il y a de cela quelques jours, au cours de la 4e semaine de la saison régulière du LEC Summer Split, l’entraineur en chef de l'équipe Fnatic, Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi a répondu aux questions de la rédaction. Il évoque les performances de son équipe, mais aussi les problèmes de format et la compétitivité en LEC.
By the end of week ‘and after the loss against Misfits, Fnatic’s Head Jakob “Yamatocannon” Medbi coach answered our questions.
You just lost against, misfits after a game that was quite long. What did you think lacked in this game, particularly, in order to win?
I think we just, lacked, performance. , we didn't play well. And this was definitely, you know, the lowest floor we've, we've shown in a while. We just, plain and simple, lacked performance.
How do you, how do you manage to adapt after losses like this in order to come back stronger on the next day or on the next weeks?
Though, it depends on what you can take away from them. You know, some things take longer to address and some things are easier to just Band-Aid fix coming into the next day. BO1 are tricky because, you know, you play one game and that's what you show after practicing for, two weeks. Right? And, this game was shit right? There is no question about that. And, we will just, try to piece it together coming into tomorrow because, I know that we are capable of, so much more. And it's just important, to make sure that, the players, know that, too.
So a new thing came up in the LDL. Now the LDL, ban, the champions played in the previous game by your team. So do you think that's something that would be interesting in the other regions?
I think it's very interesting because like honestly on my end, anything that is fresh and new is something that I welcome because I believe the format has become quite repetitive. I think the system that was applied in the LDL, I think it's something that forces you to practice very differently and it will showcase a lot more depth in the game. I think currently with how everything works, you have so little time to adjust to new patches and there is not too much freedom to explore beyond what is the Meta so to speak. But all in all, anything that is new and fresh is something that I welcome because I think just playing best of ones with a new patch almost every week I think sucks. I think it's not the best system for sure.
So, do you think, Europe and North America, by extent, should do, like, Korea and China and go to best of three? Or do you think Europe should have its own format?
Well, anything that gives you clearer competition, you know, is something that I am all for. I think it doesn't make much sense to have two splits. I'd love to have more international competition and less of the matches that feel rather pointless. I think Best of three is just naturally shows who is the true winner of the day. You can perform like shit and won BO1. The game is quite volatile. You make a mistake that will cost you the game and that's something that can reoccur. Of course, the best ones reward consistency and it doesn't really reward a lot of the traits that are important in the best of fives, adaptability and, you know, grit and strength and energy throughout the day. And this is something that I think is important to expose yourself to. And just the amount of games that you get to play sometimes, well, most of the time, playing two games on the weekend can be very unfulfilling, especially when you practice towards them. I think from a competitive standpoint, I think more matches are always better and I think as a viewer product, I think I understand the issue with seeing best of threes between teams that no one really cares about. But I think that's a problem in itself that maybe needs to be looked at, you know, because it's crazy to me that teams in the LEC are considered equal partners because it's not equal at all.
You said there is a problem about the way patch, are put live for the competition. So, of course, even if you have a little bit more time on patches than the live server. It's obviously a problem. So my question here is how do you adapt to such rapid changes in the Meta?
It's always about depends on the players. It depends on the staff. Right. What kind of, um, you know, policies you're keeping track of in terms of champions and so forth. And, you know, you make guesses and you invest time into certain things. And important thing is just analysing all of the available data that is there. Most of the time, LFC and North America are playing first on the newer patches, so gathering information from the LCK and the LPL, Usually it lags behind unless the patches of course are very changing. So it's obviously something that I'm kind of waiting for, for them to catch up on the patches just to analyse more data and have more access to more information. I think soloQ trends is something that can also give some sense of inspiration. I think when things move in certain directions on win ratios after big changes, I think it's also an indicator to find inspiration from not necessarily that is the truth is more about just finding the inspiration and testing out the things that, you know, could potentially be good. And sometimes players come with ideas, something that they've been cooking for quite some time. Maybe a nerf to a champion exposes, you know, as an indirect buff to many others. So it's always about just building a foundation and seeing how it evolves through the patches I mentioned before, I don't necessarily see it as like a problem in itself, you know, I just think that with the constant changes right then it becomes a lot trickier to invest time into. Like just because you're playing BO1, you don't want to make sure that you're consistent on fewer things because you have to prepare less things. So you end up playing and repeating less of a pool in preparation for the weekend. And I think in a in a format where, you know, you play best of threes, you would have to prepare so much more and it would expose you to, to more depth. And it would also give a lot of freshness to practice it just a lot more rewarding than BO1 to make sure that you play a few sets of champions in a solid manner and that you come into the weekend as prepared as possible in comparison to best of threes and, you know, a system where champions would be banned after you win with them.
A lot of, um, teams during the off-season went into Korea to boot camp and prepare, I think, for example, to Excel, which now has some good results for them. Do you think that's something the team should do or do you think the preparation in summer is depending on the team?
I think this is definitely depending on the team. I think some teams face issues that are easier to deal with when you're on the ground here in Germany because you want to, of course, you know, you know, start the habits and start their routines early to you know, put the systems in place and make sure that players are capable of handling responsibilities in the day to day, depending on the systems that you put into the place. I think when it comes to Korea, I think you expose yourself to good practice and if that's what you need, I think that can be very beneficial. I think Excel is an example of where it can be very beneficial. And although someone like Nelson, I could imagine that he gets you in positions where you scrim against the best teams and exposing yourself to that, especially when you have players that maybe don't have a lot of experience. Right. Like some of these, the players on Excel haven't been to the world championship and so forth and haven't practiced against the best of the best. That type of exposure can give you a fresh perspective and maybe open your mind to the potential of the game. Because the easiest way to know that you're doing something terrible is to get really smacked hard in the head by the opposition and really exposing, your flaws. So it can definitely be very beneficial. But I think it differs from team to team if it makes sense or not.
Now to be a bit more practical, what are Fnatic objective for the summer split?
It's still the same as always. It's like we have, the intention to, you know, to win the split, go to the world championship and, and do some damage. You know, in the end, the main thing I care about is, you know, making sure I feel fulfilled and that what I do feels rewarding and that we progress as a team. I think we have good potential, and we just need to figure it out as a group to, to really unleash that potential. And that's the challenge that, every team is facing.
This interview is coming to an end. The last word is yours.
On my end. Nothing much that, you know, today's game sucked us. But we will do our best to try to bounce back. And I would like to thank all the fans and Fnatic for their continuous support through the victories, through the losses. We will do our best to try to bounce back and make everyone proud out there.
