Worlds in the Windy City Day 3 (Ft. an Interview with ROX support Gorilla)

Despite a worrying forecast, day three of Worlds in Chicago started with gorgeous weather in the Windy City as fans walked into the Chicago Theatre. Saturdays match-up was a mirror of Fridays as a Korean team took on a Chinese team. This time is was the Korean champion ROX Tigers playing against the Chinese champion Edward Gaming. ROX were the favorites coming into the series as they had impressed during the regular season and some of the group stage while EDG failed to win their group despite relatively easy opponents and no Korean team in their group.

The series started off in the way that experts predicted it. ROX took control of the game through their strong lanes, exploiting the substitution of Koro1 for Mouse. Koro1 had not played a competitive match since spring this year but was put in because Mouse had to deal with a death in the family. Along with Koro1, EDG decided to stick with Scout in the mid lane over Pawn. Although he was camped by Peanut, Koro1 played well and was unfortunate to have a poor score.

ROX easily won the first game and started off strong in the second. Peanut used his early aggression to secure a second first blood using Lee Sin. EDG had a very poor draft and gave ROX multiple power picks that helped them win the game. At this point in the series, it looked as if the series would be a quick 3–0 sweep for ROX and the night would end early.

However in the third game, Deft turned on the switch and put in an amazing performance on Caitlyn. Although ROX picked a very bad comp, EDG played well to defeat that comp and get a game back. A comeback looked possible because of Deft’s performance but Peanut did him one better and won the series for ROX. Peanut departed from the three games of Lee Sin he played previously and picked Olaf in the fourth game. Again, Peanuts’ early aggression gave ROX an early lead and Peanut would go on to carry the game. His 11/0/5 score line showed just how dominate he was in the final game. Though Gorilla did not have the same amazing score line, he was still an integral part to his teams’ success.

In my conversation with Gorilla he was really happy with his teams performance and his own performance. I asked him about why he prioritized the Zyra pick in the series and he said that Meiko was practicing a lot of Zyra so he wanted to pick it away from him; also Zyra is a very strong support in lane. He is excited that ranged supports are meta again because he was criticized in Korea as performing poor on melee support champions and ranged supports are his favorite.

With their success in the series, Peanuts strengths were on display in the games. Gorilla said that Peanut has brought great aggression to the team and has made the team play better around his style. With Peanut, the ROX Tigers have had more success in battling their rivals SKT in Korea. Gorilla had this to say about SKT: “I think it is a positive thing that were are being thought of as the rival to SKT and we played them so much that we think of them not as enemies but as companions now.” Despite his friendly relationship with SKT, Gorilla believes that if they can beat the reigning World Champions, ROX will have so much confidence that they can win Worlds no matter whom they play against.

Gorilla has played against some of the best supports in the World so far in this tournament. He has gone up against Meiko, Aphromoo, Mithy, and Likkrit. Gorilla believes that being a good support is all about vision control and whoever can get the best vision control is the best support. “I think Mithy is an excellent support and I’m kind of disappointed he did not make it to the further stages.” Gorilla praised the European support highly and said he was the best of all the great supports he has played against so far.

Gorilla says that he is honored to be able to play in a great economic city like Chicago. He is happy to play in the United States and he hopes he can continue to play well in New York and Los Angeles. With the looming match-up against SKT in New York, Gorilla and his team will have to play at the top of their game in order to make it to Los Angeles and the Staples Center for the finals. If they can win that match-up against their countrymen, the sky is the limit for this ROX Tigers team.