Interview with dignitas KiWiKiD on the new champion, meta picks and his improvement: "I feel like I'm a very solid player at the moment"

Alan 'KiWiKiD' Nguyen has been with Team Dignitas since December 2012, we sat down with him after week 6 of LCS to ask him a little bit about how he feels he's doing, discuss the support metagame as well as the new champion, Bard.

 

How are you doing?

KiWiKiD: Yeah alright, going 0-2 always sucks so I’m feeling pretty down about that.

 

Okay, so to start off the interview, I want to ask you a little bit about your history. So what was it like going from most deaths in a single split of the LCS as the Top Laner, to coming in as the Support player, the Team Captain and the face of Team Dignitas. What has that transformation been like for you?

KiWiKiD: I don’t really feel any differently. Actually maybe a little, I think I feel a little bit smarter and I’m not being as reckless, greedy or hungry for playmaking as I used to be. That really helped me really tone down my deaths and I feel like I’m a very solid player at the moment.

 

So you think you’ve matured a lot as a player?

KiWiKiD: Yeah definitely. I don’t know if that came by age or just by experience but yeah just learning, striving to be relevant in the scene I suppose, it helps a lot.

 

So last week when I interviewed Gamsu and two months ago when you were interviewed by Travis both of you really talked a lot about the relationship that’s existed between you two. Do you think that has helped a lot?

KiWiKiD: Yeah Gamsu really reaching out to me, teaching me what he’s learned about support in Samsung helped a lot. It wasn’t only because of the content but also because he kind of stood with me as a teammate and kind of like a friend. I feel like he could’ve kept that all to himself and maybe went in for support if he wanted to, I’m sure he’s a great support but yeah it actually really meant a lot and I felt really happy with him and the team as a result. So that was really nice.

And what about CoreJJ, he’s a very outgoing person just like imaqtpie?

KiWiKiD: Core actually thinks I probably have the best laning in the NA LCS, I don’t know if I am inclined to agree but he really likes playing with me, and I really like playing with him. So it's been really good.

 

So moving onto the Meta right now, what's your opinion and Annie and Leona coming back into the forefront of support picks?

KiWiKiD: Yeah with Janna being nerfed, I think Leona will rise a little bit for sure. Annie, Thresh, Morgana are still going to be great. I actually can't wait to see if there's going to be any new supports coming out. Not just coming out like Bard, but also just coming out of hiding.

 

So what are your opinions on Bard?

KiWiKiD: The concepts are  awesome. I can't wait to try him out and play him. I keep thinking about his laning and I feel like he might be bad at it, so that will be the real struggle in Bard. Not his playmaking or anything but his laning, I think your ADC might be kind of screwed.

 

So it seems that he will really depend on the base damage on his Q and how much health he gets back, but there is also the conundrum of if those are too high can he be played in Jungle. So what are your thoughts there?

KiWiKiD: If the cooldown on his Q is low enough I think he can be played in Jungle but I really doubt it because people tried Braum jungle, and on paper it kind of feels like it would work but it was really kind of awful. So I feel like it might be the same with Bard, so I don't think he will be able to jungle.

 

So your duo partner CoreJJ is a proclaimed lover of Ezreal so was imaqtpie but lately we've actually seen mid lane Ezreal come about, so what are you opinions on that and why is he not being played in the Bot Lane?

KiWiKiD: Mid lane Ezreal is pretty great I think, he's really annoying to play against because it's really hard to gank him and I like roaming a lot. I think he's been played mid rather than bottom because he doesn't have any wave clear. I mean he does but it's at level 6 and if you're in a solo lane you'll get to 6 way faster, and in mid lane there are a lot less creeps to clear usually because it's a lot shorter than the other lanes. So getting that fast level 6 and ability to farm without the pressure to shove the lane is really helpful. As you can see he can be such a hard carry for the mid lane.

 

What's a champion not in the Meta right now that you're hoping to see rise?

KiWiKiD: A champion not in the Meta right now is Zac. I love playing Zac, Zac's awesome but I feel like you're more implying for support. I think Alistar, he is slowly being played here and there and sometimes by Aphromoo because that's one of his oldest main champs, and Piccaboo but that's been a while, I haven't seen Alistar in LCK for a while. I guess something more obscure, maybe like Brand. I think Brand's pretty cool.

 

Thank you so much for the interview, is there anybody you'd like to thank?

KiWiKiD: I'd like to thank our sponsors Corsair Gaming, Western Digital, Alienware, Scan, Intel, Twitch, Creative Soundblaster, TP-LINK, Multiplay and iiyama. Thank you for everything and all the support you've given me. And to all my wonderful friends and fans that are still sticking with me, and my girlfriend who has been long distance but still trying to go with it which has honestly been pretty tough but it's pretty cool. And I'd like to thank Hunter too for doing all this.

 

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