Rainbow7 exited Worlds after an unfortunate 0-3 loss to LGD, the LPL fourth seed whom they had previously beaten earlier on in the round-robin portion of the play-ins. While their overall record was 2-5, the Latin American League (LLA) representative showed up in a huge way, and turned heads with their performance. They were unable to win a best of five against LGD, but the players learned a lot in their time at Worlds, and they'll take that knowledge back to the LLA and prepare for their next shot in 2021.

After their series, Facundo "Shadow" Cuello spoke with Inven Global about their time at Worlds and how supported they felt from their fans. 

Watch the interview here (with English subtitles) or read the transcription below:

You previously beat LGD, so what happened today, what did they do differently to give them the win?

I believe that LGD adapted better to our play-style and they pressured us a lot in the game. Han "Peanut" Wang-ho was ignoring the jungle, focusing on the lanes instead, and that really worked for him because we didn’t know how to counter it.

Yeah, he definitely seemed to have a much bigger impact today. This seemed to be a really close Play-In Stage - LGD and MAD Lions went 1-3 - did you feel like you had a real chance to win and make it to the Group Stage? 

We believed we could make it, but we did not believe we were way better than them. We knew we were good, or at least similar, but it was obvious they had a lot more knowledge and micro that we lacked understanding of. That micro lacks in our region, and theirs requires more insight.

But so you did come into the series thinking, "We can do it, we can make it to Groups."?

Yeah, I imagined that we would make it to Groups.

What do you feel like you learned from this event? 

I really enjoyed being here. This is the first time I came to Worlds, and the experience has been great. The solo queue has been amazing, practicing against teams that are way better than ours has been really good. It was also good to see that the other regions are very similar to us and there is not such a big gap between us, but they do have a lot of different aspects.

What is the hardest thing about playing against these opponents compared to playing in your home region? 

There are very few teams in our region that require our best performance. Over here, the best performances from the opponents are a lot higher than ours. I believe this is the main difference.

You had a lot of support from the fans, especially when you beat LGD and got this chance at the best of five. Did you feel their support, even though you're so far away? 

Yes, when we beat LGD for the first time, a lot of people had a positive response, including people from other regions. They sent me supportive messages, and to me, that was a very new feeling because I had never left my region before.

Is this the first time you've gone on such a big trip like this? 

This far from my home? Yes. I have been to a lot of other countries close to mine in Latin America, like Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Chile, but no more than that.

I hope next time you go you don't have to be in quarantine! What do you think you can take back to the region, and do you think the LLA can improve and maybe next year do even better? 

I believe that what we have learned the most... Since this is our first time at Worlds as a group, we were not sure what to expect, but to have this experience and see that the gap between the regions is not that wide was good. We had seen MAD Lions or G2 play, and we thought, “Wow, these guys are really good." But after playing against them, we saw really good plays but noticed there is not that much difference between our teams. Of course, we have to continue to improve for next time.

Lastly, a bunch of fans were talking about Brandon Joel "Josedeodo" Villegas and joking about you and Zhiqiang "Shad0w" Zhao, like, "Who is the real Shadow?" What was it like seeing their comments, and do you have anything you want to say to your teammates and fans now that you're exiting Worlds? 

More than anything, when we lost I just wanted to have a group hug between us five, but they didn’t want to do it, they just laughed at me. Josedeodo is probably the best player in the LLA, and I hope he reaches the other regions so he continues to improve. The other four of us need to stay in our region and improve as a group.

Images by Riot Games

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