As the first EU vs NA game of Worlds 2018 this year, Fnatic gained leads gradually in the early game and finally snowballed it to a 16-1 win against 100 Thieves. The jungler Broxah from FNC sat down with us and had a thorough interview.









Q: Congratulations on your victory! Having played with the 100 Thieves, what were your expectations before the match and feelings after the match?

Broxah: Before the match against 100 Thieves, I have pretty high hopes for us.

Starting off the tournament in a better fashion than we did last year. Last year we got really bad style and we really wanna start over the winning with good games. Luckily I think we did that. We played the early game really slow, and we slowly started getting leads. Cause we played better together as a team than they did. And then we just snowballed it. My group communicated very well so I am very satisfied.

Q: Olaf seems to become a more often pick, it is also one of the champions you often play. How do you feel to have your comfort pick being meta?

Broxah: I am really happy I can get to play Olaf if I can. He keeps jumping in and out of the meta all the time. But I like late game champions like Olaf I can be more aggressive than when I play something like Sejuani, for example. Olaf is a bit more exciting and makes it easier for me to have an impact on the game. I am really happy. Because he is not like a full tank or a full carry but somewhere in the middle. So it is really nice.

Q: Can you recommend some other meta champions to the summoners?

Broxah: For solo queue, I think there is a lot of fun and good champions right now. Some champions that we play against in this game like Graves. Graves is really strong right now in the solo queue.

A personal favorite of mine is Lee Sin, even Karhus in some play out. If I was recommending something it would be pretty much anything but tanks. Because tanks are kind of boring. I would lean more to all the carries.

Q: We are slowly seeing some tank junglers at Worlds, will this continue to be the trend?

Broxah: I will assume it’s hard to see how the jungle meta is going to look like in the Worlds. Because sometimes there is drastic change all of a sudden, and I feel right now both tanks and carries are being played. It just keeps changing and changing depending on draft. I think it is a really good thing. I am pretty happy with the meta right now. I am not sure if it is going to end up mainly carrying or mainly tanks being played. Sometimes it just changes randomly, I am excited to see how that as well.

Q: BO1 is said to be heavily jungle dependent, what are some ways you can maximize your effectiveness?

Broxah: I think there are many ways you can make yourself more effective as a jungler. It seems a lot differently. Some teams just play entirely around their jungler.

Some others are in the middle. I consider myself in the middle. And some teams have the jungler fully play for all the lanes. I think something important is that you, more of a general rule, don’t feel too pressured to try to make ganks happen or invade. Sometimes its fine just to chill and try to communicate with your team. Make sure you set up the play rather than forcing them. Sometimes in the past when I start to play, I was nervous and trying to force ganks. Sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it’s also fine to just take it a bit more slowly and work with your team to set up an actual good gank or a good dive.

Q: What are the main difference of playing with Bwipo and sOAZ.

Broxah: I think the big difference for me personally is, as a jungler, how my laners play changes the game a lot. Bwipo is more often an aggressive player for the most part. When he joined the team, he was very very aggressive and has to keep an eye on him. Now he is better at controlling. So Bwipo is a more aggressive player, while sOAZ is a bit more chilled and more experienced. They have some different factors to the game. Bwipo with his added aggression and sOAZ is more chill because of the experience of playing for so many years.

Q: What are your expectations for IG and G-Rex?

Broxah: I feel like it is really hard to say what to expect from IG, they have been looking like a really really strong team in China. So I am excited to see if we can take them down tomorrow. But I feel like it is impossible to say we are the better team. And let’s see if we can match them in the early game. Cause they are a really strong early game team.

I think it will come down to if we can actually survive against them.

For G-Rex, I think we should be in the pretty good spot beating them. They do look quite strong in Play-Ins, I think we match up pretty well against them. I am really confident against G-Rex.

Q: Do you feel EU as a region is one of the top regions at this Worlds?

Broxah: I feel like it’s so hard to say how EU is strong at the Worlds. Obviously yesterday, both European teams beat Koreans. I don’t know but it is so hard to say. Coming into the tournament, everyone expects that China and Korea are one step above Europe, it is always like that. But maybe things are changing now, I hope they are. I hope that the Europeans keep bringing strong performance and show that we belong somewhere at the top of this Worlds. Only time will tell. I hope we can do our parts more by beating IG or beating a Chinese team and showing EU is one of the best regions.

Q: What’s your goal for this tournament?

Broxah: I guess at this moment, I want to win Worlds. But I’m the type of person taking one step at a time. So in the beginning, I would be very happy getting out of the Group Stage and getting to Quarters again. And even more to beat our records from last year and get to Semi-finals. Obviously, I would love to win the Worlds ring; but I would be somehow satisfied with beating our records and getting to Semis. And the full satisfaction is we actually win.

Q: Will you prepare some special strategy or pocket picks for IG?

Broxah: We obviously have quite a few things up our sleeve. What exactly that is going to be is not something I can reveal. But we are prepared to win the next match and I think we will be in a good spot.

Q: Can you say something to the Chinese fans?

Broxah: Thanks for all my Chinese fans for supporting me and the team. When we were in China for Worlds last year, we got so much support. It was really amazing, I just want to say thank you for sticking with us and your support.