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| Team Liquid could not be surging at a better time. After a League Championship Series Summer Split defined by mid-season adjustments and tumult, Team Liquid has tore through its first two opponents in the 2021 LCS Championship. After dispatching of Cloud9 and TSM 3-1, TL has qualified for the League of Legends World Championship, which will be hosted in China this fall. After qualifying for Worlds 2021, Team Liquid top laner Barney "Alphari" Morris spoke to Inven Global about returning to a full-time LCS starting position on the team and the squad's rampage through the LCS Championship. TSM really focused on having red side for top lane counterpick in the first two games of the series, but it fell flat and you guys won both games. Is this something you expected and planned against as a team? Yeah, for sure. I think TSM is the main team, aside from us, to have played through top for most of the year, and I think they are actually the only team aside from us who is actually good at playing through top because their support and jungle mesh well with Huni. I also think that Huni is the best 1v1 laner aside from myself in NA, so it makes sense that they do this. That's kind of been the story of TSM all year long. I wasn't surprised that they tried to play through top and that the series was bloody around top. It was like this when we played them in the Mid-Season Showdown, and since then, both teams have only improved their early game. So yeah, it was nothing particularly surprising. In my interview with Santorin last week, he said the basic gameplan against Cloud9 was to win early because C9 doesn't play well from behind. TSM, on the other hand, plays at a more measured pace. How did you adjust your gameplan from one series to the next, and was there anything you were able to learn in the win against C9 that helped against TSM? I don't think our style changed too much from the C9 series. Both C9 and TSM have very obvious points of strength and play through their lanes very obviously in the early game. C9 always plays through mid, while TSM plays to get Huni ahead, so I suppose we had more emphasis on the top side in this series compared to the series against C9 where we had a lot more flexibility. Also, there's a lot less threat when playing against Fudge, but I think our style was pretty similar. We just had to be more respectful of their top, jungle, and support this series in the early game because they would rather make fights happen and they take a lot of skirmishes early. Even if they don't win, even when they should win, they will play aggressively, whereas C9 just play through mid. I don't think we changed our style too much anyway. We just played our game and we played better. What was the process like after taking a break, getting back into competitive shape, and eventually taking over as the full-time starting top laner for Team Liquid once again? I was never out of shape individually. This is my opinion, obviously, but I think the reasons I was given for being benched were quite disingenuous. Personally, I think the follow-up from the coaching staff was very, very bad, and it just put me in a situation where I wasn't really sure if I wanted to play or not. I had to think about it for a very long time because I held some resentment towards how things were communicated to me. I suppose finding the motivation to want to play was the only real complication. In my mind, there was never any issue with my individual play. Competing for a spot is not really competing for a spot. In my mind, it's me competing against myself because I think I'm very good if I try and put in effort. Even if I don't put effort, I would say I'm still better than most players in NA. It was never a confidence issue. I was never particularly worried about playing for a spot, and I think that's the mindset you have to have as a competitor. Fundamentally, if I'm not good enough, then I'm going to lose my job anyway. It's not like having the immediate pressure of a substitute is going to change that. If I have a bad split or I'm not performing, then I'm out of a job, so you always have to have confidence in yourself and you always have to be able to play and perform. I didn't feel any pressure. I was pretty happy for Jenkins to play. I think he's a decent player and I really enjoy practicing with him. I was very happy that he got to show that he's good enough for LCS on stage and got some experience. I think it was great for him, and I hope to see him in LCS next year on a team as a starter. I think he deserves it compared to many other tops in the league. But yeah, it was basically just about deciding if I really wanted to play or not. Things changed — I took some time off, and there were some movements within the team — and I decided that I wanted to commit 안전놀이터추천 and I wanted to win. Then, I started full-time. |
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