Machi.Gemini: “The PCS lacks new talent”

Machi turned heads yesterday by defeating Team Liquid. In today’s match they lost to G2, but put up a good fight. We caught up with Jungler Gemini to talk about the series, the PCS and the current meta.

Machi Esports’ Jungler Huang “Gemini“ Chu-Xuan is a key part of the PCS’ number one seed’s 1-1 record so far. We talked to him after the match against G2.

esports.com: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Unfortunately you just lost your last game against G2. What were the main reasons for the defeat?

Since their matches in the LEC were quite a while ago, we focused on their match against Suning yesterday during our research. But that resulted in us being surprised by a pick like Nidalee. In addition to that there was the level one kill against PK on Top which put us off balance and on the back-foot immediately.

In your match against G2 you displayed a very different playstyle than what we have grown accustomed to from the PCS. Did you go into the match with that strategy shift in mind or did you just adapt to G2’s style.

Before the match began we decided to be more proactive on the map. If we displayed weakness and gave way, we would not be able to win the match. Unfortunately we did some mistakes during laning so the early game was rough for us.

How are your preperations for Suning coming along? Bruce already told us that you will likely focus on SofM.

Having an advantage in Mid and Jungle is really important at the moment, so we need to focus on disrupting their jungler as much as possible. This means that we will likely target his champions, habits and movements. Once you have secured an advantage for Mid and Jungle it becomes much easier to help out the other lanes.

Currently Machi sits at one win and one loss. How high are your chances of making playoffs?

As long as we take a match off Suning or G2 our chances are still quite high. We should not think too hard about standings and just play the next matches with all our heart.

Yesterday you took down Team Liquid, North America’s third seed. While you lost today to Europe’s first seed, you put up quite the fight. Do you think that the reputation of the PCS will change from those results already?

I think it has already changed a bit. Before the matches started people were thinking that we would go 0-6 in groups and just roll over. So we hope we can use our matches to change people’s perceptions.

What do you think are the PCS’ weaknesses that resulted in this image?

One of the weaknesses is our lack of new talent. It is mostly veterans playing and rarely do new players join in and change things up. This results in teams feeling mediocre and not improving enough. Another problem is the lack of audience and attention from sponsors so our market is just not as large as other regions.

You also were part of the 2017 roster that did not make it out of Play-Ins at Worlds back then. What are the main differences between 2017’s Hong Kong Attitude and 2020’s Machi Esports?

We are just much stronger across the board. Back then we had a Korean player on Top Lane so we still had communication problems. But since our team is all Taiwanese now, we can just communicate in Chinese and that has lead to much smoother communication.

Another strength of our roster is our mental fortitude. No one really tilts if things go bad and that is really important.

Let us talk a bit about the current meta at Worlds 2020. Top and Middle are the lanes dominating the meta right now. How have you adjusted your jungling to their increased priority?

It is key to keep an eye on the lanes while jungling. I also communicate all the time with Top and Mid to determine the status of their lanes. That helps my map movement as I can then determine where and when to go gank a lane.

On to a more champion-related question. Lee Sin has fallen out of the meta a bit recently. As an accomplished Lee Sin player yourself, what do you think is necessary for him to become a more relevant pick again?

On the current patch Lee Sin’s farming speed is just too slow. So he will fall behind tier 1 junglers once the mid game arrives. I think he only needs a buff to his jungle clearing speed to become a really OP champion.

Thank you for the interview and good luck for the future matches.

Thank you.

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