Stewie2K: "We can't buy a win on [Mirage] against anyone"
Collin "CarbonDogma" Davis caught up with Jake "Stewie2K" Yip at the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals media day. Despite SK having been eliminated from the tournament already, the former Cloud9 IGL seems optimistic about the state of the team, and opined on his former teams addition of Pujan "FNS" Mehta.
A lot of people have been criticizing you joining SK, there was a DBLTAP video where some players said it was one of the worst roster moves of 2018. Do you have a response to those criticisms?
I don't have much of a response to the players saying it was a bad roster change. I don't think any of them have done much either, so they don't really have my respect for their opinions. It really doesn't matter. I try not to pay attention too much to that, because whatever they say doesn't affect me.
What has it been like playing with Brazilians, since being American you have played with North American players for your whole career?
It is a lot different. The way they live is different, the way they like to play is different, their philosophy of the game is different, it is a whole different lifestyle. It is something that I'm pretty comfortable with, but a lot to get used to as well. There are always pros and cons, you aren't at home, you aren't with the people you mesh with the best, but you find a way to work it out if you want to be a championship team. So that is what we have to do.
The in-game leader situation has been changing in the team, you were an IGL in the past on Cloud9, do you have any input with the calls in-game?
For example I think Mirage is a pretty bad map right now, one of the worst ones for us. We can't buy a win on it against anyone. I try to give my input there, because Cloud9 never played Mirage when I first joined, when I started calling we started playing it, getting better and better, and eventually became one of the better teams on the map. I try to give as much input as I can, but it is up to the leaders to take it into consideration and implement it.
Speaking of Cloud9, what do you think of them adding FNS, was it a good move?
I think picking up FNS was the wrong move, I have nothing against him, it is just that he has been an IGL his whole life. If he was a good IGL, he would have gotten his chance already. I feel like he got his chance in the past, and he never took it and ran away with it. That says something there.
They are a team that relies on a lot of firepower. They aren't as dumb as people say they are when it comes to leadership roles. They should know what they are doing, and they should have picked up a new talent, so I think they messed up there.
At this event you guys had sort of a rough time, but you did make playoffs, which is an improvement. Do you feel like you are improving as a team as well?
Yeah, there is definitely improvement. At the start, our expectations were a little too high, we thought we would make it out of groups all the time. But we couldn't even win individual matches. Here, we started focusing match by match, we have to beat everyone first before we start thinking about the stage.
Against OpTic it was looking grim on the last map, but we were able to pull it back. But looking back at the game, we shouldn't have won. I guess you can say the same against FaZe on Overpass. I think we still have a lot to work on, and hopefully during this time off we can fix it.
Was there anything specific in that OpTic match that helped you pull through?
Yeah, I think it was 13-8 and we had no money. I think they messed up their communication pretty bad, because I baited for coldzera on B-site. He killed one guy, and the second guy shift-walked past him not knowing he was there. We got two more free kills from that. I think that was the biggest mistake from them, I think they were tilted, and we took it and ran with it.
Even though Stewie2K mentioned having time off, that is a luxury SK will not have for sometime, as they are headed to Adrenaline Cyber League and StarSeries i-League Season 5 the next two weekends.
Meanwhile, he is not the only person with doubts about FNS...
