Chexx Profile Joined May 2011 Korea (South) 5348 Posts Last Edited: 2013-11-12 01:23:12 November 12 2013 01:19 GMT #1

Hello and welcome to our third interview about the Japanese LoL Scene. This time I talked to Rampage the currently best team in Japan and represetant for Japan in the WCG in China. You can find the All for One Interview

Enjoy!



Signing off,

Chexx

TL-Chexx: Hello. Thank you for agreeing to do an interview. Can you introduce yourself and your team?

MizuRussian:Hello. My name is MizuRussian, aka Hentai Russian, manager and coach for the Japanese team Rampage and living in Sweden. I started coaching Japanese teams with experience from the EU Nordic/East server while attaining solo queue top 12 and team rank 1.

Rampage is a top Japanese team which has won every tournament that we have played so far except for one. We have qualified for the Japanese WCG spot for 2013, which will be played November 28th.

Rampage had 2 teams when we played as the organization myRevenge about 1 year ago. myR Rampage and myR FCQ, which is now called PA. The reason why we had 2 teams at that time was that we lacked scrim partners and we had no opportunity to play against teams from other regions.



TL-Chexx: How did you end up on a Japanese team?

MizuRussian: About 1 and half years ago, I was streaming on Own3d/Twitch and Japanese people started to talk to me. Then I met a guy and joined a team. I started to play on Japanese tournament for fun with 230+ pings at that time. After the tournament, my interest went into the Japanese League of legends scene.

The reason why I started to manage teams in Japan was because I wanted to help the Japanese scene and make a strong team. When I first met the people in the Japanese scene, I had a strong feeling that I could help make the best team in Japan with my experience. Well, my number one reason was because I wanted to learn Japanese culture and the language.



TL-Chexx: Which Server is your team playing on?

MizuRussian: The North American server.



TL-Chexx: How do you handle the language barrier and timezones?

MizuRussian: I couldn’t speak Japanese that well at first, so I started to speak more Japanese on stream and Teamspeak to become more fluent in the future. I really had to practice my Japanese to remember the language since I didn’t use it often before.

The timezone problem was really hard; I had to wake up early in the morning when I need to coach and communicate with the team members. I need to contact people through Skype and leave messages and important information with specific times to make sure everything goes right.



TL-Chexx: How would you describe the Japanese team and tournament structure?

MizuRussian: Japanese teams are disbanding every month so it’s really hard to remember the new up and coming teams for me. Japanese teams are weak, including Rampage. But I think the teams are doing well without their own server.

Minor/Monthly tournaments that are played in Japan are the JCG. We don’t really have major tournament expect the WCG Japan Qualifier this year in our country.

I think the tournament structure is fine but the leagues are taking too long of a time without prizes to keep motivations up. I don’t think the organization is working very well because they are handling the players and people around the tournament in a bad way, which is led to trouble many times. I hope they will get better in the future since it’ll with be needed for sure for Japanese scene.

I see that there are more companies like E-Sports SQUARE organization are making tournaments. I hope they will host tournaments more often in the future since their organization is good. They hosted the WCG Japan Qualifier, which worked smoothly and went without any problems.



TL-Chexx: How do you train? Do you scrim often? Which are your scrim partners?

MizuRussian: It really depends but we usually scrim 2-3 times a week on the SEA server. We are practicing against GPL teams and other SEA teams. When we don’t scrim, we are trying to watch some tournament VODs together to improve the team.



TL-Chexx: You will represent Japan in the WCG. How good are your chances to win it? What is your goal?

MizuRussian: We have played against some teams which have qualified for WCG before and we played fine against them. We are looking forward but we definitely need to scrim and improve our team level to win against any team in the tournament.

I think the tournament bracket will have group stage so our goal is to win the group stage first. If we win the group stage, we’ll think about that then.



TL-Chexx: How did you hear about LoL?

Aotaka: My friend from an MMORPG started to play LoL and he told me try it out.

Meromeron: Same for me, when I started to play LoL I didn’t think that I would play this game long term.



TL-Chexx: How is LoL received in Japan?

Aotaka: People in Japan love to play the game. Japanese people don’t like usually like to play English games but LoL is pretty popular if you include that reason.

Meromeron: I think the same as Aotaka does, if they release a Japanese server with more Japan focused marketing, this game will become bigger in Japan.

Alk: Very popular. Although there is still no Japanese server, domestic tournament(JCG) is held on a regular basis.



TL-Chexx: What is your opinion about Riot starting a Japanese Server in the first half of 2014?

Meromeron: I think I’ll keep my main account on NA and keep playing solo queue on NA and KR because I don’t think Japanese solo queue is going to be a good place to practice. I’ll move my sub account to Japanese server.

