The summer split was one of the roughest for the Team Liquid organization due to a varying number of issues involving player attitudes and underperformance. The LCS squad ended their 2016 season losing 3-1 and 3-0 in the quarterfinals to Counter Logic Gaming and The Regional Qualifier to Team Envyus, respectively. One of the players, support player Matt, was there throughout the entirety of Season 6 to watch potential become wasted. We sat down with Matt to talk about his Worlds aspirations, the spring split roster, and their newest film The Breaking Point.

The original spring split Team Liquid after a win. Image courtesy of lolesports

So you have had time to rest and prepare yourself for next split. How has your off-season been so far?

Matt: I've done a lot of relaxing. I am currently still in LA and haven't made travel plans. Living with my girlfriend and surrounded by good food.

Unfortunately, Team Liquid was unable to qualify for the World Championships. Were you upset by this or was it somewhat expected to you?

Matt: At the time of gauntlet, obviously no... the expectation of winning gauntlet with two challenger players and practice for two weeks is a far fetched one. However, we did have some expectations for ourselves. As a makeshift team we still thought we were better than Envy. After getting a sizeable lead game 1 we ended up 0-3 mostly due to having no real direction as a team. Since the Korean Bootcamp, I was always expecting that we will do well. I never really had the thought of whether or not we were capable of going to worlds, I always just kept thinking about today or maybe the next week at most. After gauntlet ended and as I watched the worlds group stages, the feeling of regret dawned on me that I really did not realize what I missed out on until then. Now I have a real drive to only want to make it to worlds, nothing else will be acceptable for my happiness in my career as a player.

I guess a question that many may ask would be why you guys chose to change the roster before the gauntlet. At this point, what was the team's main focus after the CLG in the quarterfinals?

Matt: Management made the decision to bench Dardoch and that roster was the best we could scrap together as well as Fabbbyyy underperforming.

You guys were a mechanically gifted group of players, what do you feel was missing that kept you guys from becoming the best team in NA?

Matt: If the spring split roster stayed together we were a top three NA team easily. That being said, C9 did get a lot better summer split but I think we would've improved similarly.

Who do you believe would be the top 3 had the spring split roster stayed together? What did the spring split roster have that summer did not?

Matt: its really obvious the amount of talent we had on spring compared to summer and gauntlet it would really just be a 4 way race for the 2nd and 3rd spot to worlds and between IMT, TL, CLG and C9. It would've been whoever improved the most during the 6.17 matched lanes meta and with Piglet, I don't see how we couldn't have done well. With this meta in mind, I would say TSM, C9 and TL would become top three.

Matt celebrating a win with former botlane partner, Piglet. Image courtesy of lolesports

Were you a stronger player with Fabbbyyy or Piglet?

Matt: I learned more things but I was definitely not stronger with Fabbbyyy.

Why do you feel laning with Fabbbyyy was not as successful in LCS opposed to when you both were on Team Liquid Academy?

Matt: There is nothing comparable between laning with Fabbbyyy on TL and TLA. We were both challenger players then in the challenger scene. The dynamic of laning is a lot different compared to laning in the challenger scene than against LCS teams. Laning against a LCS tier botlane is much harder than a challenger tier one.

Team Liquid will be releasing their first film, The Breaking Point. Are you excited that this will be released?

Matt: I think I can already how the community will react to the movie but I'll be looking forward to it anyways.

What will the movie help the community understand about Team Liquid?

Matt: Well the movie is meant to just show inside footage of what goes on and the community will draw a lot of conclusions from it.

Had Team Liquid qualified for Worlds and kept the same spring roster, do you think this movie would have been created? Or would the community receive episodes of Rebirth in its place.

Matt: This was something planned since right after spring split. Rebirths format changed from a weekly show to a movie thats not relevant to any actual event of the players or team.

While this may have seemed like a disappointing split for the org and fans, why do you feel next split will be different?

Matt: Liquid as an organization seems to be revamping so a lot of things will change.

What will you do to prepare for next split? What is the minimum you must achieve in order to call Spring Split a success?

Matt: Right now I am on vacation but I am still playing solo queue like 50 hours a week and I don't even know what roster I'll be on so I can't comment much on what I expect.

Do you have any final words to your fans?

Matt: New year new Liquid lets go baby.

Make sure to follow Matt and Team Liquid on their social media outlets for consistent updates on the player and organization. Stay tuned for Team Liquid's Film, The Breaking Point, which will release November 2nd.

Matt's Twitter

Matt's Twitch

Team Liquid's Twitter