After a convincing and cohesive regular season,
Team Vitality endured a difficult start to their
LEC Versus Playoffs campaign. Facing
Movistar KOI—whom they had defeated during the final week of the regular season—the outcome this time proved markedly different for the French side.
The Bees initially appeared to have the upper hand,
but a pause followed by a chronobreak in Game 1 seemingly disrupted their momentum, after which they went on to concede a 0–2 defeat. Shortly after the loss, Vitality’s support player, Kadir “
Fleshy” Kemiksiz, spoke with
Sheep Esports to reflect on the course of the match and the path that now awaits his team beginning this weekend.
What’s your first feeling after today’s game?
Kadir “Fleshy” Kemiksiz: “It's just a sad way to lose. I think the draft in the second game was not good. It wasn't the transition of us in scrims. And for the first one, I don't know, I feel like this chronobreak fucked our concentration up maybe, then it went all wrong the way.
Considering the final result, it’s hard to not think about the pause in Game 1. From a viewer perspective it seemed weird that they decided to chronobreak here. How did it happen from your perspective?
Fleshy: I mean, it happened on bot, and I think it happened last week as well with Jojopyun (Joseph Pyun), and they didn't use the chronoreak there, but I don't know what's the reason so I can't talk much. Maybe it's some other thing, but I know that it's Taliyah’s ult related. If they think that it's fair to chronobreak it's fine, but it's annoying to feel like we won the game there in our minds and we would have to get Nashor, and the game would end. But then you chronobreak 20 seconds, and Carzzy (Matyáš Orság) dies, and everything goes in the wrong way, they get Nashor, and the game is one hour, and our comp doesn't work like that. If the game goes one hour and we are 5v5, it's so hard to win because they have better champs at that late game is just hard.
Do you think it impacted your mental or your focus negatively?
Fleshy: Of course, losing a game like this sucks, but I just try to reset and go into next game. There is not much to do about it, it's already gone, so there’s nothing I can do. I just focus on next one.
How did you prepare for this game? Did you expect the transition between best-of-one and best-of-three to be easy for your team?
Fleshy: Yeah, I think we have a team that performs better in best-of-three as well. And I just think we fucked up on the second game draft and first game, it was on our mistakes plus the chronobreak.
Do you think the second game is mostly due to draft or is there anything that you think you should have done better in it?
Fleshy: We had a way to play against this type of comps. I think this was the same draft that against KC, but here it was Neeko and not Alistar. But when we were playing against KC, it was Pantheon, Cassio, and Alistar on bot, and we had Karma. But we wanted to go another way with Nautilus. Nautilus is good into Neeko on paper, but in this draft, there were like ten ADCs out. So we had to go Jinx, and they had just better champions in lane. We fucked up one skirmish. After that, it was not playable.
On a personal perspective, how do you feel in the team compared to your first split last year? Do you feel more confident this year in your gameplay and in your way to play with the team?
Fleshy: I feel much more confident. I think that's because we are playing well in scrims and we are translating into official games as well. It's not like there are bad things happening randomly, you know. So I feel more confident than last year in Summer for sure, it's just normal.
Does the atmosphere in the team help with that? How is it to work with those teammates every day?
Fleshy: It's just fun. There is a lot of friendship building between us from everyone. And it's just good to have this atmosphere in the team. I think we didn't have this too much last year. And I mean, before me, they had Nisqy (Yasin Dinçer) and then Hylissang (Zdravets Galabov), and maybe people were a bit like mentally challenged from what happened in Spring and Winter Split. Right now it feels much better. We are still in winter, but I feel that we can actually do something.
Do you feel like your team has the potential to aim for the win this split, or do you have a more a long term vision?
Fleshy: I think we are for sure going to be better at the end of the year, but we are planning to be on top 3 or top 2 in winter and spring as well. Whatever happens in winter, we will be better next time. We are just trying to do our best in scrims and try to get much better for this split as well.
What about your duo lane with Carzzy? How strong do you think you two can be together? And where would you rank yourself among the other LEC botlanes?
Fleshy: I think we are playing much better with Carzzy in this split, especially. Last summer, I wasn't that good. I would say that I was maybe top 6 in the league among the botlanes. This year, I can confidently say that we are contesting top 3 for sure. Of course, we are staying humble, and we are just trying to do our best. I never thought about the other botlaners or who is best. I don't think about this stuff, I'm just trying to win as a team.
What do you think still needs to be improved from your team and also from you individually?
Fleshy: Individually, I think in these critical moments in champ select or in game too, I can be more vocal. Because right now I'm the kind of guy who says okay to most of the things. So it should be this for me, and the gameplay itself can be improved as always. For the team, I think we just need to be stable and play confidently.
You're going to play against Fnatic then by the end of the week. How do you feel about this matchup? Are you confident going into it?
Fleshy: Yeah, I'm really confident going into it. I think today we lost 0-2, of course, it sucks, but I already know that we are good. I'm not delusional, I saw this and I actually think we can make it, so I'm gonna go into Fnatic with a confident mindset.”
