„FORG1VEN geht in Team-Fights nicht verloren“

VandeR: FORG1VEN doesn’t get lost in team fights

H2k-Gaming leads the ranking of the EU LCS after three weeks. readmore.de talked to support player Oskar 'Vander' Bogdan after their win against ROCCAT about the match, about what it’s like to play with Konstantinos 'FORG1VEN' Tzortziou and his relationship with jungler Marcin 'Jankos' Jankowski.

readmore.de: First of all congratulations on your win against Team ROCCAT. What are your thoughts on the game?

Oskar 'Vander' Bogdan: We had a poke comp and they had a really good team fighting comp with Alistar, Kalista and Lissandra. These champions provided a lot of CC. With Graves and Quinn, they had a really high burst of damage. They could one-shot whoever they wanted if that person got caught. But we had a good comp to kite back. I think we misplayed one team fight in their base and one in the top lane. Our mid game was pretty fine, but the late game was sloppy. Overall I’m still happy with the game.

You won five out of the first six games so far. Are you satisfied with how the first three weeks went?

Obviously we have a lot of things to improve on. We can always do something better in the game. I think that’s why the game is so popular. Now we have SELFIE as our sub mid laner. This actually changes a lot. It changes the picks we choose and how we play. That’s why you saw a slower early game from us this week. We played like three games with SELFIE because we had just gotten the information that we weren’t allowed to use Ryu one day before the LCS. This crushed our mentality. Based on those circumstances I’m happy with how we performed. SELFIE also did really well although he thought that he played badly.

That was because of one of the team fights I mentioned. He thought that he misplayed and because of that lost us the team fight, but it wasn’t obviously only his fault. He could have played the fight better, but it’s fine. He sets high standards for his own play. Hopefully he won’t be sad for a long time, he played really well overall. SELFIE is an emotional guy, but I think he’ll be fine.

Your bottom lane partner FORG1VEN is always very vocal about the fact that he wants to win. What is it like to play with him?

Mechanically FORG1VEN is really good. The biggest difference for me is that I finally have an AD carry who has a good laning phase and who is good in team fights. MrRallez is a pretty good team fighter. His laning was decent, but not optimal.

On the other hand, I had Woolite who was good in lane. I would say it was almost on FORG1VEN’s level. In team fights he would somehow always get lost. That’s what an AD carry has to do: He has to think about how an enemy champion can kill him to try to avoid it. Woolite didn’t really do that… he tried to attack carries. FORG1VEN is an overall great ad carry and it’s up to us to keep him in his form and to play well with him.

Do you think that you are the best bottom lane in the EU LCS right now?

Should I say „by far“ now? (laughs)

If you look at the LCS games only I think that we showed the best performance so far… by far. (laughs)

I really respect Niels, he’s a really good AD. I also respect Mithy as a great player. Origen’s bottom lane and ours are the best in Europe at the moment.

We even sleep in the same room! (laughs)

I mean we know each other, our weak and strong sides and what to do, so it’s obviously better than in Fnatic for example. I’m pretty sure Noxiak didn’t play with a jungler like Spirit before so he has to learn what a jungler like him wants. He has to learn what he has to do to help him in the game.

For me, it’s easier. I think we play decently together. We listen to each other and we try to do a lot of things together. Pr0lly also helped us a lot on the positions that are more macro-oriented. We have to go to the right places and do the right things to help the laners get ahead. He has a lot of influence on our play like every coach. I think it’s mainly on the coach if the support and jungler do well – at least from my experience.

Last question: How far can you go in the Spring Split of the EU LCS? Do you expect to win the split?

We want to be top 2 in the regular season so we go directly to the semifinal. Top 1 is the ultimate goal. From my personal experience you shouldn’t think too much about the goal. Every step, every game is important. Play as well as you can. Do your best every scrim day. Play a lot of solo queue. That will lead you to success. You should be happy about taking every step.

Thanks a lot for the interview. Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

I want to thank everyone for supporting me, especially now that I’ve switched teams. I know that a lot of people took that step from ROCCAT to H2k with me, so I’m really glad that those people like me and followed me. I want to say sorry that I don’t stream very often. I know a lot of people want me to stream. For me, it’s kinda hard when I stream and I play badly. I’m kind of ashamed and we also don’t have the best internet connection in the gaming house. I will try to stream more often and to be more active on social media.

The interview was held on 29th of January.

Photo Credit: Riot Games

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