This Monday, Fnatic clean-swept GIANTX to advance to Madrid and face KC with the last spot for Worlds on the line. This loss means this is the end of the year for the scrims champions GX. Hotspawn sat down with the assistant coach, Nicolas “Nico” Perez, to discuss his team’s choke factor, Isma, his prediction for Madrid, and his future.

Ethan: I imagine that you are the first to be disappointed by today’s result.

How do you feel right after the loss?

Nico: I’m really disgusted. In fact, I really believed in this BO. We were at our peak in training, we were really doing everything by the book and it was going well. We had game phases that were clean, our playstyle, our drafts, etc. And a 3-0 like that, especially after game 1, where we showed that… Well… I think that on the map, we were better in lane, mid, jungle; they played better top, he played two good games individually.

Ethan: Top in the first game, there was nothing to say about him, I think.

Nico: There’s nothing to say, you see, like Isma, I think he gapped Razork the three games. So yes, I’m really disgusted, no joke.

Ethan: To talk a little bit about what went wrong, the first thing I wanted to highlight…

What was the idea behind neglecting the drakes today? Was this even an idea?

Nico: No, it was not an idea; our scouting was all about drakes. The scouting plan was: Fnatic, they don’t do anything with their game and since they don’t do anything with their game and we’re active, we have to go and get fights at drake. And for a reason that is not currently explainable with the information I have, we chose not to play the drakes. In scouting, we rehearsed it after Game 1, after Game 2, and I’m not sure, maybe there was a… I don’t know, a magic wall, we couldn’t go there, I don’t know. But it was something that was planned in the basic game plan, that we had to play the drakes, that has been told to the players all week. All week. We told the players that we had to play the drakes.

Ethan: To talk about a more global subject, and in my opinion, it was again the biggest problem today… When we talk about your team, we can’t neglect the fact that there is a choke factor, probably linked to the pressure on stage. All the other teams seem to agree to say that on your best day, you are one of the best teams in Europe. It was even BB who said it yesterday. However, today, I really didn’t have the impression that you were facing the best team in Europe. I think you’ll agree with me.

Nico: No, I think Fnatic played badly.

GX vs FNC
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games

So, how frustrating is it for the staff to see that you just can’t show your true level in the moments that matter? And how do you explain that you never managed to overcome this during the year?

Nico: That’s a really good question. It was getting better and better. We were starting to have routines where players who usually choked were choking less. I think that our BOs against KOI and KC, the early ones, we didn’t choke, you know, we went to fight, we took stuff. Against G2, we won in training. So we were on a crazy upward slope.

What also sucks for us is that we have our perf coach Mew who helps us a lot on this, who is in Paris with Valorant. The situation in Game 1, theoretically, he would have had a good impact on that.

Now, we’re here and it’s our routines that are breaking, our match processes that are breaking. But by the way, priority to the international event, it makes sense from an org point of view. What’s frustrating, too, is that we were on a crazy upward trajectory. You look at our last BOs against the top teams, well, it was super close every time. And the fact that today like that, after Game 1, it becomes so one-sided, that there are disgusting individual errors from everyone and everything… It really leaves a bitter taste.

Ethan: You say that against the top teams, it was close in the regular season, but I still have the impression that there was this pattern that repeated itself a little bit in Game 1. Which is that, in the late game, you tend to crack a little. And I’ll be honest, I feel like these late-game issues often come from Isma as well. Even if he has had a huge progression for me on this split, and it showed too. Like you can feel that he’s much better, that he’s much more confident in the team and everything. I still have the impression that it was quite obvious that in the late games, very often, he makes the mistake, he is disconnected from the team, he takes it a step too far, etc.

So what’s the matter with Isma’s issues in late game? Where does it come from?

Nico: Realistically, Isma must have 70-80% of the volume of the team’s communication; he is the one who communicates everything, the fights, the positions, when there are plans, etc. So it would not be fair to put the blame on him, because the reality is that… Well, yes, Game 1, we lose it on a bad decision on his part, but all the good decisions before mean that we are 10K gold ahead and that we have the Elder. So yes, obviously, he has to overcome this last step to be at 100% consistency, let’s say. But it’s like his Nidalee game, he plays great, then we get to the third drake and he makes a bad decision and it buries the game for us.

