Interview with REN Crumbz discussing his experiences with Renegades, his first week in the NA LCS, and his hatred of Boots of Swiftness.

Alberto "Crumbz" Rengifo is a League of Legends jungle player for Renegades, a team that recently made it into the LCS through the Challenger Series. Previously, Crumbzz played for Team Dignitas as a top laner and then jungler. In this interview, he talks about his new team, his first week in the NA LCS with Renegades, and the meta.

Hey everyone tuning in. Roscoe here Crumbzz. Good to see ya man. The last time, actually, that I talked to you was Worlds, Season 3 I think? Long time ago but you've come a long way! A bit of a crisis, like a mid-life crisis... Have you found yourself now? Do you think you're back in the swing?

Crumbz: Yeah, I think I'm back in the mix. I wouldn't go as far as a "mid-game career crisis" kinda thing. I just felt like I needed to find an environment where I really enjoyed playing and just being a whole part of it.  Not to say that Dig wasn't that but it wasn't for me. 

 

Speaking of Renegades, what about it do you think you found in it?

Crumbz: I think that the dynamic that the team has set up, especially with the infrastructure. When the whole team was created, it was kind of agreed upon... what we think should be the way the things are run for the team just because we've been around in the scene so long that we've seen what works and what doesn't work. So it felt like, okay, the best thing that we can do is have all five players only focus on playing. That's all they have to do while the organization takes care of the rest. That's really all that there is. I mean, right now I don't even think about the picks or bans. I just look at the picks and think "Okay, I know the coaching staff has it." The analysts have what I'm playing. I don't have to focus about a single thing except what information's being instructed to me and just practicing my mechanics.

 

Yeah, especially with the games you had this weekend. You just got out of NRG and had Team Liquid yesterday. What was the player's mindset going into that match [Team Liquid]? Because they're certainly a stronger team that's coming up. You guys were a bit more of the underdogs status.

Crumbz: It seems that Liquid always has sort of drama around them in terms of player chemistry so I wasn't really too concerned with their game. Especially after hearing that their challenger team is better than their main team. People say that a lot. Even their own team's like "hrmmmmm OK." I mean, maybe their challenger team is amazing, who knows? We haven't played against them. But I wasn't too concerned about that matchup and I felt like, looking back at the game, we definitely could've closed it out super fast. But we kinda did some silly things... some silly "Benny Hill" chases as Alex would say. But after that, it's just a long game, the consequence for messing up and messing around.

 

What would you attribute the success to because you guys did keep up a pretty good fight, stayed the ahead the whole time. Of course, there were mistakes on both sides but what would you attribute the win to?

Crumbz: I think that that was a game where if we chose to do nothing, that game would've gone for 80 minutes 0-0 cause Team Liquid definitely didn't seem like they wanted to do anything. We were very assertive throughout the entire game in terms of "We just want to take your turrets. Just please let us take your turrets." but they had Janna and Viktor. It was a pain in the ass. The only time they actually took things from us were being out of position, died, or things like that. So they weren't very aggressive. I think that we just were able to do that but my maintaining a sense of almost urgency and accelerating the game and the lead that we had. 

 

In terms of the team dynamic because you guys have a good mix of newbies, some rookies, as well as veteran talent. How's the team dynamic? Do you guys speak about shoutcalling? How do you guys go into discussion, like does experience trump someone springing up another point they have?

Crumbz: Everybody can have their own decision. If they see a good decision, a good team decision, they can of course be calling that kind of thing out so everyone has that little bit of responsibility. But for the most part, the shotcalling falls on Maria and myself. Everyone else just gives us as much information as possible regarding their situation so "How's your lane going? Do you need to recall? How strong are you?" things like that. From there, we can make a decision in terms of what we want to be doing as a team cause that's just kind of the way the game works. Wherever the support and the jungler are, that's where the plays are going to happen. It's not like "Here's the AD Carry. He's making the plays!" That doesn't really happen a lot. 

It certainly always seems to be the jungler and the support because you're roaming so much. But how does the Rift Herald fit into all that? It is an interesting new addition and you guys have... This last game with NRG, you got it at 17:40 and with TL, you got it within 10 minutes? 