Aotaka: Yeah, I think I won’t either move my main account to Japanese server. The reason is same, I don’t think Japanese server at first year is going to be great to learn things especially from solo queue.

Alk: I want the server to become original, not just like other servers. I hope Japanese server will have special voice actors, more champion art, etc.



TL-Chexx: In your opinion, what does Riot need to do to have success in Japan?

Aotaka: They need someone that has a great knowledge about Japanese marketing; I think Japan is very different compared to other countries. Art, voice actors and more.

Meromeron: They probably need to choose good voice actors, and another system for buying skins. Mysterious box are similar to what Japanese people prefer to buy, they like to collect something especially from a random system. Especially if there are rare items/skins.

Alk: I want the champions, Skins and more to be cheap when server starts. Since we are going to make a new account if we can't move from NA, then this will become really important.



TL-Chexx: Can you explain the system in more detail?

MizuRussian: There's a machine called Gacha-Gacha in Japan. people are paying maybe 1 dollar for one toy, and the toy is random. In other Japanese popular games, they have a system similar to this where you pay money and u get random skins or items. Then with low chance you can get rare items. They really love this system. When I look over on twitter (Japanese LoL scene), everyone is trading gifts to each other



TL-Chexx: Which part of LoL is the most interesting one for Japanese players? The team aspect, the champions, the art style, etc.?

Meromeron: I have really no idea about this, but I think team games or playing with friends is what we prefer. Because we have made our own community in NA server.

Aotaka: I don’t know, my friends that are playing LoL are those who try to become competitive. So I don’t know in general.

Alk: I think the team game and solo queue is one of the important things. Solo queue rating is showing how strong you are and many people will try to get higher.



TL-Chexx: Which region do you pay the most attention to?

Aotaka: Korea, Korea and Korea because they have more high skilled players and games. In addition, the new meta comes from Korea most of the time .

Meromeron: I like Korea and also SEA because we usually play against the SEA region.

Alk: Korea for the same reason which Aotaka stated.



TL-Chexx: Do you have any idols?

Aotaka: CJ entus Blaze Flame, I’m a big fan of him. I hope I can get his autograph at WCG and then my mission is done for the WCG. I can gladly go home with just that.

Meromeron: Uzi, Doublelift

Alk: I like all the pro players. Therefore I couldn’t pick a specific one.



TL-Chexx: What is your goal?

Aotaka: Become a world-class team and play in a competitive scene.

Meromeron: I would like to play in competitively and make Rampage popular so when everyone talks about the best team in Japan, it is going to be Rampage.

Alk: I hope our team will become stronger and our ADC Meromeron improves more, since he's our weak point.



TL-Chexx: Last things you want to say?

MizuRussian: We would like to thank Chexx and Teamliquid for doing this interview with Rampage. Please support us when we play in WCG! Thank you everyone.





