11.10.24 - 18:0011.10.2024 - 18:00·12m12 minute(s) read·

By Armand Luque

TL Spawn: "A week ago, our confidence against Asian teams was high. They were smart not to reveal their strats by arriving late"

Narrowly escaping potential elimination, Team Liquid lives to fight another day as they prepare to face GAM Esports in their next match. An interview with the team's head coach.

Jake "Spawn" Tiberi, head coach of Team Liquid at Worlds 2024, North American representatives.

"I told Steve to give me three years. My goal is to reach the Eastern team's level by then."

With frustration and regret, Team Liquid kept their hopes alive at the League of Legends 2024 World Championship after beating paiN Gaming in a nail-biting series. With one more lifeline at hand, the team now prepares to face another opponent from the Play-In stage, GAM Esports. In an honest and exclusive interview, Spawn, the team's head coach, discusses the necessary changes the team will adopt, analyzes the prospects of Western teams, and talks about his coaching mentality as the team attempts to redeem its past mistakes.

Even though you escaped elimination after your win against paiN Gaming, you don’t seem satisfied. What are your first thoughts after today’s series?

Jake "Spawn" Tiberi: "Honestly, when we won, my first reaction was to punch my desk. So probably not the best win we've ever had, but a win is a win…

You told CoreJJ that the team needs to play 700 hours of League of Legends in the coming week and things aren't clicking at the moment. Can you elaborate on that?

Spawn: We're a team that gets a better feeling for the game when we play it a lot, and we've been playing some comps that we haven't necessarily played on stage. Then on stage, different drafts look good. So to be able to execute these fighting comps, we just need way more time on them. That is what we're going to do in the next couple of days.

You can also be a bit thankful for the draw because you will play GAM in the next round, which is probably one of the easiest teams TL could have faced on paper. How do you feel about it?

Spawn: Every team at Worlds at this stage is pretty good. We're in a situation where we're not playing the best League of Legends, so I'm sure GAM is also very happy with the draw. We still want revenge for what happened last year. I was there as a positional coach, and it wasn't fun to be on the losing end of that BO3. It’s also a team that is going to challenge us and fight very often, like paiN did. We identified how good PNG is at setting up team fights, even though it’s not the best team on the map. But when they get in a fighting position, they fight very well. We think that GAM is probably very similar, so we have to make sure that we take them very seriously and work on our team fighting.

After losing to LNG and Weibo Gaming, how did you feel going against paiN Gaming? Do you have any changes in mind to face the Asian teams in the upcoming rounds?

Spawn: I was more nervous against PNG than I was for the other two matches. Simply because the game pace that the LPL plays suits us a lot because we're a very skirmish-heavy team. When there are zero summoner spells in the game, I feel like we play the game better. That's actually why we play the way we do in North America.

With paiN, they're much more about setting up around one objective, getting one explosive team fight, and having five minutes of free time, repeatedly. It's actually kind of similar to how FlyQuest plays. FlyQuest plays side lanes way better than them, but team fight-wise, that's how they do it. Obviously, we struggled in the final against FlyQuest. So just scouting the teams out, I felt like if there was going to be an upset, that would be how they did it. When we got the Nocturne-Orianna combo to the first Baron, I was like, “Please no.”

Concerning the other two LPL teams, I think we should have beaten them, to be honest. I think we had a good winning setup in both of those games, but execution just wasn't where it needed to be. So we got to work on it.

Were you scared at any point during the game that you could lose to paiN Gaming, especially since both games were back and forth?

Spawn: Absolutely. I thought in game one we played really well, then just did nothing with our lead. When we got four for three at the Baron, I was like, “That could be game over.” In game two, the whole time, I was thinking that their comp is a little bit better than ours. I think what they're getting out of the Nocturne-Orianna combo is probably more than what we’re getting out of our mid-jungle in that game. So I was worried probably from the draft in game two, to be completely honest. Game one was still a solid game until the Baron.

It seems that APA has changed how he manages his image. While he has always been boastful, he appears more humble when talking to the media since the start of Worlds. Is there a reason behind this change in attitude?

Spawn: Eain is a guy who is just very passionate about the game. You see it in everything that comes across. He puts more hours into the game than a lot of players I know, and he's one of the highest on our team in terms of hours played, despite TL being full of grinders. He watches the game, wants to experience it, and talks to other pro players about it. He does one-on-ones with them.

I think he started to realize that there’s a time to be over the top, brash, and boastful to play up to the fans and gain some fandom. But there’s also a time to be humble and recognize that he’s coming into his second Worlds with only about 15 months of competitive experience. When you have that persona on too much, you might block some of the learning experiences you can gain and maybe annoy some players who can help you in the long run.

