Hard Random's IWCI-2015 performance has been a big relief for many CIS fans, but the biggest fan of everything CIS LoL-related is definitely Mikhail "Olsior" Zverev, a guy who's behind almost every semi-big event in the region. I got a chance to speak with him before semifinals.
What a unique opportunity; the CIS region is kind of hidden from community, so tell us about yourself.
Hi, I'm Olsior, host and caster of SLTV.LoL and Riot CIS shoutcaster. I started as a SC:BW caster in 2008, then transitioned into SC2, and in the last 2 years I've been casting League of Legends. Once upon a time, I was on the analyst desk of LCS Moscow, and it was my only opportunity to meet foreign LoL fans, so once again, hello, guys!
LCS Moscow, what a glorious event it was. Was it your favourite event so far?
Hard question to be fair. LCS Moscow was fantastic, but any of the SLTV LANs are unforgettable for me. You know, SLTV III LAN is probably my favourite, probably because Lasagna became a champion [wink]. Though IEM Kiev was sick good as well, especially because CIS competitive gaming was on fire back then with #1 in LoL and #2/3 in SC2.
Cool. Let's speak about our region for a bit. Everyone knows that LoL is a little brother in comparison to DotA/CS in CIS. What do you think about the prospective of growth?
I actually find it fine. Of course, there are a lot of haters, but League is slowly and steadily developing. Plus as far as I know, not everyone enjoys DotA/CS's growth path either. Anyway, in my opinion, Riot doesn't really care about "being better and bigger than everyone," we just have to try hard and improve, like I'm trying to do for our viewers. Any argument about how "the game with a bigger viewerbase is better" is just not attention-worthy.
Yea, "competitive integrity" over "hats," best slap-fighting ever, shoutout to Tencent here. But jokes aside, do we have a chance to get, let's say, 50k viewers for SLTV VI LAN with proper marketing?
I don't think it's a hard task really. Post news on lolesports main page, spam everywhere, and get your 100–200k, but the problem is that those viewers probably won't return ever, so it's not worth it. If we can get 20–25k dedicated fans before the end of this year, it will be way better than just boosting viewers by using ads everywhere.
Agreed. What do you think about StarLadder from a games quality standpoint, at least in comparison to previous seasons?
So, from my point of view, CIS finally got 2 consistent teams: HR and M5. So for the first time in 2 years, we have a chance to compare the strength of our region with other developing regions, especially because CIS will send proper teams and not mix with stand-ins. If other teams are going to progress to reach the HR/M5 level, I think the whole region will become a lot stronger. If not, we might get a C9-TSM situation for a few seasons.
So, talking about IWCI, the first few days were very struggling for casual viewers and players due to the big amount of pauses and technical difficulties. How was it for a caster?
Really big shoutout to organisers, they're trying to fix everything very fast and give a lot of content. And being a guy who organises such events by himself, I won't lie, before you have a lot of experience, it's really hard to complete an international event of such a level without any problems. Still, not everything is perfect, but it's fine.
Were you surprised that teams used very shallow champion pools [e/n: only 45 champions were picked/banned] and no one really tried to throw curveballs in the Bo1s despite limited knowledge of each region?
I think they were just playing carefully because of lack of time to prepare cheeses [laugh]. But we might see something interesting in Bo5s, I hope.
Did you feel that HR might actually show that level of play? A lot of analysts/users in Western community really thought that CIS could only take down the Chilean team, KLG, and lose to everyone else.
In the end, we lost to Chile haha. But yea, as I told you before the event, I expected top three from HR. I didn't think that they were going to beat Brazil or Turkey, but other teams were completely doable, despite not really paying attention to those regions. I was really surprised by BKT, props to 007x for his nickname and his playstyle.
Damn, I got punched in predictions game but #CISpride is going strong. What about semifinals?
Uhh, so, I don't really think that HR are going to be the favourite in their series but I'm so tired of people who say things like "CIS will never be good until LCS, salaries, and big sponsors come." Remember, M5 killed IEM as amateurs, so I'm going to predict HR to win 3-2 and BKT to win 3-1. Won't predict finals though, even if I had predicted INTZ to win before the event [smile].
Well, I guess, I'm not beating you in predictions any time soon. What about MSI itself, as a fellow SKT T1 fan, Korea, China or TSM?
Korea and China are pretty close but I will go with Korea, even though it's all about faith and personal preferences.
Okay, let's speak about other regions for a while. There are LCS promotions at the same time as IWCI finals due to glorious Riot scheduling, do you think that any of the Challenger teams might have a chance, like Alex Ich carrying Seraph into LCS? Or is infrastructure just too meaningful, especially after LCS expansion to 10 teams?
I really hope that challenger teams can fight for spots and actually grab them. Fresh blood is always cool, and I will cheer for them, sorry, LCS teams [laugh]. About infrastructure, I think it's kinda overrated by the community. Yes, it gives you a higher chance to win, but we saw enough examples of lesser teams winning against all odds, like UoL or M5 stomping teams despite being amateurs. If you just look at infrastructure, then we would be guaranteed a Brazil-Turkey final at IWCI, but we might see neither region in the finals.
