After nine regular season matches in the LFL,
managed to survive the opening stage of the competition by narrowly qualifying with three victories, aided by
’s defeat on the final day. The league’s most unconventional team, known for its particularly unique atmosphere, must now face none other than
in its first playoff match. The team could also potentially receive reinforcement in the support role with the arrival of
.
Before the team’s journey continues, somewhere between laughter and insults, the jungler
spoke with
Sheep Esports about the team’s first months of competition.
How do you feel ahead of the playoffs?
Stéphane “Manaty” Dimier: “Pretty good. From what I understand, we might make some changes in the support role. Even if that wasn’t the case, I would still be confident, but now even more so.
During the regular season, not everything went perfectly, but you still managed to qualify. Did you expect better results given the roster you had and the way the team had been practicing up to that point?
Manaty: With the roster, yes. But with the conditions, not necessarily. By conditions, I mean the fact that we don’t scrim much, we don’t have a coach, and we don’t really do reviews. So it’s a bit of both, you could say.
Are you satisfied with the result?
Manaty: Satisfied? No, I wouldn’t go that far because we finished top 8, which, in my opinion, isn’t particularly impressive. But I intend to change that during playoffs.
As you mentioned, you operate under fairly unusual conditions. Do you still think it’s possible to aim for better results given the way you currently practice?
Manaty: Yes, I think so. Recently, we’ve done a few scrims, and we also plan to practice tomorrow (Wednesday) and on match day. So yes, absolutely.
Through a few changes involving other teams, you ultimately qualified for the LFL for the remainder of the year after participating in the LFL Invitational. When you joined the project initially, did you expect to end up playing in the LFL under these circumstances for the rest of the season?
Manaty: Originally, we were supposed to qualify through the normal route. I intended to do everything possible to make that happen, but in the end we missed qualification by one win. So no, since we didn’t qualify directly, I definitely didn’t expect to play the rest of the season in the LFL. But in the end, we were selected, so I’m happy about it.
How do you see the rest of the year with the team? From an outside perspective, when people watch your scrims, it sometimes feels like everything could collapse at any moment and that the team is constantly walking a fine line. What is your own impression of the atmosphere within the team?
Manaty: It’s a mix of tryhard, fun, and content creation, it’s really a combination of everything. But regarding the rest of the year, honestly, I have no idea. I’ve spoken a bit about it with Riip (Arnaud Mesmin) and Nisqy (Yasin Dinçer), and I’ve also mentioned it several times on stream. I’m not sure whether I’ll stay with ZYB for the whole year. We’ll see. It will probably depend on our playoff results and on any potential offers I might receive.
You joined ZYB at the start of the season because you hadn’t received any ERL offers you considered interesting enough. If an LFL team or another ERL organization approached you tomorrow with a project that suited you, would you leave the team?
Manaty: Probably yes, I would leave the project. As I mentioned privately with Riip, I miss being part of a structured environment, something more serious and organized, with proper scrims. I really want to return to that kind of setup, so I would most likely leave the team.
What has been your best memory with the team so far?
Manaty: My best memory was during an official game, I don’t even remember exactly against whom, but we had Baron and decided to let Riip shotcall for about a full minute. I laughed a lot during that moment.
People often don’t hear many positive things when you all play together. To change that, could you name one quality for each of your teammates?
Manaty: For Wao (Wao Dai), I’d say he never tilts. Whether it’s in solo queue or official matches, he has very strong mental resilience, and that’s a huge quality. For Nisqy, I’d say his champion pool, honestly. Jezu (Jean Massol) has extremely good mechanics. And for Riip, it would be his laning phase. For a rookie, he wins the majority of his lanes.”
