The RLCS Season 5 Finale in London is always a great opportunity to compare the different Rocket League regions with each other. But it’s not only the showdown of NA versus EU, but also an opportunity for the OCE region to shine. Two OCE teams have qualified for London: Chiefs eSports and Tainted Minds. We reached out to Tainted Minds captain Cameron “CJCJ” Johns to talk about his expectations going into the World Championship.

Congratulations on making it into the RLCS Grand Finals. Looking back at your performance in the past few weeks: How confident have you guys been and what gave you the edge over most competitors?

We have always loved being the underdogs, and our ability to fight and improve throughout a tournament has been a linchpin to our success in the past few weeks. We know that we are never out of it, and our ability to step up when it counts has given us the edge over other teams.

“Full credit to the Chiefs for being the best team”

Your toughest rivals from the OCE region are Chiefs who beat you in the final series 4-0. What happened in that series? I bet you guys had different expectations going into that match.

Our sole goal was to qualify for the World Championships in London, once we had qualified it was quite hard to recompose ourselves for the final and we only saw it as a bit of a consolation match at that point. We obviously would have loved first seed, but full credit to the Chiefs for being the best team all season and deserved winners.

WE’RE GOING BACK TO WORLDS BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG — CJCJ (@CJCJ_RL) 29. April 2018

Nevertheless you guys qualified for the big stage and that’s what matters most, I assume. How are you preparing for the upcoming challenge?

We will be bootcamping in London this time around, which we will utilise as a way to get accustomed to new playstyles and analyse replays as a team. We weren’t able to bootcamp last world champs which hurt us in the end, but this time it will help us fine-tune our game and bond as a team.

“My expectations were a bit high”

Are there certain expectations you want to match, specific goals you have set for yourself for the World Championship?

Personally, my expectations were probably a bit high last season at the world champs, so this time around we will be looking to improve in certain areas and enjoy the experience as a team. Going into these world champs with a better mindset will hopefully reflect how we perform and I wouldn’t be surprised if we were able to take a few scalps.

Is there a specific team that you definitely want to compete against in the World Championship?

All of the teams are pretty insane this time around, however I’d love to face Chrome from Evil Geniuses.

We won’t meet first round @ChromeRL but i’ll be seeing you very soon, ggs @ChiefsESC — CJCJ (@CJCJ_RL) 29. April 2018

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