Inspired walks with a grin. Image Credit: Photo by Stefan Wisnoski / Riot Games
“For Isles and Dhokla, I have to switch their mindset on how we progress the game. For Saint, I have to teach him how we are supposed to win the game.”
The only split MVP winner in both the LEC and LCS, is a jungle phenom. After the last two years leading FlyQuest, dominating the LCS and putting up close fights time and time again on the international stage, it seemed Inspired was unstoppable. But the beginning of this split proved challenging for the Polish jungler on his new team, the Mexican team . LYON drew some predictions of greatness, largely citing Inspired in particular, from sources like ourselves, Sheep Esports.
Others were more critical, and as LYON started facing losses uncharacteristic of an Inspired roster, those voices grew louder. But this weekend, LYON picked up a huge win against FlyQuest, Inspired’s old team, turning their chances around in an apparent massive step-up in play. Following this series, Sheep Esports sat down for an interview with Inspired himself, where the star jungler spoke very openly about LYON’s trajectory, bluntly dishing out critique and praise alike for teammates, gave serious insight into his approach to strategic leadership and of course, briefly lauded former midlaner Joseph Joon “Jojopyun” Pyun.
Today, you eliminated FlyQuest, your former team, and your old teammates Fahad “Massu” Abdulmalek and Song “Quad” Su-hyeong. Does it feel good to advance while the new FLY falters?
Kacper “Inspired” Słoma: “Yeah, definitely it feels good. I was really hoping that I’m not gonna lose to them.
Game 1 was an extremely one-sided stomp, winning pre-30 minutes with a 20k gold lead. How did you manage to dominate the game so hard?
Inspired: The enemies just gave us a lot of openings on good timings for us, and we took them. That’s why the game was looking pretty clean. FlyQuest was playing the best way possible, from the deficit, but the draft they were put in, while they’re behind, was kind of hard to make any play to come back into the game. I was a bit more experienced than the enemy team. That’s why the games kind of looked one-sided. Because, the games were actually very close, and it was very small details and decisions that decided the outcome.
You had Johnson “Gryffinn” Le completely downloaded today, with him getting first-blooded repeatedly on your raptors. Having said his gameplay was “trying to copy” yours, what were the big differences that made the imitation get so gapped by the real thing?
Inspired: He just has really good game knowledge, he knows what he wants to do in his 1v1 matchup, when he’s stronger than his opponent, and how he wants to fight. I respect him. The decisions he was making, when he was dying on the raptors, were somewhat correct. He should’ve played the situations a bit differently, maybe called his team a bit differently. But how he was doing it was pretty respectable, and I probably would do similar situations in his position. That’s why I knew very well what was gonna happen, because, as I said, he’s just playing the way I’ve been playing for the past few years. It was very easy to win in the past against all the teams, because I was the only jungler that actually played the correct way.
Right now, FlyQuest and DSG, with their new junglers; I feel like they understand how the jungle should be played. That’s why it’s really hard to play against these teams. They play well, but they’re just a bit too cocky, because they’re inexperienced. If they had someone as experienced as me helping them, or telling them why certain situations are not that good, they would be really good. But I think they’ll learn it themselves, ‘cause they already got to this point, and they’re for sure talented enough to review these games and understand their mistakes. I’m talking about DSG too, because I felt like DSG’s series yesterday against TL was very similar to our series against FlyQuest, where I also thought that DSG could’ve easily won the games, but the inexperience got to them. FlyQuest had a similar situation today.
LYON looked like a whole new team this week, playing with much more cohesion than ever before. What kind of work has the team been doing recently to click with each other, and improve so much?
Inspired: Don’t think we did that much different than we did in previous weeks. I mean, obviously, a viewer that doesn’t have high game knowledge will think that we are doing way better. But, last time we played, last week, against DSG: Our drafts were pretty bad and, as I said, DSG’s a very strong team, that knew really well how to play and how to draft. And our drafts were pretty bad, and our play was just a bit too nervous. They were a bit more calm in the game. And today, our botlane winning their laning phase almost every game made it a bit easier than it should’ve been. So yeah, I don’t think much changed. We’re just working on understanding our job, because at the beginning, people were trying either to do too much or too little in order to help the team. We just need to make sure we’re staying on top when it comes to our laning phases, and I’ll try to take care of our team game. If we play really well, we can beat any team.
You’ve often succeeded on teams in which you can strategically lead young rookies. Does it feel different to be playing with all veterans on LYON, now that Frankie “Zamudo” Lin won’t be joining?
Inspired: I mean, it doesn’t really feel that different. Dhokla and Isles (Niship Doshi and Jonah Rosario,) they’ve been playing for a while. But, I think their game approach was very weird and wrong to me. I think it was kinda low. Like, they were making a lot of decisions that didn’t really make much sense to me, and they were trying to progress the game in a very random way. And, I think Saint (Kang Sung-in) is a big rookie. When I’m playing with him, I can tell he doesn’t have much experience on how to win the game. So, it’s a bit different.
