Immortals Xmithie on missing Playoffs: "I apologize to our fans, this won't happen again."

Mar 30, 2020

Coming into Week 9, Immortals was one win away from clinching the Spring Split Playoffs, but lost each of their games this weekend to fall out of contention. They shot off this split like a bullet out of a gun - or a baguette out of a... bakery? - with a 5-2 record after seven games. But then a long losing streak and inconsistent season ending left them in 8th place.

Jake "Xmithie" Puchero's legend claims he is the King of LCS Junglers, but despite remaining strong this Split, Xmithie and Immortals failed to advance past the regular season. He most recently won four LCS Titles in a row on Team Liquid - who also missed the Playoffs this Split - but now finds himself missing Playoffs for the first time since 2014 when he was in the Challenger Series on XDG.

So I know it must be rough after this long weekend, but what is your immediate thought with these results?

It's pretty disappointing, but yeah I don't know how long ago it's been since I missed playoffs. But yeah, it's a pretty sad feeling, disappointing that I can't even try to play in a best of five setting.

Do you feel like your team would've had a different showing given the change in format?

Umm, I'm not sure, but I would just be hoping that our experience from all the past games we've played that we'd be better in a best of five, but it's all here-say now.

Yeah I mean you had a pretty crazy season too, starting 5-2 and then a big losing streak and roster swap? What went wrong in the middle? Were there things the team could've done there?

I think the more we played together as a team, it was more apparent that we had a different playstyle in how we play the game. I think it was just hard for us to get a fix on it this split... I guess it's hard to have different leaders in a way, but it was just hard to figure out what was the best scenario without the experience as a team together. Because our team has a lot of different playstyles because we all come from different - not even regions, but just the way we play is different from each other.

Hmm, so it worked out in the beginning, but as other teams gained synergy, you weren't able to?

That too, but I think just as a team for us, we had a lot of conflicting calls and we were not really synergizing with each other. At the beginning, it was more following, but as we play more, the more losses we had and the more apparent it was.

I see. Do you feel like that's something you can fix heading into Summer with the squad that you have?

Yeah I think we can fix it, we have a long month ahead of us to try and figure out what's right and wrong. It's hard to have a bootcamp because we can't really, so we'll just all be practicing at home and try and build synergy with each other.

Yeah I wanted to ask about that too, this is a new challenge you've had to face. You've had a long career but never had a pandemic before, so how was it? Were you totally fine or was it a bit tough adjusting?

Well for us LCS players, there's not much difference except not going to the office anymore, so we can't even get sunlight anymore since we don't walk to the office, we just stay at home. So that's pretty much the difference other than not going to the LCS every weekend. There wasn't much difference. We're just in the comforts of our home.

*▲ Photo by Parkes Ousley of Inven Global*

I know these weren't the results that you wanted, but I feel like throughout the split, fans and analysts were often talking about how well you were playing, even when the team was performing poorly in the middle. But how do you feel about your own performance? And how do you compare it to years prior when you were winning championships and going to Worlds, etc.

I think this was probably not the best, especially results wise. But for my play specifically, I definitely could've improved much more, and I definitely could've led the team much better than I did. There was just a lot of confusion and a lot of things that I had to learn, especially things I've never experienced before. And most of the stuff with this team that I experienced is pretty new to me, a lot of learning for me.

That's really interesting to hear considering you've been on a bunch of teams and played for so long. What was so new and different on this team?

Well I think, especially with the addition of Jérémy "Eika" Valdenaire and Paul "sOAZ" Boyer, they came from Europe and have their own unique playstyle that they use. And Eika is probably one of the most vocal mid laners that I've ever played with, so it was pretty different than I've played with before.

And sOAZ is also pretty vocal and pretty adamant about what he wants to play, and sometimes we clash on what we want to do as a group, as a team. And it's just a different playstyle that I have to learn. So it can be good, but it's pretty hard for me to change to what my playstyle should be that I haven't played yet.

I get that. So lastly, I know it sucks to get knocked out, but did it feel nice seeing Liquid replace you and then proceed to struggle and get knocked out themselves?

Honestly the whole season I wasn't really even following them or focusing on them at all. I knew that they were having a slump and stuff but I was really focused on how well we were doing as a team. I don't really have resentment on any team's I've played for before. I always want them to have the best - well not the best, but second best to us. But I still appreciate the hard work they did with me.