Led by jungler Jackson “Pabu” Pavone and his Morgana, one of the current meta’s favourable champions, Pentanet.GG defeated the Unicorns of Love during the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational after 31 minutes of hard-nosed action that was sorely missed in their first three matches but pleasantly received by the end of this contest.
Following the surprising result, Pentanet.GG are in a fierce tie with UoL for second place in Group A by wearing a 1-3 record. Only the top two that finish within the three-team group will advance to the Rumble stage of the competition, leaving the third place to travel home in elimination.
Pabu met with the media in a press conference to discuss what exactly happened in the match against UoL. Written below is the transcript of his interview. Bold font goes for the media’s questions and standard font signals Pabu’s answers.
On Facing Unicorns of Love
Do you feel less pressure than any other region with regards to the recent actions you did on the stage or do you feel ‘We’re going to do our best even if we lose’?
Pabu: There is an inherently low amount of pressure on us because it has been rough over the years, but personally I feel a lot of pressure because I know my team is good and I know that we can perform and we showed that today. So I put like a–maybe like a middling amount of pressure on us to actually go through and advance because I know we can do it and it’ll be really disappointing if we didn’t.
What message do you have for fans who have gone out of their way to flame Pentanet and its players based on their early losses?
Pabu: What I think is that people tend to overreact and take things way too seriously. I think it’s pretty stupid honestly that I got flamed for my antics after the [first] game [against UoL]. Sorry for having a personality; but anyways I think that we really showed what we can do when we finally get a good grasp on the meta and how to draft. I hope we can keep bringing out some wins and proving the haters wrong.
Could you let us know maybe what was different compared to the previous game we had [against Unicorns of Love]?
Pabu: When we came here, we hadn’t been scrimming for a while because no one else was scrimming with us. Not only that, they were very volatile so it was hard to draft. But as the tournament wore on, we learned about what we needed to pick and how to make sure the games are playable and we finally found a draft that we were super happy with. We had good champions that could crowd control and had a good amount of priority. We can just go and play the game. We had tools to play the game and when we have those engage tools also, we can make good use of them and win for sure.
It’s hard to get a good grasp at what the meta is going to be especially when you don’t know what the other teams are going to play. A pick that was chosen today was the Morgana jungle. It’s a champion we’ve often had in MSI so far. Can you tell us what’s so special about the pick and why do you enjoy playing it?
Pabu: With Morgana, her clear is just obscenely fast so you can make good use of that to get extra time on the map. Udyr is really fast as well but you’re still faster than him and it also scales really well.
Samira is really sad [to play] when champions can CC (crowd control) her and stop her ultimate but if she can’t have her ult stopped, it’s really a broken combo for sure. She can just kind of go off.
Morgana also does a ton of damage as well. She doesn’t usually get as much gold in the jungle, but because her pace is fast, you have all the items and you can become really oppressive in team fights as you can always just flash ult and blue smite and you chase them down. You kind of do everything you need.
Heading into day 4
Focusing more on Group A, you secured your first win which is a huge improvement for you. You have a lot of games left to play especially tomorrow. What is going to be the focus for you in the next games?
Pabu: We need to look at how we can close out a bit more. It was a bit shaky but it wasn’t the worst. We need to be better at pulling the trigger and making sure that we have a decent draft. We don’t need to win the draft necessarily. We just need enough tools to win the game because if we can engage, they can make mistakes and we can then punish those mistakes. So we have to make sure we can always go and engage when they step up. That’s what we need to win for sure.
What are you expecting for Day 4?
Pabu: Day 4 is going to be a challenge. I played a few best of five series in my life but never have I had to play a team of so much quality like RNG and that can be somewhat demoralizing, but you can take it in good spirits because you know they’re very good. As long as we have a good draft prepared for Unicorns of Love, we can absolutely put them in the bin.
You have so many fans who are happy to see you again in the international stage. Do you have anything you want to say right now?
Pabu: There are so many of you that leave so many kind words for me. Every time we lose, there are lots of people that have my back and it feels good to get a win for everyone out there. I hope we can bring you some more [wins] and make you guys proud.
