Hello Quas, congratulations on making it into the LCS.   What have you been up to since qualifying? 

I’ve just been relaxing back at the curse house and playing a lot of hearthstone.

What do you think of your team?  Will this be a team to be reckoned with this season?

I like all of my teammates and we’ve only been playing together for 2 months. I think we will be a force to be reckoned with and upset some people that think we’re low tier in LCS.

Curse ended up having first pick on who they wanted to play and choose COGnitive.  What were your thoughts of them?  Was there anything that worried you about them?  Such as specific picks or players.  

We thought of them as the weakest out of the 3 teams given their standings in NACL and past performances against us. We were worried about some of their mid laner picks that we weren’t used to dealing with such as ap Kog Maw.

Going into the relegation matches how confident were you?  How confident was the team?  

We were fairly confident but still acknowledged the chance of us getting relegated, I personally was worried that playing in a LAN setting would make me underperform but that didn’t happen to be the case.

From my understand you made a mistake in game 1 during the picks and ban,where you accidentally banned Karthus instead of Riven.  Could you explain your side of the story?

I was trying to scroll over to ban Riven but banned Karthus on the way… kind of a big deal since Riven managed to do very well that game and we couldn’t deal with her properly.

Unfortunately things did not go Curses way in Game 1 with Cris performing quite well on the unbanned Riven.  What was the team attitude like after dropping the first game of the series?  Did you begin to get worried?

We were a bit worried but we knew what the reasons were for our loss, and with the help of our coach for some insight on our mistakes we were able to adapt our bans and the way we approached objectives and managed to pull a 3-0 afterwards.

Fortunately for Curse you ended up winning the next three games earning your spot in the LCS.  What does this mean to you as a player who came from Venezuela to compete in North America and who had been in the challenger scene competing for a while?

It means a lot to me, it is my biggest achievement and the biggest goal I’ve accomplished so far.

What does your family think of your gaming career?  Are they supportive?

They are very supportive right now but when I was just starting up they were very skeptical about me pursuing  pro gaming.

Rengar was globally banned throughout the Promotion Tournament and Battle of the Atlantic.  From my understanding a lot of teams had been practicing him quite heavily.  Do you think Rengar being globally banned had an impact?

Even though we weren’t practicing Rengar at all, it wasn’t something we were worried about, so even though it ended up being convenient for us, it wasn’t such a big deal.

Lately in OGN and the NA/EU Challenger Scene the most popular top lane champions have been Shyvana, Rengar, Renekton, Olaf and Dr. Mundo. What are your thoughts on these champions and what makes them strong in your mind?

They are all strong because they have a lot of sustain and can 2v1 quite well, and they don’t have many bad matchups and are reliable picks into most teamcomps.

Unlike most top laners you tend to rush more damaging items on traditional tanks.  For example you will rush Hydra on Renekton, and you will often pick up a TriForce on some champions like Shyvana or Shen.  Could you explain the reasoning behind these choices?

I don’t like building full tank on Renekton because I feel like i’m not a threat in lane as well as in teamfights later on in the game. Triforce is a very cost effective item to get for a tanky champion as a 4th or 5th item to make yourself into a threat.

What’s it like working with a player like Voyboy who has massive experience as a top laner?  Does this help in game since he knows most of the match ups as well as you do?

It helps a lot having someone like Voy with massive amounts of experience top lane on the team, since he helps me sometimes with matchup tips and starting item builds.

Lately there has been a lot of hype surrounding you, does this give you added pressure?  Do you think you deserve the hype?

It does add more pressure since I know there’s more people expecting a lot from me, though in the end I try not to care about people’s appraisal or hate and just play my game.  I don’t think I deserve as much hype as I get since I still have a lot to learn.

Is there any particular top laner in any scene that you have looked up to or styled your play off of?  Why?

When I first started playing top lane, which was around 7 months ago, I looked up to Flame for his aggressive playstyle and carry potential.

You’re known to be one of the top laners willing to pull out something unusual or unpredictable.  Recently Darien of Gambit Gaming pulled out top lane Warwick.  It seemed to work well in their comp since they used him and Riven as dive buddies.  What are your thoughts on the pick?  Is it viable?  

It is definitely viable as you can see from his performance, it’s a good pick into Shyvanna since you can just turn it into a farmfest lane and be more useful later on for picking people off coupled with a Riven.

As a player who competed in the challenger scene for a while, what are your thoughts on what Riot is trying to accomplish with the challenger scene?  Is it improving?  How big of an impact do you think the Coke Zero league will have?  

It certainly is improving but it’s nothing huge, the rewards from Coke league as far as i’m aware of are nowhere close as to what I had in mind. It’s a step in the right direction towards helping the challenger scene though that’s for sure.

Is there anything you would like to see Riot implement to help improve the challenger scene?

More leagues/tournaments for challenger teams to play in with more incentive to stabilize the situation of amateur teams with gaming houses.

What are your personal goals for Season 4 as a player and as a team?

I want to improve my play in a LAN setting and grow my brand and my fanbase. As a team we are aiming to be at least a top 4 team going into this next LCS season.

Thank you for the interview, is there anything you would like to say to your fans and sponsors?

Id like to thank all of my fans and sponsors for making this happen and helping us improve as a team with the resources they give us.