‘We only rested one day since we’ve been in America’
All five members of SK Telecom T1 walked into the press conference for the League of Legends 2013 World Championship smiling, and for good reason — they swept their opponents in three straight games for an electrifying win. But it didn’t just come automatically, as a lot of preparation went into play to get ready for the Finals.
As for how they got ready, Impact noted, “We mainly practiced by playing solo lanes. Lots of 1v1s. We haven’t rested one day since we’ve been in America.” Teammate Piglet jumped in when asked about how you prepare for jungling when playing 1v1 matches, adding, “in Korea, junglers don’t gank a lot. So we had to adjust, and learn a lot of ways to approach the jungle. It was interesting.”
Of course, the three game shutout was questioned, and whether or not they were disappointed that they couldn’t have won it in four or five games. Faker jumped in, saying, “I was a little disappointed. I was planning to choose some new picks, but I didn’t get to use them.” When asked what team they would have ideally liked to play in the finals, Impact fielded the question immediately, saying that he would have loved to play the team Fnatic, as he could have “learned a lot from them.”
Impact’s strong showing of Jax was specifically brought up, which he tackled head-on as to what went into his decision to pick him: “all I had in mind was that I could win in the landing phase. My lane opponent was narrowly matched and I knew I could only win with Jax. It was tough though…the crowd was so loud that it’s hard to concentrate on the game.”
But in the end, team SK is the new champion, and the time for celebration is upon them. Piglet was quick to note that even with their prize money in hand they have no big plans in terms of partying, joking that SK will go back to their hotel room and keep practicing and that Faker wanted to eat “10,000 pieces of fried chicken.” On a more serious note, he said that they plan on returning to Korea later today and immediately go back to playing.
Faker closed out the conference with a message to all prospective League players, saying, “I really want everyone to play LoL. Once you start, it’s very hard to stop.”
And it looks like all that playing paid off. Congratulations to SK Telecom.
