SHG have suffered two unfortunate losses in the first week, on Friday a 1-2 loss against GAM, and on Sunday a 0-2 loss against CFO. Marble talked with FISTBUMP in an interview after the CFO match, which we will be translating now.
Q: First of all, looking back, how would you reflect on your games today?
Marble: We got stomped Game 1 due to our lack of response to their lane swaps, and that carried over to Game 2 as well. We lost today’s match in quite a bad way.
Q: You faced a different type of lane swap today than against GAM [Context: Vietnamese teams tend to do “mid swap” in which case the bot duo plays mid instead of top]. Playing against teams from different regions in the LCP must pose some unique challenges.
Marble: Lane swaps are more common now than last year, I feel like the pro scene has entered the “Era of Swaps”. Since we weren’t able to get too much experience with such cases in our scrims, we are currently lacking proper responses in our stage games.
Q: Typically when picking an ADC, you would consider how strong they are in lane in a given matchup, their synergy with the support pick, etc. However, the current meta makes it challenging to decide who to pick, right?
Marble: Right. In the first match today, in which MVKE played against GAM, MVKE were able to snowball from playing their bot duo in the mid lane, which lead to their eventual victory. Watching these matches makes me think that maybe lane strength is not as important as it used to be. I hope to talk about it with my team and find an answer.
Q: As a new team, SHG most likely still has synergy issues, so facing a team with fast tempo like CFO must have been difficult.
Marble: Right, they aren’t just skilled at micro, but their macro is good too. We weren’t able to respond to that.
Q: Last year you played at Worlds. Do you think that experience is helping you now?
Marble: It has been a huge motivator. I went in with the mindset of “Let’s face the strongest players” and I got completely destroyed. Now, I keep thinking that “I want to get to Worlds again and win there”, so that’s helping me maintain a good mindset.
Q: You had a pretty rough opening week. How’s the team atmosphere right now?
Marble: I believe our lack of practice has been a major factor. Teams from regions like Taiwan or Vietnam can play without communication issues, since all the players are speaking the same language. If we improve that area, we will become a much more complete team. I think that’s the only difference now, which is pretty much inevitable early on.
Q: Even in your first match here, you had many Marble-like plays in which you were able to deal a lot of damage without being taken down. It feels like your own personal performance hasn’t been bad by any means!
Marble: In an offline environment like this, stage nerves and pressure play a big part too, but I think the most important is confidence. Right now, I’m playing with the mindset of “Do my absolute best without hesitation” and I think that’s having a positive effect.
Q: Gamin has joined the team as a new coach. Is he helping you in your laning?
Marble: That’s right, he’s here to help us with our laning. However, in this current lane swap meta, it’s been difficult for him to provide us with detailed feedback. With that being said, I got really good feedback on my regular laning, so I’m sure that will help me improve.
Q: We can’t wait to see your future growth. Finally, is there anything you want to say to your fans?
Marble: I’m sorry we played bad today and ended up losing 0-2. Our team is still work in progress. Some fans might be worried if we would be fine or what’s wrong with us, but this is just the beginning of the Season Kickoff. We are practicing every day so we can win on stage. Thank you for your support!
