After MAD Lions’ victory over Schalke04, Fernando Cardenete, Spanish content creator interviewed MAD jungler Elyoya over various questions, related to their thought process during the match, funny moments, and stuff behind the scenes. The original interview is in Spanish so we wanted to provide you with a quick and easy summary of the questions and answers in the video.
Kaiser’s flash into a wall
F: …I saw you liked the tweet asking for questions for this interview. Shakarez asked what did you think about that KEKW moment by Kaiser messing with Leona.
E: I was just laughing. I mean, I watched it, but nobody else on the team did. Carzzy didn’t see it, Armut and Marek as well… I mean, Humanoid. I told him: “Nobody saw it, Kaiser, don’t even worry about it.” It was just so pathetic because then he went in already dead. Dunno, it was so funny.
F: If nobody saw it, then that didn’t happen. Nobody saw it, let’s move on.
MAD Lions tier 2 Turret Loss
F: But at that moment where they got that tier 2 tower, you showed the team was still kinda rusty. And I think that Nashor by S04 was what allowed you to win the game. What was your communication at that moment? Because in that tier 2 tower it was not very clear whether Armut had to recall and such. What issues are you recognising in those situations?
E: At that time, we thought that they wouldn’t do a cross-map play. We thought that they would contest the Drake. But they made the right choice by getting the tier 2 tower. And that was our mistake, we should have opened through the top while going bot. And our comms were like: “Man, we messed it all up here. This was just not the best.” But it was fine because we knew our comp was strong with 2 items. We were really strong and all we had to do was to wait.
The Quarantine
F: What was most talked about lately about your team was the quarantine. Mac told me it finally ended on Tuesday. What was the first thing you did after quarantine?
E: We came into the office and we had a barbecue and it was really nice… Not 28, we were quarantined 23 days without seeing each other. It was hard being locked in my room but I’m glad it ended.
F: And I would like to take this opportunity because I interviewed Youngbuck yesterday. And he told me that to adjust the schedule … Because he classified it many times to MSI. What he would do, and it’s already done in some leagues, is to give the first week off to the teams that make a deep run at MSI, like you guys. Do you think this is a good idea or does it seem like an advantage over the rest of the teams and that it wouldn’t be as fair?
E: I don’t think it would be a good idea to just give a team a 2-0 directly …
F: No, no, not giving the team a 2-0, just changing the schedule so you don’t have to play on the first week. So you can rest a little bit more to compensate for the traveling and all.
E: Yes … Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. Even the idea of playing two matches the very same day. I’d much rather do this and have a week’s rest than playing on the first week. Yeah, it’s a good idea.
F: I think it was like this in China and for RNG but LPL’s schedule is different because not all the teams play on the same day. We also saw something similar at LMS. He told me and I also think it’s a good idea. I’m glad you agree.
SoloQ
F: And in EUphoria you said that you were not as motivated to spam soloq and all. Because of the quarantine, obviously. And because we were going to have a new patch. But not so long ago Inspired said in an interview that he doesn’t really play soloq because it’s not as useful as a jungler in EU. And what he does is spam LCK or LPL VODs. How do you see it? Larssen considered that the spam was needed, but he is a mid laner. How do you see that duality between watching more VODs and spamming soloq?
E: I’m with Inspired. Playing soloq is good to keep your mechanics polished, but you don’t learn much in the jungle because your top laner in soloq is not going to respect the gank at minute 3 coming from the other jungle. It’s the most obvious gank and he is not going to respect it, so the game is unfair from that moment …
Playing in the jungle in soloq is pretty much frustrating. The solo lanes are different because you are constantly trading and can prove way better how good you are. As a jungler, you do have some ways. You can punish the tempo mistakes, invade their camps, put vision … All this stuff but … Nothing stops your bot lane to go in 2vs2 with the enemy jungler right on their faces. It’s very frustrating. I’m with him, watching VODs is much more productive for a jungler.
New Meta
F: Last week we saw you on Viego and yesterday you played Diana against Excel. How are you adapting to this new meta between the 11.13 and the 11.14?
E: I really love playing these champions and I do feel comfortable on them. I suffer a little bit more with those ranged champions, like the Morgana at MSI. It took me a long time to learn her. But melees don’t give me any trouble, I can play them at a decent level. Even at a high level. So I really like this new meta with Viego, Lee Sin, Diana … Xin Zhao, and those types of junglers.
Markoon
And now that we are talking about Superliga and that you played against Excel yesterday I think you coincided with Markoon while he was playing in UCAM, right? How does he feel in comparison to last year? Because his debut week against G2 and Vitality shocked as all with his Volibear and all. He lost yesterday.
E: He is in the middle of the pack, he is LEC level. He really understands the role he plays and what to do in the first few minutes of the game. But I think he still doesn’t get a full understanding of what’s going on in the mid-game and during team fights. He needs to work the most on that.El
Elyoya’s Opinion on other junglers
F: I know you watch many VODs from Asian junglers to keep up. But I would like to know your opinion on some junglers like Tarzan, Leyan, or Shad0w, the jungler you replaced here at MAD Lions, and who seems to be doing quite well at LGD. What do you think about the current state of international junglers right now?
E: Lately I have been mostly watching LPL, the top teams; some LCK as well. Tarzan has always been one of my favorite junglers and he has been playing at a high level. JieJie, from EDG, is also playing … I still have to watch Leyan, I haven’t seen him as much. And from LCK I can tell you … I really like Canyon …
Arthur, from HLE, I think he does okay in some ways.
F: You can always learn from him. Some weird rune or something like that.
Giants
F: Giants announced yesterday that Lozark would be part of the coaching staff and that Four would be on-site too as 113’s substitute. There has been a lot of discussions, but I would like to know your opinion.
E: First of all, before my opinion …
Giants know better what’s happening to them, they have watched 40,000 matches more than me.
At the end of the day, they know what they are doing. But personally, I don’t really understand this change.
They will have their substitute jungler …In this way, you add pressure on the starting jungler, maybe this way he will wake up.
F: Yeah, he is pretty young …
E: He is super young. So it could go so wrong, but … I mean … The fact that Giants is changing its jungler a lot lately is not a lie. And they are not necessarily improving, so the problem may not be coming from the jungle. And this is something you can clearly see from the outside, I’m not discovering America. They are changing junglers around too much and they are not necessarily improving. Maybe the problem is not in the jungle.
F: I agree with you. Give me the TSM vibes when they kept changing their junglers when it was not really the problem. But we will see what happens, they have more info.
The G2 Comeback
F: And to wrap up, Mikyx said in an interview that by Week 6, next week, they will be back at full level. Integrating everything they have been working on with Nelson and all. You guys are back on track. Would you dare to say when we will be seeing MAD at their 100%?
E: Play-offs. Both MAD Lions and G2 Esports will be at our peak. And then we will have the same ol’ story from the last split.
F: We will see, looking forward to the Bo5s I don’t want to take more time from you, Javi. Thank you very much for the interview.
You can watch the full interview on Fernando’s Youtube channel.
English translation was provided by Katarsis