On the 2nd, the first day of the 2019 LoL World Championship Play-ins was played. Clutch Gaming had a bad start, losing to Unicorns of Love in their first match, but in their second match against MAMMOTH, Clutch Gaming was able to take the victory. After the match, Nam “LirA” Tae-yoo was interviewed.

Congratulations on the win. Would you like to say hello to the fans?

I’m not anymore Afreeca Freecs LirA, but now Clutch Gaming LirA. It’s been a long time since I’ve played in front of Korean fans and in front of caster Jun, so I wasn’t very good because I was nervous. I’ll do my best to hide the nervousness so that I won’t show lacking performance anymore.

It’s your first Worlds and you got your first win. How do you feel?

I was too arrogant, thinking that we would win easy, so we weren’t able to think thoroughly. Now, we can’t lose because we want to go up in 1st place. Especially because the 1st place teams in other groups are strong, like DAMWON Gaming. I really want to win our remaining matches against UOL and MMM.

How was the synergy between you and Huni today?

Our synergy wasn’t as good as before, but with the style that we’re confident in, a top counter pick plus strong jungler, we were able to win the second match rather easily.

How did it feel when you got Baron stolen with 1 HP left?

I watched ‘Score is going’ before coming here. I thought his curse was passed onto me. While we were hitting Baron, it felt somewhat bad. It’s really regretful, but it’s fortunate that I got it stolen in a match that we can win. I won’t let it happen next time.

Today, your record is 1-1. We’ll we be able to see ‘open eyes LirA’ from your next match?

The current meta is one that the jungler can do a lot. Although it may be difficult against strong teams, I’d like to show ‘open eyes LirA’ against weaker teams or teams that we can defeat. In western regions, talking about Asians’ small eyes is racist, so I don’t have that nickname anymore. Anyways, it may be my last chance to show that, so I’d like to play really well.