Fair enough. What about auto-drop though? Do you really think that it's better than hosting a third relegation match?
I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, in traditional sports it's completely fine when someone auto-drops but on the other hand, it's not guaranteed that the top Challenger team is better than the bottom LCS. However, I think that auto-drop gives bigger intrigue so I'm probably fine with it.
This interview is too reasonable. Let's fire it up: EU or NA?
[laugh] Well, right now NA is definitely stronger but EU will come back in 3-4 months. A lot of talent is growing. However, TSM is remarkably strong for a Western team. We haven't had such a strong Western team since Season 2.
Yay, I'm not alone with my hopes for EU. Don't you think that C9 with Nicolaj Jensen might strike back?
I don't really know what to expect, but if C9 took him, it's because they see something they need in incarnati0n. I really think that soloqueue performance is overrated, just take a look at nukeduck, Rekkles and Forg1ven this season. All three are soloqueue killers but no one made top three. Forg1ven at least played a fantastic season, despite me not being a fan of his playstyle, but nukeduck and Rekkles played mediocre at best. However, Nicolaj knows how teams works from the inside and understands coach-player interactions, so I think that he has everything to succeed. Still, it's very early to speak about.
You touched on Rekkles though, so what do you think about Elements' chances to get to Worlds? After a messy EU playoffs, a lot of people think that Froggen's new roster should get a slot by the end of the season.
Well, the first problem is that they haven't earned a single point last season so it won't be easy, that's for sure. Anyway, Froggen is an extremely good player, who doesn't need any other "first violin" in his team, so Rekkles really wasn't fitting. I think dexter and Tabzz are fine. if Jwaow joins, I'm not a believer at all. Krepo is very experienced, but he played a lot in weak LCS teams plus his shotcalling isn't really up to par. To be honest, if this roster comes out, I'm not a believer.
After the Korean exodus, LPL became stronger than ever. EDG dominated a whole season, LGD used their artistic skills in addition to gameplay and got to finals as well. Deft vs Imp, PawN vs Weiless, Koro vs Acorn. Do you expect 3–0 like a lot of analysts?
I really like China right now, it's diverse and interesting. Anyway, EDG are probably the number one team in the world right now – hard to argue unless you're making a case for GE or SKT T1. Royal Club was reaching World Championship finals despite being very weak strategically due to raw talent and so-called "Chinese playstyle," but EDG really not only saved the strong habits of the domestic region but fixed weak points, so I think that EDG might have as big of chance at Worlds as WE did back in Season 2. Also I'm glad that not every Korean went to China to just earn some money but instead to show good games. I don't think that LGD will win, but they're definitely capable of getting 1-2 wins on board.
Unless Flame plays. What about SHRC's tragic death?
I'm not surprised, it's China after all [laugh].
Korea was on the other side of the coin in preseason, but the region losing so much talent SKT T1 and GE Tigers are still listed as top three teams in the world. Any thoughts?
I think GE have better chances in Korea right now, and they have better chances to show up in the international scene than SKT T1 as well, despite me cheering hard for T1 anyway.
Sounds harsh but we'll see, first SKT need to beat CJ Entus anyway. Which players would you form a dream team with to beat invading aliens and save humanity?
Shy will be our Hulk, Spirit will be Loki, PowerofEvil will be Black Widow, Sneaky will be Hawk Eye and Yellowstar will act like as Iron Man, kappa.
No Captain America or Thor allowed in fighting for humanity, sorry [laugh].
Any teams but T1 you're cheering for?
I cheer for diverse and aggressive teams, who know how to act in public and interact with fans without harming their performance. For T1 I cheer since forever because they bought Bisu from MBCGame. I also cheer for Lasagna in domestic region, so noone can accuse me of gloryhunting [laugh].
What about those sweet BW memories? Of course, we were kids back in those days.
Well, Nal_Ra is my favourite player ever, he's just so unique and he made a lot for Protoss.
Who hadn't admired him, I still remember people trying to copy builds in internet cafes almost a decade ago.
And for moments, I have a top three:
1) Jangbi winning OSL
2) Jangbi winning second OSL in a row
3) EffOrt's comeback against Flash in OSL finals.
Bloody JangBi, he was so good that I even stopped hating him for killing soO. Do you follow the scene nowadays in SC2?
I was following Jaedong, but he's kinda inactive nowadays, and outside of Flash, there are no real BW bonjwas left, so not really, especially because LoL eats 10-12 hours per day.
#dedication #hardwork. Considering the relative success CIS has had at IWCI, any shoutouts?
Shoutout to anyone who follows and cheers for the CIS LOL scene. If you still don't believe that CIS has a bright future, then you need to watch the games from IWCI. Big thanks to anyone who watches my broadcast and sends words of cheering. Also big thanks to you for the interview, and thanks to whole TeamLiquid crew for the large amount of Starcraft material years ago.
Thank you and good luck!