LZ Gorilla Interview #2: Worlds 2017 Day 5

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’s the first day of the second week of Groups with coverage presented by Mobalytics. I’m joined right now by Gorilla once more, as well as Hommen who’s going to help translate. Gorilla, you guys were able to secure a first place finish out of your group. First off, are you surprised at all, or was this expected?

Gorilla: We did expect coming out of Groups as first seed but today, we almost lost to Gigabyte Marines and that actually caught us off guard. We were surprised by their performance and we’re glad that we were able to win.

Travis: Can you talk to me about the decision to sub in a different player for the most recent game?

Gorilla: We always thought that Rascal had full potential, but he tends to be nervous when he plays on stage. We wanted to provide a more comfortable environment, and after we locked our first seed we thought that this would be the best opportunity to have his first debut on the international stage.

Travis: I saw a comment on Reddit after that game that said, “I knew it was over as soon as Gorilla locked in Janna with the Fnatic skin”, Can you talk to me about why you chose for the Fnatic skin?

Gorilla: I was always fond of using Janna with the Fnatic skin. I always had my respect towards Yellowstar, it just feels I can play a bit better when I use that skin.

Travis: Because you are a fan of Yellowstar, are you cheering for Fnatic to make it out of the group?

Gorilla: After we beat the Gigabyte Marine’s team, Rekkles came over to us and said thank you. After that, I thought maybe we should cheer for them as well.

Travis: Things are looking interesting for these next couple of games but looking ahead, you know you are the first seed. We don’t know who else is making it out, who would you like to face in the next round?

Gorilla: Due to the current Ardent Censer meta, it’s really hard to say which team is better until we actually play against them. But for sure, we would like to avoid playing against SKT, RNG, and Samsung.

Travis: Out of the teams that are not RNG, SKT, and Samsung that you think maybe will move on? Are there any that you prefer?

Gorilla: TSM, WE. Maybe TSM, I want to beat TSM.

Travis: Well we’ll see what happens. I mean it’s week two of NA, so we don’t even know if they’re going to make it out. Why do you think it is that there seems to be this curse of NA doing so well in the first week, and maybe not doing so well in the second?

Gorilla: Until now, we only saw Immortals play. I’m pretty sure that TSM and C9 will show what NA power is.

Travis: Well, we will see for sure. Is there anything that you would like to say to any of the Western fans Gorilla? They really liked your last interview, so anything that you want to say to them?

Gorilla: Thank you for cheering for us and see you in the Finals.

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