FNC Oscarinin on facing criticism: “It’s the bad part but I wouldn’t change League for anything [else].”

FNC top laner Oscarinin had a chat with us prior to the start of his journey at Worlds 2025, talking about the top lane meta, why TheShy didn’t make his best five top laner rankings, and the pros and cons of playing league competititvely.

First of all, how are you doing, man? And then how’s the preparation been after the LEC finals?

Oscarinin: I’m good. I’m happy to be here, obviously. And the preparation, I mean, I think it’s been pretty decent. I think we are getting a lot from scrims, honestly, so it’s been nice. It’s always easy to improve when you play against the best teams in the world.

Is there any difference based on how you prep at Worlds? Do you VOD review a lot more to learn from the best teams in the world?

Oscarinin: I think laning phase, we have to do it ourselves as players and think coaches can help us a lot. We are not going to like be like Fakers from one day to another in laning phase. We have to work on that ourselves in solo queue.

About the other thing, we do look at the map a lot about how we want to play it and how the enemy is moving with jungle support, how they put vision, how they set up around grabs or drakes; we look at that a lot and how they play side lanes. That’s what we are trying to improve on the most, I would say.

Shushei forever. 🖤🧡 https://t.co/YeJ43b72mk pic.twitter.com/JNIh5CbDAR

— FNATIC (@FNATIC) October 13, 2025

Davide: I want to ask you about the meta. There hasn’t been ground-breaking level of changes, but it’s still quite relevant. In the top lane, we can think of Camille and Jax. BLG Bin said all top laners must play these two champions

Do you agree with that statement? Are there other hidden picks?

Oscarinin: I think from the patches, I don’t think top lane changed a lot. I agree with him but it’s pretty [much] the same.

Jax is a bit stronger, but it was already in a good spot before, so I don’t think it seems a lot. And the Camille buff is nice for lane, but it’s also still the same champion. You could say that if you have a better laning phase as Camille, then you’re going to scale better, but I think there are many picks that people don’t really play because they think are weird or they are not conventional; I think they are pretty op.

I will try to show which picks I’m cooking, but for sure there are a lot of hidden picks people don’t want to play I guess.

Davide: It’s time for rankings.

I need your five top laners in order and you need also to tell me why

Oscarinin: The first one I would say it’s Kiin. He’s super solid. I don’t ever see him like losing, he’s always chilling [in] lane, even when he has a losing matchup. He plays all the meta champions really well, like the Ambessa, Yorick, and all this stuff. He’s never gonna lose you a game and he’s always kind of smoothing them up. I would say he’s really good at moving with the team.

After, I think it’s hard to say. I would say Zeus and Bin. I don’t really put any above each other. They are both really similar, super aggressive and like to play carries. I don’t think they like to play tanks as much, they are lane dominant and also very clutch. They are not scared to make mistakes: if they feel something is good, they will do it, and that’s something good because when there’s high pressure, I think many people don’t do the plays they would make like in a solo queue or scrim screen because if you f**k up, it’s not good. I think they are not afraid of making those mistakes and they stress themselves a lot.

After top 4, I would say Doran. He’s also been really solid, he may not be as lane dominant but he does his role in T1 really well honestly. He has also stepped up a lot this year. I am surprised because I didn’t think of him as top player like Zeus and Bin. I felt like he was a bit behind them. After that, I would say Flandre.

Davide: You think he’s over TheShy?

Oscarinin: I am a really big TheShy fan, but I’m not sure how to rate TheShy because it depends a lot on the day or the game.

Davide: You’re someone who values consistency a lot more than exploit performances.

Oscarinin: I think it depends on when you have those performance, because if you can make that performance happen when it’s in playoffs then it’s fine. You are still the goat. But yeah, I think consistency is super important and even more in a tournament like Worlds. You have to make it consistent and also in Swiss stage you have to play good every day because it’s kind of fast. And even though you have many chances, if you get a Gen.G and they are playing good in a good day, it’s going to be hard. So you have to take your chances.

I think consistency is the most important thing. And [the] second would be having those clutch moments, those insane moments where you are in the zone those days. But I’ve always been a really big fan of TheShy. I think he’s super good and I’m surprised he can always come back to his God form because he’s had bad times. I would put peak TheShy at least top 3, but I’m not sure if we’re going to see that every day. And I mean, he’s not even qualified still for Swiss stage.

Davide: We gotta talk about that one then.

What’s your take on T1 vs IG then?

Oscarinin: Yeah, I guess, T1 against Chinese teams, they are usually pretty scary. But honestly, if it were for me, I [would] really want TheShy to win. I’m not sure if it’s gonna happen. I do think T1 is going to win like 3-2, 3-1, but I believe in TheShy.

Davide: The next question is about the criticism you faced over the past split.

Is that the tough part about being a pro? What’s something you love about being a pro?

Oscarinin: Tough part. I would say for me at least this year was a bit tough because of I [was struggling] on how to play together with the team. I wasn’t having fun, or I didn’t find how to play for top lane in the team. We didn’t really have a middle ground, I guess.

I was not really comfortable, mostly [the] beginning [and] middle of the year. I think in the end I was better: I’m good now. But yeah, I think I received a lot of criticism. It’s obviously not nice to have all the fans not liking you and having to see a lot of comments in Twitter. Maybe this year I tweet too much because of that, so I would say that’s the bad part, when you’re struggling a bit or not having the best time.

But I would not change this for anything. I think competing is the most fun thing in the world and I’m doing what I love which is just playing league in competitive. Like it’s just insane to be in the stage and playing; it’s just a different sensation. So yeah, I would not change it for anything.

Davide: We’re running a little bit over time.

Last message?

Oscarinin: I hope you can cheer for us. I think FNC is going to do pretty well this Swiss stage. We are going to surprise you so I hope you can sit for us and we give you a good time.