“My team makes me play on these awful tanky toplane champions”

And our last but not the least interview will be with  Team Empire's toplane player —  Márió «mumus100» Szépvölgyi. He will tell us the story behind his nickname, what LCL misses and why Hard Random is not the best contender at International Wild Card Invitational.

– Hello,  mumus100! What it’s like to finish at second place in regular season in league, where you are a new player?

– First of all hello. It definitely feels awesome to finish as the second place team in my first split in the LCL but I am also a bit sad because we could not get our hands on the 1st spot. To me finishing high in the standings is nothing new since I have been playing in the Spanish league for some time and I was getting good places. So my expectations coming in to the Russian LCS were really high already.

– What your nickname means? Has it some kind of story?

– My nickname in Hungarian means the Boogieman100. Yes I know it sounds retarded xD but I was only 6 years old when I came up with this nickname when I had to make an account for an online game. I thought getting a “scary” nickname would be a good idea and since I was afraid of the Boogieman I thought it would be a great nickname to have. I have no idea why I did not change my nickname in the past 12 years but right now I am way too connected to it and it feels like it’s my second name and I have no intentions of changing it.

– Tell us about yourself. What was before you came into the LCL?

– Privjet minya zavut Márió and I am 18 years old right now. I am a high school student currently learning mathematics and computer science planning to become a programmer. I like playing video games (what a surprise) playing video games and playing VIDEO GAMES.

Before I got into to LCL I’ve played in the Spanish scene for some time. I attended 4 Spanish LANs so far and won 2 and biggest one of them being the LVP (Liga de Videojuegos Proffesional). Also won the MVP Redbull award of the whole tournament which is probably my proudest moment in my career so far. Before that I was playing in some Hungarian LANs but that was a long time ago.

– Why did you choose CIS professional league? Were there any doubts, fears, expectations?

– I was planning on playing professionally for a long time now but I could never do it because I could not afford to leave school and go to another country but with the LCL I can. I did not really have any fears coming into the league because I knew RIOT was in control of the region now and nothing bad could happen to me. My biggest fear was that we could do badly and end up in the bottom half of the standings.

– Did you know anything about CIS before you started to play here? Were your assumptions coincided with reality?

– All I knew about the CIS region before was that they are a wildcard region probably the weakest one (rip my Russian fans) and that  Hard Random is the best team playing in that league. And hopefully I am wrong about both of those things.

– What do you think, what is the main difference between LCL and other leagues of the same level.

– I think the main difference is that people in the Russian LCS love to fight. If you want to fight them they are always up for a challenge and because of that the games are more fun to watch too I think.

– What LCL and other small regional leagues need to do to be at level of LCS, LPL, etc.?

– A LOT. Literally a LOT. First of all every single LCL player has to be a full time League player. And for that to happen salaries must increase. Players must move into a gaming house and start training there for as much as possible. Then the attitude of the players must change too accordingly. Coaching staffs must introduced with at least 3-4 people helping the team. After that some really good talent must come out of nowhere who can play on the level of the mayor leagues.

– How did you get into  Team Empire? Why did you choose this team?

– Bulba asked if I wanted to play in his team and well, I took it. I had offers from Turkish LCS teams aswell, but i refused them because I did not want to move out from home because of the school and the Russian LCS looked like the perfect opportunity for me.

–  Team Empire is the most progressing team in spring split. Why do you think it is so?

– I think it is thanks to the fact that good players + a good coach were put together. Me  Memento and  Saetia are always looking for stuff to improve on and whenever we do something badly we always try to find a way to fix it and do so almost immediately. Also the fact that both me and Memento were able to have good achievements from other leagues and bring that knowledge to the team helped a lot.

– You are playing for two months with your teammates. Can you tell us something interesting about them?

– Of course I would love to do that. First of all  SaNTaS. That guy loves Podliva for some reason.. no idea why but he weird like that. He is always in love with that gay Russian pirate guy who sings Pirates of the Caribbean without a shirt on. Then  Bulbuzi. Did you know that Buzi means gay in Hungarian? Well now you know. So in Hungarian his name means Gay Bulba. Then  Memento. Well he loves to buy Zz rot portals for some reason. And then  Para. He plays Talon with cleanse at mid… nothing else to say.

– The distinctive feature of  Team Empire is to use a large number of new champions. Where those ideas come from and how you can train new champions so fast?

– I personally watch a ton of Korean soloqueue and I am always first when it comes to playing the new meta champions. But apart from me Saetia always comes up with these crazy stuff and tries to implement it into our champion pool.

– Your team was the first one to play Rammus at top lane. Was that yours or your coach's idea?

– We both wanted to try it the moment we saw Ssumday play it in the LCK. I fell in love with it after the first game. It is just so much fun to see the enemy Kog’Maw suicide.

– What do you find more interesting to play — tanks with initiation like Malphire or splitpushers like Fiora or Quinn?

– My team loves to force me on these shitty toplane tank champions but I enjoy playing playmaker damage oriented champions a lot more. I feel like I am in control of the games more when I play those champions. Oh and Saetia: I hate you for forcing me on these champions.

– What  Hard Random have, but you don’t?

– Their players are not better at all when it comes down to personal skill level. Their strength comes from mid/lategame rotations, shotcalling in teamfight and general macro level game.

– Teleport is a mandatory summoner's spell for almost three seasons. What should be changed in game to get toplaners freedom of choice? Do they need that freedom?

– Teleport needs to be nerfed hard if we want to see people with other summoner spells on toplane. Either that or someone else needs to be able to take the role of splitpushing with tp or riot must give a bigger reward for killing the rift herald. I am fine with teleport personally but having the option of taking ignite would be awesome as well.

– What is the secret of being a good toplaner?

– The secret of being a good toplaner. Well you must play in a super clever way. Toplane depends a lot on minion wave control and most toplaners don’t really put any effort into controlling their minion waves.

–  Vaevictis eSports,  Vega Squadron and  Team Just.MSI — in your opinion, which team will win tie-breaks and get the last slot in playoffs?

– I think  Just. MSI will get it. I really hope they do. They have improved a lot over the course of the split and I think they deserve the win.

– There are already three teams in playoffs. In your opinion, which one is worthy to represent your region on International Wildcard Invitational?

– Of course it is  Team Empire. Who else would it be? I mean how could a team with the word “Random” in their name be a good representation of the CIS region instead of a team who has an awesome icon with a badass Spartan riding a horse.

– Against whom you would like to play in the semi-finals, and with whom to meet in the finals?

– I want to meet  Hard Random in the finals and NaVi in the semi-finals. I have played 4 times in the finals and have never dropped a single game in them. I had always finished in an either 3 – 0 or a 2 – 0. I think the hype is going to make me stronger and I’ll have to give my best against a hard random if I want to beat them.

– What do you want to do in first place when you will come to Moscow?

– I want to meet my teammates and have some dinner with them. I am super hyped to see them and I want to meet them personally. Oh and I also want to try some good Russian vodka if my team lets me.

– Do you read articles about LCL on lolesports.ru?

– Yes I do regularly read them even though I don t understand Russian and I can only use the google translator but I always want to keep up with the news in the league.

– What would you like to say to your fans?

– I don’t know how many Russian fans I have but if I have any Thank you. Just thanks you. I could praise you guys all day long for all the love I get from you guys and I can’t repay you guys with anything but a simple Thank youю And a promise that I will do everything I can to win this shit and make you guys proud of me. Also we would like to thank our partners: LogitechG, Seagate and Azubu for their help and support.