We spoke to Team Liquid bot laner Edward “Tactical” Ra about his synergy with CoreJJ and the results of Team Liquid so far.
Hello, Tactical, thanks for accepting the interview and congratulations on the win! Starting off with the draft, it felt like almost everyone was placed on their comfort picks with Jensen on Leblanc and CoreJJ on Rakan for example. What was the confidence level after this draft?
Tactical: Going through the game, I think everyone was pretty happy. We decided after the first two games this weekend that we just wanted to have a draft where the five picks we chose were more coherent. I do think that previous drafts had two different concepts mixed in one team and resulted in a ‘half-half’ gameplan. Today I felt like it was a bit more synced up at least and everyone was feeling pretty good about their champs.
You and CoreJJ had a fairly standard laning phase on Xayah and Rakan. Could you tell me a bit about your matchup into Ezreal and Nautilus?
Tactical: So, Xayah and Rakan as you know scale really well but the only problem with this lane is, in my opinion, the early game. They could be exploited with dives, but Ezreal and Nautilus – I do think they should have played more aggressively early on at the first two waves. They kind of just let us have the priority, and once you give up priority as the Ezreal and Nautilus it gets really hard to recover. We just took priority and the game was over from that point on.
Team Liquid won an early neutral objective and fight at the Rift Herald. Did this start the snowball in your guys’ favor?
Yeah because, like I said, Xayah and Rakan scale really well, the fact that we got the herald basically meant it would be really difficult for them to come back. We have the push in botlane to move to the herald first and their jungler also had no flash, so we had an easy time taking the herald. As a result, it was just really easy to play the game.
And then the laneswap top to take both tier ones must have helped fill your pockets.
Tactical: Yeah, I got five plates immediately.
You guys managed to build a pretty big lead early on without having to take too many team fights. Was this just a testament to how far ahead individually you were?
Tactical: For botlane, I think the fact that we were able to keep a permanent push and in toplane. Honestly I don’t even know what happened toplane but I remember there was a fight and the enemy messed up a mechanic or something and we got a lead off of that. Basically their champs couldn’t have been the ones on the offensive side and positioning wise, it’s really difficult for them to play. I guess we just individually outclassed them.
Post Game Breakdown for @TeamLiquidLoL‘s win over @FlyQuest #LCS pic.twitter.com/b254yWELle
— LoLEsports Stats (@LoLEsportsStats) July 5, 2021
From macro play to team fighting you guys seemed to cruise through this game. Was this a good ‘back to basics’ in a sense for Team Liquid?
Tactical: Oh yeah. So, once the game was just so in our favor that it was just really easy for us. I think there was just one small adjustment that we could’ve made which was not letting the enemy team trade. Like, maybe we should have pressured them more in the midgame, but it wasn’t the worst result yet we could have done slightly better I guess. The macro was pretty simple just because they couldn’t win any fight no matter what.
Of course CoreJJ is incredibly good at Rakan, having his own skin for the champion. Could you elaborate on how he found angles in later fights?
Tactical: Well, it’s always a case by case situation. In the one teamfight where he got a three man knock up at the bottom river, we engaged the Wukong to get the flash out and his teammates were trying to help him. As a result they kind of clumped up in that small choke and me and Core just saw the angle. It’s just a general thing, if you see a good angle then go for it.
Also, congratulations on going Legendary at the end of the game. How would you rate your individual performance this game?
Tactical: Individually, I think I played how I normally would. The game situation was just so ‘boom’ for the enemy. I made some positioning mistakes, but they didn’t cost the game or anything. It honestly just delayed the snowball by a little bit. I probably played fine, nothing out of the ordinary that was bad. Actually, I missed a lot of CS in the first two waves. I don’t know why, but that’s it.
After taking an initial two losses this week, did this win to close out the games bring some confidence to the team?
Tactical: It’s hard to say. It’s nice to have a win of course, but this game was so one-sided it doesn’t really feel like a win if that makes sense. I think it was nice though, we learned a lot from our first two losses so regardless of whether or not we won today, we were already feeling better already.
The LCS seems to have a pretty solidified top four at the moment. Where would you rate Team Liquid in its current state?
Tactical: Honestly, I think it can go any way between the teams. In my opinion, it just really depends which team is happy with their draft and how well they play on the day. Personally, I’m confident that CoreJJ and I can win any botlane matchup. I think that’s probably our biggest strength right now and we’re pretty confident together.
After a few weeks of roster shake-ups, does it feel like the team is starting to play better together?
Tactical: So basically, the past few days we learned a lot, I think mostly about the draft. I think as long as we keep this up, we’ll only build upon our synergy together. I see next weekend as a big opportunity to get a few wins and climb the standings.
Best of luck with the remainder of the split, Tactical!
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