I think he’s just maturing as a person. I've always said that one of the best things about being a League of Legends head coach is not just the game aspect; it’s coaching 19 to — well, I have a 29-year-old — but normally it’s more like 19 to 25-year-old men through a very important stage of their lives. I’m trying to work on it with Ian. As he told others in interviews, we’ve clashed in the past a lot; it’s been fun. But I’m happy with his attitude so far this tournament, and I think his gameplay has been good, even though there’s a level he can reach that he hasn’t shown yet. So far, I’m happy with it.

Team Liquid now stands at 1-2. Credit: Jianhua Chen/Riot Games

The West has struggled against LCK and LPL teams this year, with G2 being the only team to defeat one of them (Weibo Gaming). Is the West just that bad, or do we have chances in this tournament?

Spawn: I was talking to my team this morning about the power of one week. So before Worlds started seven days ago, if you had asked about our confidence level against the Eastern teams, it would have been very high, and I'm sure G2 would have been on a similar page. Unfortunately, sometimes expectation and reality converge.

I think the Eastern teams did something very smart at these Worlds; they did not come early for their boot camp and brought their own meta when they got here. People think the meta is set by what's the best in the game, but sometimes the best team just sets the meta, and you have to play what can beat them. I think that's what they did well, and they gave us three days to cope with that.

Hopefully, this four-day break helps us and G2 because I'd love to play them at some point in this tournament. I just need to play better to make that happen. I would say that Weibo was beatable for us, and G2 was able to convert that win. I also think that with the best comps they play, FlyQuest can go toe-to-toe with anyone, to be honest. So I think there are chances for the West, but it's looking grim. I'm talking to my guys about it all the time, but especially when you play against Hanwha Life, they don't give you much of a chance to win the game.

G2 managed to push their opponents to some lengths. Do you think G2 has a chance to do well in this tournament?

Spawn: G2 is the most creative team in the world. So when they start playing their style, making you chase Caps around the map, with BrokenBlade getting on these weird angles and Mikyx following up on them, they’re really something else. G2 is one of the few teams in the world that when I want to enjoy League of Legends, I'll sit down and watch their game. It’s very enjoyable to watch them play, and that's what we strive for. We strive for entertaining winning games, and I think they do that very well. So yeah, if there is anyone that has a chance, it's G2, and then maybe if we get our act together, it could be us too.

Rekkles (Martin Larsson) mentioned that players from the West often fail to see the bigger picture, focusing too much on mechanics and flashy plays. He also stated that Caps might be the only player in the West with that vision. Do you agree, and how do you work as a coach to instill this understanding in your players?

Spawn: I’m 100% aligned. We call it the "one cookie now versus two cookies later" concept. We talk about this probably every single day in scrims, to be honest. For example, when to pick a certain champion because you know what's coming—sometimes it could be good now, but it could lead to problems in the future too.

Even when you're pushing a wave, you need to consider whether you should push it immediately and move, try to stack a second wave or freeze it. All these concepts in the game are very tough, and it's also hard to coach. There are two kinds of coaches: some watch the game completely in 'God mode', while others watch it entirely from the player's point of view. To be the best coach, I think you need to do both—watch with God mode to identify the best play and then view it from the player's POV to see if they're recognizing the signs that lead to that play.

Let’s use an APA teleport play as an example. I can say, "Oh, there's this ward here and this ability to do this." But if he's in bot lane hitting the turret and trying to last-hit a cannon, then Nocturne uses his ultimate, and he didn't see where the wards were before that happened, it's a camera control issue for me. There are a lot of things you can do in League of Legends, but time is finite. I would 100% agree with Rekkles' analysis on East versus West, and that's something that CoreJJ, Impact, UmTi, and I talk about all the time.

Do you think these issues are fixable in the next few years? How long will it take for the West to reach that same level?

Spawn: I told Steve (Arhancet, Team Liquid’s owner) to give me three years. My goal is to reach that level in three years. I want cohesion in the roster, stability, and the ability to stick it out when it makes sense, but also to make changes when necessary. That's why I respect G2 so much. They had that explosion onto the scene, but they also stuck with it where it made sense. When they’ve made changes that don’t work out, they go back on those changes and bring back the pieces they were missing. Their team-building is really smart. If you can keep it together for one, two, or three years, then I think the second and third years are when you can be very successful.

Jake Tiberi, on the Worlds stage with Team Liquid Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Is the confidence for FlyQuest and Team Liquid still there?

Spawn: Yeah, I think so. With the draws we both got, we would both be thinking about beatable opponents. The first step going into our next series is to know what we need to do to beat GAM. I believe that if we show up on the day and play our best League of Legends, we're the better team, and that should give you confidence. If you know that you're better going into the game and play well, then the onus is on you. They have to come out and beat you, and we'll see if they can.

Do you have a bit of copium to give to the fans before we finish?

Spawn: I always say that we do it for the fans. I know it’s not looking great at the moment, but the more positive you can be for us and rally behind the team, the more it really makes a world of difference. So thank you so much for supporting us. We'll continue to do our best for you. And let's go Team Liquid. Let's go Honda."

Header Photo Credit: Liu Yicun/Riot Games