Our third matchup of interviews brings Crown & Jewels together with Failure to Launch. HotWheelsSid took all the questions for FTL and we heard from 4 members of the C&J team as well as from their manager. The C&J interview was a new experience from me as all of the answers came in German, with ThePaSch assisting immensely in translating.

CjLink - First off, congratulations to everyone on the team for securing the #1 seed. Crown & Jewels’ last matchup in the RLCP was against a revitalized SK Gaming. They played at a level we haven’t seen in a long time, but for you it was still “No Problem.” What was your biggest strength against SK? What mistakes were made in the last game that allowed SK to take a game off you?

CrS - First of all, many thanks for the kind words. To be honest, we indeed were a bit worried prior to our game against SK. We had a fantastic start with our two 5:0 victories; I noticed pretty quickly, that they helped quite a bit with morale. Following that, though, the season didn’t quite go as we would’ve hoped. We really, really wanted to have the #1 spot in EU. When Paschy reached out to me and told me that half of his face was paralyzed and he had to wear an eye-patch, I didn’t expect it to have the impact on his play that it ended up having. At Gfinity, however, we realized just how hard it was for him to correctly judge and predict the ball’s movements. Up to that point, we had never played in a lineup without Paschy. The team had 48 hours to try and get Killer acquainted with more defensive play. In the end, we only decided that we would play the way we did about 15 minutes before the match began. Luckily, everything worked out in the end and we reached our season goal. As far as the game against SK goes, I can’t really say too much about it; it’s been too long.

CjLink - Killerno7 has been the most consistent substitute we’ve seen on a team in a long time, it’s arguable to even identify him as just a sub. What about your team allows you to swap players in and out and continue to perform at such a high level? Are the swaps made to achieve different playstyles against different teams?

CrS -Because our players all have jobs and have to fulfill their [other] responsibilities, it’s very important to us to have at least one substitute player. A player like Killerno7 is pretty much the perfect supplement. His offensive playstyle applies a significant amount of pressure onto every opponent. He didn’t really have many opportunities in the long run to gain practical experience in tournament settings. Of course, that meant that the later weeks, in which he oftentimes replaced Yeezy or Sikii, were all the more important. Of course we have to switch up our play style when playing with Killer as opposed to our usual lineup, but so far we haven’t really tried to focus on a set play style depending on our chosen lineup.

CjLink to Killer - What do you believe is your biggest asset to the team? Do you favor playing against any specific teams or play styles? What is probably your biggest weakness?

Killerno7 - I always find it hard to talk about our own strengths and weaknesses. My team does keep telling me how much pressure we are able to build with me playing. I like to play aggressively and disrupt the opponent wherever I can. My weaknesses? Don’t exist... Nah, just kidding! Whenever I play 3s with our manager CrS and Yeezy, I probably hit the crossbar, like, 20 times in one game. We usually laugh pretty hard about it, because we end up losing 0:1 but are completely unable to score on an empty goal. As such, I’d probably have to say my ability to convert.

CjLink to Paschy - You were widely considered the best 1v1 player in the world for some time, but we havn’t seen as much 1v1 from you recently. Do you think there’s still practice to gain from playing ranked 1v1s or have you gotten as much out of it as you can? Is there a peak point of 1v1 skill where it translates poorly to the 3v3 competitive game?

Paschy - I did play a lot of 1v1 initially, that’s correct. That’s why I prefer playing with friends right now, as opposed to continuing to grind 1v1s. Additonally, I’m still ill, which makes it particularly difficult to play well in 1v1s. Right now, for instance, I can’t blink [in] one eye. As soon as I’m back to being healthy, I’ll probably be able to 1v1 a bit more. Generally, you can apply almost everything from a 1v1 onto a 3v3 game. It’s why my recommendation for many beginners is to play tons of 1v1; it’ll help a lot further down the road.

CjLink to Sikii -Your team has one of the most vocal voice chats I’ve heard, though I don’t understand any of the German you all are saying… How important is good vocal comms for the highest level teams? How do you keep the chat organized amongst the chaos of a high paced game?

Sikii - Is it really that bad to watch us on stream? (laughs) As you have already said, our comms are in German. That’s obviously an advantage, because you can just talk without having to translate in your head first. Communication in Rocket League is immensely important. We focus on only sharing very pertinent information. It doesn’t always work that way, as Yeezy really enjoys playfully messing around far too much. He can’t hold out 3 games without making some dumb joke. (laughs) But, generally, communication is immensely important in any eSport.

CjLink to Yeezy - We finally have the best of the best facing each other. The entire tournament is stacked. Which teams do you think will make it to the finals? Amongst all the teams, which players do you think bring the most to their team and which would you rather not face on your quest for victory?

Yeezy - This question is difficult to answer. Apart from the few matches in the Mockit tournament, there haven’t been many encounters between EU and NA teams recently. Generally, our day-to-day form will influence us a lot. Our goal is obviously to win the tournament. Therefore, we have to be able to defeat every opponent. Should we get eliminated down the road, I’d love to see an NA vs EU final. For instance, iBP vs FlipSid3. I can’t really highlight a singular player, I think that’d be unfair to their team mates. You can’t win a 3v3 on your own, not on this level.

CjLink - Thank you so much for sparing some time for this interview. I’ve asked every other team about possible roster swaps, but you seem to let us know almost immediately when these happen. Do feel free to share any thoughts you have about other teams changing players up. I think the most important question I have now is, what’s the best wine in Germany?

