Interview: Patty Yu
Picture: Network
PentaQ: First of all, we want to hear about your experience at MSI. This is your first time attending MSI, right? How do you feel about this competition overall?
Danny: I think MSI is overall a very interesting event. If I hadn't gone and stayed in North America to play, I don't think I would have been able to experience this experience. I'm very happy to go to MSI. Just being able to play with top teams from all over the world is a great experience. I learned a lot from everyone.
PentaQ: Can you talk more specifically about the differences between MSI and LCS?
Danny: I think the team style is different in each region. What I see is that LPL likes to start a team very much and is completely technical, while LCK likes to do more things in operations. They put deep thinking ability into the game. It’s very interesting to experience and see different tactics being displayed at MSI.
PentaQ: Have you ever met a player that you would like to interact with more?
Danny: The players that I am most impressed with in are Ming and GALA. I think these two bot lane duo are probably the most formidable enemies I will ever face. It's very interesting just to watch what they do on the field, as well as teams like T1 and G2. It was such a great experience and I hope to have another chance to interact with them.
PentaQ: How do you think EG performed at MSI this year?
Danny: I think as a team, EG has learned to analyze and find out the different styles of each region, and can find out the style that suits us best. We learned how to imitate or counteract different tactics and will try to incorporate these into our own tactics. That's all we learned.
PentaQ: How do you think EG will change or adjust in the summer split?
Danny: I think entering the summer split, the direction of our team's development will be very interesting, but there are still many uncertainties. The version we are playing now is different from the MSI version, and the changes are quite big. We don't have a lot of time to adapt to the meta, but we'll try to see how it plays better. Because there are a lot of unknowns, we are still watching.
PentaQ: Are you confident that you can win the LCS again and enter the World Championship at the end of the year?
Danny: I am very confident that we can win the Summer Split and enter Worlds, and I also feel that we can definitely win the LCS again. Our team definitely has the potential to win, I don’t doubt that, I’m very confident.
PentaQ: Do you think there are any different experiences playing against the East and the West? What's the difference?
Danny: I think the content of the East and West Team games are indeed slightly different. The main reason is that the Eastern team has received rich training in ranking, and their performance has become more confident as a result. Many people say that both the Chinese and Korean servers have the highest quality ranked experience, so some of their players have not yet entered the industry. When they first reached the ranked champion, their level was already very high. By the time these people start playing professionally, they are already very good at playing games. I think for the West, for Europe and North America, the ranking situation is not that ideal. This is how they differ.
PentaQ: How do you think North America can accumulate the experience it needs and cultivate excellent professional players? Because you said playing ranked might not be the best way.
Danny: North America has added and is using Champions-q. It might seem like a better system than normal ranked. This can be enhanced through amateur or second-team training, and they are also making some attempts like the Proving Grounds system. These allow many North American players, many young rookies like me, to have more opportunities to participate in competitive competitions. I think these attempts are very important, and we are indeed making changes. I think North America is making progress.
PentaQ: Is this how you became a professional player? How many years did it take you to come to the LCS and become an EG player?
Danny: I started playing "League of Legends" when I was about six or seven years old. That was a long time ago, yeah, so I had been playing games for a long time before I became a professional player.
PentaQ: How were you discovered and under what circumstances were you discovered?
Danny: When I hit the King for the first time in 2017, I first thought about becoming a professional player. In 2019 or 2020, my friend introduced me to someone from an LCS team, and I started to seriously consider a career. After that, he asked me to join an amateur team in the LCS. It all happened very suddenly. My experience of going from being an amateur to playing in the LCS was so sudden.
PentaQ: Do you think EG is working hard to cultivate talents in North America?
Danny: yes. I think EG has done a very good job in developing new players and promoting them to the LCS level. The planning they give players, from amateur to second team, to LCS competition, I think this is very important. And I think other teams are copying this. Many teams are also forming amateur teams for their LCS teams. So I think it's good for EG to do this because we're driving other teams to follow suit.
PentaQ: We saw on Twitter that you said after the game against RNG, "I'm glad the game is over", which felt a bit sad to read. Can you share with us what you were thinking at that time?
Danny: I still clearly remember why I said that. Mainly because of MSI plus the LCS schedule. It’s so tiring to keep comparing. We had a lock-in in January, which was basically the start of a series of games. Then comes the spring regular season. Playoffs, finals. Then we entered MSI. All of this happened over the course of four or five months, playing games all the time. We were really tired, it had been five months. I'm simply glad it's over and I can rest.
PentaQ: Professional players in LPL/LCK are already used to this kind of routine. Maybe when you become a professional player, you also have to adapt to this kind of life. What do you think of this lifestyle?
Danny: This is a life style under tempering. I think it is very important to adapt to this kind of life, and it is best to get used to it slowly over a period of time. But I don’t want to suddenly start playing 20 games a day. I think taking it slow and gradually increasing it is probably the most effective way to do it.
PentaQ: You said you viewed MSI as a learning experience. After the competition, where do you think you can grow?
Danny: This MSI is very important to me because it is my first world-class event. There is a lot of pressure and tension, and many people have high expectations for me. Now that I’ve had my first world-class race, I’m in better shape and more comfortable. I believe I can prepare better because I have mastered these.
PentaQ: Did you get more attention from fans after the game?
Danny: is available. When we win a lot. Because we went to LCS, and then we also performed well at MSI. A lot of people pay more attention to me. I mean, it's that level now. A lot of my friends have come up to me and said things like, "Well done, wow, you broke into MSI." These make me quite happy.
PentaQ: Based on your observations during this MSI, do you think North America as a region has progressed to become one of the best leagues in the world?
Danny: In my opinion, I think NA is on the path to becoming a better region. We are working on Champions Q and are also looking for a more coordinated play style in the game. North America also has amateurs, second teams, and things like Proving Grounds. These are things that I think will make us better.
PentaQ: If you were to say what needs to change in the North American region now, what would you say?
Danny: I think they could consider making Champions Q more inclusive. Nowadays, many professional players don’t like to play Q because of the queue time. There are only so many people who play Champions Q every day, and not many people can go up and play every day. In my opinion, it might be better to have more players on Champion Q. It would be great to add some excellent ranked players to play recently. Hopefully there will be changes for the better, I think adding more players will make the overall experience better.
PentaQ: We are a little curious about LCS. Can you tell me the difference between the top LCS teams?
Danny: Team Liquid's style, they like to play slowly and methodically. Their operation is better because they have many excellent players on the team, such as CoreJJ, Bjergsen and Hans sama. They will ensure the smoothness of the early game, and then strengthen the mid-to-late game. 100T focuses more on early game, more like LPL, but they don't have that strong technology. It's fun to watch them fight. To me, EG looks like a mix of the two. We can be any style. Adapts well to anything you need to do in the game.
PentaQ: Finally, do you have anything to say to your fans in North America and China?
Danny: For North American fans, I am still very excited about this LCS season. I feel that we learned a lot at MSI. Not just me, but my whole team. We're going to show everyone that I'm going to win again. For Chinese fans, I know that LCS is not the most powerful region because I know that LCK and LPL are performing much better now. I just hope we can get to the same level as LPL/LCK soon because I really want to show this game to more people. This is what I want to do.
PentaQ: Thank you for accepting our interview.
