League of Legends
BLIX.GG sat down with Razork to talk about their win vs Cloud9 in the group stage.
The League of Legends European Championship's (LEC) third seed Fnatic took down the home team, Cloud9, in the first game of the Worlds 2022 Main Event, arriving in the United States after qualifying first in their group from the Play-ins stage in Mexico City, Mexico. It's the first day of groups, and there is still all to play for in Group A.
Jungler Iván "Razork" Martín Díaz spoke to us after their victory against Cloud9 and talked a bit about their match, Fnatic’s time in New York, and who he would like to meet at Worlds 2022.
Coming to New York
BLIX.GG: First and foremost, thank you so much for joining me for this interview. Congratulations on your win! I first want to ask you how it feels to be at the World Championship and play in New York in front of such a large crowd?
Razork: Thank you. Honestly, it feels great! This is my first World Championship, and we went through the Play-ins where we played on-stage in Mexico, and now we are in New York, so it's been a long journey, but I'm enjoying it a lot.
BLIX: I believe today is your birthday as well, is that right?
Razork: Yeah, it is.
BLIX: I’d like to follow up on that because Fnatic in the Play-ins mentioned having a lot of trouble with scrimming and the like. What has that been like now that you're in New York?
Razork: Yes, it has been much better. We now have PCs that can play the game, and it's a much more enjoyable experience. In Mexico, we didn't have really good FPS with the PCs they gave us, and it was tough to play solo queue and to scrim. And now, with the PCs here in New York, it's much better.
BLIX: If I'm not mistaken, you guys landed in New York not too long ago. Did the team manage to fit in many scrims before you faced Cloud9 today?
Razork: We arrived two days ago and only scrimmed one day. I got sick, too, so we had to cancel one scrim block. I'm still sick; I have a slight fever and stomach pain, but with the adrenaline kicking in, I don't feel anything, so I'm feeling much better now.
BLIX: I wish you a speedy recovery. I'm also aware that your coach Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi, was not allowed to go on stage today. Did that affect the team or the preparations going into the match?
Razork: No, it did not affect preparations, but he told us that he couldn’t hear us too well, so it was a bit stressful in the champion select because we couldn't hear each other very well. But thankfully we had really good preparation and knew what we wanted to do, so we didn’t have to think that much.
Group stage & facing Cloud9
BLIX: On preparation, walk me through what you guys prepared against Cloud9. Did you guys prepare anything specifically against them since you had limited scrim time?
Razork: Not really; we just played our style and what worked for us from our little scrims. We felt like if we just played the teamfights and a slow game, I feel like we would come out on top, and that's what happened. We just picked scaling with mid and bot scaling picks and two tanks, which was easy.
BLIX: Your top laner, Martin "Wunder" Nordahl Hansen, said in the post-match interview on stage that Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami didn't exceed his expectations. Did Robert "Blaber" Huang exceed yours?
Razork: No, not really. I think this game was not played around the jungle; it was a very slow game, so we were just farming. We knew we were much stronger if stack drakes because they couldn’t team fight against us, so I think we had everything under control. On Blaber, I don't think he played poorly, but I don't think he did much for his team.
BLIX: That’s fair enough. Briefly, maybe based on your scrims or what you know of the other teams, and now that you’ve played Cloud9, talk to me about your impressions of your group and the teams in it. How do you think Fnatic stacks up against them?
Razork: My impressions are that, of course, our group Cloud9 was the weakest opponent we could face. We have T1 and EDward Gaming on the other side, and I feel both are strong. They might be a bit hard to beat, but I still have full trust in my team, and we'll see how we can do against them. I have a lot of faith in my team.
BLIX: I’ve asked this question a lot over the different international events. Do you think that Fnatic benefited from going through the Play-ins stage, or would you have preferred to qualify straight to groups in the Main Event?
Razork: I think we benefited from going through Play-ins. I think, overall, if you have a lot of time to practice and you can play more games in Play-ins, if you know that you can get out of Play-ins easily, then I think it's much better because you keep the momentum going.
But honestly, I don't know if it's fair to say because we didn't get to practice much. If we could have practiced more in Play-ins, we could be in better shape now. But overall, I think Fnatic benefitted from playing more games.
Fnatic's future at Worlds
BLIX: Since this is your first World, what would you say is your personal goal for your first-ever World Championship outing?
Razork: My personal goal is always to see how far we can go as a team, always maintaining happiness and enjoying what I'm doing every moment. This is the first time I'm at Worlds, and I enjoy playing against the best teams in the world.
BLIX: How far do you think Fnatic can go at Worlds, then?
Razork: Well, as I said before, I have a lot of faith in my team, so I think we can make it out of groups. I don't know how the games will be against T1 and EDG, but I'm looking forward to getting out of groups and then seeing what happens. I don't know…probably semifinals if you’re like ‘copium’ [laughs]?
BLIX: Any team you would potentially like to face if you guys make it out of groups?
Razork: I want to play against JD Gaming, and I want to play against Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok. It’s not that I’m a big fan of Kanavi, but I really like how he plays, so I'm looking forward to an opportunity to play against him.
BLIX: Before we end, Ainhoa "Noa" Campos from the SuperLiga says she hopes you're eating well. Have you been eating well?
Razork: Well, I have to say that on the first day that we arrived in New York, I had a pizza and a burger, and I got sick. I’m eating fine right now, but my stomach is not feeling good, so I can't eat fast food or anything that will make it worse. But yeah, I'm eating well these days, but it's honestly quite hard to eat healthy here. Everything smells like fast food, and everything looks very tasty!
BLIX: We've come to the end of the interview. Do you have anything else you'd like to say or shoutouts you'd like to give?
Razork: Thank you to the Spanish community and the European fans. They have supported us through this long journey this year, and we hope to make you proud in our next matches.
Thank you, Razork, and best of luck going forward. Worlds 2022 continues today, and you can catch it on Riot Games’ channel.