Last week at LCS, I had the opportunity to interview several LCS pros after their matches. Next up: Meteos from Cloud 9. Though C9 started out with a questionable record this season, they've smashed their way all the way back to the #2 spot in the league and look as ready as ever to challenge the NA title. I asked him about the team's rebound after their difficult start to the season, the struggles they've been working through, the details behind their match with TSM, and a lot about the way Meteos sees the new jungle and the new patch.

That was a pretty crazy game. Can you start by taking me through how you were able to deal with TSM's comeback, and what was going through your head?



Well, that game started pretty well for us. I think we got the better hand in the draft by a pretty big margin – we got Maokai and Lissandra which makes it really easy to pick Vi there, because we have so many point-click-and-GO champions there already, and I don't really need to be tanky, so I can build damage. That's a style we're really comfortable playing. Hai can be on a shotcalling champion that initiates, and it's easy for us to just follow up. It's just our style; we got all the champions we're comfortable on. This happens to us a lot: when we're secured into a place for something and the game doesn't matter, it's so much harder to care about it. TSM probably didn't prep very hard for the game because obviously, to them, it didn't matter. Not to say they wanted us to win or anything, because after the game they were talking about what they should've done better and stuff – they didn't give the game away by any means – but I do understand what it's like to not have it matter as much. For us, it matters a lot, trying to get that second seed from CLG, so I think it just meant more for us. We prepped harder than them, got a better draft, and I think we were able to take it from there.



When you first played TSM at the beginning of the season, it was a pretty rough game for you guys. How's it feel to really turn things around and take the win?



It feels good. It's been a full season of changes and us adapting to them. I think we're in a much better spot now than we were at the beginning of the season. At the beginning of the season, I remember I was playing Elise, because we didn't think she was bad back then, but she turned out to not be very good. I think we got our picks a lot better, our strategy a lot better, so things are looking up.



Would you attribute the slump you were in towards the beginning of the season to not being fully prepared for the changes in the patch, then?



It was a lot of things. It was a combination of a little complacency, since we'd just won IEM San Jose before the split. There were a lot of changes, and we weren't all on the same page for what we wanted to do. There was a lot of non-cohesiveness with our play. Everyone thinks we should be doing a different thing and no one's making confident calls because you don't want to override what someone else was trying to do, but then no calls were being made so no one knows what to do. You're hesitating a lot. That was basically us for a lot of this split. But we will have games where we're really on point, and sometimes we fall back into bad habits, but I do think that even if there's spikes up and down it does seem to be an upward progression.



When you don't have that cohesiveness, with everyone on a different page, how do you go about getting everyone on that page?



I think the best way to do it comes down to your practice. We switched from Lemon doing all the picks and bans, because it was leading to some arguments. If he picked some stuff that we didn't want to play it would tilt everyone, and games would be really bad, so we had Charlie do it. That way, if we had a problem with our picks and bans we get mad at the coach and not someone in the game with us. So then we all talk to Charlie about what we wanna play. He takes everyone's input into account, so if you want to play a certain champion he'll find a place for you to play it. That's not to say you pick it into every game if it doesn't fit into the comp. That way, it was a happy medium between getting good team comps and letting everyone play what they want to play. When we go into the game, we'll just remember how we've done things: "Hai, make a call – a very decisive call, and even if it's the worst shit ever, we'll follow you up." We just need to get back in that habit. He'll make a lot of bad calls, we'll follow him up, we'll make him feel bad about it, and then we all get our confidence back as a team and it goes a lot better.



Has Hai's physical condition been a problem for you guys going forward?



I don't really know what his condition is. I think it hurts the amount of solo queue he can play, so maybe he's having some mechanical or champion pool issues that if he could practice more, it'd help. But it's hard to say. I haven't really noticed him doing worse than before. He's going to physical therapy and whatnot. I don't think it'll be a big issue. Hopefully it won't get worse though.



Would you say you guys are “back” to your top form, or do you still have a ways to go?



I think we always have stuff to improve on, even when we're in our "top form," there's no reason to not try to keep improving. I think we're better than we were earlier in this split and that's good enough for me. We're just gonna keep trying to get better.



This is the first split where C9 isn't finishing the season in first. Would you say that's mostly because of the slump, or would you say that NA as a whole is much better?



