On the 10th (KST), Team Vitality defies all odds and takes a game off the previous World Champions, Gen.G.

With many people viewing Team Vitality as the unluckiest team in the group stage, they took the world by surprise by beating Gen.G. 2 Korean teams losing to 2 European teams. There may be hope yet for Team Vitality in their journey through groups.

After the game, we got to meet with Team Vitality’s mid laner, Jiizuke. Below are the interview responses.

¤ How do you feel about the win today?

It feels really good. Everyone was going to say that we were going to lose this game. I thought we were going to after our early game. I got ganked over and over again with Tahm Kench ult. We were losing jungle-mid pretty hard. However, after a few teamfights and I solo killed Crown, I knew the game was won.


¤ Many if not all the people watching saw Vitality as the team to be doomed. What made you guys win this game against the previous World Champions?

We just had to try and prove everyone wrong. Gen.G are last year’s World Champions, and they also won literally everything this year. I am just very excited to play. I want to improve. That’s all I want to do.


¤ Tell me about the Ekko pick. Why did you pick Ekko against Gen.G?

(laughs). When Crown picked Syndra, I knew I wanted Ekko. Against their team comp...I knew I wanted Ekko. I just locked it in. It turned out to be a really good choice. Match up wise and team comp wise, I felt Ekko was a good pick against them. My team knows that I really like picking Ekko into certain situations.


¤ Who made the call to backdoor and win the game?

So we were struggling between going into a teamfight or split pushing. We were talking about our mid pushing the waves and splitting that way. Kikis started to call, ‘I think you can tp right now!’ I’m like considering the call for 10 seconds. I was looking there and here (laughs). Once I saw Ashe and Tahm coming to us, I knew I had to go for it. I said ‘Okay guys. I’m tping.’ It is kind of EU style. There are a lot of backdoors in EU.


¤ 2 of the Korean teams lost today 2 European teams. Is the gap really closing between Korean and Western teams?

I’m not entirely sure. Scrimming against Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese teams made us realize it is really hard to win against them. They won’t let you win like this *snaps fingers*. You really have to play impressive and execute perfect macro.

I really don’t know if the gap is closing. What we do know is that we are going to try our best to win the next games.


¤ What does this mean for Team Vitality going forward? Do you think you guys can consistently beat Korean teams?

We’ll just always play like we do. Play confident. As long as we perform well together, we have a good shot at winning some games.


¤ Last words for the fans?

I want to thank all my hometown fans supporting me from home. I want to thank all my European fans...actually...now all international fans I guess (laughs). All the messages of support is amazing. I want to thank you guys all for that.