On the 6th (KST), the NA LCS’ Cloud9 defeated Gambit Esports and proceeded to the 2018 Worlds Group Stage. After this highly competitive match which went all the way to game 5, we had the chance to meet with Cloud9’s support, Zeyzal.



The following is the interview with C9 Zeyzal.

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What are your thoughts on today’s victory?

Zeyzal: I feel excited. However, the matches itself weren’t that exciting. Well, I’m pretty sure that it would have been exciting to watch. Those were some nerve-racking games.

Did you feel any pressure about losing in the Knockouts?

Honestly, I didn’t feel any pressure so maybe I came in a bit unexpecting how well Gambit played and how poorly we played at the same time. I didn’t prepare to play for a game 5. I thought it’d be a 3-1 or a 3-0 series for us especially with how practice has gone lately.

What are your thoughts on the Group Stage, and what will you do to prepare for it?

I do feel that it’ll be much harder, but also we’ve held certain picks and strategies that we’ve planned to use against the better teams even throughout this bo5. I feel like we can do well against the top teams.

The team might face RNG, Gen.G, Vitality in the Groups. Which team do you personally want to go against?

In general, I’d pick RNG because I’ve heard those rumors of how good Uzi is; I didn’t have a chance to play against him in Korea solo queue yet. I’ve been here 3 times now and I’ve played against Ruler many times. He was so good that we had to go 3 vs 2 to win. But, I’ve heard stories on Uzi so I’m hoping that I get to play against him and hopefully we can learn a lot from that.

Was there any player that mentally had a hard time during this series?

Sneaky and Jensen were sick this week so that didn’t help. But, I think Sneaky naturally has a stronger mentality than Jensen. I would say Jensen was in the worst state. It’s a combination of him having pressure points on him… Taliyah ganked him a lot early… He was also sick.

Who do you think will perform well in the Group Stage?

I think Svenskeren and Licorice are both very good at matching up to any player. Although Licorice does have some questionable moments in scrims, no matter who he’s going against, he always had moments where he matches them or outperforms them. In general, I’ve never seen Svenskeren be outperformed. Individually it’s just with how he plays; he needs a certain team to play around him.

Do you think you’ll do well in Groups?

I think I’ll do okay. I don’t know how good the Korean supports are. I’ve seen some of the LPL supports and the ones I’ve played against… I didn’t think that they weren’t insanely good. Of course, they’re good players. I’ve heard stories of RNG’s support being mechanically insane. Mata is good as well. Individually, I think I don’t have a lot of problems going against them, but as a duo, we might be a bit weaker.

Do you have anything to say to your fans?

I just want to thank all the fans for supporting us. Although we’ve played poorly in the Play-In Stage, they recognized that we were trying our best to improve for the Group Stage; I’m expecting better things there.

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