Xiaohu and Nightshare discuss Weibo’s win over Fnatic

Weibo Gaming and Fnatic each had one final chance to reach the Worlds 2023 Knockout Stage, one would make it through while the other would head home.

Despite a positive start for Fnatic in the best-of-three as they snatched game one, series favorites Weibo stepped up to claim game two before flexing their muscles and completely dominating the Europeans in game three.

Once the series was over, Weibo’s mid laner Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao and Fnatic’s head coach Tomáš “Nightshare” Kněžínek took questions from the media.

The former was already looking forward to the knockout stage, explaining how his team will aim “to have a good pick/ban phase and, after that, play the game confidently” to continue their run. Xiaohu would prefer to “focus more on our own performance” rather than worrying about their potential opponent’s capabilities.

The three-time MSI winner was asked about game one, where Weibo’s blip in performance saw them initially fall behind in the series:

“In the first game we didn’t manage to have a very good draft, in the pick/ban phase we just opened the Orianna to our opponents… it really feels that in terms of individual ability we were definitely not weaker than the opponents so we just concentrated more on our games after that.”

Nightshare had a “pleasant ride” through Worlds 2023

On the other side of the Rift, Fnatic head coach Nightshare only joined his side earlier this year ahead of the Spring Split after the team had experienced a disastrous winter. They then showed gradual improvement throughout the year, eventually finishing runners-up in the LEC season finals and making their Worlds appearance.

On the rollercoaster that is coaching Fnatic, Nightshare says he’s had a “pleasant ride,” adding that the team is “on a good upward trajectory.”

“Even though it can be a rollercoaster, I’ve been enjoying it.”

The upward momentum has stalled after the Weibo loss. Game three was a particularly weak point, one where Fnatic’s Alistar pick drew instant criticism and struggled to have any impact in a difficult lane versus Caitlyn and Lux. On the pick, Nightshare revealed that “ultimately Trymbi chose to go for Alistar, so we went Alistar.”

“I think the pick isn’t the best, but if we were actually playing a bit better against the Caitlyn/Lux we would’ve still been very much in the game… You have to give up XP, CS, and just do everything in your power to actually stay healthy and just wait for a gank”

He added that the Caitlyn/Lux picks had surprised him as they hadn’t seen Weibo choose it either in scrims or through scouting, and Fnatic “were discussing if we should respect ban it, but we chose not to.”

Read also: LoL Worlds Picks and Bans: What will the meta be like in Knockouts?

G2 is once again the main target moving forward

Asked how the team has developed through the year and what expectations there now are for 2014, Nightshare seemed optimistic.

“A lot of the players and the all of staff at Fnatic actually realizes that we made a huge step… We just want to do better every split, every year and basically now next split we want to rival G2. We want to go head-to-head with G2. If Europe has two strong teams, it will help the region itself.”

“The vision for next year is: let’s rival G2, let’s make two teams that are incredibly strong in Europe and let’s lift the whole competitiveness of the region and let’s try to at the next Worlds.”

He added that handling the pressure of the tournament is a key learning from Fnatic’s Worlds experience, particularly “because the environment is really tough.”

“Basically you’re in a hotel room, and the hotel room is made for only one person, and you’re there as a team, as twelve people, and if you spend a lot of time in such a close environment with people the stress will build up. It’s the highest competitive tournament in the world, so everything matters, every click matters, everything you say and how you say it matters. So basically the biggest learning point for us is how do we handle the pressure coming into the next Worlds.”

Finally, Nighshare shared his realisation about how Western teams can beat LPL and LCK sides, insisting that “every game is decided in the first 15 minutes” so “you have to pick something that’s strong early game because they will fight you to death.”

“Now we understand a bit more why G2 were practising this way; why they were picking such aggressive picks and why they were trying to win or lose the games in 15 minutes. It’s giving us direction for what we should be doing in the next split and how we should be preparing – not just for LEC but ultimately for Worlds.”

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