PCE Tally: “I think that people swapping roles to make the best rosters is gonna be much more popular in the future”

Oceanic and LCO champions PEACE have secured themselves a chance to make the Elimination Round and potentially have the chance to qualify for the Knockouts stage.

First and foremost, congratulations on your win against Infinity Esports. What a game that was! So just first and foremost, let’s start it off nice and easy, give me some thoughts about the game and how do you think it went for you?

Tally: I think our draft was exactly what we wanted. I think we were playing comfortable champions and we had a clear win condition. We had an early game, we had a late game and pretty much what you want in a competitive environment.

I think we obviously blundered a lot in the early game. The Rift Herald fight should have been ours but yeah, I hesitated a lot and that’s why we got cleaned up. I was never really too worried about the game just because of the champions we had. I felt like Irelia and Xayah were extremely strong into their comp, and the fact that Sylas was so far behind thanks to Aladoric. They were just constantly punishing him, and I never really thought that we were in a dire situation. I was confident all the time.

Infinity were a very hard team to close out against and I think that they did really well to deter us, like attacking us when we thought we were strong. Props to them, but I think it was a good game for us.

I’m not sure if it was me, but I remember asking you in the scrum on who you’d like to face and you mentioned Chovy, and you got to face Chovy as well! How was your experience like facing him on the official stage?

Tally: I think he completely caught me off guard with the Conqueror Azir. I remember when he solo killed me that if I was ever facing a Comet, Aery or a Lethal Tempo Azir, I would have never died there. It was just the extra damage that caught me off guard.

I think that his laning is extremely punishing. Every single CS I was getting harassed or felt like I was gonna get ganked. I think that he is an extremely hard to kill player as well, as he was always toeing the line perfectly. I feel like he is just really, really good at playing in general and he’s just a really good player. I was just glad that I got to finally face him!

That’s fair enough. I’d just like to get your thoughts quickly on the mid lane meta currently. We are seeing a lot of weird picks, like Tryndamere mid for example. What are your thoughts on it and how do you think it affects the other lanes too?

Tally: I completely love the meta right now! I’m a former top laner so I pretty much just get to play all the champions that I’ve played before in mid lane. All the mages and stuff that I never practiced are not really seeing play because they’re too slow, and you can’t really pair them with what’s strong in the jungle right now.

I just think that the fact I’m able to play bruisers and pretty much anything that I want to play in mid could be viable, so I’m really glad that I have this freedom. I think the fact that mid lane is such a carry role right now that other lanes are shaping around that, and you see a lot of just consistent mid pressure. Everyone’s running mid and everyone wants you to be ahead. If mid lane is ahead, the entire map is really hard to play because it’s always the first main piece to move.

Here’s a spicy one then to follow up on that: For Worlds 2021, would you say that ‘mid diff’ is the most important?

Tally: Hmm…that’s a tough one! As a mid laner, I would say that I think support diff is definitely the most impactful because a support diff equals mid diff, mid diff equals jungle diff, and jungle diff equals the game diff. So it always leads from support but then on the other hand, you could say support diff is draft diff so it’s always coach diff at the end… So whoever drafts better just wins the game!

I love it! I’d like to just ask very quickly for fans who are not very aware, tell us a little bit about your roleswap and why you decided to go from top to mid lane.

Tally: I roleswapped halfway through Split 1 last year. So what happened was, I was not on a team at the time and Legacy Esports, the team that was first place in OPL, had problems with their mid laner. The roster that was playing at the time was Babip, Raes and Isles. I was good friends with all of them and their mid options weren’t that good, so they just asked me if I wanted to try mid. I was like, “sure, why not? Let’s give it a try”.

We just had amazing success, Babip and I worked really, really well together. It was a carry jungle meta so he was able to shine with my champion pool I was playing at the time. We just had a really, really good time as a team and I felt very comfortable in the role. I was just glad to have the opportunity to try it in competitive again.

Following up on that, we’ve seen some roleswaps like Bwipo and Treatz in the LEC this year. I’d like to get your thoughts on roleswaps in general. What do you think about roleswaps and do you think they will be more prevalent in the future among players?

Tally: I think the way League of Legends feels right now, you don’t really need to be mechanically advanced to roleswap. I think you just need to be a smart player and you will pick up the role. The only role that you really can’t just slip into would probably be bot laner because you need to be just mechanically insane to be a really good player. I feel like for mid, jungle, top and support, you can just be a smart player and not not fall behind people who are just mechanically better than you, because there’s just many different ways to play the game.

I think that people swapping to make the best rosters, rather than having the best players on a bad roster, is gonna be much more popular in the future.

With that being said, will we see you roleswap back to top or any other lane in the future?

Tally: Well, during my time when I was in NA, I was playing top because that was the opportunity that I was given, and I was looking for a team in both positions because I felt comfortable playing both. The time I spent there, I just didn’t really feel like I could impact the game as much as I could as a mid laner.

As a mid laner, you can really just take over the game and take it by the reins and be the leader. But as a top laner, you’re just waiting for your time, you’re just playing 1v1 and not really having an impact on the game. If your team is good and you’re a top laner, it’s very fun, but you can’t really impact a losing game as a top laner. I’m glad that I was able to go back to mid and have an effect on the game again (laughs)!

So will we see you roleswap to any other role other than mid and top?

Tally: Absolutely not! I mean, I play like everything in solo-queue and I hate bot lane. I hate relying on another person to play the game. I hate jungle because you rely on all your teammates to play the game. I really just enjoy being a solo laner.

Before we end, I always ask this to the minor region teams whenever I get the chance. I’d like you to tell the international fans and maybe the LCO fans, and supply them with a little bit of hope. Tell us why Oceana will not be silenced and why PEACE will make it.

Tally: I think as a region, we’re really, really cool to follow. I think that our story is one of a kind and I don’t think many other regions or teams can really compare to the journey that we’ve gone through to get here. I think that cheering for underdogs in general is always really, really cool.

The players that are representing us now, I know most of them aren’t really loud on social media, but everyone has a really good personality as well. I always try to get Babip to talk a lot more, but he’s a very shy person. I think that everyone should cheer for him because he tries really, really hard all the time and I just want to see him succeed. I also want to see my entire team succeed, and I think that we should all work together, cheer in twitch chat, on Twitter, support us and we’ll do well.

Raise your koalas?

Tally: Yes, raise your koalas (laughs).

Thank you Tally and best of luck to PEACE.

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Image Credit: PEACE / Riot Games
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