Interview with xMatty of Team BDS on his first LEC season: ‘It was a bit of a shock at the start and I needed to get used to this level. But once we adjusted, I feel like it’s been comfortable. The only thing I had to get used to was how negative LEC fans are in chat’

Quick question then, in that game you faced Kobbe who was playing as Zeri. I know you haven’t played Zeri yourself in the LEC just yet. What do you think of Zeri at the moment? A lot of people seem to be saying she’s overtuned.

I actually have a bit of a different opinion to her being overtuned. Let’s say you pick Zeri with Yuumi or another enchanter, I think these combos are very overpowered if you can make it out of the early game. As long as you pick them in situations where you can’t get punished too much and you make it to mid game, you have Zeri and Yuumi and she’ll be like a massive problem, right? She’ll be hard to deal with, especially with items, and she’ll probably just make fun of your team. 

But then if you’re playing against Zeri without an enchanter, so in this game for example, is Zeri and Leona. I think Zeri early game for lane isn’t that strong. So early game, you should have a winning lane against her or a pushing match-up. As long as she’s not in a good spot in the game and as long as she’s a bit behind, like you’ve pressured her a bit, then I actually don’t think Zeri is too hard to play against.

I think she’s only a problem if she’s ahead or if she has an enchanter and she gets her items, but in this game, I think if we play properly then the champion should be fine but not overpowered.

There’s one week of the Spring 2022 LEC left. How are you adapting to life in the LEC so far and how are you finding it? Can you reflect on how it’s been for you so far?

I think it’s been fine. I wouldn’t say it’s been too stressful. Obviously it’s been more stressful because we were losing a bunch of games but I wouldn’t say I let the stress get to me too much.

I think at the start, in the first couple of weeks, I needed to adjust how I was used to playing a bit. Because with Karmine Corp, for example, most of the games we played in this style where I was just playing lane by myself, Targamas would roam around the map and to help the team. I was kind of able to get away with being in a fine spot in the game, because the teams weren’t so good and weren’t good at punishing me, so I was normally going even in those situations where I didn’t have much help. 

But then when we got into LEC, obviously the level of teams kind of stepped up. If we did the same thing, the enemy teams were good enough and I was no longer able to just be ‘fine’. If I’m just trying to do my own thing, they should actually punish it. We had to adapt early on with how much attention we gave towards bot lane, because at the start we were giving it no attention and then we realised it was too hard to play. I was struggling to get equal CS or be in a good spot in the game. So once we did that initial adjustment, I think it became easier to play and more comfortable. 

The score obviously reflects that we are one of the lower teams, but I think if you actually look at the six games that we lost – and obviously we lost them and deserve it – but I think at least four or five of those games, if we just like played a bit better and more controlled, would be in our hands. I don’t think that the LEC level is out of reach or too high, I think it’s possible to play it to that level. I would just say it’s been a bit of a shock at the start and I needed to get used to it. But once we adjusted, I feel like it’s been comfortable playing. The only thing I had to get used to more was how negative the fans are. 

On Karmine Corp, everyone was supportive. But I feel like the overwhelming majority of LEC fans that you see in chat are just extremely negative towards whoever’s doing badly. I had to kind of learn to shut it out and just ignore it. That was the only thing I noticed when I kind of swapped between the leagues, like the Karmine Corp community was really nice in comparison.

There’s a lot to unpack there so I’ll try to do it one by one. How did you learn to cope with the negativity that you mentioned?

I think honestly, you just try to ignore it. All you can do is just try and do your best, and as long as you’re satisfied that you’re doing your best work, regardless of if you’re winning or losing, you just have to be happy with how much you’re putting in. 

If the results aren’t there, and people just want to make fun of you anyway, then you just have to ignore it. There’s nothing you can do to change the public perspective other than start playing better, which is what I’m working on doing. So yeah, just ignore it and then keep trying to do better every week.

Absolutely. On the six-game losing streak that you mentioned for Team BDS, I know that it can be quite demoralising. BDS were well known for having a very strong early to mid game but a poor late game phase. I’d like to ask why this was so prevalent and what were you guys doing to address it?

I think the main reason that it was coming up was because in most of our scrim games, the early games were super volatile. I or we would be winning hard and then the enemy team would give up or we’d like mess up and then we’d be the ones on target to give up. Because the games are so volatile and most of the games were done so early, we weren’t getting good practice in mid game.

It means that when you go to the stage and the teams play safer, more controlled and nothing happens, you need to actually like understand how to progress the game in mid game, which is something we weren’t really getting much time to work on in scrims.  

I think the way we need to address it is to just take scrims as a team more, like stage games, try and play them much more controlled, much more disciplined to actually give ourselves more game time and more situations to actually work on the issues we’re having in mid game.

Obviously, the first way to fix stuff is by actually having the time to need to play the scenarios and discuss it as a team, to work out how you want to play it. Without that, every time you get to it on stage, it’s just gonna be experimenting, you know? It’s hard to always find the right solution when you’re experimenting on the fly.

On what you mentioned previously with you being with Karmine Corp, you reunited with three players from your old team when you joined BDS. However, you have a new support in LIMIT as well as coach Grabbz from G2 – what is it like working with them so far?

I think working with both of them has been a pleasant experience. I think on this team, results and how everything has gone aside, the one good thing that I’ve had while playing with this team is that everyone is easy and nice to work with. Everyone has good personalities. 

