Following the end of the 2015 LPL Summer Playoffs, a lot of chatter surrounded LGD Gaming's coaching staff. Coach Siu "Chris" Keung left LGD Gaming just before Finals after working with the team for only two weeks. Gossip followed the team, and during this time, the team's mid laner, Wei "GODV" Zhen mentioned that their Taiwanese analyst, Huang "FireFox" Ting-Hsiang was responsible for preparing most of the team's draft strategies, even when Chris was their Head Coach.

At the time, theScore eSports reached out to LGD Gaming to learn more about FireFox and his involvement with the team. Since then, he's become the team's Head Coach and will accompany them to the World Championship. He joined LGD Gaming mid way through the LPL season around Week 8 and served as the team's coach prior to and following Chris' arrival. When some of the chaos of Worlds qualifications died down, he was happy to answer our questions.

Could you briefly introduce yourself and your experience in Esports? I read you have been working in the industry even before League.

Name: Huang Ting-Hsiang

Alias: Firefox

DotA Chaos Top Player (Korea had a Pro League for this game 10 years ago, back when other countries didn't.)

TeSL (Taiwan eSports League) E-sports Dragons Coach

What was your role on your last team in Taiwan, the E-sports Dragons?

Coach, Analyst, Scout.

On LGD, players and others have said you do a lot of work in their pick and ban. Could you describe your main role on LGD?

For starters I look at every opponents' games and statistics, get a read on the enemy teams' general play style and frequently used champions, then give Chris [Interviewer's Note: When Chris was the coach] and the players some suggestions on how to disrupt the enemy teams' play style even in Picks and Bans.

Of course, during a competitive match the pick and ban phase is dynamic and responsive, and requires the coach who's up on stage to be able to adapt and make their own judgments.

Before Chris joined and then in the final, you were on stage helping the team directly during pick and ban. Do you find this role different or more challenging than your usual role for the team?

There wasn't much difference. At the end of July when I joined LGD I was already helping them on stage during Picks and Bans for 2 Regular Season matches (against WE and King).

Usually I won't force the players to adhere to set picks or bans. For example in the 3rd game of the LPL Finals, the players had confidence in letting Viktor through even though QG has an ~80% win-rate on Viktor, so I respected their decision.

How did your role differ more generally when Chris was on the team and when he wasn't?

To me there was no difference. I don't care much about other things that don't concern me, and the only thing I have to do is lead LGD to win all the titles.

From your perspective, what were the biggest factors in LGD's victory over QG?

All 5 of our players were individually more skilled than their opponents.

In the finals, some said LGD played worse than in the semifinals. Do you think this is accurate, and if so, what was the source of some of these changes?

EDG's condition in the semi-finals wasn't the best, conversely QG was on-form during the Finals.

In an interview, Acorn said he personally wanted to play the Fiora pick. If a player wants to play a champion, how do you consider that in team pick and ban strategy?

To anyone who's played even just a bit of Fiora before or read the patch notes, they'd know that she became a very strong 1v1 duelist after the patch changes, which was why I encouraged Acorn to practice her and try playing her. I like it when players try out other champions instead of just following in other players' footsteps; I'm like this too.

After picking Fiora it was natural that we should pick a more support-oriented AP mid, and the players knew that they couldn't let the opponents lane swap and that they should allow top to farm up. Our players understand concepts like this very well.

One of the biggest differences in western pick and ban and Chinese is AD carry picks. Sivir use in China declined some since the start of the summer, and Kog'Maw is more popular now, while Western teams like Tristana more. Do you have any thoughts on these three champions in the meta?

Sivir is an AD carry that can speed up the rhythm of the game, after the patch changes she got a bit weaker.

As long as Kog'maw is protected well, he's very strong in the mid and late game.

Tristana can push towers fast in the early game but has a mid-game power lull. She has good range come late-game and can defend well if the team is behind.

Would you describe LGD's new approach with imp as more AD carry centric than it was in the regular season? How would you describe LGD's playstyle generally?

We don't particularly focus on Imp, but we do look at what type of ADC Imp picks as well as the rest of the team composition to decide how we want to play. We've never run "Protect-the-imp-Sivir".

How would I describe LGD's play style? A team based on mechanics~ (laughs).

Thank you very much for answering questions. Do you have any message to LGD's fans to reassure them following the change in coaching staff?

I hope that everyone won't focus too much on meaningless gossip and news, and that our fans will focus more on the performance the LGD boys can show at the upcoming World Championships. Please cheer for LGD to be the first Chinese Champions to win Worlds!

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports. We would like to thank FireFox for the interview and Jenny "Reira" Lee for facilitating and translating.