Crumbz: The herald is... well, it can be quick to take. It's a little bit of RNG in terms of how fast you can do it. If it decides to turn around and open its eye, then it's killable. Otherwise, it takes forever. So it's weird in how long it takes, especially if you don't have the champions that can tank it and stay out on the map so you have to recall after. But the problem with it, I find, is while you can use it to get a push, it really doesn't give you... there's no value to it. You have a value of 2 minutes. If you're willing to sacrifice that much pressure on the map to take it (cause you're not going to take the Herald if you're behind, you're going to take it if you're ahead), are you going to lose those 2 minutes to hopefully get a push on the other side? So I think the Herald would be pretty useful if it gave some gold value instead of I think +50 gold for whoever kills it? So maybe increasing the value makes it a little bit of an incentive. Say it's worth like half a kill or a kill. Now that's something to fight for. Not as a team but say for the person that picks it up. Cause now you can add a completely new dynamic in terms of.. you can literally put gold on whoever you want at this point. Is that not worth fighting for? So right now, not many people choose to fight for the Herald just because it's out of the way and it doesn't offer a whole lot. But if it got buffed, I think it'll definitely be really good. 

 

Yeah, moreso if there's nothing else to get, go for it. How do you decide who gets it? Is it more like maybe a top laner/split pusher?

Crumbz: Basically, never give it to the support. That's the first one. It's either the mid laner, the jungler, or the AD Carry. Because, especially in the games that we had where there was so much lane swapping when the turrets get taken so early, it's difficult to want to give it to a top laner or an AD carry because that just means that the wave is just going to constantly push over and over and over. So unless you're trying to make a dive play or heavy deny, you're not going to be able to wave control well. So sometimes, if you want to freeze... Say if you're winning a lane, you don't want to give it to the guy who wants to freeze the lane so things like that.

 

I know CLG had it last time where Darshan went Jax and so they gave it to him twice. 

Crumbz: That's something that's pretty strong cause now he has a big minion wave fighting behind him so he can just permanently push. So there's many uses for it, but for the most part you just want to use it for pushing. There's really no other way around it. If it's a super bloody game and your jungler is fed, you can give it to your jungler and now they're REALLY strong. So like an Elise with that buff is so powerful because the movement speed really helps her out in terms of positioning for cocoons and dodging things. And then the extra damage, well, Elise does a lot of damage already.

 

I also wanted to touch on... You guys this last game had 3 people pick up Boots of Swiftness. The last time they were changed was back in 5.22 in November. What changed? As a Rek'Sai, you might've picked up Merc Treads. 

Crumbz: Personally, I don't like the boots at all. A big reason is I actually think they look aesthetically terrible on my items. No, I'm serious. They look hideous. It's so goofy. But they're just cheap. Mercury treads got nerfed. So they're not that strong. They're valuable but not that strong while the swiftness are the cheapest boots. It's either that or the cooldown reduction. So when you get the increased movement speed for so cheap, it lets you make a lot of rotation plays around the map and just outnumber faster just because you're that much faster. The game turned into a slowfest. I mean, every champion basically has a slow. That last game we played against Fiora, slow. Elise, blue smite, rylais, whatever, slows. Ahri, slows. Kalista, slows. Trundle, slows. Everyone has a slow in this game. Even our team. Blue smite, slow. Mundo, Morgana, everything. So the boots are just really powerful in that regard just because crowd control. The boots that diminished crowd control got nerfed so then everyone's like "Well, we gotta stop some form of crowd control. Let's just stop the slows at least." But I prefer other boots. I would be getting Ninja Tabis every game if I could but they're just so expensive now.

 

Sounds like we might be seeing more of that in solo queue now.

Crumbz: Yeah, people are rushing them in the jungle. I see people go first item Swiftness boots in the jungle and it works just fine. 

 

You mean after the jungle item or?

Crumbz: Nah, first item boots. They start with the mana regen item (Hunter's Talisman) and boots. Tier 2 boots right off the bat. 

 

For the additional pressure and and to be able to gank faster?

Crumbz: Yeah. For example, junglers can't really catch themselves. If you have more movement speed than the other guy, you're never gonna catch him. So you just get boots and you're never going to get caught out by the other jungler. 

 

So it sounds like we should just start playing Rammus. Gotta go fast. 

Crumbz: Yeah and they'll still outrun you... I hate the boots, haha. 

 

Well, good to know. Any last shoutouts, any last words ya got for the end of the interview? 

Crumbz: Thanks for everybody who cheered for us out there even though we lost. I thought it was at least a decent game, better than yesterdays in terms of strategy and obviously not an hour. 

 

Thanks for the interview man! Good luck next week! And for everyone else, thanks for watching! Tune into our YouTube channel, follow us on social media, and we'll see you guys later!