Infinity Esports became just the second Latin America North team to qualify for the World Championship, following Lyon Gaming and Rainbow7’s dominance of the region. Unfortunately, due to visa issues and jet lag, Infinity was poorly prepared and had a tough first against both EDward Gaming and Dire Wolves. Despite that, Infinity came back to upset EDward Gaming and defeat Dire Wolves to advance to the Play-In knockout stage.

We had a chance to talk to LAN veteran and Infinity Esports’ support, Diego “Arce” Chang about Infinity’s upset win against EDG, their rebound, and the future of Latin American League of Legends.

I’ll kick it off with the greatest result of the day… You guys beat EDG after a rough first day. You had a ton of energy on stage after you won and everything. What did the victory mean to you?

Firstly, I am very happy. This match was extremely important for all of us. We played super bad on the first day and went 0-2, but today we played super well. Today’s win was especially big for us because the team we beat was very difficult and good. This win was really important for everyone on the team after the rough start and now we prepare for the best-of-five.

Of course, the win was really important for everyone on Infinity, but do you think this win was really important for LAN in general?

I think it’s for Latin America and very important to NA because we all practice on the NA server. We don’t play on LAN. Before we came to the bootcamp, we only scrimmed university teams. The good teams like TSM and Team Liquid were all in Korea… we couldn’t scrim them. It was very hard for us to know what level we were on in comparison to the world stage so I think we are very happy with the result.

You mention the NA server. Soon, there is going to be a change in the Latin American region where LAN will fuse with LAS. What do you think about the change?

I think this is going to affect us badly. Like I said, all of our training is on NA. I think NA is a better server to train on, in comparison to LAS and Brazil. So, I think it will be bad, but the ping is also very important. In Mexico, we play with like 80-100 ping, but on LAS we will have like zero ping so the mechanics can be better. In general though, the level is higher in North America.

Do you think that playing against the best LAS teams might help?

On Chile, all the good teams play on Brazil. They don;t play on LAS. I don’t think it will be the best since Brazil didn’t have a good performance. But, we’re still going to do our best to play and perform better.

On LAN and LAS, is there a kinship between the two regions or is it just two totally different identities?

Yeah, we have a rivalry between LAN and LAS. When League of Legends started, we all played on NA server, then LAS moved and the rivalry arose from that. In 2013 and 2014, we had to compete against them to qualify for Worlds in a LAS/LAN group. There was always a rivalry there. I am friends with all the LAS players, I’ve seen them internationally. The rivalry will always be there between the regions though.

Lyon/Rainbow7 won LAN 10 splits in a row, but now it’s your first time here at the World Championship. You were close before as part of Lyon…

Yeah, when we lost to Albus NoX 3-2… I was so sad.

Yeah, that was a close set. But now Infinity is here instead of Rainbow. How do you feel representing here?

Well, we didn’t actually beat Rainbow because they lost to Dash9, so it was weird. On that week, we scrimmed every week with Rainbow and they were having good results. I really didn’t expect for them to lose to Dash9. Then, when we beat Dash9, I didn’t feel so comfortable with the win. It didn’t feel real because the best team was actually Rainbow. I wanted to beat them, but unfortunately we couldn’t. On the first day here, I really felt bad for all of LAN. I was thinking of the comments of the fans, but we didn’t let that affect us so we pulled up the wins today.

Lastly, it was a rough start, but you guys came through. Do you have anything to say to the LAN fans that supported you through your unfortunate situation and will continue to through the tournament?

I always thank all the fans for supporting us, on the first day of play, it was really difficult for all of us. I think the jetlag does a lot. It was very hard. The energy I had today compared to the first day was completely different. When we won, I had energy. On the first day, I was so sleepy. To the fans, I just want to say… Thank you for the support that you give us and I am happy with our results. And this isn’t over, we are still going to try our best to win the World Championship.

Photo: (Riot Games, lolesports)