After their impressive 3-1 start at the Europen LCS, GosuGamers managed to get a short interview with the players, as well as their manager and coach, flyy and Veggie respectively
Image above (from left to right): Vander, Celaver, Overpow, Jankos, and Xaxus
How is the team so far with ROCCAT?
Flyy: We feel quite fine at ROCCAT. We already visited their main office in Hamburg, met everyone that works there. From the way they work you can say that you're working with a serious company that knows how things should be done.
Do you have a gaming house? And is it near Riot studio?
Flyy: We are currently bootcamping like 8km from the Riot studio right outside cologne. It is a temporary place until we get our own place to stay at. But we are looking at options in Cologne.
How did ROCCAT prepare for super week? did you prepare specific strats/team comps for each opponent?
Veggie: The team scrimmed every day and I went over each scrim with them pointing out teamwise mistakes. I try not to go into individual mistakes because every smart player knows he made a mistake the moment it happens. Obviously I can't go into full detail what I discuss with the team but it's a general gist. Apart from that I go over picks/bans and game plan with the team - we mostly come up with 2 plans: a standard one and a non meta plan (for example Pantheon mid which was practiced by the team in scrims). The team chooses which route to go with during game setup. After the matches I proceed to tell the team what mistakes they made (even in won games) so sometimes I have to hit the team hard (for example after the CW game). We prepare individually for every team because every team has different styles.
Speaking of your loss vs CW, what do you think were the main reasons why the team lost?
Veggie: The team and me agreed that picks were mostly fine - maybe we could have picked something else instead of lulu but that wasn't a huge factor in the loss. CW was the team which played the best in scrims against us so we were very wary of their mid game rotations and the team knew that this is there general playstyle. Even with good pregame preperation our teamcomp was badly executed. The idea of Overpow splitpushing on riven wasn't about taking towers vs Mundo but to make CW group up mid. Unfortunately the excecution wasn't on point - Jankos and Overpow didn't have the right timing so we never saw an actual teamfight correctly initated by ROCCAT which led to individual players getting caught out instead of turning on the enemy after leona initiations.
Overall, how would you rate ROCCAT's performance in their first week? Are they satisfied enough with how they performed?
Veggie: In general the players are pretty happy - going 3-1 in the first week isn't a bad score but I think that losing to CW was pretty tough - both teams have met in countless matches while playing in the amatuer scene so they have a bit of a rivalry going on. The matches vs SHC and M were mostly well excecuted and I like to see that. Even though the team managed to eke out a win vs Alliance the game was extremely sloppy from both sides - during mid game ROCCAT had the advantage but didn't use it well so the game almost spiraled out of control - thankfully the team made some good individual plays so they were able to close out the game.
Out of the teams you haven't fought (GMB, FNC, SK), which of them is the biggest challenge for you??
Veggie: Probably fnatic. They have a lot of high priority picks for every player that you have to think about during the picks and bans. Also, they probably have the most flexible playstyles from all the LCS EU teams - they can splitpush, teamfight, poke, scrimmage etc. Apart from that we scrimmed vs GMB and SK in preperation for the superweek so the players should be used to playing against them - of course this also works the other way around but I think ROCCAT can use this advantage better.
Player-specific Questions:
(XAXUS) You played four different champs in superweek, all of them very tanky. are you comfortable with these champs? or will we see more carry-type top laners such as jax?
I prefer playing champs like irelia/jax but followin the meta is sometimes more important than your own preferences and that is why i play only tanks top, but i hope the time will come when i will be able to play jax and such
(OVERPOW) They banned kayle almost every game, except vs SHC, when you pulled out a pantheon instead of picking kayle. Do you think they should keep banning kayle against you? Or do you have much more threatening picks?
Well currently i feel like my champion pool is quite wide, about banning kayle against me it is completely their choice - if we play it or not when its left open - well i guess thats something you'll have to wait and see :}
(CELAVER & VANDER) you guys have strong laning matches. is there something unique about you two that make you work so well?
We became quite close friends, and we just feel comfortable and confident with playing with each other on bot lane. It is just the feeling that you trust the other person in your lane to do the right thing.
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(JANKOS) you were making a lot of highlight plays last week, like that lee sin kick on tabzz. how do you rate yourself amongst the other junglers? and are you more a carry-type jungler or supportive?
I think I'm top 5 in EU. A lot of people are saying that I'm top 3 but i still need to prove it with consistency. I prefer the carry type of junglers, so i can make more impact on the game.
Quickfire Questions:
| Food | Movie | Biggest Fear: | Favorite game after LoL: | |
| Overpow | Kluski Slaskie | A Clockwork Orange | Lose to ocelote | Dota |
| Celaver | Dumplings | n/a | n/a | Tibia |
| Vander | Sushi | n/a | Defeat | CS:GO |
| Xaxus | Taco | Inglorious Basterds | Haybal bombing himself in the studio | The Witcher |
| Favorite Champion | Champion you wished Riot never created | ROCCAT gets stuck in an island, who will you eat first? | Skill you would like to have in real life | |
| Overpow | Evelynn | Kassadin/Nidalee | Vander | n/a |
| Celaver | Caitlyn | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Vander | Teemo | Hecarim | No one | Gragas' W |
| Xaxus | Jax | Teemo | Vander | Invisibility |
Final thoughts and shoutouts?
We want to thank Roccat for picking us up and working with us. Also we would like to thank all the people that follow us and support us! We really appriciate the kind words from them!