We had the chance to chat with Steve 'LiQuiD112' of Team Curse about the team's IEM Kiev experience! Join us as we chat about the energy, the people, the challenges, and the triumphs.
CURSE: What was your favorite part of IEM Kiev?
LiQuiD112: The first-time experience of traveling to an international event to play in an eSports tournament. To date, all of Curse's LAN events have been national events within the states. Kiev is an interesting city, not many people here speak English so it is slightly difficult to get around. It's cold.
The venue, Cybersports Arena, was huge, amazing and awesome. It was packed with a ton of computers, a mountain of wires, and a stage with flashing lights - it was the real deal.
CURSE: Did you get to meet a lot of players you've never seen face-to-face before?
LiQuiD112: Absolutely. As most of our fans know, we had a new roster for this event because of some visa issues for Nyjacky, and late notice that we would be attending the event made it difficult to get a passport for some of the players. We had the chance to see the Sypher team (French team); we met them first in NY, but saw them again here in Kiev.
We have played with both of the other NA Teams before, Dignitas and Team Solo Mid, at previous events in IEM NY, IPL (Atlantic City) and also IPL in Raleigh, NC. We even went out and played pool and got some bowling in at a local mall. It was our first time meeting Moscow 5, but they don't speak any English and they were a bit rude to all the other players. It was also our first time meeting OnlyJaximus, our sub for the event in place of Crumbzz.
We have played with both of the other NA Teams before, Dignitas and Team Solo Mid, at previous events in IEM NY, IPL (Atlantic City) and also IPL in Raleigh, NC. We even went out and played pool and got some bowling in at a local mall. It was our first time meeting Moscow 5, but they don't speak any English and they were a bit rude to all the other players. It was also our first time meeting OnlyJaximus, our sub for the event in place of Crumbzz.
CURSE: How was the energy at the event? Did the crowd pump your team up?
LiQuiD112: The energy at the event was high. The setup was in a way where we actually faced other teams across from us - so they were screaming and shouting while we were doing the same. All the while, the games were being broadcast on the main stage and online - in a short delay - so you would always hear the crowd that attended roaring at times during the match's interesting plays.
There was one play during the tournament when we were playing WL and there was a contention at dragon. When the time was right, Flashinthenight used his Morgana ultimate on ALL 5 players of White Lotus. This set-up for the perfect team-fight and we took a 5-0 kill for the event. There's already a clip on Youtube of Flashinthenight screaming during that section of the match, with over 16,000 views!
There was one play during the tournament when we were playing WL and there was a contention at dragon. When the time was right, Flashinthenight used his Morgana ultimate on ALL 5 players of White Lotus. This set-up for the perfect team-fight and we took a 5-0 kill for the event. There's already a clip on Youtube of Flashinthenight screaming during that section of the match, with over 16,000 views!
CURSE: When you think back on the overall strategies you'd planned to use during the tournament versus those you ended up using, did the gameplay end up being entirely different from your expectations?
LiQuiD112: This was our biggest weakness. We found out that Nyjacky could not make the event (when he was at the airport trying to leave for Kiev). We had to scramble online and use the Reddit forums to find a sub that would already be going that could play with us. Flashinthenight had a few comments and we hooked up at the event 30 minutes before the match!
We were quickly talking about what we played and tried to devise team comps that would work for us. It just was not enough time and we ended up not playing many of the strategies that we had previously designed. It turns out that Nyjacky and Flashinthenight play very different AP Champions. Jacky mains champions like Ryze, Viegar and Cassiopeia, while Flash plays champions like Morgana, Xereth and Galio.
We were quickly talking about what we played and tried to devise team comps that would work for us. It just was not enough time and we ended up not playing many of the strategies that we had previously designed. It turns out that Nyjacky and Flashinthenight play very different AP Champions. Jacky mains champions like Ryze, Viegar and Cassiopeia, while Flash plays champions like Morgana, Xereth and Galio.
CURSE: How do you think the team handled the last minute subs it was forced to make?
LiQuiD112: Once we knew we had to use subs at the event, our expectations of advancing to the top 3 in the tournament were low. Our primary goal was to win at least one match in the group stage so that we would advance and earn enough points to qualify for IEM Grand finals in Hanover - which we did - so we are very happy.
Anything aside from qualifying for Hanover would have just been icing on the cake. Our group was very tough. SK Gaming was top finisher last year in Hanover Germany and also TSM is a HUGE contender. Given the circumstances we did well - I'm proud of the team.
Anything aside from qualifying for Hanover would have just been icing on the cake. Our group was very tough. SK Gaming was top finisher last year in Hanover Germany and also TSM is a HUGE contender. Given the circumstances we did well - I'm proud of the team.
CURSE: Which Voice over IP (VoIP) do you use for the team? Is it something you'd recommend for the average gamer?
LiQuiD112: We used a program called Ventrilo for the last few years, but we have had so many problems with it. Being more 'noticeable' in the community there are often people who tried to break our old server. We had limited ability to have different admin controls and Ventrilo only uses push-to-talk (you can opt not to use it, but it does not work well at all).
When we tried TeamSpeak for the first time we instantly fell in love with it. You have a huge control panel to create all sorts of permissions, you add avatars and create ranks, and the tone and quality of the voice is just so much better.
At the event we used TeamSpeak as well, using a local LAN TeamSpeak hosted at IEM Kiev so there would be no lag at all. It worked perfectly - I hope the LoL community makes the switch to TeamSpeak 3 - it's absolutely a superior product and we'll continue to use it and promote it whenever we can.
When we tried TeamSpeak for the first time we instantly fell in love with it. You have a huge control panel to create all sorts of permissions, you add avatars and create ranks, and the tone and quality of the voice is just so much better.
At the event we used TeamSpeak as well, using a local LAN TeamSpeak hosted at IEM Kiev so there would be no lag at all. It worked perfectly - I hope the LoL community makes the switch to TeamSpeak 3 - it's absolutely a superior product and we'll continue to use it and promote it whenever we can.
CURSE: Anything you'd like to say in closing about your IEM Kiev experience? Shoutouts, messages, thanks?
Kudos to Goose, who could not come, which allowed us to play. To all of our fans: we have pictures, videos, and updates available on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/teamcurse. To learn more about all the great changes to TeamSpeak 3, visit www.teamspeak.com.
Comments