Team Liquid's star AD carry Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin is not afraid to share his opinion. A world champion back in 2013 as a rookie on SK Telecom T1, the South Korean sharpshooter has been one of the western region's brightest marksmen since moving over to North America in 2015. On Friday night his team won without him in the starting lineup for one of the first times in over a year; Jovani "Fabbbyyy" Guillen made his major league debut in a convincing 2-0 sweep over the winless Phoenix1.
We sat down with Piglet following the match to get his thoughts on his rookie teammate's debut, Team Liquid's opponent on the night, and what his future might hold in 2017.
This interview was conducted with Piglet hearing the questions in English, answering in Korean, and being translated by Team Liquid translator and assistant coach David Lim.
What did you think of Fabbbyyy's first few games as a pro while watching on the sideline? How do you think he held up?
So, relatively, he didn't do poorly, but because the other team was a bad team, [I] can't firmly say if he did really well or really poorly.
If you had played against Phoenix1, how do you think you would have fared? Would you have played it any differently?
I don't think I would have died at all.
You guys started this split off slowly with the Dardoch suspension and everything around it. How are you working with him since he was reinserted back into the lineup, and how has his attitude changed?
Dardoch is definitely working on his problems. It's not as bad as it was before, and the team staff is working with him on fixing those problems. It's not perfect, but it is getting better.
After beating them today, Phoenix1 is now 0-5 and are dead last in the standings. What do you think of them as a team, and what do you think they could possibly do to improve their ranking?
So just looking at it from a mechanical level, it's way too low. Their gameplay in general is really bad. To call themselves pros, it's like -- seeing these guys in the LCS is kind of disheartening.
How do you feel about the AD carry meta? Right now it's more focused on the top lane and jungle, so how do you think the bottom lane balance is currently?
It's such a top [lane]-heavy meta, and depending on how our team plays, the bottom lane in general can be just non-existent. [I] think the balance is a little off on how nerfed the AD carries are, and [I'm] not too happy about that. You can definitely teamplay around it and make sure your AD carry is well taken care of.
After watching the first few weeks of play, are there any teams you respect or think highly of in the NA LCS?
From watching them grow, [I] think TSM and Immortals are good. Envy, [I] think the team members work well with each other, and even though they're a new team, they have pretty good synergy. [I] think they're an up-and-coming team. C9 as well are pretty good.
This is your fourth split in the North American LCS. What is your goal for the end of the year, and what could the future hold?
I definitely want to win, that's all I'm thinking about. And even when the season ends, I'm going to be a pro-gamer.
So no vacation?
So there are three things I can take from that: there's retiring, taking a short break, or just being a pro gamer consistently. As of right now, I still have the passion to keep being a pro gamer.
Finally, do you have any words for your fans, or anything else you'd like to elaborate on or clarify?
I want to reiterate that [I] wasn't benched this week. [I] really wanted to take a break and refresh my mind. So don't be too worried, fans.