Oddie: “It was weird… we felt lost” – LoL Worlds 2023 Interview

A 2-0 loss to GAM Esports has condemned Movistar R7 to elimination, becoming the first side to crash out of Worlds 2023’s Play-In Stage. Following the defeat, Esports.net spoke with the team’s jungler Sebastián “Oddie” Alonso Niño Zavaleta

To start with, what are your immediate thoughts following the series?

Oddie: “I feel like we didn’t play anything. It was weird in the game, we felt lost. Our plays were really forced, it didn’t feel natural. It was kind of weird. I feel like everything didn’t go as planned. We thought we weren’t going to win lanes and then we would just smash teamfights. But they were just better in lanes as well.

They team fought better. Plus, like I said, our plays were so forced that we made a lot of mistakes. That’s what we felt in the series. We just weren’t a team in this Worlds.”

What do you think may have caused that? Maybe nerves on the big stage?

I think so. But to be honest, this team went to MSI as well — no changes — and we played kind of better. All my team is young players so I think we just all feel nervous, or that’s what it feels like in the game  We just didn’t play as good as we did in our region or MSI.”

Was there anything you felt maybe you guys could have done differently?

(Or is it difficult to say given that you think it was just maybe the execution that wasn’t there in the end?)

“I think it was more likely nerves because in scrims we play versus teams that are pretty good, teams that are most likely going to qualify from Play-Ins and we were having good results. So all our team was really confident but in the game, I think they were nervous. I don’t know specific things that the team could do better but we could do all better I think. There’s not only one thing that made us lose the game.”

How do you rate the Worlds experience on the whole?

I think it’s good, yeah. But in my experience right now, when any team is going to bootcamp maybe two weeks before Worlds or something, it feels really weird. It seems like the team plays a little bit differently then in their home region and maybe that’s not that good. I think we kind of get used to the Korean style or something.

Obviously the solo queue is better, so it makes you play individually better. But I don’t know about it as a team, it depends on how you take it I think.

Talking more from the region as a whole then, what do you think could be done to improve the fortunes of the Latin American region in future international tournaments?

In the future tournaments, I think it’s going to depend on the mental. I feel like the Latin American people have the skill level to match everyone individually at least, but it’s going to be on the mental level I think. They just start losing even when the game is not even starting. You can feel that even before the game or when you are playing the game with the clicks. You know how you should play the matchup, then you are doing something different or something really bad. It’s kind of weird, I think whoever breaks this mental wall will have better results.

Esports.net: Looking at the rest of the Worlds 2023, how do you see it going?

Who do you see winning Worlds?

“I haven’t seen the better teams, but I think JDG is the best team right now. I think they are most likely going to win. I have to see the rest of the teams, like SKT/T1, BLG for example, but I think the most likely to win is JDG.

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