Misaya, the legendary mid laner and popular streamer from Team WE, was attending the Mid-Season Invitational as a caster and found some time to sit down and chat about Edward Gaming, "Monsters of the Mid Lane," playing with Clearlove, and the differences between his Twisted Fate and pawN's.

So first of all, thank you again. Very exciting games today. Did you expect Fnatic to be able to take two games off SK Telecom at this point?

To be honest, I did not expect that. They managed to take two games, I thought SKT was stronger than they appear.

An obvious theme at this tournament is "monsters at the mid lane," so it’s very fitting I would get to interview one of the greatest mid laners in terms of reputation. First of all, what do you think of the mid lane meta being played at the Mid-Season invitational?

So I feel like the mid lane meta has shifted towards more team fight oriented champions; assassins aren't able to play as well. Champions that are able to help synergize, help initiate teamfights, and provide a lot of utility during those situations are going to be more prominent during the current meta.

Which has been your favorite team at this event to do the casting for as a caster for the event?

EDG

Of course. So regarding Edward Gaming, then, do you think that this series between SKT and Fnatic has changed — first of all what was your initial estimation of EDG's chances of winning the tournament, and second, has watching this semifinals series changed your opinion?

So I think all the teams here at this tournament are really strong. I don’t really know what the exact probability of EDG winning is but I feel like EDG is performing at their peak form at the moment, and also, I think they are a really really strong team so I do think that they will be able to win the entire tournament. I’m confident.

And obviously you use to play with Clearlove, but his playstyle since when you played with him seems to have shifted drastically. Do you have any insights into perhaps what has allowed him to have a longstanding career? He is the last [2013] WE member still competing who hasn’t retired.

Clearlove, to be able to progress the way he did, and be such a relevant jungler for all this time is mainly because of his persistence and because he put in a lot a lot of hard work first hand. He tries really really hard and practices a lot.

His playing style adapts to exactly what the team needs. He'll learn whatever it takes for his team to succeed. I believe that Clearlove is the best jungler, and I also feel like the reason that he is able to progress so far is because of all this hard work that he is able to put in.

And secondly, I want to congratulate Clearlove on all his success and wish him the best of luck in this tournament, as well as in the Season Five World Championships, and proving to the world that he is best in the world.

That’s very high praise. What would you say is the main difference between how you and Clearlove interacted on Team WE and how he interacts with PawN, his current mid lane teammate?



So it’s hard to say mainly because previously it is a very different meta now, patches have long passed, but I feel like when I played with Clearlove we played a more team oriented playstyle with him. We focused primarily on making sure we take champions with utility. Whereas now the way he plays with PawN is a lot more aggressive and plays for more — more chances to carry essentially, to do a little more than be a utility support kind of thing.

We’ve seen pawN play Twisted Fate a couple of times, which obviously is your most known champion. Do you think there are stylistic differences between how you play Twisted Fate and how PawN plays Twisted Fate — maybe not so much which is better, but what are the differences in the impact on the game?

So the way I played Twisted Fate is more of helping the entire team, put global pressure on both top and bottom lane where I can always counter-gank and assist them whenever I need to, whereas Pawn is very focused on his mechanical skills with Twisted Fate, especially during team fight situations he is always able to, mechanically, do extremely well with Twisted Fate as well as during the laning phase.

Also, do you have any fun Clearlove stories for the people who may want to know a little bit more about him and yourself when you played together?

I can’t really think of any at the moment, it has been such a long time since we played together.

You said that you think EDG has probably a very strong chance to win the tournament. What do you think they have to do to make that happen, first in their match against AHQ and finally against Fnatic or SK Telecom?

Three points on how to beat AHQ — every single player needs to be able to perform their best to be able to beat AHQ. Secondly, they need to make sure that they shut down their jungler and don’t give them a clear advantage, and the bottom lane needs to not do silly mistakes to give the other bottom lane an advantage. I don’t really know if it’s going to be Fnatic or SKT, it’s hard to say.

Thank you very much for doing the interview, and I hope you enjoy the games.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for the Score eSports. She very much regrets she couldn't have more time to interview Misaya and ask him about things other than Clearlove. #Someday. You can follow her on Twitter.