During the weekend of the opening of the 2019 LCS Spring Split, Clutch Gaming declared victory over Echo Fox and Team SoloMid. Having shown great improvement and placing themselves 1st on the LCS leaderboard, CG's head coach mcscrag shared his thoughts regarding the team's new success.

The following is an interview with CG's head coach, Brendan 'mcscrag' McGee.

Image source: Clutch Gaming

Congratulations! Clutch Gaming is currently 2-0 in the LCS 2019 Spring Split. How does it feel?

mcscrag: It feels great. These guys have been working pretty hard the last 3 weeks of training camp and I’m happy to see their efforts rewarded on stage.

Looking at the performance in the last 2 matches, CG shows a lot of improvement compared to the last split. What do you attribute to this improvement?

mcscrag: CG is stronger this split because these are just better players. We have players with stronger lane phases across the board, which really takes the pressure off of Lira and allows him to play the game he wanted to play last year. On top of that, we have a huge amount of experience coming from Huni and Piglet which makes shotcalling much better on this team.

In your opinion, what player would you consider as the MVP or best performer so far?

mcscrag: As cheesy as it sounds, I think all five players have shown MVP performances this weekend. Huni, Lira, and Vulcan really dominated game 1 versus Echo Fox, whereas Piglet and Damonte were the stars of game 2. This really highlights the strength of our team, which is that we have threats in every role who know how to play their champions well when given the carry baton.

How do you feel about your upcoming matches against Team Liquid on Feb 3 and 100 Thieves on Feb 4, teams that some have described as also having a top bot duo?

mcscrag: We’re very excited to play against Team Liquid. Clearly their bot duo is strong, but ours can match them while creating the space for the top and jungle difference to win us the game. I’m also excited for Damonte to play versus Jensen. It’s a great chance for him to show up once again and prove he’s a mid laner to be respected this year.

As for 100T, I think they are in a difficult spot right now because of their mid performance and champion pool issues. If they can figure those problems out on this patch then it should be a good game. If not I think they will lose fast.

In your opinion, what area of improvement do you think CG needs the most?

mcscrag: Currently our individual performances on stage are much higher than in scrims. Bad scrims will catch up with even the most well bonded teams, so we’re putting a lot of effort into closing that gap. Additionally, we have to work on the last few steps of snowballing with early game compositions. You saw in the Echo Fox game how we were able to secure an early lead because of our lane priority, but tripped on a lot of the following steps. We’ll be working on this really hard in practice this week.

Many fans and supporters are excited to see CG’s rebound. How does the pressure of expectations feel?

mcscrag: I welcome the pressure as it is a good source of energy and motivation. It’s my first year in LCS so I don’t expect myself to be perfect every step of the way, but one thing I can promise the fans is that I will be the hardest working coach this team will ever see. On top of that I have an excellent support staff behind me in Naser, our Head Analyst, and Earl, our Assistant Coach. Both of them are far smarter than I am and work just as hard to keep this team on the right track.

However, at the end of the day and after every win, the vast majority of the praise belongs to the players. They are working very hard, overcoming both language and game style differences to gel into a strong team. All 5 are incredibly hungry for the title and for us coaches it’s just an honor to work with them.

Is there any specific team that you are watching out for?

mcscrag: Cloud 9 always has our number in scrims, and reapered is by far the most creative coach when it comes to drafting so this is definitely the team we’re watching out for. Nisqy is an excellent player and puts out an enormous amount of pressure in the mid lane. I think people who criticize the change from Jensen are a little delusional.

Lastly, do you have anything to say to CG’s fans reading this interview?

mcscrag: For those who stayed with us from last year, thanks for being loyal! We are excited to make you proud this year. And for the new fans we hope this year will be the start of a long and rewarding relationship.

If you would like to keep up with mcscrag, follow him on Twitter.