The Turkish Champion’s League (TCL) continues to churn out strong teams as an emerging region. Bahçeşehir Supermassive delivered in a convincing upset against European seed, G2 Esports, proving that they were not to be trifled with. After finishing the day 2-0 with a win over Ascension Gaming, SUP mid laner, Lee “GBM” Chang-seok, is as jovial and confident as ever.

Following Supermassive’s 2-0 day, we chatted with GBM about SUP’s win over G2, the TCL, and the World Championship.

I’ll just ask you this outright because it’s the biggest story of the day… People were like “Supermassive can’t beat G2, GBM can’t beat Perkz!” but you guys did it and beat them pretty convincingly. How did you do it?

Of course, it was hard laning against Perkz since we had losing mid and jungle picks. G2 had Olaf and Akali which are better mid-early game. We just said “Okay, okay, we can go late game. Just give CS.” They had no waveclear so we could wait for late. We discussed about this and we did it. They were ahead early, but we held on.

Zeitnot performed pretty well against Hjärnan and appeared to be a pretty big part of your win. What do you think about his performance and his strength as an AD Carry?

Of course, Zeitnot is good. I think he’s actually an LCK level player.

Wow, really?

Yeah, actually. We had a better bot lane, both individually and in synergy. I think Snowflower has played really well and he makes big plays around mid. When I ultied myself [as Zilean], I think I’m dead, but Snowflower is like “Hey hey, I’m coming. Can you come to me?” It’s just like, ah… my god is coming to me! Holy shit, I’m alive because he saved me. (laughs).

Your win is generally seen as an upset. Did it feel special or were you guys just taking care of business?

It was kind of special, but actually, we expected to win because in scrims, we were playing well against NA and Korean teams. G2 is weaker than other teams here so I can contrast them with that. I just thought we can win. It was still something special though.

You’re here as the Turkish representative and you’ve played in Turkey before. You’ve even played in Korea and NA before that…

Yeah, I played NA, Europe, and Korea.

Yeah, world traveler!

Yes, I like traveling!

That’s why your English is so good now.

Yeah, I’m kind of tryharding in English. I need to order something for my teammates and it’s practice. It’s kind of hard. I actually tried to learn Turkish and the grammar is similar to Korean so it was easier than English.

Ah, so your Turkish is good?

Not that good! (laughs) I need to study more.

Now, about the TCL… Last year, Fenerbahçe performed really well and now you’re showing up. What do you think of the region right now?

Yeah, our scrim results were good against other regions. Other Turkish teams like Fenerbahçe and Royal Bandits are also good. I think the Turkish league is really getting better. And now, Turkey will franchise like NA and EU. I think the Turkish league will be… maybe 4th or 5th best league in the world.

Do you think that a reason for that is because of the Korean players? Do they make the Turkish players better?

Yeah, of course. When Snowflower first came, their macro game was kind of broken so we had to fix some things saying “guys don’t do this.” They said “ah, why” so I had to convince the Turkey guys. We’re getting better and actually they trust me… that’s really important.

What are your Turkish fans like?

I was hard carrying in the finals so maybe I get some pressure from Turkish fans. They expect a lot from me so I try really hard.

I have to ask this for the NA fans… What region do you like better? Turkey or North America?

Uhhhh, I like NA! I love the food. There is not much seafood in Turkey and I always want it while I’m there. I love seafood. It’s actually fine though, I can stay happy because our team environment is really good and our boss, Hakan, takes good care of us. This team is pretty perfect when it comes to taking care of players.

Now, apart from Snowflower, who is your best friend on this team? It seems like everyone is really close.

Of course, Snowflower is my best friend because he is also Korean. And actually, I hang out with Irean so much, who is my coach. I love Hakan and [Stomaged] because he plays jungler with me and communicates all the time. We always work on synergy and actually his attitude is really good.

Lastly, good 2-0 start to the day. Do you think that you guys will make it to Groups?

Yeah, we will definitely make it to the Group Stage. I am confident.

If there was one team you wanted to play, which would it be?

RNG or Gen.G! (laughs) I have a reason to lose and I can excuse it! Actually though, I really do prefer Gen.G.

Photo: (Riot Games, Lolesports)