Twitter

Rampage Website



Aotaka

Chubet

Meromeron





Hello and welcome to our third interview about the Japanese LoL Scene. This time I talked to Rampage the currently best team in Japan and represetant for Japan in the WCG in China. You can find the All for One Interview here and the interview with Matsujun the organizer of the Japanese League can be found here . Both interviews give you insight into the Japanese League of Legends Scene.Enjoy!Hello. Thank you for agreeing to do an interview. Can you introduce yourself and your team?Hello. My name is MizuRussian, aka Hentai Russian, manager and coach for the Japanese team Rampage and living in Sweden. I started coaching Japanese teams with experience from the EU Nordic/East server while attaining solo queue top 12 and team rank 1.Rampage is a top Japanese team which has won every tournament that we have played so far except for one. We have qualified for the Japanese WCG spot for 2013, which will be played November 28th.Rampage had 2 teams when we played as the organization myRevenge about 1 year ago. myR Rampage and myR FCQ, which is now called PA. The reason why we had 2 teams at that time was that we lacked scrim partners and we had no opportunity to play against teams from other regions.How did you end up on a Japanese team?About 1 and half years ago, I was streaming on Own3d/Twitch and Japanese people started to talk to me. Then I met a guy and joined a team. I started to play on Japanese tournament for fun with 230+ pings at that time. After the tournament, my interest went into the Japanese League of legends scene.The reason why I started to manage teams in Japan was because I wanted to help the Japanese scene and make a strong team. When I first met the people in the Japanese scene, I had a strong feeling that I could help make the best team in Japan with my experience. Well, my number one reason was because I wanted to learn Japanese culture and the language.Which Server is your team playing on?The North American server.How do you handle the language barrier and timezones?I couldn’t speak Japanese that well at first, so I started to speak more Japanese on stream and Teamspeak to become more fluent in the future. I really had to practice my Japanese to remember the language since I didn’t use it often before.The timezone problem was really hard; I had to wake up early in the morning when I need to coach and communicate with the team members. I need to contact people through Skype and leave messages and important information with specific times to make sure everything goes right.How would you describe the Japanese team and tournament structure?Japanese teams are disbanding every month so it’s really hard to remember the new up and coming teams for me. Japanese teams are weak, including Rampage. But I think the teams are doing well without their own server.Minor/Monthly tournaments that are played in Japan are the JCG. We don’t really have major tournament expect the WCG Japan Qualifier this year in our country.I think the tournament structure is fine but the leagues are taking too long of a time without prizes to keep motivations up. I don’t think the organization is working very well because they are handling the players and people around the tournament in a bad way, which is led to trouble many times. I hope they will get better in the future since it’ll with be needed for sure for Japanese scene.I see that there are more companies like E-Sports SQUARE organization are making tournaments. I hope they will host tournaments more often in the future since their organization is good. They hosted the WCG Japan Qualifier, which worked smoothly and went without any problems.How do you train? Do you scrim often? Which are your scrim partners?It really depends but we usually scrim 2-3 times a week on the SEA server. We are practicing against GPL teams and other SEA teams. When we don’t scrim, we are trying to watch some tournament VODs together to improve the team.You will represent Japan in the WCG. How good are your chances to win it? What is your goal?We have played against some teams which have qualified for WCG before and we played fine against them. We are looking forward but we definitely need to scrim and improve our team level to win against any team in the tournament.I think the tournament bracket will have group stage so our goal is to win the group stage first. If we win the group stage, we’ll think about that then.How did you hear about LoL?My friend from an MMORPG started to play LoL and he told me try it out.Same for me, when I started to play LoL I didn’t think that I would play this game long term.How is LoL received in Japan?People in Japan love to play the game. Japanese people don’t like usually like to play English games but LoL is pretty popular if you include that reason.I think the same as Aotaka does, if they release a Japanese server with more Japan focused marketing, this game will become bigger in Japan.Very popular. Although there is still no Japanese server, domestic tournament(JCG) is held on a regular basis.What is your opinion about Riot starting a Japanese Server in the first half of 2014?I think I’ll keep my main account on NA and keep playing solo queue on NA and KR because I don’t think Japanese solo queue is going to be a good place to practice. I’ll move my sub account to Japanese server.Yeah, I think I won’t either move my main account to Japanese server. The reason is same, I don’t think Japanese server at first year is going to be great to learn things especially from solo queue.I want the server to become original, not just like other servers. I hope Japanese server will have special voice actors, more champion art, etc.In your opinion, what does Riot need to do to have success in Japan?Aotaka: They need someone that has a great knowledge about Japanese marketing; I think Japan is very different compared to other countries. Art, voice actors and more.They probably need to choose good voice actors, and another system for buying skins. Mysterious box are similar to what Japanese people prefer to buy, they like to collect something especially from a random system. Especially if there are rare items/skins.I want the champions, Skins and more to be cheap when server starts. Since we are going to make a new account if we can't move from NA, then this will become really important.Can you explain the system in more detail?There's a machine called Gacha-Gacha in Japan. people are paying maybe 1 dollar for one toy, and the toy is random. In other Japanese popular games, they have a system similar to this where you pay money and u get random skins or items. Then with low chance you can get rare items. They really love this system. When I look over on twitter (Japanese LoL scene), everyone is trading gifts to each otherWhich part of LoL is the most interesting one for Japanese players? The team aspect, the champions, the art style, etc.?I have really no idea about this, but I think team games or playing with friends is what we prefer. Because we have made our own community in NA server.I don’t know, my friends that are playing LoL are those who try to become competitive. So I don’t know in general.I think the team game and solo queue is one of the important things. Solo queue rating is showing how strong you are and many people will try to get higher.Which region do you pay the most attention to?Korea, Korea and Korea because they have more high skilled players and games. In addition, the new meta comes from Korea most of the time .I like Korea and also SEA because we usually play against the SEA region.Korea for the same reason which Aotaka stated.Do you have any idols?CJ entus Blaze Flame, I’m a big fan of him. I hope I can get his autograph at WCG and then my mission is done for the WCG. I can gladly go home with just that.Uzi, DoubleliftI like all the pro players. Therefore I couldn’t pick a specific one.What is your goal?Become a world-class team and play in a competitive scene.I would like to play in competitively and make Rampage popular so when everyone talks about the best team in Japan, it is going to be Rampage.I hope our team will become stronger and our ADC Meromeron improves more, since he's our weak point.Last things you want to say?We would like to thank Chexx and Teamliquid for doing this interview with Rampage. Please support us when we play in WCG! Thank you everyone. Administrator Follow me @TL_Chexx