Photo: LoL eSports
Our on-site reporters Aluca and ISB bring you another video interview from Worlds 2014, this time with Alliance's Nyph.
The duo catches up with Alliance's support player on the first day of the Singapore group stages and chat him up on his time in Singapore, the loss to Cloud 9, the strength of the Taiwan and Singapore teams, and his predictions for the tournament.
So, Nyph, is this your first time in Singapore?
Yes.
How’s the country treating you?
It’s pretty good, I’ve been enjoying it a lot.
Did you watch the group stages in Taiwan?
Yeah I watched most games. Obviously, some games were not that interesting due to the level difference between the teams but I watched the games of all the stronger teams and it was kind of what I expected.
How are the Taiwan and Singapore teams compared to each other?
The groups here are stronger. SG White are way better than other teams and Group B was messed up as well due to SK Gaming playing with a substitute and it was kind of clear which teams would make it out. But here, all the teams can make it and it’s really exciting.
You just played against Cloud 9. What did you think went wrong in the match?
I think our ban/pick was pretty bad. We talked about it before and we actually didn’t want to give them strong early game heroes like Syndra is really strong pre-6, Rumble is the same. But we did it nevertheless and they just snowballed. We were just really passive – we’ll try to be more aggressive in the next game and do better.
You will be playing Najin White Shield and KaBuM tomorrow. How are you preparing for the matches?
We mainly prepare for White Shield, they’re the strongest team in our group. If you watch their game against KaBuM, you can see they are way better. I think their ban/pick will be different in our game but we’ll try to prepare as best as possible, get something we’re comfortable with and play aggressively.
Before you came to Singapore, you’ve been bootcamping in Korea. How do you think that helps you against White Shield?
It helps us a lot because we played a lot of Korean teams, we know how they do vision control, what works for them, what picks they think are strong. We see how Rumble is picked a lot here at worlds, and also Ryze. But I think the biggest thing is vision control. They ping a lot more, they fight a lot more for control and I think Shield are the same – if you go for a ward, they’ll try to punish you and you have to be prepared for that.
In the coming days, you’ll be playing Cloud 9 again, continuing this EU vs NA rivalry. Do you think you will come on top?
I like to win against NA and make Europe proud. We’ll give everything to win the next game.
If you make it out of the group stage, you will meet a team from Group C. Which one do you fancy more?
That’s a tough question. I think Blue are really, really strong. They have a great mid and late game, especially in the latter where their team fighting is incredible. So the best for us is to get first so we play against a second place team and get an easier bracket but I’m not sure if that’s possible.
Other than Samsung Blue, who do you think will make it out of Group C? Fnatic, LMQ, OMG?
I think it will be Fnatic, I think they’re the strongest team out of the three. OMG kind of underperforms right now. LMQ have been surprisingly good, they have some really good comps they like to play so they can make it out as well but I think it will be Blue first, then Fnatic.
What about KaBuM who are the international wild card and might be holding surprises against you?
I think the wildcard teams are not that good. They might have some pocket picks but I don’t think they’re on the same level as the other teams at worlds.
We're sorry for the poor sound quality but the Singapore crowd is, apparently, very loud when excited.
