SHG unfortunately lost to PSG 1-3 in the PCS Summer Grand Final. After the match, they had a press conference about the match and looking ahead to Worlds, as the PCS 2nd seed.
Q: Evi, during Spring you mentioned that you thought 1Jiang was the toughest PCS top laner to play against. Do you still think so, or was Azhi more challenging after today?
SHG Evi: That’s a difficult question. Each player has different strengths with different champions, but personally, I still find 1Jiang to be the toughest opponent.
Q: Yesterday, you mentioned that leaving Rumble open and countering him was an advantage for you, but today the result of doing so was not in your favor. What do you think is the biggest difference between Azhi’s and 1Jiang’s Rumble?
SHG Evi: Both players are very skilled with Rumble. If we’re not looking at the individual players and just looking at the teams, PSG is better at creating situations that allow Rumble to perform consistently.
Q: Evi, you’ve now played on the Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, and European [EUW] servers as well. What do you think are the differences in high elo on those 4 servers?
SHG Evi: In the European server [EUW] players almost never surrender, whereas it’s the opposite in the Korean server. On the Taiwanese server, it’s somewhere in between. On the Japanese server, players rarely communicate in chat, but when they do decide to surrender, they do it quickly. European players argue a lot in chat, such as whether or not to take a fight, but they rarely ever surrender.
Q: For the coach, what changes have you noticed between the PSG you faced in Spring, the the PSG you faced now in Summer?
SHG VicaL: There were always games that we knew we would win, and others we knew we would lose, however, I think we had some chance of winning today, so I consider that progress.
Q: To Forest, DasheR, and your coach. In Game 3, you won with a Skarner – Yone combo. Why did you pick that duo?
SHG Forest: I felt that Skarner would less likely be stunned by Maokai’s abilities, so we ended up choosing him as a counter.
SHG DasheR: During the draft, we thought Maple would pick Tristana. For SHG’s comp, we needed a champion that could engage aggressively, so we went with Yone. It wasn’t a pick for a specific matchup.
SHG VicaL: We first chose Skarner because it seemed like a better pick against Maokai and was a good option for ganking. For Yone, we evaluated that it would perform well against the picks Maple could likely choose. In the end, we added Ashe to complement our strategy, and it turned out great.
Q: Evi, as a veteran player, can you share your expectations for next year’s changes and if you are looking for revenge against PSG?
SHG Evi: Although I’m not sure about the exact details of the APAC region next year, nor whether SHG would be in it, I think if the new region combines various playstyles from different places, it will be very exciting to watch. If we have the opportunity to compete in APAC next year, I’d look forward to facing PSG again and giving them a fresh, new challenge.
