On the 16th of July at the NA LCS stadium, OpTic Gaming defeated Golden Guardians.



At the first day of the 2018 Summer Split, everyone was anxious to see how the teams have adjusted to the new ‘Wild West’ meta. While Golden Guardians opted for the Lulu support mid with Graves jungle, OpTic Gaming decided they were confident enough to face them on using a standard team composition.



Outperforming GGS in team fights, PowerOfEvil carried his team with Viktor. Dealing 35.5k damage while the other champions were struggling with 10~20k damage, PowerOfEvil proved that you don’t need to play slave support mid to win the game.



After the game, we got to meet with OpTic’s mid laner, POE. Let’s see what POE has to say about Graves Lulu, Banner, and Cloud9.

¤ It has been a while since we last saw you. Could you catch us up on what you have been doing in the off-season?



First I went home. I already announced to the public that I wanted to go to Korea to boot camp with my team. To get even better and get back into shape for this split. I went home for two to three weeks. After, I went to Korea for two and a half weeks. I just played solo q all day. Even though we didn’t scrim, we just wanted to play in the best region to get our mechanics back to the upper class.



There are pros that don’t play that much during the off-season, but we just played and played and played. I think that everyone took a lot of effort into spamming games. I believe we are really good right now.





¤ Talking about today’s game against Golden Guardians, are you completely satisfied with your performance? Or do you have small regrets here and there?



I am pretty happy with my performance. I won the lane pretty hard. I had a big CS lead. I was leading the team a little bit as well. I would call Ornn to ult mid so that he could help me out. Overall, I believe I had a fantastic game. I did a lot of damage. However, I think we struggled as a team when we wanted to clear the Banner minions. As a team, we weren’t sure whether to clear the Banner minions or group as a team to fight.



GGS played really good behind. Our team could not find an answer for the Banner minions, so I think we need to regroup for that.









¤ Your performance on Viktor was incredible today. I believe you dished out 35.5k damage while the others were struggling at 10~20k. Did you pick Viktor specifically for the mid Lulu match-up? Or do you think Viktor is a good pick in the meta right now?



We had last pick for our mid lane, and we already suspected that it was going to be Lulu mid. There are so many viable champions in the mid lane right now, and I like that a lot. I chose Viktor because he has the poke and control tools. I am also really good at those types of champions.



Since I played Lulu last season, I know that she doesn’t have the best matchups against Viktor. Lulu can go even in the early game, but she will get outscaled a lot. At a certain point, Viktor deals 4x the damage Lulu does. The other team just has a big clock ticking. When it is done ticking, they can’t win team fights anymore.





¤ Due to the recent changes, the meta is all over the place. You see the new jungle and mid synergies. Bruiser bot lanes. What are your overall thoughts on Lulu Graves? Do you think it is better off countering those comps instead of trying them out yourself?



I think buffing comps are really strong. You can see it in the EU LCS when Fnatic was 9 thousand gold behind. They got Baron and finished the game in 2 minutes. Although buffing comps are strong, you need to be good as a team to execute them. This is because three to four players on the team are really weak. The one fed player needs to carry right? Even if one player is incredibly strong, the weak players need to know their role. They can’t make too many mistakes. If you are really good as a team, buffing comps are amazing.



In today’s game, they tried to ban the counters and Taric. GGS just wanted to avoid the buffing comps. We just went for the standard.









¤ For tomorrow’s game, you are up against Cloud9. Do you expect it will be a tough game? Or do you think otherwise from looking at their performance today?



I’m not too sure who is playing because C9 has not submitted their roster yet. It really determines who I am playing. Both GoldenGlue and Jensen are good mechanically. I am probably not going to have this big of a lead like today’s matchup. It is all going to depend on how we are going to play as a team. I am confident that we can beat them.





¤ Who would you rank higher in skill? GoldenGlue or Jensen?



We haven’t scrimmed against them that much. However, I would have to say Jensen. Today GoldenGlue looked good, but back in the days, I remember he had a lot of bad games on stage. He played better on scrims compared to on stage. If I had to take a guess right now, I would probably say Jensen. I don’t know what is going on in the inside. Since they did play GoldenGlue today, I would think that C9 believes GoldenGlue is better than Jensen.





¤ Lastly, is there anything you want to say to your fans for the first day of the new split?



We are first place right now, so we will try to keep that going (laughs). Hopefully, we will stay at the top.