On Saturday, GIANTX suffered their fourth defeat of the LEC Spring Split regular season, falling to Karmine Corp. Now sitting at the bottom of the standings, the Spanish team finds itself with its back against the wall ahead of two crucial matches against G2 Esports and Movistar KOI, set to take place during the LEC Roadshow in Madrid. The team's Head Coach, André "Guilhoto" Guilhoto, reflected on this latest setback, noting that despite the loss, he saw encouraging signs of progress.
How do you feel after this series against Karmine Corp? It has been a roller coaster, especially in game 2…
André "Guilhoto" Guilhoto: I don't know yet how I feel. It's kind of weird because
I think we should have won this series, but at the same time, we showed a better face than last week. So that's kind of what we have to focus on now, just trying to show a better face week after week, and then just see where we can get from there. Like, taking smaller steps. It was better than last week, but at the same time, it's kind of a bad feeling because we could have, and should have, won this series.
What was better than last week, for example?
Guilhoto: In general, we are very passive and different from scrims. All five players play with more fear, more reasons not to do things. But I think today, at least, we tried to win the game, and we didn't play with as much fear. Well, Jackies (Adam Jeřábek) died in the last game a couple of times when he shouldn't, but at the same time, we built leads, and our dives bot worked again. That was not the case before, so to me, those were the biggest differences. We were more willing to defend a space that we controlled and more punishing towards enemy face checks instead of leaving on the first intention of the enemy team to contest us. So I think there was a small difference from last week.
How frustrating is it for you to be that good in scrims, and not to deliver in official?
Guilhoto: It's very frustrating, and it's something that we have to figure out as a team. We know that the quality is there, but we’re not able to show it on stage. We are trying many different things to see improvements week after week. We have to look more at stage games, less at scrims, because we feel like two different teams are playing. It's a frustration that we create, so we have to be able to solve it because no one is going to do it for us. We just have to look forward and try to do better each time and celebrate a bit more the small improvements that we have week after week, when we have them.
You’ve played eight Fearless draft series so far, including Winter Split Playoffs. How comfortable are you now with this system?
Guilhoto: I think every coach and I are probably already very comfortable and confident with Fearless because even though we played only eight series, in scrims we played two best-of-three Fearless every single day. It started already from Winter’s playoffs. I think it was a great idea from Riot, that it's something really good and not only for the game but also for the region, because it forces us to play best of threes instead of best of ones. So I'm confident in it, and I think the same goes for all the other coaches.
Guilhoto: The synergy between ISMA and the rest of the team is something that we fell a bit behind
due to the emergency of the change, but also because of all the things that ISMA still had to do before he was able to fully practice with us. Obviously, the synergy that he has with Jun is the most important, and then with Jackies and then Noah (
Oh Hyeon-taek) and then Lot (
Eren Yıldız). But at the same time, he also needs to get over this belief that when those troubles were happening in SK and now are happening here, it's because of him. It's not. And we, as a team, need to be much better at getting him over that slump and making him be in a better state mentally, and we are focusing on that as well. I was really happy with today's series of ISMA.
The last series he had with us since the start were honestly quite bad, but I think today he had an incredibly good series with all the things that we worked on starting to show up. Even though he leaves with the 1-2, he's for sure one of the lights at the end of the tunnel. Especially in the Poppy game, he played really well. In the last game, he found good ganks on mid that should’ve helped and allowed Jackies to snowball. But also in comms, he was a lot more active, which is something that was one of the main things that we lost with Closer (Can Çelik). Closer's shoes are not easy to fit, but ISMA is one of the hardest workers on the team. He just has a lot of things to catch up because he's just the new member, and the circumstances of his change were not ideal, both in how Closer left but also how he came in with all the other obligations.
Closer was supposed to be a “great leader”, as you explained to us before the start of the season. Does ISMA find his mark in his role as well?
Guilhoto: It's not natural to him, but the rest of the team also needs to help. We are trying to divide leadership a bit more instead of having it centered around one player, which is also a big change, and another reason why we are having that hard time on stage. Because in scrims, no one is scared to make a bad call, but on stage, we are. We just have to be hopeful, and we just have to believe that things will fit in. Today, it was very obvious that we could have, and were, in a position to win the series. We need to take that for Madrid, which is next week, and make sure that in front of a big crowd we play with the same energy or even more, and with more similarities to our scrim games, and try to get the wins. Because those wins will be really, really important if we want to have any hope of making it to the playoffs.
Next week, you’ll play the KOI Roadshow against G2 Esports first, but also against the “home team”. What are your thoughts about it?
Guilhoto: I'm grateful for this roadshow. It's another great idea from Riot. I live in Madrid, my wife and my kids live in Madrid. So it's just an experience to finally see them again. That has been a while. I'm just really excited. Excited to show the guys Madrid, to do some activities as a team. No offense to the German listeners, but finally trying some good food — by German, I mean Berlin, I didn't try the rest of Germany, but Berlin food is like, compared to Spanish one… There are, for sure, some differences. So I'm just excited about everything that involves. Even though I'm Portuguese, I have a deep, deep affection for the Spanish community, the Spanish fans. I've always been very warmed and cherished every time that I go to Spain.
And even though we are playing against the home crowd, I don't think that is going to be any different. So I just want to experience the Spanish crowd and the Spanish events like Gamergy and Madrid Games Week. I just want my team and my players to have that experience. I know that
Lot had some with the LFL days, so he has some experience on stages like this. But to me — and I know this battle will go and go and go — Spain is Spain. He never felt anything like that. The warmth, the noise that 12,000 Spanish fans will make in the stadium… I honestly can't wait. It fuels me, and it honestly fills my heart. This is literally why we play
League, and I'm just very thankful that Riot allows us to play regular split games outside of Berlin and its studio.
G2 and KOI are two big opponents. Do you feel like you have the back against the wall?
Guilhoto: We just have to win.
And are you still confident about it?
Guilhoto: Of course, I believe we can win. We made it in practice. It's just a matter of us doing it in official. So yes, we can, we'll prepare our best, and we'll do everything possible for us to get the win and to get playoffs.”
Header Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
