4 losses in a row followed by 4 wins in a row. The journey from play-ins to group stage for Fnatic was as if someone orchestrated a dramatic story. Seeing the expressions and emotions on the player’s faces, you can tell how much they have endured.

Out of the 5 members of FNC, the player that endured the most was sOAZ. From GAM’s Nocturne to Longzhu’s Nasus, sOAZ was always the scapegoat. However, today was complete different. In today’s 4th win, sOAZ stepped up and carried FNC in their last game. Playing alongside FNC but not like a FNC player seen before.

After the game, we got an opportunity to have a quick chat with sOAZ. Let’s see what he thinks of reaching the, so dreamed of, quarterfinals.

¤ Can you tell us how you feel about making it out of the groups?

It kind of feel surreal as we started 0-3. Thanks to Longzhu for helping us. We managed to do it (laughs).

¤ You guys lost all your matches last week. We want to know what kind of feedback was going back and forth with your team that affected your performance today.

We had small pressure before. We were 0-3 and we didn’t want to go 0-5 or 0-6 against teams like Immortals and GAM. We tried to focus on that. I felt like we weren’t playing to make it out anymore but trying to get as many wins as possible. We focused on beating GAM and tried not to put pressure on ourselves. Get as much as we could.

¤ Is there anything particular you do to relieve your stress or get out of the pressure you’re dealing with?

During the game, I think just talking with your teammates. If you tilt, I think it is very bad to stay silent and put it on yourself. If something goes bad, it is important for your teammates to pick you up. Just talking to them and letting them repair you. Talking to yourself is also good. I think the main thing is to talk to your teammates and helping out. Outside of the game, I think every player is different. After a game if I want to relax, I go smoke. I know it isn’t a good thing (laughs).

¤ In today’s game, who do you think was the most helpful teammate including yourself.

I think the game against GAM was really really hard to win. They are really early game and I think I died 4 times. I communicated with Broxah to help me out early. To help top early and help bot later. I think we all just played really good. There was really good team atmosphere. Even when I was 0-3, my team would say ‘it’s fine’ or ‘we can do it’. I don’t think I have anyone in particular. There isn’t someone who is outstanding.... the whole team helps me out.

¤ When you do go to the quarterfinals, who do you want to vs and why?

I don’t think we are thinking about teams who we are going to eventually face right now. I think we have to think about the teams we will be facing and who will put pressure on us. I think we just need to focus on myself and the whole team rather than thinking about ‘who I want to face’ things like that. We’ll just have to see what happens.

¤ Could you give a word to your fans who cheer for you?

(Laughs) I don’t think many people believed in us after going 0-3. However, I still want to thank the people who sticked with us after the first bad week.