Like, for Isles and Dhokla, I have to switch their mindset on how we progress the game. For Saint, I have to teach him how we are supposed to win the game. Berserker (Kim Min-cheol) is the person that has a good idea on how he’s playing, and has good experience. But I think he’s looking at the game too much from an ADC perspective. The game changes season by season, and at the beginning, he was a bit stuck in this meta where he had the most success, which was the time where he played with Zven (Jesper Svenningsen) in support, and they played like full hypercarry botlanes. So, he was seeing the game through the eye that “ADC is a hypercarry, and people should play around ADC.” And, he’s learning well how to adapt to the new meta, because he’s a smart player, but he just looks at the game a bit differently than I do, or how I think it should be played on the current patch, current season. So yeah, it’s for sure way different, ‘cause everyone had their approach to the game already, and what I was used to.
Some have expected LYON to fail this split. Words like “superteam” have been thrown around alongside predictions of coming implosion. Is it satisfying to win, and win so decisively, in spite of that sentiment?
Inspired: It’s for sure satisfying. I’m a bit confused why people think we have a superteam. Like, Isles was playing on very low teams his whole career, to be honest. And I just thought he might be an underrated player that still has not developed to his full potential. But, I wouldn’t call Isles or Dhokla superstars of the league. I feel like when half of your team is solid players, but I wouldn’t say they’re superstars. Same for Saint, he finished very low in the rankings. Just because me and Berserker joined the team, people started calling it a superteam. We have to do a lot of work to make sure that our teammates improve week by week, and that’s what’s happening, mostly. You can tell that Isles is playing way better, every week passing, Saint is doing way better, every week passing, same for Dhokla. I mean, Dhokla is a veteran that knows his matchups very well, because he’s been playing for a long time. But, the team game, he was also lacking a lot in just understanding his job. So, I never really viewed us as a superteam that’s supposed to win. I knew it was gonna be hard at the beginning, and we have to do a lot of work if we want to win, but it’s for sure doable.
Saint played an exceptional series today. How does playing alongside him as a mid-jungle duo feel, compared to mids you’ve played with in the past like Quad and Jojopyun?
Inspired: I think Jojo was the best midlaner I ever played with. Quad was a bit bad at the beginning, but he was really hardworking, and overall, Quad’s biggest strength was his work ethic. He watches a lot of VODs, and practices his champions a lot, and listens to what the coaches and players around him have to say. That’s Quad’s biggest strength, and why he improved drastically from the first time he joined FlyQuest, and our first games with him, to where he is right now. Right now, he’s a very well-rounded player, and he knows what he wants to do in the game, and how he wants to progress the game. For Saint, I feel like it was kind of a mix. He’s probably the best mechanical player I’ve played with. His mechanics might even be better than Jojo’s mechanics, when it comes to individual champion control. I think he was just lacking a lot of brain. He was just trying to win a lot of games, just by playing better than the other opposing mid. But, if you try to do that in a competitive game against a really good team, you will just be a heavy weight for your team. You have to have a good mind on when you should be playing for individual lead, and when you have to shift your mindset into “OK, now it’s time that I have to help my team.” And he didn’t have that. He had, all the time, thinking “I’m gonna try to get as much lead as possible over the enemy mid,” and if he failed at that, it looked like he was just inting. And when he was having a great game, because he was outplaying the enemy mid, he didn’t have as much impact as he could have. That’s what we are working on right now, with him. I really want him to understand the job of midlane, and how he’s supposed to help us on the map, and when we are supposed to help him, and how we’re gonna win the game together.
This split, you’ve reunited with coach Earl “Rigby” Han, a key part of Evil Geniuses years ago. How is it working with him again?
Inspired: It’s pretty chill. He has a similar idea on how the game is played to me, so it’s easy for me to talk about the game with him. And, the fact that he’s Korean, so he has very good contact with Saint, is helping me a lot, because I feel like I wouldn’t be able to explain many situations to Saint well. I also get frustrated a lot, when my teammates are making the same mistakes over and over, so I don’t know if I have enough patience to keep repeating the same stuff to my teammates. It’s good for me that I have a coach like Rigby, that I can trust, that I can tell him what mistakes we are making, and he will make sure that our players are gonna be reviewing them, and trying to figure how we can fix everything. He is doing a good job at that, and yeah, I like when someone has a similar view on the game to me. It just makes it way easier for me to play and work.
So, Rigby is basically really good at communicating “the Inspired philosophy” to some of your teammates?
Inspired: Yeah, definitely.
Given your username, Inspired, what would you say you’re most inspired by, in your daily life?
Inspired: Heh, I think by competing and winning. I’m a very competitive person. If I will quit League, ever, I will probably try to do something else where I can compete. That’s the most exciting thing for me. And I feel like video games are very underdeveloped: it’s very easy to get good at a video game, and try to get micro-edges over enemies. Even if I didn’t play League, I feel like I’d be happy trying out a different game. Maybe now, I’m too old for that. It’d be hard for me to get to the highest level. But, yeah, I really like competing. That’s what I’m inspired by.”