On the 1st of October(KST), the Play-In Stage of the 2018 League of Legends World Championship officially began, at the newly established LoL Park in Seoul Korea. Having played the first and fifth match, Cloud9 ended the day with a score of 2-0, winning against Brazil and Japan. Playing Kai'Sa in both games, Sneaky was able to DPS reliably for his team, becoming a force to be reckoned with in late game teamfights.

The following is an interview with Cloud9 Sneaky.

How was the competition today?

Sneaky: It wasn't what we expected, for sure... obviously, our game with DFM was really close. 


What do you think went wrong during your match against them?

Mainly, I think our mid game macro was a bit awkward. We made some early mistakes, such as the Herald attempt that broke out into a fight -- I believe they got two turrets off of this. Then, Tahm Kench ulted mid and killed Jensen. There were some awkward moments early, but we told each other that we could come back. 

When we hit mid game, our plays weren't as clean as it should've been. We weren't fighting with number-advantages as we should have. 


This is something that could be refined before moving forward with the tournament, right?

For sure. It's just that it could be hard to identify the exact problem. But it definitely looks doable. 


In a previous interview with Licorice today, he chose you as the team's MVP. Who do you think really deserves it?

Personally, it feels like whenever I play Kai'Sa, it's a free win. Regardless of how the early game goes, she just scales too hard. As a Kai'Sa, you can mess up extremely hard, but carry the game for the team in the end. I didn't exactly pop off, but I think Kai'Sa is a great safety net that the team can rely on. 

For example, if you mess up early as a Lucian, it's going to be really rough, because he's not that strong in late game teamfights. You won't be able to burst tanks. 

As for the question of who the real MVP is... (Laughs) It's hard to say. I think Licorice had some really nice flanks with Lissandra and played the teamfights really well. The MVP is probably Eric, if not me. 

In a past interview, you said Jensen trolls every game. How much did he troll today?

Hmm... we're looking at a little bit. He had some "questionable" Irelia plays in teamfights. (Laughs) I wouldn't say he trolled -- maybe a bit of soft-inting. 


What are your strengths as a team this year? What's your team's color? Is it aggression? Balance?

Normally, it's aggression and team play.

However, from our games today, I don't think you can see much of our aggression. Because like I said, in the mid game, we weren't getting in position to get ready to start fighting. We waited until it was actually 5 vs. 5 before all five of us balled up to fight together.

Normally, we just get fights everywhere, and we win because of that. I hope we can show that moving on. 


What score do you predict that your team will make during the Play-In Group Stage?

I think we'll end the group stage with a 4-0. A lot of the things that we were messing up are things that we can fix.


Reapered had a pretty angry look on his face throughout the match, even in the moments where you guys won. What kind of feedback did you receive after the match?

He wasn't THAT mad. (Laughs) He was really mad during feedback from a scrim before... but this time, he wasn't too angry. He was giving feedback on our mistakes that were really obvious, such as, "Why did you guys touch Baron?" 


When did you become certain that you were going to win during your match against DFM?

We felt that we could lose during the majority of the time. They took both of our inhibitors and pressured our Nexus before backing out -- I was a bit scared during that moment. 

We brought it back from our four-man ace on the right side of their blue buff. We secured Baron after it, and that's when I felt that we could win this game. We got really ahead as we were able to gain a lot of levels because they took our inhibitors. From that point, the game felt pretty winnable, although it didn't cause us to straight up win. 

It's only after the 5-man ace that we won, where the enemy players had 70-second death timers. 


Will you do a special fan-service cosplay if you successfully pull off a deep run this tournament?

Maybe, yeah.

Last time, I was asked something similar, but I didn't have anything to wear at the time. Then, a fan ended up giving me one. That's what happened last year, and maybe, I could do something similar this year, too.