Coming back from a temporary suspension and after being removed from the League of Legends 2025 Worlds Anthem due to misogynistic comments on stream, Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau, toplaner of FlyQuest, sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss the events leading up to the tournament and his preparations in Beijing. From his opening remarks to his later reflections on “haters,” the Belgian player addresses lingering questions in this exclusive interview, just hours before the start of the Swiss Stage.

How has your trip to China been so far? How are FlyQuest preparing for the tournament, and are you excited to face all these teams?

Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau: As always, of course. It’s always a pleasure to come back to Asia and practice here. Our preparations have been short because of the new format. Usually, you’d play your finals around the weekend between September 7 and 14, then have about three weeks to prepare for the start of Worlds in October.

This time, we played during the last week of September, so we only had five days of Korean bootcamp before heading straight to China. We’ll end up with around nine or ten days of total preparation. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. With the new format, teams like T1 and IG play each other on the 14th, and opponents aren’t revealed until then. So, you’re underprepared—but so is everyone else.

That can actually be an advantage, especially for Western teams. Playing your own meta and catching people off guard works well when others don’t have time to prep for what you’ve got cooking. In best-of-ones, that’s always been a really strong advantage for Western teams.

There are a lot of expectations around FlyQuest right now—many people already see you as the best Western team. Do you share that confidence?

Bwipo: Definitely, I’m pleasantly surprised with our scrim performance. I have to say, I’ve probably been the worst performer in scrims, which actually gives me a lot of confidence—it’s always nice to get carried.

Ultimately, you need to see how things go on stage and how people play there. In a format like Swiss, when you start with best-of-ones, you really get to feel the pace of the games on stage. That’s the hardest part about Worlds—understanding how fast the games actually are. I remember in 2020, for example, the games were super slow-paced with a big focus on dragons. People prioritized Nidalee because she could solo drake at five minutes, and that tempo advantage set the tone for the whole meta. Even though Nidalee didn’t look great in scrims, the fact that she could just steal early drakes basically defined that year’s Worlds meta.

We don’t know what it’s going to look like this time until we play on stage, but I’m super confident in my team. I think we’ll have a strong showing no matter who we face. That said, your first opponent could be HLE, and then maybe your second opponent ends up being Gen.G if they lose to IG or T1. Suddenly, you’re 1-2, and your next match could be against AL or BLG—it’s do or die at that point. I’m not saying we can’t beat them, but the best teams in the world are the best for a reason—they’re hard to beat.

How are things with İbrahim "Gakgos" Samet Bulut, will you still be splitting scrims at Worlds? Do you expect him to play any games?

Bwipo: As far as I understand, he’s not playing, and we’re not splitting any scrim time. For me, the most important part of him being here is gaining the experience of being at Worlds—staying at the hotel, following the practice schedule, and understanding what to expect at an international event. For a lot of players, that first experience can be pretty overwhelming, so I hope this sets him up for future success. The main reason for bringing Gakgos isn’t about how he’s contributing to the team right now. Of course, I’m really grateful that he was able to step in and perform well, but I’m more focused on his future and what this experience can do for him.

Before Worlds, you faced backlash for making misogynistic comments on stream. How have you been doing mentally since then? Do you feel ready for the tournament, and do you have any regrets about what happened?

Bwipo: FlyQuest was really, really helpful in supporting me and making sure everything was okay personally. [Pauses] I need to take a moment to think this through because I want to make sure I don’t say the wrong thing—that’s something new I’ve learned.

FlyQuest gave me a lot of space and leeway, not only to forgive me and let me grow, but also to support me and the team, and to make sure I could still be part of it regardless of what happened. At one point, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I feared for my career and didn’t know if I’d even be able to play at Worlds.

The thing about being wrong and asking for forgiveness is that it’s not your place to decide what the rightful punishment is. All you can do is lower your head and accept whatever comes—whether it’s from the public, the authorities, or anyone else—because when you ask for forgiveness, you have to accept what they deem fair.

It was really rough, especially because I didn’t believe what I said. I listened back and thought, “what I said was ridiculous.” It didn’t make sense. Being scrutinized for something you don’t stand by is hard, but you still have to acknowledge and take responsibility for it.

I learned a very valuable lesson: I can’t just think out loud. Sometimes you’re running thoughts through your head, trying to reach a conclusion, and you say something before realizing it’s wrong. Obviously, that was a huge blunder on my part, and I feel really bad about it because I don’t believe it. That’s been the hardest part—not being able to defend myself and say, I don’t believe this. I know I said it, and even if there were no consequences, I would still agree it was a terrible take.

After the finals, you said, “the haters will get their chance at worlds,” and people took that as you designating those who called you out for your comments as haters. How do you look back on that now?

Bwipo: That was definitely a lapse of judgment on my part. I didn’t realize that a lot of people who were upset were reacting to what I said, and that makes total sense. When you’re a professional player, having respect for your fans and appreciating the time they invest in you is the most important thing. I wouldn’t be here if fans didn’t want to watch FlyQuest play or watch me play. When someone sits down to watch a best-of-five, that’s four or five hours of their free time. If they do that every week—following every game, supporting us—that’s a huge time investment.

Learning to address that fan base properly is something I haven’t done a good job of in my career, and I’d like to apologize for that. To me, haters aren’t people who say, “That was really stupid,” when I make a bad take. Haters are the ones who go out of their way to hate on me just because I didn’t play perfectly. It’s just semantics, really.

At the end of the day, I made a mistake. I shouldn’t address my fans with anything other than gratitude. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that I get to do this because of my fans, and I’m very grateful for that. I’ve always known it deep down and always tried to make my fans feel like watching me and being part of my community was worth it. I definitely missed the mark on that over the last few months, and I still feel bad about it.

Is there anything you’d like to add before we conclude?

Bwipo: Despite everything, Worlds is still a time to be excited. I want to take the opportunity to apologize for misrepresenting the LTA and for being removed from the Worlds Anthem. It really sucks—for everyone involved—but especially for the region, since not having that representation hurts when you’re passionate about it and want to be part of it. I’m sorry that my actions led to this.