Counter Logic Gaming has suffered another upset to a team from the wild card region after Albus NoX Luna defeated CLG on the third day of the League of Legends World Championship.

Slingshot’s Andrew Kim talked to Kirill “Likkrit” Malofeev afterward about the massive win and what it means for the rest of the tournament.

Andrew Kim: First thing I have to ask you, how does it feel, after hearing everyone say that Albus Nox has no chance against CLG?

Kirill “Likkrit” Malofeev: I may sound a bit rude, and stuff but, yesterday everyone on Reddit and social media said that we were shit. Yes, yesterday I didn’t perform very well, and even normal for myself it was bad. But today we won against CLG. Is CLG good? Yes they are! But people actually don’t understand that wild card regions aren’t what they were two years ago. Any wild card region, if Dark Passage were here, with their main roster with (Rasmus “Caps” Winther) and (Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir), definitely would be like contenders to be second seed in the group, because they were stronger than us.

AK: You played a very aggressive Tahm Kench today. You were like playing the aggressive Brand support. What’s your support philosophy?

KM: Because if you do nothing, you’re not a pro player. A lot of professional games are pretty boring. Like a season ago, it was farm for 40 minutes, one team fight, then GG. I don’t like that (kind of) game. I’m a solo queue player; I always have been. That’s what I enjoy about League of Legends: fights, aggressiveness, shouting, you know? This is my philosophy. If you want to be a better player, you need to do something. You can’t improve by standing on your base doing nothing.

AK: You just mentioned that you have the mentality of a solo queue player, that you like to be proactive and do something. When you’re in a team like Albus NoX, how does that play into working with your teammates and laners?

KM: Well, I have already heard an analogy of me and (Vladislav “aMiracle” Scherbyna) being (Erlend “Nukeduck” Våtevik Holm) and (Evgeny “Genja” Andryushin.) It’s pretty accurate because I’m insanely aggressive and Miracle is insanely passive so we are like flame and ice. And if we talk about (the rest of the team) they’re 50-50; 50 aggressive and 50 passive. If we talk about the game at all, the thing is that I am usually the engager of the team. The matchup was pretty fine, for aggro. Sometimes things go wrong like yesterday with the 3 v 1 top lane, or when today when I went under the enemy tower to kill the Poppy — not my call but — I’m not afraid to go for plays. Maybe I fail, yes, and I will be a fool. But if I win, I will be a hero that I want.

AK: Some of the other questions a lot of people had about the wild card regions is the infrastructure of how you guys play. We know that unlike the other regions, you have a unique operation. Do you have a gaming house? Do you live together with your teammates? How is your practice regimen?

KM: The thing is, there is only two wild card regions left, and they play their tournaments online. We are one of them, we have the second worst facilities. Because we play online, no one cares about our (CIS) region…(says something in Russian)…I can’t say that because it’s offensive in Russian – yes we have a gaming house, but if any of the other teams who are here at worlds, including INTZ, come to our gaming house, they wouldn’t understand how they are supposed to play there. It’s literally a flat, which isn’t really big. Our gaming room is like, it’s hard to explain but, it’s five PCs and a wall behind them literally 50cm away. It’s really small, so we don’t really have a gaming house. Yes there was a bootcamp, but big teams at worlds can’t even imagine what it’s like to not have personal space. No one in Russia has it. Our region is poor and we can’t do anything about it so we’re trying our best, as soon as real money comes to Russia, League of Legends will be better for sure.

AK: You’re a very passionate player. You’re not afraid of what you say, you’re not afraid of who you go up against, so I have to ask where do you find the passion for League of Legends? Was is something that was always there?

KM: I am a very passionate person, that’s very correct. I’m even called toxic sometimes. Not sometimes, more than sometimes. I don’t want to flame people, but I love the game and I love playing it. Gaming was the thing that was in my life since my first year of life. I used to be a gamer all my life, and today I’m just here at worlds, and my passion which is inside me, leads me to be me.

AK: My last question is that, now you’ve made it onto the world stage, made an incredible impression by beating CLG. Is there something you want to tell everyone in the world about your region or about your team?

KM: First of all, guys, don’t underestimate wild cards. Today we’re just underdogs. But tomorrow, we will come to your houses, and you will hear “knock, knock,” and you will know that your time is done. And if I talk about Russia, yes we are poor. Yes we don’t have a lot of players, our region is the smallest of all. But we’re Russians. We all remember Moscow 5; we all know how good Russians are at games. We are not Koreans, but we’re guys who believe in our dream and we’ll follow it whatever it takes.

Cover photo courtesy of Riot Games