Limping into playoffs as the last seed, Team Liquid then clinched a semi-finals spot with a clean sweep over CLG. After the game, I chatted with Team Liquid's support Alex "Xpecial" Chu. We talk about the details of the match, the history of TL and CLG, and the upcoming face-off against Cloud 9.

You said you were just “relieved” to make playoffs, and that you weren't that excited about it. Does it feel different now that you've won your first match in the playoffs?

Yeah. Playoffs, you only really play three Bo5s in order to win it. So winning one is pretty good. Plus, we weren't looking so well going into playoffs. Now that we won, it feels a lot better – a 3–0 against a pretty strong team in CLG makes us feel really good.

You guys 3–0'd CLG: a team that started off this split looking incredible. A lot of people were really hoping this would be their year. Did you expect things to go this well going into the match?

We definitely didn't expect the 3–0. We were going in like, “We wanna win, let's play our game, let's play well,” and we just brought out our A-game.

Curse has always has CLG's number. What do you think it is about that matchup that seems to give you guys the advantage?

I think part of it is that, for myself in the bot lane against Doublelift and Aphromoo, I don't play scared. I'm not scared of them. When they play against a lot of bot lanes, they tend to play over-aggressive and a bit arrogant in a way. I always punish them because I'm not scared. If I see a good trade I'll go for it, where a lot of other bot lanes give ground to them and let them push them over. It's kind of an intimidation factor that doesn't work against us.

Somebody dug up a stat that you're actually 10–1 against CLG. You've played against them all the time throughout your career. How has the experience of playing against CLG changed over the years as their style has evolved over the years?

Honestly, I can't feel like that going into the games, thinking “Oh yeah, we're gonna shit on them, my stat is so good.” A stat is a stat – it could have easily gone 0–3 today if they'd played better than us or if we'd played worse. I don't give any weight to the stats. But it definitely feels nice to have the stat after you win, to feel “Oh yeah, we're really good against CLG.”

Would you say the way the matchup unfolded, you versus CLG, was different from when you played against them last year?

It actually felt really similar to last playoff, where the first game was really close and could've gone either way, the second game was not as close but could've been either way as well, and the third game was a stomp. It reminded me so much of last year's playoffs where the same exact situation happened. I really feel bad for CLG, because this was their Golden Age, and they again just faltered at the end of the split. I know the guys, I'm close friends with Doublelift and Aphromoo. Aphromoo actually in one of our scrims a couple weeks back – we weren't even gonna get into playoffs at that point, it was really close – and he was like, “Hey man, see you guys at playoffs. You guys are gonna make it.” That was a really big confidence booster for me, knowing that CLG really respected our play. It sucks we had to take them out, but I have a lot of respect for CLG.

Throughout the series, the wind seemed to just blow stronger and stronger in your favor with every match. How did the series feel from your perspective in the games?

I think we definitely got a lot more confident. The first game we didn't know how it'd go. That's really the first game of a Best of 5: you don't know how good the team is, haven't played them in a while. Once we won the first game we got more and more confident, and by the third game we were getting solo kills all over the place. Everybody got solo kills that game. We just played really confident after we got the first win.

After the games, Doublelift tweeted that he doesn't feel like they choked and that they just got outplayed. Did you feel throughout the matches that CLG was starting to play worse with each game, or that you guys were playing more confident?

I think we were really close to being a top team during the regular season, and it's because of all these losses that we accumulated that we weren't. I think we are a solid team, and these games are gonna show that we can be a top team, that we can showcase that in the playoffs. We are definitely a top 3 team, and we can maybe even take first.

Wow, that's some pretty big talk. People watching these games said they felt this was the first time Team Liquid really felt like a team, rather than a bunch of players. You guys definitely seemed to put a lot of trust in each other, especially during the Juggermaw game. Would you say you really feel like a team now?

It definitely feels better as a team. A lot of it is that you're watching three games in a row versus a single-game match. When you watch a team play a Bo1, you don't know if it's a fluke if they win, or a fluke if they lose. But in a Bo5, all three games we showed good synergy, good team fighting, good team play, and that's not something you can show in a Bo1. I think it really helps us as well, where we know we can play as a team on the big stage. We often do well in scrims, we don't do well in LCS. That's something that hopefully is gonna change.

Going into the match CLG was known to have the best early game wave management and lane swaps of any team in LCS and you guys really seemed to come out and match them in those lane swaps. How did you look at the early game?

We didn't consider their strong early game, other than that we have to be careful of their early game. We actually got behind in the early game at least two of the games, maybe all three of them, and we just came back through good team fighting, good team comp, and good knowledge of when we should fight and when we shouldn't fight. We played really well.

In the first game you brought out Alistar for the first time this split. Why'd you decide to go with that instead of your more common comfort picks?

I can play pretty much any champion. That's kinda how I feel, and that's how our team feels. We have a lot of champions we can play. Alistar was a good pick there for our team comp, against their team comp. I picked it up during scrims like two days ago, and I was like “This champion's good, we can play him situationally; counterpick for a team comp,” and we ran him really well.

You went back to Janna after that. Last time I talked to you you said that you were having a lot of mouse accuracy issues that made playing Janna difficult for you. Are those worked out for you?

Yeah, I have everything in sync. I didn't play perfectly in that series, and I'm kinda sad about that, but I think we're all playing well as a team and that's the biggest thing.

Next up you've got Cloud 9. They've really turned things around towards the back of the season, and looking really strong. How do you see that matchup unfolding?

Cloud 9 is gonna be a really tough team I think. If we can beat them, and beat them hard, I think we're pretty much the best team. If we lose to them, then obviously we're not. This is very reminiscent of last playoff, where we went 3–0 against CLG and get 0–3'd by Cloud 9. It can actually repeat if we don't do well. I think Cloud 9 is a team where they're just really solid. They perform really well in playoffs. We need to just perform our best to beat them.

You weren't intimidated by the Rush Hour bot lane and were totally fine with playing them 2v2. How do you look at Sneaky and Lemon versus you and Piglet, especially with the newer picks Lemon has been pulling out?

Not scared. I think they're a strong bot lane, we're a strong bot lane as well, and we've been working on our synergy and our team work for a lot, and I think we can definitely rival them.

5.6 hit, you've been playing on it for this week, and you said last week you weren't sure if it was going to change too much. After practicing for 5.6 for a week, do you still think it's pretty much the same?

I think there's slight differences. I think tank champions are slightly better because every champion is tanky and you want to be tanky as well. That's the only real big difference. Other than that, I'm still comfortable playing whatever champion I was playing before, and some new champions as well.

Did you end up trying out the Bard changes after all?

Yeah, Bard sucks still.

Maybe someday.

I'm really hoping for them to buff it a little more, because Bard is pretty fun. He's just not strong right now.

Overall, people are really supporting you guys and the fans came out in force. Do you have any last words for these fans going into this next match?

I'm really hoping we can take it first place, or just be in the finals. I think we're improving a lot, and we have potential. I think this can definitely be our split. I'm really happy that fans have been keeping up with us and being really supportive. Things have been really tough, but things are looking a lot better right now.