Being the only Spanish player in the 2016 League of Legends World Championship and one of the most renowed players of Spain, Alfonso 'mithy' Aguirre arrived to the All-Star Event due to the absence of Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Diario AS interviewed the Canarian player after the first day of the event.

Fernando Cardenete: You have played events as important as Worlds, but none of this caliber in Spain. What does it mean for you to be in this environment in front of the Spanish audience?

mithy: The truth is that I'm more nervous than normal, even if the event is fun focused. It is the first time I have been playing in Spain since the exhibition match with Origen in the Mobile World Congress and now that I am a little better known and there are many, many people watching it gives me a feeling of pressure, that I have to do it well although I performed really bad [laughs], but hey.

FC: You told us in an earlier interview that there was a time when criticism affected you a lot and that's why you tried to isolate yourself from the audience, but now you were trying to enjoy the moment more. We are, as you said, in a somewhat more relaxed event and I would like to know if you continue trying to translate that philosophy of enjoying more or you focus on your matches a little more.

Alfonso 'mithy' Aguirre in the analysis desk of the IWC All-Star Event Michal Konkol (Riot Games)

mithy: Yes, I am trying to enjoy more, but it is hard because when you lose in front of all the people who are supporting you, you have a feeling of shame. It hurts, but when I have the opportunity to win some game I guess that I will enjoy more the feeling of winning and being with the fans.

FC: There have been other international events in which the people did have more expectations, because this is still more focused on entertainment. I am referring mainly to the World Championship, about which you told us that for G2 Esports it was mostly an opportunity to improve for the next year, because you were only together for a few months with Ki "Expect" Dae-han. Although it was said that the training went well and it was expected that you would go through the group stage at least, how did you experience Worlds regarding the expectations you had for the tournament to simply improve?

mithy: We, or at least me, had expectations of going for improvement but always believed that we could go through groups at least. Or, if not, not going 1-5 as we did. The truth is that it hurt, it hurt a lot, but I'm sure the experience will help in the future. I do not know if it has been noticed, but I do believe that it helped everyone a lot to mature and see the game in a more professional way. The fact of playing against people who are very, very good makes you see that there are things that as a player you can do against people of less level, but against the best it is complicated.

Being eliminated in the group stage of the World Championship hurt, hurt a lot

FC: You just mentioned how much it makes you better to compete against the best. A lot of South Korean who left the region are returning and North America is signing big names. On the other hand, Europe does not seem to be updating much its rosters and we have only seen movements of players already competing in the region, such as Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten from Fnatic to H2K. If no new people arrive you could understand that G2 Esports should win easily. How do you see the Spring Split with the lineups that have been announced so far?

mithy: I think this split is going to be a lot more complicated than the previous one, simply because even if you do not bring superstars from other countries the teams in Europe are moving to make good teams.

I think there will be more good teams and, moreover, the fact that teams like Splyce have not changed at all creates in terms of team play a very good basis for the Spring Split. That will help us to reach a very, very good base for the Summer Split, not like in 2015 that there were changes in Origen, Fnatic was a completely different team ... Now H2K is the only team that participated in the Wold Championship that has made changes, G2 Esports and Splyce stay unchanged, and these two teams are going to bring a base for others to improve at a much higher rate and the overall scene is better than last year. But hey, we will see.

More than anything, I think it's that North America moves a lot more money and now that Korea has already won several World Championships and Korean fans realize they are very good at League of Legends, which is a very big game, it makes investments arrive to Korean teams as well. Europe can't compete against that right now.

Mithy at the League of Legends All-Star Event, at the Palau Saint Jordi in Barcelona. Riot Games / Wojciech Wandzel

FC: You have commented Fnatic, which recently announced Rasmus "Caps" Winther. I do not know if you've seen Reddit, but it has started a kind of witch-hunting with him because they do not stop releasing pictures of ranked games in which he does not behave properly. You have been through that experience of people looking closely at what you say and you have been very self-critical during your reform process, what do you think about the players being seen as role models and those witch hunts?

mithy: Well, on the good side, the fact that there is that witch hunt, as you say, makes the players realize that they are a public figure and that they really have to take care of their image a little and not mess it up, you know? After all, these things can be told to me and I do not care, but maybe you tell it to a fourteen-year-old boy who wants to be like you... You have to know how to control it a bit and try to be an example whenever you can. If you can't, then look for another hobby or something you do instead of playing ranked to not fall into that.

But hey, Caps is a sixteen-year-old who has been playing in the European qualifiers for I don't know how many and it's normal. Almost innate is the fact of being a little ... I do not know if toxic but the way you react to different situations in ranked. It's as they say, you always end up being like the people that are close to you, and if in the rankeds everyone acts the same, you end up being one of them. I think that's the problem that Caps has had and I do not think it will affect him on the long term or that he is toxic. I do not think he is that kind of person from my experience, he seems like a normal kid.

I believe that this split is going to be more complicated than the previous one

FC: Now that you've mentioned the ranked games, I know you probably have not played much in the new patch because the competitions have not been played on it but I'd like you to give me your opinion on the supports in the current metagame, in which we have seen the return to the tanks with the mastery of Courage of the Colossus.

mithy: The metagame has not changed since Worlds: Karma and Zyra are still the strongest and then there are Nami, Miss Fortune and so on. When Karma and Zyra disappear, yes, tanks start to appear again, but not necessarily because of the mastery. Although Courage of the Colossus is very strong, tanks like Braum or Tahm Kench are still there, they continue to contribute a lot.

I am not 100% in agreement with playing with the mastery of the Colossus nor I don't completely know how the current meta is, because Karma and Zyra are not usually banned. If they ban them, I think they will play things like Thresh with the Colossus, which is a kind of tank, although the botlane mechanics remain the same. You have to win the lane and use that pressure to move on the map, play with the jungle to pressure up and down... hence the range supports, which have the pressure against the tanks. I do not think it's a metamage of tank supports even though the mastery does well.

FC: How do you think plants can affect all that search for pressure on the map? There are the explosive one, the vision plant... Some articles have already come out saying that you will fight a lot for the vision to control the map, for example.

Mithy: Well, at first I saw that the plants were going to be random and that you never knew where they were going to come out. The truth is that I still do not know in detail how they work, but I do see that the plant always comes in the same place, so you have a little control. If it is not so random I do not see it so bad, because for example, I am support, you can take the vision plant to deny wards, go alone into the jungle and escape with the explosive or slow down an area to someone who follows you ... It has its options and I do not see them wrong if it is not random, it gives a little more depth to the game and that never hurts.