AST MagiFelix: “I think it’s good for team morale if players aren’t constantly being replaced so you can keep working and improving together”

Astralis managed to edge out SK Gaming in their opening game of the season. We spoke to mid laner MagiFelix about Astralis’ chances this split.

Hi Magi! Thank you for speaking with me after such a difficult game and congratulations on starting your season off with a win! There seemed to be a lot of individual misplays early on. Of course, there were external factors such as Zanzarah’s broken arm and being back online, but what would attribute these misplays to?

I would say that we were more nervous of course since this was the first match of the season. It takes some getting used to the official games. I think that’s a big reason for why we made some mistakes in the early game.

Things seemed pretty dire for Astralis up until the first baron fight. After that team fight win, did you guys start to believe you could make the comeback?

We for sure knew coming into the game that our draft scales really well into team fights, so we were confident that if we could get into the late game without too big a deficit, we could out team fight them. I feel like we managed to barely execute on it since it was a really close game. There were some very close moments.

As the game went on and SK obtained late game buffs like Dragon Soul, were you guys able to keep faith in your initial game plan?

When you are in a position like that in the late game, you need to have faith that you can win the game otherwise there’s no point. We kept our hopes high and we believed that we could win it as long as we made good plays. For example, when WhiteKnight kicked Kai’sa back into us and we got the drake off that fight, moments like these are always possible.

SK clearly had a strong team fight composition. Was it difficult to find engages going into the later game?

Yeah, I feel like they had a lot of really long-range ultimates. Like Rumble and Lucien’s ultimate, Orianna’s ball for example. All of these different threats made it harder for us to approach them but I feel like the later the game goes, when they use their ultimates they don’t really have anything left. It definitely makes it easier for us to get objectives like the Elder and Baron, because if they use their ultimate, that’s our window to start a fight.

So you guys just saw the opportunity around that Baron and executed?

We were kind of desperate at that point, we felt pretty far behind so if we could make a risky play it would be in our favor because a fifty-fifty is definitely better than a losing situation. We went for the play and it almost went really badly because if they killed Jeskla, they probably could have ended the game but we managed to survive and we managed to get the Baron. Everything went in our favor during that play basically.

The last few moments of the game were still contentious, but how confident were you guys taking those final fights in SK’s base?

At that point we were pretty confident that our team composition had outscaled them, because when we had Baron it was really hard for them since they needed to start the fight but their champions didn’t really have a way to do it. We just slowly took their base and at some point they had to fight us and we aced them.

Talking about the team more generally now, though the results may not have shown it, Astralis had a strong finish to the Spring Split. What did the team do over the break to maintain the momentum?

We started practicing pretty early this split, probably one month before the split even started. I feel like we had a pretty good start to the season overall. As long as we can keep up the momentum based on our four game win streak, if we count the last season, then maybe we can keep this going and make the playoffs.

There were quite a few roster changes during the break. Do you think that Astralis keeping the same roster and maintaining synergy will give you guys an advantage over your competition?

I think it’s good for team morale if players aren’t constantly being replaced so you can keep working and improving together. I think that’s a big advantage overall for the team. So, yeah I think that’s a big plus for us. Other teams wanted to make some changes and hope that it works better than last split, but you never know. I think it’s always a gamble to switch up the roster mid-season.

Astralis has thrived in the past prioritizing comfort picks such as your Corki or Zanzarah’s Skarner. How do you think Astralis will hold up in the new meta?

I mean right now no one knows what the meta is going to be and everyone is playing almost everything. We are just sticking to our strong champions and playing what we think works for us. So I think there’s no clear consensus on what the meta looks like right now.

Looking ahead at your next two games against Excel and MAD Lions, how do you think Astralis stacks up?

MAD Lions will for sure be a tough one, they’re looking pretty good since they obviously won the last split. I don’t think they’re the best team but they’re up there as a top team. If we have a good day, we can take them down. I think for the Excel game, we are pretty equal and have a good chance. I think it all depends on how well we perform on the day.

Thank you for the interview, Magifelix!

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