LZ Gorilla Interview #1: Worlds 2017 Day 1

Hey there everyone, welcome to our Worlds 2017 Interview Series. As you may know, we have partnered with Travis Gafford and supported his trip to China to cover the games and get insights from the players. We will be sharing the interviews here along with their transcriptions. Enjoy!

Travis: It is the first day of Groups, I’m here with coverage presented by Mobalytics to talk to Gorilla and have Clarence translate, thank you so much for that. Gorilla, I’d like to talk to you a little bit about that match against IMT. Things looked pretty good for IMT in the beginning but then theat turned around really rapidly. Why do you think that is?

Gorilla: I think I should talk about why I picked Karma first. The reason I picked Karma is because I used to play Morgana back in the LCK and I also believe that Morgana is pretty nice champion. However, I believe Karma is more suitable for the Ardent meta. I think that’s the reason that as the game goes longer and longer, I believe that Karma is much more suitable for the Ardent. So I think that’s the reason that we could snowball much faster and that we could get the advantage in late game.

Travis: I feel like I will be hearing and saying the word “Ardent” a lot at this Worlds. I am very curious, do you like that, or is it frustrating? What do you think?

Gorilla: I think the Ardent actually makes the gap much closer because in Korea we use this term “laying down” like bad football, like laying down football. So actually by this, we buy more time and we kind of luckily win the game. In terms of LCK, we use more champions like roaming Supports like Alistar and Thresh with hard CC and good roaming skills. However, even if you make a good performance with a champion like Alistar or Thresh from the early game to the late game, it can still not beat Ardent – it’s kind of broken.

Travis: Does that frustrate you?

Gorilla: Yeah I don’t like it.

Travis: All right. Fair enough, fair enough. It’s good to get your take on that. I am curious, all these NA fans all these EU fans they wonder, it’s the first of groups, “Is there hope for NA and EU”? But then I watch EU lose, and then I watch NA lose and it just feels like all over again. What do you think? Does EU or NA have a chance here?

Gorilla: I mean, no one knows because the first seed of America, TSM, didn’t play yet. I always believe that TSM is a very nice, very strong team and that they can make something happen. I believe this time they can really make something happen because Ardent is very broken. At the same, Doublelift is an amazing player so I believe that TSM will make something happen this time.

Travis: I have to ask you because NA fans always hear Korean teams say good things about TSM and all think that the Korean players are just trying to be nice to NA fans. So is it true? Are Korean players fans of TSM? Why do Korean players always say such nice things about TSM?

Gorilla: TSM has come to Korea for bootcamp many times and they are all well-known players and actually, they play pretty well. They’re very good. However, I think there’s some other reason, another thing that Korean teams do for training that actually makes the difference. But I don’t think that the reason TSM hasn’t [had] a good result in the past is because they are not good or they didn’t try hard enough.

Travis: What is the other thing that Korean teams do that makes them so good?

Gorilla: I think the thing is “bonding”, like so-called “bonding”. This bonding makes things easier. I believe that actually makes the difference. I’ve never lived in a Western country before so I can’t really tell yet but I think that the bond actually makes the link between the players very strong and that’s the thing that makes the difference.

Travis: Well Gorilla, there’s a lot of players that come to North America from Korea. You’ve never been in a Western country before, maybe in the future you would want to try? Would that be anything?

Gorilla: I believe the career path for an esports pro-player is not very long. I’m still open though, if there are any teams which consider myself, my skill as pretty nice, and if they think I’m a very nice player then I’m pretty open on it.

Travis: It is true that e-sports pro player careers are short in Korea, but Korean players, once their career ends in Korea they could just come to North America right? That’s how that works? So maybe once you’re done in the LCK you could come to NA LCS?

Gorilla: I believe that my cunning is a pretty important factor as a pro player. However, as a Support I believe rotation is still a bit more important than actual pure mechanics, and as a Support I believe that I have much longer career path left in Korea, least more than solo laners or AD carries. However, if this happens, like I become mechanically not good enough, then one day, who knows, I may go abroad for another team.

Travis: Season 15 maybe? Would that be good? Is there anything you want to say Gorilla, to any of the fans out there?

Gorilla: Hi, I’m Longzhu Gorilla and thanks for cheering for us and I love you.

Thanks for reading/watching! For more Worlds coverage, you can see more interviews here, or at Travis’s Youtube channel.