The spring split is over and our League of Legends team is waiting to learn who their opponent will be in the relegation match. While we wait for the North American Challenger Series playoffs, Jason 'Hunterkiller' Mulcahy got a chance to sit down with the team's Jungler, Andrew "Azingy" Zamarripa, to talk about his experiences during his split in the LCS.

Hi everyone, this is Jason from Team Dignitas, and I'm here with Azingy on Week 9 of the LCS and the last week of the Spring Split of 2015. So hi, how are you doing?

Azingy: I'm good.





So where I want to start the interview is talking about your transition from the Challenger scene into the LCS. What is the biggest change for you and do you feel that you've seen a huge increase in the level of play and commitment.

Azingy: Oh yeah definitely. We have a much different playstyle in the pro scene, and for commitment, pro players are going to have more commitment.





So what was the try-out process like for the team. You had been listed as a sub since some time in 2014. Was it easy because of that process once CloudNguyen was phased out, or did you try-out for your spot, were there other contenders?

Azingy: I had been a sub since February 2014 and as for the try-out process, I don't think I was trying out against many other Junglers. Once I played a few scrims with the team, they told me to fly over to LA and play for the team.





So what was your reaction to that?

Azingy: Getting to the LCS is a pretty big opportunity. That's like pretty much the biggest opportunity you get off of League, and yeah I was excited to join the team.





How has it been joining this international team where you have two Korean players, a European coach, and the rest being American?

Azingy: I doesn't feel a lot different from just all being American. Pretty cool, I like this team, this coaching staff.



How has it been with Rico?

Azingy: It's been good, I think he helps us a lot. I guess we have like two coaches, normally we'll just talk with Rico after each game. The other coach just talks about our games in the LCS.





Do you enjoy having the Korean coach Joyluck? Do you feel it communicates better with CoreJJ and Gamsu?

Azingy: Yeah it should. There is a translator that Joyluck joins the Skype call with, and it helps with discussing the game.



One of the things that Mylexia and Rico said about you in a prolonged interview with Travis was how they felt that you had a desire to become better: you were staying up late after night watching replays, that you were grinding solo queue really hard and they just saw this work ethic that you had that were really impressed with. Do you feel like thats a fair explanation of your commitment?

Azingy: Of course, I want to try and prove as much as I can. As for solo queue, that's pretty much all I do. I'll try to watch some replays, but sometimes solo queue can be pretty distracting. Most of my time is on solo queue, but I think I should devote more time to vidoes?



So do you watch other regions then?

Azingy: Yeah. It'll be the NA Scene mostly, but the other regions I'll watch are Korea or China, because those are the better teams in the world.



I know CoreJJ and Gamsu still watch pretty much every Korean game and a lot of Chinese games, do you feel like they have an influence on your strategies? With Joyluck being still in Korea, he's Challenger in Korean solo queue, do you think that has an impact on your playstyle?

Azingy: I can't tell, it's really hard to tell.



Do you think you've evolved as a player since joining Team Dignitas?

Azingy: Oh yeah, definitely, and I can tell there's still a lot of things to learn. Like in the competitive scene, how pro players fight is way too different from the amateur scene.







Can you expand upon that?

Azingy: In the amateur scene it's not even that much different from solo queue. The main thing that makes it different from solo queue is the 2v1 swaps. You'll never see 2v1 swaps in solo queue, but other than that it's not different.



Speaking of solo queue, one thing you're known for are your crazy off the wall meta picks, your Jungle Karthus, your Jungle Fiddlesticks. In the LCS you've been sticking to the meta champions. You had that one game as Fiddlesticks and you've played the last three games on Zac, but overall you're sticking to the Cinderhulk meta. Why do you think that is? Why aren't you bringing these crazy meta picks?

Azingy: If you don't see other pro players using those kinds of picks, normally its a good idea not to use those picks. One of the weaknesses of Fiddlesticks is that his ult is actually short range. It's a risky pick. It can still work, but you're not going to see other pro players pick it because they don't think its worth the risk.



And then with Karthus?

Azingy: Karthus Jungle. It works in solo queue, for sure. Would I consider it in a competitive game? I'm not sure, we'd have to scrim with it a lot more and see how well it goes.



Finally, how are you feeling about going into relegations. It's different for you because you've spent so much time in the Challenger scene, you were in the NA CS at the beginning of the split so it seems like you have a better understanding of those teams than the rest of dignitas or Winterfox does. Do you think that gives you an edge in playing against them?

Azingy: I only played up to the second week of the NA CS and in two or three weeks, I think they'll be much different. They'll have one month of scrim time after that too, cause relegations from now is one month and teams can change a lot. So the information I had back then might not be that useful. It'll be interesting to play against the teams in relegations that I was playing against in the NA CS.



In your first match in the LCS against TSM, you took the wrong masteries. It was obviously a mistake, might have been something with the client, but how did you move past it? Did it affect you as a player, did it mess with you mentally, or how did you move past it?

Azingy: When I first noticed I had AP runes, I felt pretty bad about it. I was still trying my best in that game even though it was against TSM, you can't afford to have AP runes on Vi against TSM. My teammates said don't worry about it and I still tried my hardest, but those AP runes made it a lot harder so yeah. It was against TSM, it was going to be a really hard game anyways, it would have been worse if I had AP runes on Vi against a team that was much easier to face against.



Thank you for the interview. Do you have anyone you'd like to thank or shout-out to?

Azingy: Thanks to our sponsors: Corsair Gaming, Alienware, Western Digital, SCAN Computer, Multiplay, Intel, Twitch, iiyama, and TP-Link, and my coaching staff for helping me get better at the game.

Watch Azingy grind solo queue on Twitch, and follow Team Dignitas on Twitter to keep up-to-date on the team.