So that’s it, he has the bad role, he’s the guy who shotcalls, and in some games it’s going to be the guy who has to go at first to create space and everything…

There are years when it’s going to be teams that have supports who are doing that, I remember at the time when people blamed Labrov… Well, I don’t know what’s going on at BDS but it can be one of the reasons. He has the wrong role, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s the reason for the loss, because the reality is that if we’re in a situation where they have the soul and we have zero drake, there was a problem from everyone before to lose these drakes, it’s not just his job.

Ethan: Even before that, he gets Rumble ulted while you have the Elder, etc. I feel like he wants to overplay a bit, you know. And especially in this fight at the Elder [Dragon], Noah goes to the pit while he engages. And that’s where you can say there’s a disconnect. But yes, obviously you’re right, that’s why I’m telling you that for me he has progressed a lot and that it’s even obvious in Summer. But maybe he had too many responsibilities, if he has to manage the communication, the engages, if he has to manage kind of everything, maybe that’s where the issue comes from.

Nico: He actually has the abilities, but it’s just that he has to get to a level of precision that is higher than what he’s doing now.

GX Isma
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games

Now that you’re out, what is your prediction for Madrid?

Nico: I think KC is going to smoke Fnatic in Madrid. Basically, Fnatic, you look at how they play, they group up as 5, they go to the drake and they fight. The thing is that KC does the same, except that they are better in fights basically. So if KC doesn’t make their usual early game mistakes, it’s going to be 3-0. It won’t be close.

Ethan: You’ll have a little less than 4 months of off-season now… It may be a bit early to ask you, but:

What’s next for Nicolas Perez, for GIANTX? Have you thought about it? Do you have any particular desires for next year, projects?

Nico: In a totally honest way, and I’ve already talked about it with my head of esports and everything:

I would be lying if I said I’ve been fulfilled in my work this year. I think I was restrained in the way I like to work in general, which didn’t fit with the way my head coach works.

By the way, it’s not his fault; it’s just that I was already locked when he was locked. So in terms of building a staff, that’s how it is. We saw if we could adapt. I did my best to adapt, and like, it’s still complicated. So me, by my will, I would tend to say that I wouldn’t like to continue with GIANTX in LEC, I don’t know what will happen then, if GX will tell me “well no, you’re staying”, if they’re going to tell me you’re going to go down to the academy or you’re doing something else to help the academic coach, if they don’t offer me anything, I’ll look elsewhere.

Honestly, it’s a crazy artistic blur. It’s kind of the first time that I am in this situation where I want to be loyal to my club and I think I can bring something to them. So I will always favour what they have to offer me over other clubs.

But the reality is that we have to see how… I don’t know their plans. Their plans are not yet defined for what they want to do next year, either. So I’m not going to lie, I’m lucky enough to have an agent for that. I’m just going to go see my parents, my girlfriend, chill a little… And then the off-season will start when it has to.

Ethan: It’s funny because at the beginning of the year, you said that Guilhoto brought a lot. That it was the first time you worked with a coach like that, but that you were really impressed by his way of working, correct?

Nico: I was talking about his posture as a coach in general. Basically, we’re going to say that the aura he has created a little with the players and this natural charisma is something that I lack a lot in my coaching. I think it’s something that I would be able to do without worries with an ERL team or with rookies because I have a credibility that is building now. But let’s say I always had a lack of confidence in myself when facing people who have a stronger personality.

A profile, like a Czekolad for example, at Game Ward told me with all the love in the world: “Why should I listen to you because you are a Div2 coach and I have won the EMEA.“

That kind of interaction in the beginning, it’s things where I still struggle to break up, you know, and sit down to bring my credibility to it. So it’s a job that I’ll have to do at least in my career. One of the reasons why my Head of Esports recruited Guilhoto this year was also to allow me to progress on that. He told me: ‘Listen, you’ll see, you’ll learn a lot about the coach’s posture, and it’s very true. I’ve learned a lot about that this year. So it’s also something that’s in my head, next year, in two years, in three years: will I have the opportunity to put that in place on my side, with experienced players’?