It's definitely a combination. Even in the past when we were dominant, we still didn't play perfectly – it's just now our mistakes get capitalized on a lot more. We'll just have some slipups in games. We've thrown a lot of games this split – a lot of our losses were games where we actually had leads early on. That's not something we ever did before. Normally it'd be us coming back from deficits, and so I think teams are better at closing out games when they have leads now, and capitalizing on our mistakes if we get greedy. I think it's mostly that North America's getting a lot better, but obviously we're trying to get better than them. When you're second place, you can literally copy everything the first place team does and you'll eventually catch up to their level. But when you're the first place team, whom do you copy? You have to try and figure things out on your own, and sometimes it doesn't work.



In terms of an international context, do you think that the gap between NA and the rest of the world is closer than it has been before?



I think it's really hard to say. I would probably say that the gap's smaller now. Mostly because there's been so many changes to the game. On 5.5 I think, it'll actually help North America more than the other regions because that Cinderhulk playstyle of being a really tanky, not as high-impact jungler early on, that's a style NA has done a lot more than the Asian regions. Maybe it'll be better for North Americans.



You just took down the #1 team. Is TSM still the favorite going into playoffs?



I'd say TSM is still the favorite going into playoffs. Like I said, I don't think this game means that much, because even though we had an advantage with a really good team comp, we still made mistakes. They got a dragon and a turret due to a catch mid, they got a baron due to Smite fight. We were probably trying a lot harder than they were.



We're a couple weeks since the trip to IEM. Looking back, did you take anything away from it that you've been incorporating, or are you just trying to put it behind you>



I'd say mostly we're trying to put that trip behind us: that was so bad. Maybe there were a few things we learned. It sort of sparked the idea of me going for a more carry-ish role from the jungle instead of support: going for the upgraded yellow trinket instead of the sightstone and sweeper. There was that game where I was 10–0 on Rek'sai and I lost. I don't think anyone should ever lose when they're 10–0. It sparked that idea for me, and the team was able to go with it. It worked out pretty well, because when we first started the game – before trinkets and all that stuff – I wasn't a big warding guy. I just liked being strong for the fights and being able to win fights We're going a little bit back towards that style, but not all the way – I'm still putting a high priority on vision control. It's just something we're trying out.



In general, the jungle looks a lot different since 5.5, with the introduction of Cinderhulk and the rise of Sejuani. How are you approaching 5.5, and how are you looking towards 5.6?



I think that in 5.5, the biggest difference is just that Sejuani is really, really good. It makes this interesting dynamic for junglers where before Rek'sai was really good, because she could just have the most early game pressure and be able to win games from there. But now you have champions like Sejuani who will just outscale Rek'sai even if they're not necessarily better early game. Nidalee is one too. It's almost like a triangle: Nidalee is really good against Sejuani, Sejuani is good against Rek'sai, and and Rek'sai is good against Nidalee. It's an interesting dynamic because there's never really been matchups like that before. And there's also super picks that come out, like Nunu's really good, Zac is okay, and there's still the Lee Sin picks people can do. There's a lot more variety than there was before. You can basically choose if you want to have a high pressure early game jungler, which is risky because they might outscale you, or you can go for the low pressure early game jungler that scales well, but that's also risky because they can punish you early. I think it helps different styles.



With Sejuani taking a pretty big hit in the next patch, what do you foresee the top picks being?



I don't think the nerf will affect Sejuani at all. I've played her in solo queue and it feels the exact same. The slow on the ultimate is the only kinda noticeable thing, but if you hit 'em with it, it still stuns them, and you can permafrost right after even if you get the slow. So it's still a massive slow. I think anyone who overreacts to the nerf is... basically overreacting. But it's basically just the same thing.



Are there any more changes you'd like to see before the summer split starts?



Hard to say. I still think that a lot of the older champions, like Amumu, could use some rework to their kit. I think Elise needs a rework, because I like playing her, but she's just in such a bad place right now. Basically more changes to champions that aren't good right now. Not necessarily strict buffs. I think one issue with 5.5 is that generally tanks don't have as much counterplay. A Nunu isn't as outplayable as a Lee Sin. The Nunu's gonna have 4000 health and Snowball you at you and drop wards with a Sightstone all game long. A really good jungler playing Nunu isn't gonna look much better than a bad jungler playing Nunu, as opposed to like a Lee Sin. I do think I'd wish that they'd just do more reworks with these really basic champions to rework their kit, and reward good play with them and allow outplay.



Any last comments, shoutouts?



Shoutouts to our fans and sponsors.