AmaNEk: "For me [Misfits] was like a one-year project"
Dust2.us head honcho Joe "tolkienfanatic" Cardali caught up with François "AmaNEk" Delaunay to discuss LDLC's run in Chicago, his time on Misfits playing alongside Sean "seang@res" Gares and Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan, and whether or not LDLC have a shot at becoming the best French team in the world.
How do you feel about your run here in Chicago?
We did a good result in Chicago, we are happy to do this result. It was a good result for us.
After the team was demoted from ESL Pro League last season they brought in you and devoduvek. Now you guys are working through MDL to try to get there. You made playoffs, how do you like your chances of making it back to ESL Pro League?
We have a good chance to qualify for EPL, but I think it's going to be hard because we fly back to France and we need to play the day we land. We're going to give everything to qualify for EPL.
Can you talk about the support staff you have for you in the organization? I saw RegnaM tweeting about some super secret analytic tools that you guys have, can you give any insight on that?
I don't have much info about this program, but the staff like Krav, Ozstrik3r, and Alex use the program to give us info, and it works pretty well for us.
What do you think of ALEX's performance in recent months? He's really stepped up and played at a star level with the two of you guys.
ALEX did a really good job, he's a strong player, aggressive player, and he gives us a lot space in the game. It's a really important player to have in the team to get good results.
You are back playing in France after a short stint in the United States of America, with Misfits. What did you take from that entire time playing with Misfits and seang@res?
Misfits gave us a lot of experience, and we are more comfortable in LAN tournaments. We don't have a lot of pressure when we play top teams. We know that we have the capability, and we are confident overall.
At the end of Misfits there was a lot of weirdness going on between the team and the organization. If that hadn't happened do you think you still would've stuck with that team? I've talked with Sean, I've talked with ShahZaM, and they seemed very happy with the two of you, right? Is there an alternate universe where you're still playing with Sean and ShahZaM, or did you always intend on coming to France?
At the start of the Misfits project we knew it wouldn't be a long-term project. For me it was like a one-year project, we give everything we have to get good results in the season.
There's been general turmoil in the French scene recently, G2 not looking great, we have Vitality now. Do you think that LDLC can be solid, possibly take that top spot in France?
I think we are a solid team. We need to do good results in the long-term. The results we've had in the short-term, we need to do that for 6-9 months, then we can talk and say we are the best French team in the world.
