After a heart-stopping match against Evil Geniuses in the recent LCS weekend, the Copenhagen Wolves have certainly shown that they're not going to sit quietly at the bottom of the ladder any longer. I managed to have a chat with Kasper 'TheTess' Poulsen just before Week 6 of the LCS and there's no doubt that their strong mindset and 'never-say-die' attitude has propelled them three spots higher to sit at 5th place.





Do you develop a strategy for each team you play against, or do you formulate a gameplan for your own play and stick to it?

TheTess: It all depends on which team we are going up against. We know the teams and we know which teams are more likely to be unpredictable and do something cheesy. With that in mind, we do come up with a battle plan for every single match we play and try hard to predict what they are going to pick/ban and do, especially in the early game.

Some teams are definitely simpler to plan against though. Take EG for example, they focus heavily on farming for late game, while FNATIC on the other hand, is trickier to plan against since they focus on split-pushing.

In your previous match against FNATIC, you managed to secure an unofficial pentakill and followed up with Baron. Things went downhill right after that though, so what do you think went wrong?

TheTess: We proceeded to push down the turret in mid and killed Cyanide in the process I believe, but we blew a lot of cooldowns doing so. Deficio then wanted to ward and got caught out by cocoon from Elise, so a teamfight happened - a really bad one. Since Lulu was pretty much the focus point of the fight she wasn't there to help me as Zed just oneshotted me, and they pretty much just destroyed us from there.

How has Bjergsen's return changed the team? Do you think that the team plays better as whole now that he's back?

TheTess: It has changed us a lot. The major change being that we could go back to speaking Danish in our teamspeak during matches. With our sub, cowTard, we had to do everything in English. In general, it has also affected the team, since Bjergsen is a big presence in mid lane. He takes a lot of the pressure off, especially for me, so I can focus on playing my part a bit easier.

Before Bjergen joined the Copenhagen Wolves, you were playing mid lane. Now that you're back into playing ADC again, are you feeling more confident in your play? Has it been easy to transition between the two roles?

TheTess: Well I was only playing mid for a limited amount of time really, so I never really got too attached to the role. When we found out that Bjergsen was looking for a team I was actually the one to suggest me moving to AD Carry, as that was the role we were actually looking for someone to fill in for.

I definitely feel more confident on the AD Carry position and I never really had a hard time transitioning since I've always liked mixing things up. Also, I had played quite a bit of ADC before making the swap.

Considering your current position in the LCS so far, what does the team need to do to secure a spot in the Top 6?

TheTess: We need to continue practicing hard and preparing well for each and every game we play. At the moment, it is not quite that easy as we are having some issues with securing a gaming house. We are currently living at a hotel practicing on laptops in the LCS studio whenever we can.

Are there any particular AD carries that you consider to be significantly stronger than others at the moment? Are they potentially 'first pick worthy' or is it unwise to first pick an ADC?

TheTess: I don't really consider any AD Carries 'first pick worthy' at the moment. There are a lot of strong ones like Miss Fortune and Varus that are a force to be reckoned with during the laning phase. Luckily, there are a lot of options that work, and there isn't a particular AD Carry that is really all that devastating compared to the others at the moment. So, I don't think it's vital to pick them up as a first pick unless it's really vital to your strategy.

What bot lane duos do you most hate to play against? And why?

TheTess: It really depends a lot on the other teams' team composition. Duos like Thresh/Varus can be really devastating if it's coupled with a strong ganker and maybe even a Twisted Fate or Karthus mid lane. The thing that makes bot lane really hard to play is the fact that the enemy team can engage on you at any time during the laning phase with their heavy cc, and when they do it is very likely that at least one more person will show up to the party.

In terms of players, there really isn't anyone that I particularly hate playing against. It all comes down to which champions my support and I have, and which champions the opponent has - coupled with the team compositions of both teams of course. Other than that, I don't really care who I am playing against and I will most likely treat them the same.

Considering the 2v1 lanes that have been seen steadily throughout the LCS, which top lane champion handles 2v1s the best? What's the best way to completely shut down the enemy top-laner in that situation?

TheTess: Well some champions deal with it really well and can AOE clear effectively in front of a turret, while others like Nidalee - as an extreme example - have a much harder time doing that. The best way to shut down the enemy top-laner however, is successfully freezing the lane at the middle and completely zoning them out of EXP. It's not about focusing on destroying the turret.

Corki hasn't been picked much in competitive play since the start of Season 3, why is this the case? Is it because of the Season 3 item changes? (Like Triforce getting nerfed) What buffs would he need for you to start picking him up again?

TheTess: Well, I haven't really played Corki at all recently. I do believe that he is very mana-hungry in lane though, and since Triforce - which is like his main item - got nerfed...he's just not the same Corki anymore. Right now, I'm not really sure what needs to be done for him to be picked up more as I really haven't played him for very long time.

Thank you so much for your time! Do you have any shoutouts or closing statements?

TheTess: You're very welcome! I would like to give a shoutout to our sponsors, Komplett.dk, Steelseries and Adidas and to our fans for being absolutely awesome!﻿

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