not happy with how I won. They made a lot of mistakes, so they let us win. We had to beat Rainbow7 and PSG Talon in our group. It was exactly what I expected.

 

LOLNINJA
So you were confident.

 

Paz
Yeah. At the end of the day, we lost the group though. I have to work much harder to deal with them. But yeah, we are improving bit by bit. We scrimmed with several teams from group A and we had a decent win rate. It was like practice but I felt like I made it.

 

LOLNINJA
So at the post-match interview, You said that you picked a champion you guys had never played in a scrim. What is that?

 

Paz
It was Elise. We were forced to pick Elise because there were no AP jungers left in the draft. Bugi is very good at playing Elise, and we expected a situation like this so we were like “OK.” We were a bit upset though. They picked Sion to our Renekton, So I thought It was 50-50.

VS Unicorns of Love

LOLNINJA
So, tell me about UOL.

 

Paz
It was the most frustrating match we played. Our Sett died at Lv1 and our lane swapping was totally doomed. We fell really far behind at first. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we did not swap.

 

LOLNINJA
Sheepy said he expected that you to lane swap.

 

Paz
Yeah, honestly I was like they had us. They picked Orianna on R1 and Kassadin on R5. They were like “Oh you’re gonna swap? then we will outscale you”. Sheepy was very serious and researched us very well. Not just UOL but every team pick/ban they did very well.

 

© 2024 Riot Games, Inc. Used With Permission.

 

LOLNINJA
So they outdrafted you.

 

Paz
Yeah they did. There’s no way around it. I found it difficult to deal with them based on our narrow champion pool.

 

LOLNINJA
Ace had a great teleport on the fight over the rift herald, but you guys couldn’t take down Nomanz’s Kassadin.

 

Paz
We had a communication problem at that time. Someone said that we have to chase Kassadin but our ADC said not to. At the end of the day, Nomanz killed 3 of us. Archer feels pretty bad about it, to be honest.

 

LOLNINJA
Kassadin got 2 kills and I was left speechless.

 

Paz
I was upset. I am a guy who doesn’t get upset easily, but at that time, I knocked over my water.

 

LOLNINJA
Hard time. You guys still showed us a great fight anyway.

 

Paz
Thanks. I am not so happy though.

VS LGD Gaming

LOLNINJA
You pick Braum as B5. I thought it was strange. Why?

 

© 2024 Riot Games, Inc. Used With Permission.

 

Paz
We banned Leona and Nautilus to counter Mark but it didn’t turn out well. We had too few engage tools. Only our Ashe was able to engage, and you normally take Mikeals and Cleanse in the meta anyway. After the laning phase, well fed Ornn and Kindred took over the whole game.

Raina said Braum was his most comfortable pick left.

 

LOLNINJA
I see. How do you think you did?

 

Paz
I felt terrible at that time. LGD had just lost 2 in a row before us. But I didn’t think they lost because they were bad, they were just limit testing. So I told my teammates that LGD is going all-out tomorrow. Renekton is sometimes bad for Ornn and Kindred. Orrn is very good at dealing with turret dives, and even worse for us, Langx plays Ornn very well. I was like “I have to go safe”. I was not able to play comfortably.

 

LOLNINJA
I see. Was Langx that good?

 

Paz
Pretty great. He was very aggressive. He played a lot of mind games by using his Ultimate even at worlds. I was like “are you sure? crazy”. It was his worlds after all, he really showcased what it meant to be from the LPL.

 

LOLNINJA
Langx is a decent top laner but he is not the best in LPL.

 

Paz
I understand what you mean. but he was still awesome. There are a lot of top laners better than him in LPL. They scared me and I am thrilled.

 

 

VS PSG Talon

LOLNINJA
Tell me about PSG Talon. They had to play without their original starter so you had a chance.

 

Paz
I know Kongyue and Uniboy were going to play but never expected they would fit as well as they did with PSG. They are veterans so they can adapt to any team easily.

VS LGD Gaming (Tie Breaker)

LOLNINJA
You picked B3 Camille. It was a hyper carry for you for the first time since long.

 

Paz
Yeah. We banned Ornn, they banned Renekton. So I picked Camille. She is a consistent blind pick. They answered with Jax. He is hard to deal with after Lv6 when you play Camille. I tried to make an advantage but he was too smart.

 

LOLNINJA
That explains so much. You hovered R5 Kalista too, I was thinking “Finally! Archer is gonna play Kalista!” but instead you picked Xayah.

 

Paz
Our jungler had to take care of both top and bot if we picked Kalista, and Xayah countered their Leona and Jax.

 

Wrap up

LOLNINJA
Thank you. You were able to win one game, but I don’t think you are satisfied with that. So what is the key to success in the worlds?

 

Paz
Some of us were overwhelmed. Someone said that he had difficulty even playing the game. Simply, we have to earn more experience playing on such a big stage.

For myself, I was not able to be as aggressive as I wanted to be in some matches. I have to test my limit on a regular basis and conquer the fear of death. It is not going to be easy but I just have to do it.

Broadening the champion pool as a whole team is one of the keys to success in worlds too. Rakan and Alistar popped up as meta supports and a lot of teams had no problem picking them. We have to broaden our champion pool if we want to compete.

 

LOLNINJA
Thank you very much. Do you have anything you’d like to say to your fans?

 

Paz
I am very sorry to disappoint you. It was the first time in a long time that I had such an opportunity and I figured out what I have to learn to do better next time.
To be honest, I felt like quitting because I was not the best. but now I am highly motivated again!
Thank you for your support. Next time, I will succeed in worlds!

 

Translation: LOLNINJA

Edit: @Joushi_TV