After their 3-0 win against London Spitfire, I had the chance to talk with João Pedro "Hydration" Goes Telles about the win, the incredible play on King's Row, and his perspective on the hardest match yet to come.

Let's get the obvious out of the way -- what does it feel like to stomp London Spitfire 3-0 in the first match? 

It feels pretty good, you know? I'm pretty sure we could of 2-0'd on Lijiang but, on Gardens when I Rocket Barraged in last fight trying to Kill Gesture, I got a little bit unlucky with the rockets and it didn't kill him. Then he was able to kill me, get his ult, kill BigGoose and then they won the fight off of that.

So, it could have looked like more of a stomp.

"I knew we had the potential to be better than them. It would just take some time."

Are you still thinking about the match right now?

Kind of. There are a few moments that really stand out. After [the moment with Gesture] happened, I felt we should have won -- it was unlucky and a bit my fault. I just had to move on to the next round.


Bischu tweeted after the win that all of the credit goes to Tim, your assistance Coach. Can you give me some insight on to why that is the case?

That King's Row play on the attack -- that was our assistant coach Tim. He came up with that at 4 AM trying to sleep. When he was talking to us about it, he goes:

"I know this is going to sound really stupid, but  listen to this..."

I was like, "this is insane" so everyone thought "ok, Hydration thinks it's insane, it must be terrible." But then we just went with it. It never failed: we tried it three times in scrims and it never failed once. After that, we figured we might as well try it in a match.

Why do you think it is so effective? Is it just the surprise factor?

It really is the surprise factor. Normally that composition is very common -- three tanks and three supports. Brigitte is a very small character so when you are crossing to get behind them, they won't really see you. It catches people off guard: they will press tab and figure "oh, they have a Brigitte we just didn't see her"

That is when the Widowmaker comes in.

It is clear from social media guys were very confident going into your match against London Spitfire. What are your thoughts about the next match? Are you worried London Spitfire might "wake up" after such a beating?

It will definitely be a lot harder. Especially because both teams came into this match blind, we didn't know what the other would play. Now, we have an idea and they are going to use that to their advantage. They will try to counter our playstyle but, we are still pretty confident. 

It should be pretty easy, maybe.


A lot of people view this as a real "fall from grace" moment for London Spitfire. Has your perception of the team changed? Were they ever a team you feared and now, not so much? 

They are definitely a top 4 team. They are a very scary team -- I remember when we came into pre-season they were the team we first placed and we did beat them. I remember coming into that match thinking "wow, everyone is calling them the best team, this is going to be a hard match"

But after we won that match, I knew we had the potential to be better than them. It would just take some time.



Do you ever stop and think about what might happen if your team wins this whole thing?

Nope, just one step at a time.


But isn't it tempting to imagine?

*Hydration pauses*

It will be very hard. It's looking like Fusion is better than Boston so I think we will play Valiant. Valiant is to us what we are to Spitfire -- we just can't beat them.

Do you have any theories on why that might be? Is there a mental wall or just an effective playstyle from Valliant

I'm pretty sure it is their playstyle. Also, every time we play against them, SoOn is just playing at the top of his game every time -- he is just a really good player.


A lot of fans were very surprised to see Fissure not playing in the starting line-up. Did you catch any of that social-media chatter?

Our coaches told us, after hair and makeup and the announcement about Fissure, to not look at social media. It could have easily affected some of our play and we wanted to play our best. So we all made sure to stay off social media.


Well, now that you won 3-0 the tone has changed and people are saying it sends a loud and clear message to Gladiator doubters.  

It is going to be fun to reading all the comments, watching the VODS and seeing everybody type on Twitch chat. It is going to shut up a lot of people who doubted us.


Any last words for your fans?

Shoutouts to fans, thanks for supporting us. Keep supporting us and we will keep popping off for you.

Photo's by Robert Paul Photography