CrS - We don’t try to make a big secret out of our roster changes. For now, there won’t be any. I obviously can’t completely rule out the possibility of a player wishing to terminate their contract, though. Either way, I’ve always thought that the whole fuss about transfers and roster changes was way overblown, even back during my time in professional CS (ESL Pro Season #1). A lot of players are completely full of themselves and blame everything on their teammates. I also heard things like, “this guy, he has a ton of skill, we need to get him”. But there is far too little attention paid to character. As long as you win, that new lineup may be great. But as soon as you hit your first crisis, you really learn whether you’ve made the right choices. Still, I’m curious to see what will happen to the players from SK and Noble. The addition of Remkoe to the SA lineup is a pretty good one, I feel. We’ll definitely know more by the time the RLCS hits.To answer your question about German wine What’s the best car in the world? Everyone’s going to have a different answer to that. I can tell you what my personal favorites are. That’s the red wine 'Christian Hartmann: Spätburgunder trocken 2013' and the best young vintner 2015 Christian Nett ' Weingut Bergdolt-Reif& Nett --- Pin:OX'. In the end, I’d like to add that you can always send us any questions via Twitter. But please understand that we can’t accept all friend requests on Steam. We love to stay in contact with the community whenever we can find the time. Thanks to all of our fans, and my fingers are crossed for the boys this weekend!

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Possibly the best storyline we have since the inception of professional Rocket League is that of the unknown team that took the Pro League Open Qualifier Tournament by storm then continued their run all the way through the main Qualifier. That team is Failure to Launch, currently composed of Genocop, Zanejackey and HotWheelsSid. Sid has taken some time out of his preparation for the playoffs to answer a couple of questions.

Cjlink - First I want to know how the team has enjoyed the ride. When FTL entered the Open did you expect the team to make it into the Pro League? Were there any expectations to be met once you made it in?

Sid - During the pro league open, I was not apart of the team. They had Mecha as their 3rd. I was always a fan of Geno and Zane. It was big news to see FTL in the pro league.Once in the pro league we had to work on our clears and having clear voice comms

CjLink - The first two weeks were rough, an 0-5 to iBP followed by a similar sweep to KoU. Though you didn’t play the first series, you experienced the second one. After these weeks you went on a tear, only dropping a series to Untethered, and ending the RLCPL with a truly dominant 5-0 against Apollo 11. How has the team grown over the course of the league? What are the biggest improvements you’ve made and what do you think you’re still lacking?

Sid - We as a team have built up more and more chemistry as the RLCPL went on. We are lacking in some of our games to get good quality shots and every now and again we have severe defensive lapses.

CjLink - The Apollo 11 series was very impressive, but it didn’t quite secure you a place in the Playoffs. The following matchup between OC and Mockit decided your fate. Did you guys think that there was a chance that Mockit would pull out the wins you needed to get through? What was your response to the OT goal that secured your spot in game 4?

Sid - Let's just say that I prayed to Low5ive before that series. Watching that series was the most hype I have been watching RL since the old days of Cosmic AfterShock and Untethered. When Klassux made the last shot in OT, it was a feeling of pure joy.

CjLink - Now that you’re in the playoffs, you have the pleasure of facing the #1 seed from EU which happens to be Crown & Jewels. This will be one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced to date. What are you doing to prepare for the matchup, both as a team and individually? Have you identified any keys to beating them?

Sid - Personally I have playing some ranked matches on the EU servers to prepare for the latency issues. As a team we have made an extra effort to get as many scrimmages as we can, as well.

CjLink - A win over C&J would put you in the semifinals against either iBP Cosmic or myXMG. Which of the two teams would you rather face? How do you feel your chances are of advancing against both teams?

Sid - Very tough question. I would have to say myXMG because we would be more acclimated with EU servers and I feel that myXMG isn’t quite at the level of iBP yet.

CjLink - The bottom side of the bracket will bring us Flipsid3 vs Untethered and Kings of Urban against Supersonic Avengers. Any insight on those matchups and how you think they will play out? Which team in the tournament has the best chances of making it to the finals and what about their team makes that possible?

Sid - In my opinion Flipsid3 will take that series because they have insane chemistry with each other. Untethered will make it close though. KoU the next series I’d say 5-3 because Kings are the dominant team in the world right now. The team that has the best chances at finals is probably KoU because they have incredible offence and defence making them the team to beat, in my opinion.

CjLink - Your team has the 4th highest shots for and the 3rd fewest shots against throughout the regular season. How does your team go about producing so many shots and preventing so many from being taken at the same time? What do you believe is the biggest strength you bring to your team?

Sid - We are all very adept at making meaningful clears and because of that our opponents don’t spend that much time in our zone. As for our shots we like to throw everything at the net which explains our relatively low shot percentage. In my opinion my greatest strength is supporting Geno with his very aggressive style of play.

CjLink - There has been rumors flying around about player transfers and new teams forming. We’ve already seen teams break up and new ones come together. Your team is one of the few I’ve heard nothing about on this aspect. Will you be looking for additions to your team, even in the form of subs? Of the free agents already out there and assuming any of the other teams break up after playoffs, what would be the ideal new team to build in your opinion?

Sid - We are currently looking for a sub. As for an ideal team, I can’t say with confidence a team that would work well together because I haven’t played enough with the other players to know their exact style of play.

CjLink - Wednesday we got the big announcement, Psyonix partnering with Twitch to bring us a 3 month, $75000 event dubbed the Rocket League Championship Series. I'm ridiculously excited about this, and I'm sure you and your team are too. What was your first thought after reading everything about it? You're definitely planning to compete, right?

Sid - I was very excited to hear about Psyonix finally going in on the eSports scene. The team and I were very hyped to hear about it and can’t wait to sign up at the end of March. It finally gives players a reason to go all in, training to get better and to have more and more teams that can compete at the same level as all of us in RLCPL.







Look for the final interview playoff matchup later today!