100T Ryu: "There were good mid laners like Perkz and Caps in EU solo queue before they got famous as pro players... There's none in the NA"

Jul 31, 2018

100 Thieves won both matches in Week 6 of the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split. With the two wins, they managed to stay at the top along with Team Liquid. As Ssumday played actively, the mid and jungle helped out with the macro. The bottom lane wasn’t that stable yet but did their share when needed.

The following is the interview with Yoo “Ryu” Sang-wook after their win on the 29th.

Your performance has been really good since the Rift Rivals.

We practiced in diverse ways during Rift Rivals, so it was hard to adjust. I went back and forth between mid and bot. Now I just practice mid lane, so I think I’m better than that time. (Laughs) It was an important change for me.

Ssumday’s performance is really good too.

Ssumday always dominates the top during scrims as well, so it’s easy to play. I’m very thankful to him because he was always good even when I was going through hard times.

Why do you think Ssumday is doing so well?

He has good synergy with the jungler and has good communication. Also, I think the current meta suits Ssumday well.

On the other hand, Cody Sun is still inconsistent.

He is. (Laughs) Still, I think the difference between making super plays and throwing is paper-thin. Although he’s inconsistent, I wish he continues to play aggressively, but sometimes when he plays too aggressively, we tell him to play safe. (Laughs)

Didn’t Aphromoo have a hard time when the team atmosphere was bad?

Everyone did. Now it’s all getting better so it’s alright now.

Does Aphromoo look after Cody Sun well?

He did during spring, but since everyone had such a hard time during summer, he couldn’t. We’re getting back to how we looked in spring now.

Was the team atmosphere really bad?

Starting from early in the summer split to the Rift Rivals, it was very bad.

What do you think about AnDa?

AnDa’s very good mechanically, but he’s not used to the team game because he lacks experience. He’s learning a lot about the macro. I think he’s a good player, and he’ll become even better. AnDa is very eager to learn; he even watches other regions’ games every day.

You’re rising up first in all the mess. Do you think you’ll continue to do well?

In the current situation, Team Liquid, Echo Fox, and we are similarly doing well. Besides them, we’re definitely better.

Everyone said that TSM is the hardest team to play against early in the season. What’s your honest opinion on them in the current situation?

TSM is a team that can rise up again any time, but frankly, they’re not as good as before. It seems like that they have issues. It seems that they don’t trust each other.

Their draft is also somewhat weird. Something is always different from what I thought, and it feels like that they’re forced to play champions that they’re not good at.

Why do you think the teams are so close together in the standings this season?

It’s because all the NA teams failed to adjust to the meta. Especially the strong teams. They showed similar performance to the weak teams because of that.

I think the gap can widen again. The strong teams should start to come up. In my perspective, Cloud9 is also really good; I think they’ll make their way up.

Why do you think Cloud9 will come up?

They’re really good in scrims, and their new jungler (Blaber) is also very good. It feels like he’s bringing life to the team. I’m not in their team so I don’t know how it is in detail, but it feels like he fits into the team better than Svenskeren.

Arrow said that it’s hard to practice champions because of the NA solo queue environment. What are your thoughts on that?

I agree with him. (Laughs) The ping is a problem, of course, but what’s worse is that they do weird stuff in the game. It’s not Challenger level. If I don’t think while I play, I start doing what they do, and when I come to senses, I get surprised at myself. Solo queue isn’t much help, but it’s better than not playing at all, so I just do it.

Several teams are playing three blocks as a solution to the bad solo queue environment. How is it for the 100 Thieves?

We do too. We play scrims four days a week, and we play three blocks for about two days out of the four. Since solo queue isn’t much practice, we try to get more scrims.

Are there any problems during scrims? There might be players that don’t their best if they play three blocks.

Well… Sometimes it’s an issue, but it’s not frequent. I can understand because their mental can explode during scrims. We often lose our minds too. (Laughs)

Compared to EU, is the solo queue environment evidently worse?

Even when I was in EU, I didn’t think the solo queue environment was any good. (Laughs) But here at NA, this is the worst.

In the EU, the mid laners in solo queue were pretty good, so it wasn’t so bad; I don’t know about the other lanes. There were good mid laners like Perkz and Caps in EU solo queue before they got famous as pro players; I thought they were pretty good back then, and now they’re doing well in the pro scene.

Were there any players like that in the NA?

There's none in the NA except already famous pro players.

How are the academy players?

They’re not bad; I also think of them as pro players.