Why did you guys decide on staying in China to compete in Fengyun Championship? Aren't you guys suppose to be flying back to your home countries?
We tried getting into Starladder, if we could get in we would play it, but we couldn't for obvious reasons. There aren't any tournaments for us to play in Europe and North America. Obviously the best choice is to stay and take our second chance against the Chinese teams.
Starladder season is already ongoing though. How are you guys going to get in?
I heard some teams left. So, we thought we could replace them but it was too late into the season.
How did you inform your parents that you will be staying in China for Christmas?
They assumed that we were going to stay until January. We told them we are going to stay until January anyway, it is not really a surprise to them.
Tomorrow (today), you guys are going to have your match against Subvert and then your next game will be on the 26th. So what will the guys be doing on Christmas? Will it be just another day of training or will you guys be celebrating?
I think we are going to play. From what I know, Subvert has forfeited and therefore, we won our first match
Talking a little about G-League, did you expect your team to be in top four or were there expectations that your team will lose before the playoffs?
In all the interviews and people asking me this question, I told them that I expected to lose in scrims. In G-League groupstage, the top three out of the four get to go to the relegation matches and one will get eliminated. We estimated ourselves getting third in the group and from there onwards, try our best to win. I always go into any tournament thinking we can win regardless of our chances but unfortunately, we got eliminated by Tongfu.
A few weeks ago when you just arrived in China, LGD or more specifically, xiao8 said that your team is very unpredictable and he is having headache figuring out how to beat you. Were you guys winning them in scrims?
No, the Chinese teams like to be humble. Even when the matches are going to be easy, they like to make it sound difficult. People told me that the Chinese teams would purposely say "It's going to be a hard match today guys".
Trying to hype the match up?
Being humble don't hype the match. It's more fun and hype saying "We are going to destroy them" with the other team saying the same thing as well but in China, they say "I hope we have a great match, it's going to be hard".
So you mean they are respectful to each other?
It's not really respectful, it's all lies. (laughs)
So, Fengyun Championship is going to end on the 28th. When will you guys be flying back?
Everyone else is going to fly back on the 29th. I really want to stay. I want to visit my family who will be having holidays in Guangzhou.
After you return to Canada, will you guys want to come back to China to compete in perhaps the second season of WPC-ACE League? I don't think it is happening until February.
I don't think so. We don't want to be in China. We are going back to play with the Europeans and North Americans. That has already been decided.
Why? Why not stay in China for another month or two to practice against the Chinese teams?
The enviroment.... We don't have a gaming house right now (Speed is currently staying in a hotel near Gamefy Studio) and I am sure when we do, it would be better but right now, we don't like it here. The air is polluted. One or two person would complain about the air and some people don't like the food. The Internet is really slow and it is even slower with VPN, it is just really annoying.
I guess it is mostly the culture difference and you guys are used to a different lifestyle back in Europe and North America?
Not just that, I personally think Chinese teams are better. They are better to scrim and practice against but the difference in skills is so small. The top teams in the west can take on the top teams in China, so it isn't worth it to stay here.
Alright, since you guys are not going to be in China anymore is your team getting a gaming house in North America like what Speed previously promised?
Most likely, when it comes to gaming house, it always takes longer than expected but we are pretty sure we will get one. I don't think it is good to stay in a gaming house for too long. We would probably use it for bootcamp but we probably won't live there long term.
Is it because the training in the gaming house will be too intense?
No, that's not the reason. Having your family and friends around is pretty important. As much as we have no life or whatever, we prefer having like our own rooms and not share our room with somebody, being able to see our friends and family and being able to talk about random stuff with friends. Having five guys in the same house is going to drive you crazy. When it comes to a LAN tournament, when you first play on LAN, when you meet each other, there is this fascination like "wow, this is my team" and you sort of have this respect for each other and it is very hard for you to flame each other. If you live together for a long amount of time, eventually, you are going to end up flaming each other and it is possible that you will flame each other in a LAN tournament as well. I think Fluffnstuff called it a honeymoon period, and I would like to maintain that as long as possible.
No more Chinese tournaments from now on?
If we qualify for it, we will come but we don't like to stay here for an extended period of time. People are getting a little cranky. For example, bone7 is eating the same food every day because he does not want to eat anything else or try anything new.
What is he eating?
He is eating wonton soup and that's it. He hates xiao long bao (Chinese dumpling) and he called the McDonalds here low quality. He likes Subway but it is very expensive here. The price is the same as everywhere else in the world but that is while all the other food here cost a dollar.
Are there anything interesting worth mentioning now that you are in China for about a month?
There are a lot of stuff worth mentioning but some of them are pretty disgusting. Laughing and watching at bone7 everyday on what he eats is so enjoyable, I would pay for it. When we go to eat in the morning, when the wonton soup came one by one, we always give them to bone7 first because the last person who gets their food will finish it before he finishes. He will take a whole freaking hour to eat the wonton soup. He will not take a bite and he will just wait until the food cools down because he is afraid of hot food. The last person sometimes finish it before he even take a bite.
What the hell?
He got a problem with his teeth or something. He has to go back to Romania and set up an appointment with the dentist.
So it's mostly just bone7. Nobody else have any issues?
Well, everyone has issues. I have issues as well. I haven't been trying but if I really try, I'm sure I could use Twitter and Facebook. Right now, I am just ignoring my fans. They all probably hate me. (laughs)
Well since you guys are most probably going to be in China for Christmas, can you tell us the difference between the holiday there and in Canada?
There are Santa cardboards and stickers that everyone stick on their shop. It legitimately pissed me off because everyone is using the same one and it is so creepy and ugly. Other than that, I don't really know. There is no snow here. In Canada, there is snow.
Are you missing the snow?
When I was younger, snow is the best thing ever. Now I wake up every morning wondering if I have to shovel.
Alright man that's the end of the interview, would you like to give a shoutout?
Shoutout to all my fans, I hope you don't hate me. Shoutout to river1, thefuriousnoob, Weir, Ella, my team, my sponsors and a big shoutout to Ziituzi, I'm not sure how to say her name!
It's XiiTuzi.
Whatever. She was an extremely extremely good translator and she helped us a lot. She isn't here anymore though. She flew back to America already, now we are screwed.
Image credit: Helen 'Xiituzi' Xu
