Zz1tai unsatisfied with win over ahq: 'This is not our true form'
Editor's Note: This interview was conducted with Zz1tai just before the Cloud9 vs. Fnatic game, and his answers do not reflect knowing the results of that game.
Group B just got cracked wide open. With the Cloud9 win over Fnatic and Invictus Gaming's win over ahq e-Sports Club, we now have a three-way tie for 2nd place and a full round robin to go at the 2015 World Championship.
Eui-jin "RooKie" Song's dominant performance on Viktor, along with Zhi-Hai "Zz1tai" Liu's split-push Shen, were keys to victory in the marathon showdown between ahq and IG. We spoke with the heroic top laner about how they were able to turn things around, and what this means for the increasingly-epic Group B.
Many analysts have pointed out IG's inconsistency during the 2015 Season, and Zz1tai referenced that fact in reply to the team's struggles at Worlds. "The way we're performing right now is not our true form. We didn't expect to play [poorly]," Zz1tai said, "But NOW we can capture what we were in the LPL. We're trying to get our final form back."
[[{"fid":"19989","view_mode":"full_page","fields":{"format":"full_page","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"tagName":"IMG","src":"http%3A//admin.prod.lolesports.com/s3/files/styles/full_page/public/zz1tai2.jpg%3Fitok%3DSvvWnl2u","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-full-page"}}]]
IG was able to get ahead because of Zz1tai's monstrous lead over ahq top laner Yi "Ziv" Chen. But Zz1tai takes no credit for the feat, "When teams are lane swapping, the top laner's performance depends on the team's support. Our team supported me more than ahq could support Ziv."
In either case, it was that lead that let Invictus play a methodical game. Invictus's scaling eventually became too much for ahq to overcome, particularly RooKie's full damage Viktor -- choosing to forego defensive items for a more punishing build.
"RooKie is confident in his individual skills, and in the team supporting him. RooKie [didn't get Zhonya's Hourglass] because most of ahq's skills that could reach him would have to go through the front line. RooKie is a player who prefers to go for more offensive items than defensive items."
His pure damage build provided the power necessary to win the deciding team fight, when Zz1tai got a game-winning taunt onto ahq's ADC Chun-An "AN" Chou -- resulting in AN's first death of the entire game. "Any player can make some mistakes," RooKie said, "I don't actually think AN has a lot of problems… I think [AN] is very good. I think he performs similarly to Imp in [2014 Worlds]. He's more likely to farm a lot and grow strong in the late game."
But IG managed to get the best of him, and won the game immediately after.
[[{"fid":"19988","view_mode":"full_page","fields":{"format":"full_page","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"tagName":"IMG","src":"http%3A//admin.prod.lolesports.com/s3/files/styles/full_page/public/ig_vs_ahq.png%3Fitok%3DwCy7OGKe","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-full-page"}}]]
Now, with a wide open Group, Invictus looks to improve before taking on their fellow teams next weekend. "It's really hard to say if we can get out of Groups, because we're still finding our form from before," Zz1tai said, "So we're going to use the down time to adjust, to improve our performance. If we can go back to our LPL performance, I'm confident we can go to Quarterfinals."
Find out if Zz1tai and Invictus Gaming can advance from this death-trap of a Group next weekend on Sunday, October 11 starting at 10:00 Central European Summer Time / 1:00am Pacific Standard Time when IG rematches ahq.
