There’s been a lot of talk among fans about the comments made by Weibo Gaming’s head coach Yang Daiyin during the Rold Cup 2023 press conference. This is because it included some issues that may have been a bit sensitive for fans, such as discussing the past two years.
Aside from Kang “The Shay” Seung-rok, Yang Dae-in was the one who received the most questions at the losing team’s press conference. We’ve summarized and organized his comments as best we can.
First, when asked why he hugged Faker after the win, Yang gave a long answer. The gist of his answer was that he thought T1 did the best job of playing what he considers to be the ideal “roll” tactic, “a game where you can do the easy pickings,” and that it was cool to see Faker play the role so well.
“I can’t talk about it here, but the process of coming out of T1 was not smooth, and the process of working was actually not smooth. I’m grateful to Weibo Gaming for giving me the power. I think there were a lot of things that weren’t right at T1. I’ve said in many interviews, and it’s hard to put in a nutshell, but my point of view is that the ‘roll’ that allows you to play rock-paper-scissors multiple times is an advantage, and the ‘roll’ before that is a big frame, like one hit on the dragon, and you can fight in between (the big frame) with jungle and supporter moves to take out jungle monsters and pressure the top-mid, and that’s my way of saying that’s the beginning of EzSunda.”
“(At the time) I went to introduce it to Sang-hyuk (Faker). The 10-man roster was also a process of trying to find the best fit for him. There was also an interview at the time, and Sang-hyuk said he was resting due to equipment issues, so we tried out ‘closer’ Lee Ju-hyun. This was the truth.”
“I aim for a ‘role’ where I can talk to these teammates and play Easy Sunda together. I think this is an advantage in any sport. In soccer, world-class teams are similar to defenders in the buildup. I think it’s difficult at first to introduce and accept that process.”
“It would have been the same in any team. You have to explain it slowly, and even though Weibo isn’t doing well in the league, it’s been a slow process to get here. It’s not simple, you have to keep talking to them, you have to work with them. I’ve been watching the game for a while now, and I feel like T1 is huge, and I feel like Faker is on pace and doing well, and that’s what’s so cool for me. That’s why I said it was cool.”
When asked about the match, Yang Dae-in elaborated. He said that T1’s champion width was too wide to stop, and he tried to stop the current meta, Nico, Azir and Oriana, as much as possible in the mid lane. He also said that he wanted to play Red, but was disappointed that he couldn’t pick because he kept losing from Blue.
“I think they have such a wide range of champions that they know all the compositions. I think it’s really hard to find compositional weaknesses, and my first thought was that in the current meta, Nico, Azir, and Oriana are the three main mid laners, so that was my first thought. The other lines had too many options (for T1 to use) and we felt that it would be difficult to control the ganks. In the first set, we did Sena-Tamkenchi, and I think we were more prepared for that because it’s not something we normally do, so we could take Kettle-Lux and just go hard, or Varus-Ash…”
“It’s a ban pick, but you still have to make a choice, and if it doesn’t work, you go the other way, which is disappointing because we lost. At least we cut three clear carries up the middle and tried to get into a jiu-jitsu fight. The bottom tried to give us what they were confident in, and since they only picked the blue faction, Kang Seung-rok ‘The Shay’ kept having to pick. We were at a disadvantage if we couldn’t get a bottom initiative, but our opponent was really good at red-side afterpicks, initiative fights, and messenger moves, so we felt strong.”
“That was my biggest disappointment. I could have picked red, but I stuck with blue because I felt like we had a chance to win (the game) if they beat us and we went red. It’s a shame we didn’t have more than one red faction banpick.”
Practice teams are usually hard to come by for the Rold Cup Finals. When asked how they prepared for the finals, Yang explained that it was difficult to find practice opponents if they weren’t the host team. He also said that the teams that scrimmaged were forced to prioritize “I’m good” over figuring out a game plan because the scrimmage players had to make a starter appeal. 캡틴토토
“I think this can be an advantage for LCK host teams. Even when I played the Rold Cup in China 20 years ago (with Damwon Gaming), we barely scrimmed for a week after we made the finals. Maybe three games. This time around, I think there were teams like Guangdong and Nongshim that were able to help out. Or there were teams taking tests.”
“Obviously, the five-man squad did much better. The teams watching the test are not looking for compositions, but to show that I am good. It’s a shame we didn’t get to practice with Guangdong. I think T1 played with Guangdong all week, and we didn’t get a chance. I think we played with Sandbox or Nongshim, who were testing, and even before the finals, there were quite a few shoots such as media days, so I think we played three games a day. We could have done more if we played through the night, but there were fewer teams to match. Still, I tried to do a good job of organizing the bans and tiers that I had prepared before.