Interview with FnaticRC after KotH

As of yesterday, the first winner of the King of the Hill tournament hosted by in2LOL and sponsored by own3D.tv has been decided by FnaticRC winning against Curse with a final score of 3-1. We got in touch with Enrique 'xPeke' Cedeño Martinez, Manuel 'Lamia' Mildenberger and Paul 'sOÂZ' Boyer after the tournament to ask them some questions.

in2LOL: Congratulations on winning the first King of the Hill tournament. Going into these games, what were your expectations?

Enrique 'xPeke' Cedeño Martinez: Well, I thought the games were going to be a bit more even. I know if we play our best we will beat them most of the time but their first match was just bad play on their part, and in the second game they made a move that ended in an unfortunate way for them and it pretty much decided that game.

Manuel 'Lamia' Mildenberger: "Win, win, win, win, please mom, please."
No, but I think that we were all fairly confident that we could win this. We maybe expected that it would be a bit harder, as xPeke said.

Paul 'sOÂz' Boyer: I was pretty confident we would win. I think Curse is a really good team, but at the moment I think we are stronger than they are and we will only grow from here.


How do you feel you performed in this tournament?

xPeke: I think I did really good today individually and I was able to catch some people off-guard when I played Kassadin in the last game, which allowed us to stall the game and turn it in our favor. Teamwise I think besides early in the last two games we played really good. We did really well in most team fights even if we were behind, so I'm happy.

Lamia: Pretty solid performance. Once I lost control of my mouse and switched to an entirely different place on the map in the most important team fight, but I still managed to survive by just cleansing and flashing somewhere on instinct. Thrilling.

sOÂZ: I think we did good overall, but we made some stupid mistakes in game three and four. Personally I'm satisfied with my performance even if I know I can still improve.


Anything you think you could have improved?

xPeke: I think in the game where we lost we had some miscommunication. We had the advantage, a good setup and we didn't really know what to do, so Lamia went bottom and we all died 4v5 at baron which lost us the game. I think that, in that situation we should have either grouped as five or just let them take the baron and avoid unnecessary deaths. In the last game during the level 1 action, Mellisan was overextending a lot and it ended up with both him and Cyanide dying and Cyanide losing his bluebuff.

Lamia: Not so sure, some last-hitting maybe. I didn't farm too much in the lategame and Tristana didn't work out since we threw the game too much in the mid-game. I think I played pretty stable today though.

sOÂZ: I agree with xPeke. It was mostly due to miscommunication and it ended up losing us the third game and messing up some other fights for us in the fourth game.


What were your thoughts on going into the fourth game after losing to Curse in the third?

xPeke: I still felt pretty confident. Once you are up 2-1 you know the enemy has a lot of pressure on them, and that any mistake can lose the match and the best-of-five. I also knew we still had a chance of losing but I think I played like I usually do while they had a lot of pressure knowing if we won one more game, we would win the entire set.

Lamia: I think we all still felt fairly confident considering the things that xPeke mentioned.

sOÂZ: I was still confident going into the fourth game. I knew we could win it, we had just made some mistakes and had some miscommunication during the third game. I felt we were still stronger than Curse aswell as having a 2-1 lead.



What are your thoughts on this tournament format?

xPeke: It's different and I like it. To face a good team in a best-of-five and win 500 euros fast or lose them fast is in my opinion; way better than playing all day long against three or four different teams, making it to the final and then losing the game and getting nothing.

Lamia: I really like King of the Hill since it's not just a best-of-one or a best-of-three format. Best-of-five gets really intense and you can prepare better for the enemies you will face beforehand and work out strategies, we didn't do that too much in these games though.

sOÂZ: First of all, in my opinion, every big final at offline events should be a best-of-five rather than a best-of-three, as I enjoy this format. I really enjoyed this tournament and I hope we will do even better in the next one.


Do you prefer this tournament format or do you prefer the standard format?

xPeke: I like both. I wouldn't want the best-of-fives every game, but playing the 'normal' format also gets boring after a while so I like the variation that this type of tournament brings.

Lamia: I like both formats but this is a nice change to the normal one.

sOÂZ: Well, it's like a showmatch but as a best-of-five and the winner comes back the next week. I don't know if I would want it all the time, but yeah, I really like this kind of tournament.


What team would you like to face if you go into another King of the Hill tournament?

xPeke: It doesn't really matter to me what team we face. Any good team we can get practice against in this type of tournament is great! With this format we get a lot of practice out of it.

Lamia: Easier, random teams please. Getting 500 Euro for winning a best-of-five? I won't say no!

sOÂZ: I would like to face M5 since they recently beat CLG.eu. I would like to see how we fare against them and if they have changed or improved.


How was it to play with Mellisan instead of Pheilox?

xPeke: For me there isn't a noticeable difference to be honest. I don't really deal with supports much during the game except for team fights. I think Pheilox talks more during the games but that's about it. The mood is pretty much the same and it just depends on how the game goes, if we are winning or losing, and also if we are losing badly or if it's a fairly even game.

Lamia: He definitely needs to play a bit more to fully come back and be more intuitive in making decisions on his own.

sOÂZ: It's not really much of a change for me, it's mostly for Lamia I think since I don't really see the support other than in teamfights.


Thanks a lot for this interview and we wish you the best of luck in the future!

xPeke & Lamia: Thanks to you too! We would also like to thank our team, our fans and our sponsors Raidcall, MSI, Steelseries, Eizo and Slappa.

sOÂZ: I'd like to thank my team aswell, my fans, our sponsors and I would also like to send a special kiss to all my frenchies!

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