100T Quid: “Last year, when we had bad scrim days, we […] wouldn’t talk to each other”

I sat down with Lim “Quid” Hyeon-seung after 100 Thieves surged to a complete upset first placing showing for Split 1, locking themselves their flights to Brazil.

Sunday was a day of upsets in the LTA North, and 100 Thieves were the ones left standing come the night. The provisional guest team smashed their way through Team Liquid in a 2-1 series, defying every LTA analyst desk prediction, and the vast majority of fans. After them, underdogs Cloud9 took their chance to make a similar cinderella story by pulling off a reverse sweep against FlyQuest, showcasing their comfort in Fearless Draft Game 5. These two teams faced off in a Bo1 finals, where Quid took center stage on his Ambessa. We chatted with the mid laner about his monster performance, what’s levelling up 100 Thieves this year, and his opinions on Fearless.

Author’s Note: Some segments of Quid’s transcript have been edited for grammatical clarity.

100 Thieves heist first place, but Quid sees flaws

Nick: You’ve had one whirlwind of a day Quid, how are you feeling? Not many people had 100 Thieves on their bingo card to walk out of today with the first seed to Brazil.

How are you feeling about your games and what do you think pushed you guys to this great performance today? 

Lim “Quid” Hyeon-seung: Hmm…I think we still have a lot of things to improve on. I’m really just happy that we won today, like, every match from this week and last week. Our scrims are going really well, so yeah, I just had confidence about today.

Nick: You definitely were confident, you were really getting into fights today. You ended that last game with a no-assist Ambessa Ult onto Zven’s Varus, no CC, no set up, just clicked on him. You also had that ult over Baron wall that caught Vulcan’s Leona.

You’re playing confidently, picking fights, is that coming from the scrims you’re mentioning going well, is it comfort, the current patch, what’s the reason?

Quid: It’s definitely from scrims going well. After FBI has joined…actually, like, last year was…we were not good as a team. I felt like we could win only if I played crazy or, like, carried, or something like that. 

Nick: Sure, so like those Yone performances from playoffs last year.

Quid: Yeah. But now that FBI’s joined, I’m feeling really comfortable and I think we are actually a good team this year. Yeah, I think we’re just playing well as a team and I just feel comfortable.

Nick: Mentioning FBI joining, we’ve heard a lot about how FBI has helped the team’s cohesion and coordination. This was similar praise that we heard about Tomo last year, that he was vocal about where and how he wanted to fight, when he was strong, and the rest of you found that really useful as a way to work off of Tomo’s comms to build a game plan, even if you didn’t agree.

Now that FBI has joined, and you’re praising the same communication style, why do you think having that kind of voice on the team is so important to help the other four of you to find success?

Quid: Actually, to be honest, last year, I feel like we couldn’t trust each other because we were making mistakes too often. It felt like we didn’t really have a team leader during last year, even after Tomo joined. I think that was a pretty big problem for us.  I feel like FBI has taken that team leader job on this team.

Last year, when we had bad scrim days, we were being too emotional and wouldn’t talk to each other, something like that. But after FBI joined, we haven’t had a bad atmosphere after scrims.

I feel like now we can just trust each other. We can just keep improving together and trusting each other, something like that. 

Nick: You mention still having trust problems..

How would you compare the difference between how the team is communicating now and how they did last year, then?

I think the biggest difference between Tomo and FBI, just that FBI, Vic, has more experience than Tomo. So, I think…he’s not always right but I think we can really believe in his comms, or his ideas. Like when we talk, in scrims, when we have feedback for each other.

Nick: The next question is just about how you’re settling into Fearless Draft. I talked to tons of pros last year when Fearless was just a possibility, and I heard a lot of mixed opinions. A lot of pros thought it would have significant downsides, and a lot of pros were very excited about the idea.

Now that you’ve had a chance to try Fearless in Bo3, even if it’s not the full Bo5 experience, how are you feeling about it?

I like it, because I don’t really have champion pool problems. When you have like…so if  you don’t like playing against Vi, then you can just play against Vi one time, and that’s the only one in the match. Being able to make that kind of decision…I really like it. Yeah, I just think Fearless Draft is fun to play for the players, and I think it’s fun to watch as well. Yeah, I love Fearless Draft!

Nick: Final question, and then we’ll let you go, you’ve had a crazy long day today. You’re locked to play in Brazil to compete for First Stand..

How are you feeling about the Inter-Conference event?

I’m so excited to play in Brazil and we’re going to try our best, as much as possible. So, let’s have fun together!

LTA will return for a half-weekend of play on Sunday, February 9, with Team Liquid facing Shopify Rebellion, FlyQuest facing Dignitas, and the winners of those matches facing in one final Knockouts match. Then, on Saturday February 15, we’re off to Brazil to play the LTA Cross-Conference Knockouts, which will be fans’ first chance at seeing the LTA North and LTA Sul go toe-to-toe with one another in the brand new American region rivalry.