Even though we have disagreements on how we want to play, it’s generally not been resulting in big arguments and dividing the team. Even though we went on a six-game losing streak, I still feel like we’re a team and we still want to get better together. And obviously, if we’re able to stay together and we can keep working on that, then I think we can do good stuff in the future. 

So yeah, Grabbz and LIMIT are really nice to work with and that’s the only thing I really have to say. They do their jobs well and they try and make it easy for everyone else to do their jobs as well.

That is very nice to hear. You mentioned playing in the LEC was initially a bit of a shock, but now you’re more or less acclimatised. I’d like to ask you on your form in the LEC so far and where would you rank yourself among the other bot laners?

I think my form at the start was probably the worst out of everyone, either worst or contesting with the bottom. I guess with the results I can’t really say that that’s changed too much. Obviously, I’d need to put myself on the lower end but I feel like, at least individually, I have stepped up since the first weeks and I’ve seen improvement in a bunch of areas. I’m still confident that with more time I can keep raising up the ranks. 

I guess everyone in the public would see it differently as well and this is hypothetical, but those six games that we lost, if we won four of them, instead of being 4-10 we would be something like 8-6 or something. Then everyone has a completely different viewpoint about BDS, right? And then I’d be able to sit here and say: “You know what, actually, I think I can contest and be middle of the pack at least because the results show that.”

But right now, I think I just prefer to say I’m still not as good as I want to be and there are still lots of areas for me to improve. It’s hard for me to put an exact spot on whether I’m seventh or ninth best bot laner, it’s just more that I’m not as good as I want to be and I think I can still get better and improve in every area, basically.

Who is the best bot laner or bot lane duo that you faced so far in the LEC?

Just off the top of my head, I would say Upset and Hylissang should just be the best bot lane in the LEC, at least in terms of how they play lane and mechanically. I feel like they would be the ones I would rate as the best.

We’ve only played them once and it was our first game I believe, and in that game I didn’t match up against them that well. But it was like the first game of LEC, so everyone was nervous. Also, they didn’t play that well so I don’t really get too much from that game. But just from the outside and what I see, I feel like they just are the best bot lane.

Yeah, that’s the general consensus for sure. You come from the ERLs, you played in the NLC, the LFL and won EU Masters twice. Now that you’re in the LEC, do you still keep up with the LFL and NLC?

For NLC, I’ll be honest, I haven’t watched it that much. The only NLC action that I’ve caught is some games where Kasing is playing [with X7 Esports], because Kasing’s a friend of mine. Sometimes I watch him play and I just see how they’re doing, and obviously, they’re doing really well at the moment. So that’s good for him. 

I’ve seen some LFL – I watched a few of the Karmine Corp games. Not every single one but I saw how they were having a rough time at the start, but they’ve kind of bounced back and they’re looking good now. Those two ERLs, I’ve kept up with like just individual teams, I haven’t followed the actual league. I’ve just watched the teams that I have people that I know of, and I haven’t watched too much of the Spanish or German league either.

It’s just some NLC, LFL and then obviously I just watch some league from China and Korea. I think that’s pretty standard like most players do.

Very quickly then, are there any bot laners that have really impressed you from the LPL or LCK?

I wouldn’t say I specifically look like certain people. I mean obviously from the LCK, the easiest one to say is Gumayusi. He’s really insane and he is playing every game super well, he’s just consistently really good. Just watching from how T1 plays, there’s so much you can take away. They’re just a very consistent team and good in most stages of the game. 

And for the LPL, I don’t watch specific bot laners, I just watch in general how they like to play the map. The LPL is definitely more aggressive than LCK and they like to abuse tempo much more and small timings in the game. I generally watch an overview of everything just to get ideas for the game.

“I feel like the overwhelming majority of LEC fans that you see in chat are just extremely negative towards whoever’s doing badly. I had to kind of learn to shut it out and just ignore it. That was the only thing I noticed when I kind of swapped between the leagues, like the Karmine Corp community was really nice in comparison.” 

Before we end, I have to ask, which UK players should we keep an eye on and which one do you think is next up for LEC?

I haven’t followed too many UK players in the NLC and I don’t know how everyone’s performing there. Obviously I can just say Kasing because I’m friends with him but X7 Esports are doing really well, so who knows? I’d say I would want Kasing in the LEC because of how good he is and not just because I have a connection with him. I don’t know too much about the Spanish league, but Deadly seems to be really good at the moment in Barça Esports. I can’t think of too many UK players off the top of my head but I would say Kasing and Deadly.

What about your old teammate Dan in JD Excel?

I haven’t watched many of Excel’s games so I don’t know how he’s actually playing to comment, but they’re doing well in the NLC. So I guess Kasing, Dan, Deadly and there’s Innaxe as well. But I guess Innaxe is in a slightly worse spot at the moment in terms of standings, so it’s a bit harder for him, but who knows what could happen. 

I guess that’s all the UK players I can think of off the top of my head that are LEC calibre or close to LEC calibre.

We’ve come to the end of the interview. Do you have anything else you’d like to say or any shoutouts you’d like to give?

Not really, just thank you for the interview. Hopefully for next week we just keep getting better and better, playoffs isn’t really in the question. It’s just time to improve and then get ready for next season. That’s about all. Thank you for the questions.

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Team BDS play Fnatic in their first match of Week 8 in the LEC. You can catch this on the LEC’s Twitch channel from 9pm BST.

Megalodontus is a miraculous survivor from the mass extinction and somehow learnt how to use his stubby fins to operate complicated mechanical equipment and drink tea. Worryingly for cryptozoologists, he’s been writing League of Legends articles too.

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