In what can be described as poetic, Clutch Gaming defeat TSM once again in the quarter finals, making themselves officially TSM’s playoff boogieman. With this win, Clutch Gaming has qualified for a chance to compete for the organization’s first finals appearance.





TSM fans can point fingers at Bjergsen’s under performance during the series, or rookie Spica’s mistaken engages, or the TSM management’s decision to bench Akaadian and Grig in the final hour. One thing is certain though: Clutch Gaming is better than TSM. I had a chance to sit down with the victorious (and deservedly confident) toplaner Huni to discuss the series, his consideration of role swapping to adc, and his ranking of the remaining toplaners in playoffs.





Well Huni you’ve qualified for the semi finals after that 3-1 victory over TSM! They made it all the way to the finals last split and seemed like a scary opponent, so talk to me about what your expectations were going into the series.





As I’ve said, it was expected. I knew we were going to drop one game at least because we’re also not playing perfectly so it makes sense that we’d lose one. The most important thing I told everyone is that it doesn’t matter if we lose one game, we should just not be tilted and just need to accept we will lose because we will play bad. It’s not like TSM is playing super well, we will just make some mistakes. After the loss it just gave us chill vibes because we already expected it going in.





So you didn’t feel any nerves considering TSM’s reverse sweeps to the finals last split?





I mean, I told the team before the fourth game that I know TSM loves going for reverse sweeps but this is not the day. This cannot happen. We got punished the third game because we played worse than the enemy team, that’s why we lost. As soon as we realized we just need to go back to our simple steps we were fine. Like TSM is not a good team right now. They used to be good, but they’ve been struggling recently so that helped us out get back into it.





What about Brokenblade in particular? You once said that he was the best toplaner in NA, is that still true?





Well I agree he played really well, but for now I performed way too hard this series. I’m playing like really, really well. I’m just satisfied with how I’ve been playing the last six, seven weeks. TSM is just struggling right now, so it’s not the best time for him to play well. Like I gotta accept before this summer I was just one of the worst, like pretty bad with my team. I had never missed Worlds so 2018 was really hard for me, but this year I’m playing well and hopefully I make it again.





It’s particularly good to see you back on form playing carry toplaners, so tell me about the team’s decision to put you on picks like Gangplank and Rumble?





Yeah, everyone’s been recognizing that I’ve been playing really well these past few weeks. It just gave me and everyone else to confidence to play what I want and what I’m feeling. That’s why I can pull out my champion pool right now, because I’m playing optimally. But then there’s still not many champions as good as my Rumble. I’ve just been feeling good and playing optimally so the team let’s me do my thing. We play well, they trust my champ pool, and they play around me. I think we’re looking pretty good.





But we haven’t seen you break out the Tristana yet! When I think of that champ in toplane I immediately think of you.





Yeah of course I’ve tried it! That champion is pretty fun to play. Everyone talked about it that way though. All the coached in LCS were like, “Damn, this champion is definitely for Huni!” *Laughs* An adc toplaner that scales better than Lucian?? I mean come on. I like it personally, and they even banned it today but I think people are just scared of it because I’m known as an adc player. It’s really aggressive and if I get a snowball going it’s pretty unstoppable. Those kinds of things make teams more scared, so that made the draft pretty easy.





You mentioned you’re a marksman player but your position is toplane. Have you ever considered a role swap in your career to just play ADC?





I mean yeah, there’s a lot of teams that wanted me there. Whether it was jungle, top, adc, since I’ve shown my skills. Last year I proved myself in the jungle and even played mid. You know, everything works man. I’m pretty comfortable playing and I’ve thought about it, but my value as a player comes from being a toplaner. I’m most valuable there for a team. Who knows, maybe one day if I’m playing really bad in the toplane I’ll make a swap but for now I’m still playing really well.

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Hypothetically speaking, if you made that swap who would you want to be your support?





CoreJJ. I’d like to play with him and I even duo with him too. We were actually friends back to 2014, not super close but solo queue friends. We just met randomly at 2017 worlds finals. I like playing with him in duo queue because he plays Pyke and roams top. That’s my favorite support.





*Laughs* Are you throwing shade at Vulcan saying he needs to roam top more?





Yeah, you could say that. Even toplane is just support difference *laughs*.





Well you mentioned earlier that you’re hoping to go to Worlds again. The fastest way to qualify is to win the split, but in order to do that you’re going up against either Cloud9 or Team Liquid next week in the semi finals. What do you think your odds are in either of those matches?





I think we’re confident, but we know it’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be like how we beat TSM. Our goal is to make the series five games so that all we have to do is be a better closer. That’s my goal versus either of them. They’re not going to be unbeatable, but we’re going to have to play better than today. It’s not unbeatable. This is NA, anyone can beat anyone.





*Laughs* it’s so sad that’s true. Well you’ll be up against either Licorice or Impact in the semifinals. How confident are you feeling against either of them right now?





My levels of skill right now only Impact can match at the moment. No one can handle me as long as I play well and just play for myself and trust my teammates. I’ve been playing without any pressure, and that makes my games way too easy. When I’m playing well then the team is playing well.





Does Impact scare you?





Not at all, all he can do is match me. It’s not like he’s going to take the lane from me. I’ve never lost against Impact before.





Let’s grade them both on a scale then, with one being the lowest and ten being the highest. Where would you rank them?





I would give them nine and eight. Like Impact is nine and Licorice is an eight.





What about you?





Eleven. I’m off the charts.