On the 5th of July (CST), in the first game of the Rift Rivals of the LCK/LPL/LMS region, Flash Wolves (FW) defeated Royal Never Give Up (RNG).

RNG played Kai’Sa and had Uzi go to the top lane with Ming’s Tahm Kench. FW picked Mordekaiser in their bot lane. Although RNG took first blood by killing Gangplank while he was rotating to the bottom lane, the teamfights from FW with Maple’s Vladimir was too strong for RNG.

After the game, Swordart was interviewed.

It was your first time playing Pyke. Why did you draft this comp and especially, why against RNG?

This is the first time I played Pyke. We think that Mordekaiser is in a very good position in this meta. A lot of champions are short-ranged so he can get a lot of damage in the bot lane. The strategy wasn’t specifically for RNG and we also have a lot of things lined up in the future.

Every time RNG thought they had a better 5v5, but FW came out on top. How were the shotcalls during the teamfights?

I think it has to do with Moojin getting us a lot of gold advantages earlier in the game into the mid game. That had a comfortable set up to the big objective plays. (You didn’t have a gold lead in the mid game.) What I meant was Moojin set up good vision around the big objectives so we could turn to make picks more easily.

How do you think the LMS will be during this tournament and what are you proud about as a member of the LMS?

Our goal is to win with the other three teams from the LMS. We are aiming for the championships. What makes LMS special is that we have a lot of talented players with good mechanics, but the other teams don’t have as much international experience that our team has. If they can catch up with the shotcalling and performance under pressure, they could take some games away from the other regions.

※ Image from Riot Games Twitch Channel