Interview (ENG) - UOL Vizicsacsi au micro de la rédac

Hi Vizicsacsi, first of all thanks for accepting this interview. Let’s start to say few words about your team. You guys started to show yourself in GO4LOL in January 2014 with pretty good results, but things started to get serious from May when you attended more major tournaments like the Blackmonster Cups and the Dailymotion Challenger Cup. You arrived at the 5-8th spot in both Challenger Series summer, losing twice to NiP, and managed to qualify to the playoff after beating Playing Ducks in a tiebreaker match.

Erru : When we follow your Challenger summer series, we realize that your performances, while good, were always stopped by NiP in quarter finals. What do you think happened between that time and the Challenger playoff for your team to be able to get rid of Gamers2 and NiP in this fashion (3-2 and 3-0) ?

Vizicsacsi : It’s mostly because of the mindset of the team. When we played NiP 2 times before in the challenger series, we all believed they were the heavy favourites and we literally accepted that we’ll lose even before the games started. In the playoffs however, when we were playing next to eachother, it was completely different. We didn’t care who we played against, we just wanted to play our own agressive style as good as we could and see what we could achieve with that. We just went into the games without any pressure and everyone just gave their best, which resulted in a 3-0 victory.

 

Entering in the Spring Promotion at the 3rd place, what were your team’s feeling and hopes ? How would you rank Unicorns of love level in the Challenger scene before the playoff ? By picking you up, do you think Millenium made a strategic mistake ?

We weren’t really regarded as a good team that could achieve anything, so I think other teams underestimated us a bit, which might have played into our hands as well. Coming into the playoffs, we didn’t feel pressured at all. We wanted to win at least the first games against Gamers2 and that would have been enough of an achievement. Nearly beating H2k, and then winning against NiP was more than we expected. Coming into the promotion tournament, Millenium chose us as their opponents, which was actually quite predictable to happen. We didn’t shine at any tournaments before and other teams, especially LCS ones, just didn’t know much about us. Our only outstanding result was the 3-0 against NiP, so I wouldn’t say it was a strategic mistake by Millenium. I would have done the same if I were in their shoes.

 

According to you, what are the reasons Unicorn of love could beat Millenium ? How much of an importance do you think that 3rd Game, with your now famous Poppy pick, played in your victory ?

The first 2 games against Millenium were really close ones, and we were a bit upset that we were down 2-0. We desperately needed a win to make us believe that this series can be still ours. In the 3rd game we just went into the game with a lot better mindset than in the previous ones, and to be honest, the poppy pick played a huge part in that. It’s a comfort pick for us, with which we hardly lose against teams that picks mundo. So we tried our best to keep our chances of qualifying into the LCS alive. From then on, we were confident in ourselves, and our performance was getting better and better with every game, meanwhile Millenium’s mental approach to the game was getting worse and worse. I kinda felt like they already accepted a loss in the last game.

 

Mentioning Poppy, you guys played two unconventional picks (Poppy Game3, Cassiopeia Game 5) in your last three games. Can you tell us more about the reasons behind those picks ? Do you think they had a significant importance in your victories? Can we expect you to bring some more odd flavored picks in the future ?

We always like to try to find little counterplays in the meta. There are always other really strong champions out there, just need to find them. Picking something unconventional, which you are also sure will work out, is usually a great morale boost for the team as well, so they definitely played a part in our victories. We’ll try to keep finding picks like this during the LCS as well, as I believe it’s important to try to shape the meta, be ahead of it, not only just follow it.

 

Talking about the future, what are your expectations for the upcoming LCS ? Are there any specific teams you are looking forward to challenge ?

For our first split our goal is to stay in the LCS, and if that happens, we can set our expectations for the following split higher. I personally just want us to learn, improve as much as we possibly can. The team I am looking forward to play against is of course the reigning champions, Alliance. Their pick/ban phase and rotations are really good, would love to play against them as there is a lot to learn from them.

 

What are your plans for the team ? Were you guys already contacted by some major sponsors ? Do you intend to do like Supa hot crew, being sponsored by a big company while keeping your own brand ? Will you have a brand shop with a furry unicorn ?

We intend to keep our current name, Unicorns of Love. I don’t know of any big sponsors yet, but doing something similar to Supa Hot Crew sounds good to me. About the brand shop: nothing is decided yet, there are still months ahead of us to work everything out.

 

Coming back to the Promotion tournament, a lot of people were expecting H2K to beat CW but they ended up getting crushed 3-0. Were you expecting such results ? What is your opinion on the two teams that qualified with you (CW and Gambit) ?

I was expecting every LCS team to step up as they were literally fighting for their jobs. And as professionals they are also a lot more used to these situations than us, challenger teams. So yes, I was expecting both Gambit and CW to win and was hoping that we wouldn’t crumble under the pressure and can beat Millenium. It’s hard to judge the level of CW or Gambit, as I personally feel like the difference between LCS teams is very low, only Alliance is standing out from the rest. I feel like everyone can beat everyone at the moment, just need to catch a good start, get into a winning streak, and that can give a great mental boost for the team.

 

The expansion tournament will take place in November and December, and two more teams will be able to qualify for the LCS Spring Split. We already know six European teams who qualified for it (Gamers 2, H2k-Gaming, Millenium, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Reason Gaming, and SK Gaming Prime). Do you think the next two qualified teams are present in those six teams, and if yes who are your favorites ?

I definitely believe that Millenium will requalify. For the other spot, it will be decided between Gamers2, H2k, and SKP, although I’m not that familiar with rising challenger teams right now, so upsets may always happen, especially knowing that 2 months is a lot of time. During that time other teams may step up and get onto a really high level.