The Chief Operating Officer Izumin himself has revealed a lot of information that Vietnamese LoL fans are most interested in right now.
GAM Esports defeated SBTC Esports 3-1 in the Grand Finals over the weekend to take the throne at VCS Spring 2023. Not only the eighth championship, GAM is also the first organization to win the VCS three times in a row. thereby strengthening the number one position of the Vietnamese League of Legends. Before GAM acted as the sole representative of VCS to attend the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), KenhTinGame had the opportunity to have a quick exchange with Izumin, the organization’s Operations Director, to ask and answer many questions that are very popular. interested community.
Before the season started, GAM said goodbye to coach JackieWind. However, the team did not recruit a new head coach, but appointed PTVs like Hankay, Rei to positions such as Tactical Coach, Strategy Coach. So what is the reason for this?
First hello Game8 readers. The fact that GAM did not recruit a new head coach was because at first we couldn’t find a candidate who met the conditions. GAM is a top team and has a tradition, so the position of head coach needs to be selected very carefully or requires the development efforts of current coaches. I think leaving the position of head coach this season both helps the team have the opportunity to find the most deserving names both at home and abroad and helps the current coaches, HanKay and Rei, strive to develop to be worthy of the title. this extremely pressurized position.
Despite starting as an Analyst, both HanKay and Rei had a successful season in their first attempt as a coach.
GAM won the VCS Spring 2023 champion with an undefeated record, are you surprised by this when the team had personnel changes at the beginning of the season. Which team do you think caused the most difficulties for GAM this season and why?
Looking at the process, I was quite surprised with the performance of the team because there were many matches that we won by turning the game upside down rather than overpowering the opponent. The team was also surprised that Zin had integrated very well with the team. However, this year, GAM operates under a new system that focuses on daily health training, the team also reduces unnecessary practice days to focus on team meetings and 1-1 meetings between the coach and the team. Therefore, the health, spirit and mindset of all members have always been maintained at a good level or higher, so the results are a true reflection of our early season efforts and plans.
As for the team that caused the most difficulty for GAM as we watched as a spectator, it was definitely SBTC Esports. Since they’ve built a pretty good start to the game this season and often find ways to surprise early game, we didn’t prepare well in the early game except for the Finals so that’s probably the main reason.
Sty1e’s position is not in really good form and is considered the weakest link of GAM in this season. What moves did the whole team take to help GAM’s ADC regain confidence before MSI 2023?
The demands of the entire team and fans for any member of GAM are higher than that of other teams, that’s for sure and Sty1e is no exception. Sometimes your performance stays the same, but for GAM viewers, it’s going backwards because everyone knows our goal is to be an international battlefield. As a manager myself, I talked to Sty1e, you also understand my situation very well. Sty1e is setting the ultimate goal of performing well this MSI season to prove itself worthy.
MSI 2023 is a big enough playground for Sty1e to learn and prove itself against the skeptics.
There are a lot of rumors about “Slayder failed to apply for a job twice” or “GAM failed to recruit Slayder twice because of insufficient funding”? So where is the truth? Does this information make Sty1e feel flustered and not fully inflated?
Before I joined GAM, I was completely unaware of the information before 2020. It is true that in the three years I have managed the team so far, we have also talked with Slayder 2022, but the problem is not. lies in the budget. I can’t reveal anything more because that’s also a professional standard. (laughs) And Sty1e is a pretty stubborn boy to external influences, this information I also inform in advance if there is a competitive recruitment, so it is a motivation for you to develop rather than a thing to make you angry. motion.
What has GAM prepared for MSI 2023, will there be any “weird” tactics or cards to be released? GAM’s goal at MSI 2023?
The disadvantage of this season is that the finals on April 23rd and April 28th were on our way to London while the other regions finished one to two weeks earlier, except for the European host region which also ended. ends April 23. That means other regions are practicing version 13.8 (the official version of MSI) earlier than GAM. This left us with only one day of practice before going to London. So the strategy and “weird” cards will have to be devised by us at the hotel where the game is played. Our goal has always been to break the limits of VCS at MSI and Worlds. Therefore, GAM’s current goal is to pass the Play-in round and move towards the top 4.
GAM is the representative of VCS to attend the most international tournaments ever. However, in the current GAM roster, only Levi has had MSI experience and four other players have never. MSI 2023 has refreshed the format, is this an advantage or a disadvantage for you?
This MSI is definitely tougher when you have four more major regional competitors. However, we like this format as having the opportunity to face more big names and winning them is fun!
Hankay revealed that the Golden Guardians are a tough opponent to play. So how did GAM research the first opponent at this MSI 2023? Should fans expect a victory to “take the lead” in London?
If you are strong enough, you win the first two Bo3s and proceed to the next round. Otherwise, you still have the opportunity to correct your mistakes and meet your competitors again, so what we need to pay more attention to is to study the opponent and adapt early to the MSI version.
Although we have not played any matches yet, since the time GAM won the VCS Spring 2023 and represented Vietnam at MSI 2023, many people have called you “paddlers”. How do negative comments like this affect you or does it just make you want to prove your strength?
If GAM cared about too many negative comments, we wouldn’t have won Vietnam 4/5 most recent season. The players clearly understand that they are playing for themselves, for their teammates, for their relatives, for their family, for the fans and for Vietnam, not anti-fans!
Statistics show that GAM always wins at least one team representing large areas every time “swimming into the big sea”. Do you think you will win both the LCS and LPL runner-up to enter the Life and Death Round soon? Is there any chance for GAM to break the “poop” that has never won the LCK?
The LCK is always a risk-limited area and always controls the game closely. I think the LCK style can be compared to a Phalanx warrior, holding a spear in his hand, holding a shield, defending tightly and attacking sharply. The way to fight VCS is like warriors who only wield spears or axes.
GAM will start the MSI 2023 campaign with a match against GG – the team with the first international experience – at 22:00 on May 3. GAM is in Group A of the Play-In Stage where there are three other competitors including GG, BLG and Rainbow7. Out of the eight teams that played the Warm-Up Round, only three won the right to advance to the Life and Death Round. If winning the opening two Bo3 series consecutively, the teams will bravely enter the next round. In the worst case scenario, the teams still have a chance to rework in the Loss Bracket – where they have to win three more Bo3s to win the “recovery” ticket.
In the past, GAM once attended MSI 2017. There, they excelled against seven other competitors from small regions (Turkey, Latin America, Oceania, Russia, Brazil, Japan). ) to enter the official Group Stage. Despite playing hard and creating “seismic” against Team SoloMid, Team WE and G2 Esports, GAM was still eliminated from the tournament after that.
