Getting their first win on the board,
Top Esports marches onward with high hopes after
taking down Team Liquid 2-0 and defeating the North American representatives at the
First Stand 2025 tournament. In two separate press conferences, midlaner Lin "Creme" Jian and support Liu "Crisp" Qing-Song commented on their adaptation to the new meta and tournament, while AD carry Sean "Yeon" Sung and jungler Um "UmTi" Sung-hyeon reflected on their match against Top Esports and discussed their team's shortcomings.
Top Esports' Press Conference
Crisp, are there any off-meta picks you're preparing for us that we could see soon after the Neeko?
Liu "Crisp" Qing-Song: "To be honest, I don't have any other specific off-meta picks prepared because most of the support picks I've already played on stage. But maybe in the future, if we have some very good scenarios, there’s a chance we’ll see new things on stage.
Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in used his own championship skin. Do you think you'll have a chance to use yours?
Crisp: Currently in the meta, Thresh, which I have my skin on, isn’t really that easy to pick on stage because he doesn’t fit the meta and the pace of the game. Still, if there's an opportunity and our draft matches well, I might give him a try. I don’t think he’s very good though.
After playing a lot of lane swaps, we now have anti-swap mechanics. How was it adapting to that and do you prefer swaps or no swaps?
Crisp: The reason we adapted well to the new meta is because of the effort we put into practice. We had a very short period of time to adjust, so in all the scrims and practice, we gave 100% effort. We all tried our best to be diligent, find issues in our practice, and find the playstyle that suits both our game and the meta. As for lane swaps, I was fine either way. Everyone on our team is very smart, so we aren’t influenced by how the meta changes. No matter what, we try our best to perform well and get good results.
Creme, we’ve seen you and Eain "APA" Stearns keep shooting emotes at each other. Are there any reasons? Did you talk?
Lin "Creme" Jian: The reason I was using emotes is that whenever APA used any skills, he would emote, so I wanted to respond to him.
Creme: After yesterday's loss, the thing that changed the most was our priority in pick and bans.
Do you know that you are known as Krispy Kreme, like the donut chain? Do you think you guys are similar to donuts?
Crisp: First of all, I definitely would say I work very well with Creme and we have great synergy. I think, for playstyle, we just try our best to do better, and we talk a lot. We’re good friends.
Creme: I don’t think we’re like donuts, though. Not on that level.
Team Liquid's Press Conference
Yeon, after these initial matches, what do you think of TL's adaptation to First Stand?
Sean "Yeon" Sung: To be honest, I think we didn’t adapt very fast at the start. But as the tournament went on, we definitely adjusted, and we had a solid game plan for what we wanted to do. We have a more solid idea of what we want to do now compared to previous international events.
Now that you faced off against him in your best performance yet, is Wenbo "JackeyLove" Yu still your father, maybe he's your older brother now?
Yeon: Hello, father. To be honest, I think, for the past international events, JackeyLove has been really good and really hard to strictly beat. I did better than last time at least.
You mentioned that the strength of you and CoreJJ as a duo is strong laning. What was your impression of TES' botlane? Was there anything that stood out to you during their laning phase?
Yeon: To be honest, CoreJJ and I are a very strong botlane duo, especially in laning. We knew TES’ botlane was very solid. We were wondering how different Crisp would be from Meiko (Tian Ye). I would say their laning is the same as the old TES; they’re still very solid, very good.
UmTi, you mentioned you want to play against Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok. How was it playing against him?
Um "UmTi" Sung-hyeon: Kanavi always keeps up really well in tempo, and he has really good ideas of when he’s strong. I already knew how good he was at teamfighting too. I can definitely tell how good he is, and I think he has really good confidence in his decisions. I’m pretty upset I lost to him.
Your gank in game 1 intensified the flow of the game, but you were defeated in the end. What is your regret as a team against TES?
UmTi: I was really regretful about our teamfighting. We could have done a lot better. I could have shotcalled in a better manner as well. Mostly, I feel like we just ended up watching them play and didn’t play ourselves. Just by looking at the map, the enemy always had better tempo.
After a tough 2-0 loss to TES, what are the key takeaways heading into your next matches against HLE and CFO?
UmTi: Probably teamfighting, I would say. We need to play them better individually and also think about making better team plans."
Header Photo Credit: Christina Oh/Riot Games
