On Day 1 of All-Star, Doublelift had taken down Uzi and in the Charity 2v2. After the matches, Tencent Sports had a chance to talk to him. He opens up about what he's been doing in the off-season, the adjustments Team Liquid made including the addition of Corejj. He also talks more about his one true goal of doing well at Worlds, how winning the NA LCS has gotten stale as well as what he thinks about China in general.
cr: Jamie Liang/Tencent Sports
Q: This is going to be an audio interview. What's different about this All-Star?
Doublelift: It's for fun. The first All-Star was in 2013 in Shanghai and the event was really serious. You're playing for Worlds Seeding so it mattered whether you won or lost. I ended up losing to China. The rest was half and half, it was kind of serious but it was supposed to be for fun as well. The best part about this one is that I can have zero stress and only play for fun and hang out with people. It's Vegas so we are all just having a good time. It's been nice and I've been having a great time.
Q: After Worlds to now, what adjustments have you made?
Doublelift: Pretty much nothing, I was really sad after Worlds and didn't do anything for a month. After a month I tried to have a productive life so I did some random stuff: went to the doctor for a check-up, cleaned my room, went to the gym, hung out with my girlfriend, just normal stuff. It's been a short off-season for me because it's been only a month and half before we have to practice again. I enjoyed the break.
Q: It's a short break right?
Doublelift: Yeah, for the teams that didn't go to Worlds have almost 4 months break. They didn't go to playoffs either. So for really bad teams, you didn't go to Worlds and you didn't go to MSI either, so you have so much free time. I'm jealous of the bad teams.
Q: So you want more free time?
Doublelift: Yes, I want more free time, being good is hard.
Q: The first game of today was NA vs EU and you proved that NA > EU. Which point did you think NA is better than EU?
Doublelift: The joke is that NA is the for fun region. So we are better at having fun, which is why we won. I also feel like our stream, qtpie and nightblue are multi-challengers. They are always super high rated compared to the EU streamers so we had the advantage in terms of roster too.
Q: You just beat Uzi, and in 2v2, so how do you feel about that?
Doublelift: It was so lame, VoyBoy wanted to win by tryharding but I wanted to play something that would kill him but we won by CSing which was lame. I don't want to win by CS ever, I only want to win by killing. It wasn't a cool way to win
Q: Since Season 1 to now, there have been so many Worlds, what are some changes in your career or life?
Doublelift: I think my team is really different now, we have Jensen and Corejj now. If I don't make it out of groups next year, it'll be very sad. I'm only focused on one goal, I want to get far at Worlds, get out of Groups. I feel more positive this year as Team Liquid did a lot of work in the Off-season. I' m going to try my best, that's all.
Q: So you mentioned Corejj, he said in an interview that he joined TL because of you. What are your thoughts on that?
Doublelift: That's so weird. I feel like I'm not that good but I feel like he just said it to please the fans. I feel like he's much better than me so it's rare for me to play with a support that's better than me. I want to learn from him and I want him to be happy playing with me. It'll be really different. Most of my supports have been roleswaps, but I just realized actually Corejj used to play ADC as well. Anyways, Corejj is World champion and I am not, so I have to listen to him.
Q: You've experienced a lot of hard moments; how did you get through them?
Doublelift: I mostly try to focus on the next thing. My life has not been very easy so I can brush off bad moments pretty fast. If you grow up and you had a very easy childhood, it's harder for them to get over mistakes or bad times. For me, I just try to move on and try to be productive, it's the Chinese mentality, you know.
Q: You've experienced some first times, such as first time at MSI. How do you comment on your year?
Doublelift: I'm really happy I played well in MSI. It was the first time where I was playing at a super high level internationally. It was ok to win NA LCS, I'm so sick of winning NA LCS, it's so boring. I hope to go to MSI again and play better and go to Worlds and play even better.
Q: What are your expectations for 2019?
Doublelift: After watching RooKie and TheShy, I realize you can play League in the riskiest way possible and that's the way I like to play. The way that America has thought about League is only low-risk plays only. Watching the best players in the World, I think “Wow, they just do the craziest stuff all the time”. I want to play like that but my coaches always told me to always take the safe and smart play. I want to take the hard play. I'm sick of playing safe, I want to go back to Season 2 and 3 and play like that.
Q: What are your thoughts on China?
Doublelift: It's weird because I don't even speak Chinese. I kind of understand Shanghainese but I can't speak it that well. I always feel really Chinese. When I talk to Chinese people and how we grew up, how hard it was to please your parents, how hard you worked at the school. I feel like I have a bond with Chinese people because of how we grew up and we kind of have the same culture so it's always cool. Whenever I meet Chinese people, it's awesome. I remember one time in Season 6, I just lost Worlds and I was so sad. I was in the hotel lobby drinking and a Chinese fan came up to me and told me to never give up. It was so weird, the guy was totally random and from China and had a Chinese accent but he was super nice to me and tried to cheer me up. It was awesome and nice to bond with them.
cr: Jamie Liang/Tencent Sports
Interviewed by: Jamie Liang
Courtesy of Tencent Sports
Transcribed by: Benson Cheng @1337sn1per
