Midas FIO Interview

Team Midas FIO is an amateur team that made it into OGN on their first try. While nobody had them on the radar they managed to advance into the offline qualifier over the Jin Air Stealths. There, they secured their ticket to OGN where they beat Xenics Storm and Mook Comet and only lost to SKT T1 S. Please note the following interview is translated and answers may not directly translate. Midas FIO: Hello we are the Korean League of Legends team Midas FIO. We are very happy to introduce us to foreign fans. How did you become progamers? What were the reaction of your parents? Midas FIO: When we saw the World Finals the dream [of becoming a progamer] was born. Sometime ago we started with the wish that we will play on stage in front of cameras. At first our parents were very opposed to it because it is no stable career path but now because we are training hard they are behind our decision and supporting us. Did you think that you will make it to the final rounds of OGN Champions? Midas FIO: When we met Jin Air Stealths in the first qualifier we were disconcerted. But we never thought that they were an unbeatable enemy. We thought we had a chance to beat them if the whole game goes as we think and it actually happened, we did it! In the second qualifier we had even more confidence. Since we already defeated Jin Air Stealths we entered every match with the attitude that we can beat everybody. However the first broadcasted match and the first time in the booth we felt very nervous and had a lot of tension. We lost the first match against SKT T1 S but we thought of the last two matches as the last pro game matches and tried hard. Actually after we defeated Jin Air Stealths we thought that we are good enough to reach the final rounds. And this thought became reality. Reaching the final rounds feels still like a dream. How was the team formed? Midas FIO: First the coach set up lodging and then started gathering team members. For roughly one and a half months, team members were tested and the players were picked. How did you prepare for the Qualifier? Midas FIO: We were an amateur team, because of that it was hard to train with pro teams. Therefore we practiced with other Korean amateur teams and our coach managed to get SEA pro teams to scrim with us which helped us a lot. Did you celebrate after you beat Jin Air Stealths? How did you feel? Midas FIO: In the match against Jin Air Stealths we lost the first game and after losing we got very angry. The ban/pick phase didn’t match and our teamwork didn’t match at all because of this. When the first game was over because our coach gave us a lot of encouragement we tried really hard in the second game. If we could take the second game we felt confident to win the third one too. We are very confident in our Blind Pick. After the third game we couldn’t believe it. In fact the audience in the arena had facial expressions that they couldn’t believe it, too. Does anyone on the team already have experience as a pro gamer? Midas FIO: Our team’s support and top have a little bit of progamer experience. Top (Expect) was on the Alienware team and the support (Anna) is from KT. In their short pro gamer life they didn’t have a big career but it helped a lot that they have the learning experience in pro teams. In Korea there are many teams with a lot of money - because of that they have a good team house, many coaches and just a good training environment. If you look at this it's very hard for an amateur team to be successful. What are your thoughts on this? Midas FIO Head Coach: In Korea there are many teams that receive good corporate sponsorship but there are also many teams that don't. The players also intend to get a good corporate sponsorship, so the good players are finally driven to the big corporate teams and linger around them. Therefore Teams which don’t have a good sponsorship have a hard time to survive. Amateur teams normally have good results because without incoming sponsorship when the season ends there are many reasons to disband. When in this time a scout offer comes it’s good however players who didn’t get scouted and can’t see some light they have a lot of reasons to give up being a progamer. Because of that it’s more and more difficult to create an upset. But because teams already challenged this in the past now we can get good sponsors. If [amateur teams] didn’t challenge [this convention] the Korean LoL market wouldn’t be as big as it is now I think. I always say “The journey is the reward” What are your strengths? Midas FIO: First our team listens really well to what Expect says. The players are not selfish and not self-centered; because of that the teamwork is really good. Our jungler Sun has really good Dragon and Baron timing and is great in using Smite. In mid the normal laning phase is typically very offensive and that style is very important for midlaners., so most of the time he beats his opponent easily. Our ADC Lactea is very safe even when he is aggressive. Generally in our team we can read the game very well and everybody on the team knows what he needs to do and when he needs to do it. Finally, our support ANNA researches pick/ban phase very well. In Europe and North America streaming is very important, but in Korea professional players don’t stream at all. Does Midas FIO have plans to stream in the future? Midas FIO: Overseas tournaments give a lot of opportunities to stream [because of the format]. It’s different in Korean tournaments. Competition is fierce with fewer games, so we have to practice all day every day; therefore there isn't time for personal streaming for Korean teams in general. However in the off-Season if there is time we will do streaming to introduce us to foreign fans. Can anyone on the team speak English? Midas FIO: Because English is very important in Korea I can speak conversational English. When we scrim with foreign teams because we use English I can have simple conversations but nothing significant. Do you have any words to the foreign fans? Midas FIO: Hello we are Midas FIO. First we want to say thank you that there is so much interest in us. Even though we had hard opponents in the qualifier, we made it into OGN Champions. So our team got a huge spotlight. We will try to answer [the international] interest with really good preparation and good matches.

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