After the instant classic that was the best of five between 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses, I was able to sit down with 100 Thieves support Huhi to talk about his thoughts before the game, during the game and some fan questions.
My questions will be in bold font and his answers will be in a normal font.
How are you feeling after a grueling best of five series against Evil Geniuses?
I think it feels really good. It feels like a big burden on my heart is gone, now that we are qualified, not that saying that this is our end goal, but I think definitely having it secured makes me feel a lot better. I’m really happy about it.
Coming into this game you had two weeks off, and in traditional sports when a team has a bye there’s a lot of worry about players not playing, not having enough practice, not having enough reps or being warmed up before a game. I was wondering if you felt the same worries going into this series, or if you were fully confident with the practice that you had over the last two weeks?
I think by having the bye it gave us two weeks of preparation time, I think in the beginning we all thought it was needed, because of the problems that we were facing at the moment, towards the end of the split. We didn’t look as hot as before, in the beginning.
We fixed a lot of issues going forward, I think that made me a lot more comfortable, but I think going into today’s match I felt really good but one of my worries was it’s been a while since we played on stage because of the Covid happening towards the end of the split, so we didn’t play on stage for, like, four or five weeks, if I remember correctly, and I did feel like maybe it will feel different, but I think it ended up being really good because going onto the stage I felt ready, and I think that’s because of the two weeks of practice.
That was an insane series, what kind of stamina do you have to have that long of a series, that intense of a series, where if you lose you could potentially lose your worlds qualification because you have to go to the losers bracket afterwards?
I think I just had to not think about it too much. I felt like we had the control of the games, except maybe game two, and I was just making sure that I paced myself with drinking coffee. I don’t usually drink coffee but I wanted to have energy, because this week’s practice that I’ve done, I felt like I wasted a lot of practice for my teammates because I was low energy and I wasn’t really focused, and I didn’t want to let that happen, so I made sure I had a good sleep yesterday and had coffee today and kind of paced it, and I think that really helped me, keeping up my energy and keeping focused.
During game one, I think you had something insane like 90% kill participation throughout the whole game. How do you keep yourself moving throughout the whole map, engaged in plays, and affecting every lane in the game?
I think support is like, when you’re ahead, and when you first make a play and that play is successful, I feel like you will always have the tempo, and the enemy team support is always scared, always have to guess where I am going next, and if he guesses wrong, then I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. He kind of has to guess it right to stop that, and even then it isn’t a guarantee because we might just win that skirmish anyway. I think after I successfully did my first play, I was kind of in the zone, until I flashed in on mid lane into Ashe, if I remember correctly, and I feel like that one was a big throw.
Until then I think I controlled the map pretty well, and I felt too much in the moment when I flashed in there, and I felt bad for my team that I threw my lead there, but I think everyone had my back there, saying ‘It’s fine,’ ‘You’re doing really well,’ and then they reassured me so I was really confident still.
Speaking of mentality and reassurances, I was able to ask the 100 Thieves community for some questions despite them going crazy after you guys won the series. One of the questions was “After Danny’s insane play in the mid lane, what was the mentality coming out of that game and going into game five?”
He had a really, really nice play that none of us really expected because our communication going into that fight was we knew as soon as I engaged and died, and some trade kills happened, we knew that we won the game. Everyone knew, and everyone assumed that we won the game, including me. We were all so hyped, and I feel like in that moment we kind of overstepped our boundaries, and then Danny kind of punished us, and we straight up lost the game after that.
That felt really bad because we felt like that was our win, and we only lost because we just lost our focus at the end, like literally at the end. We were just saying that it’s okay. Everyone was just looking at each other saying it’s okay, we got this, it’s just another best of one. I felt really confident because of the previous games, I felt like me and John, Closer, today were on the same page lots of times, and then we were roaming around the map and killing lots of people. I felt like we can do that again, going into game five, and I think we successfully did it.
Another question from the community is: “You played on 100 Thieves back in 2019, and now you’re back this year. What has the difference been like between playing in 2019 and now qualifying for worlds in 2021?”
It definitely feels really good, it’s been a while since I’ve been to worlds. Last time I was on 100 Thieves as a mid laner, I didn’t have the best experience as well, and that’s why I think I feel lots of relief, that after I role swapped to support and in this split playing decently well, I feel like I’m truly becoming a support player and going into worlds, I think that me and FBI are a really strong bot lane, but we just have to be consistent.
We really want to test ourselves at international tournaments how far we are, especially against LPL and LCK bot laners, because we watch them play a lot because we think they are really good players, and sometimes better than us. I feel like we’re trying to learn as much as we can from them but the best way to do that is to play versus them, so we’re really excited going into worlds, and potentially face them.
You said you aren’t a real support, but you finished right behind CoreJJ in the All Pro voting, by I believe two points. Did you ever expect the press to vote for you that much, or have you in that high regard when you role swapped to support?
This split, based on how I played earlier, I think I definitely thought I would get something, some kind of votes. Towards the end when we shaked a bit, that took the confidence a bit away. I still felt like I was doing decently well. I’m really happy getting second in the all-pro voting and I think my goal should be getting first in the next split.
You’ve played a lot of lanes with FBI, what is your favorite lane to run with FBI without spoiling anything?
I think it kind of differs. I think nowadays I kind of like playing Leona with him because we’re really aggressive in lane, and Thresh is good in that sense too. I feel like anything that we can just punish the enemy bot laners usually, that’s what I like playing with FBI. When I used to play mid lane, I wasn’t really focused on punishing the enemy laner, I was more focused on my movements, and how to roam properly. With him it’s on the other side where I want to punish them, and I think we’re better than them in every way together, and we want to challenge them. Because of that I think it’s Leona.
