Interview with BillyBoss on the LCS Spring Split and Relegations

As one of the newest players in the NA LCS, Billy 'BillyBoss' Yu has come a long way since week 2 when he first joined. Roscoe sat down with Billy to reflect on the Spring Split and to talk about what he's learned most from being in the LCS.

 

Hey guys, back at it again with Billy Yu from Team Dignitas, top laner. How’s it going man?

BillyBoss: Doing good, hi everyone!

 

Now this is just before relegations, you guys have been prepping ever since we heard about the delay, but the first question that I wanted to ask was, coming at you from the perspective of a challenger player entering the LCS, what’s the best thing you’ve learned as an amateur jumping into the pros?

BillyBoss: Mostly when I was in challenger I tried to do too much, and that really can hinder on your role in the team, on Dignitas in particular. I’m starting to learn more and more about my role and not to do anything way past my role. I just have to do as much as I can and whatever is not in my power is not in my power, it’s whatever. Back when I was in challenger I didn’t accept that and I would often overextend or do too much. Being in LCS and being in Challenger, that’s a really big distinction.

 

And specifically, do you mean like trying to be more of a shot caller, or trying to be in different places around the map, like what specifically are you talking about?

BillyBoss: I’m talking about shot calling, especially on Dig, where we have so many veterans, I don’t have to put my input. On amateur teams I was usually the primary shot caller and then also I typically before I would, I still do it sometimes, but less so now, I would try to pull the trigger too early, my engages were a bit off.

But now I understand that all I have to do is just wait for the perfect moment, and I should just focus on doing my things, and not worry about what anyone else is doing. Then after the game I can be like “Why didn’t you do that?” But right now all I have to focus on is myself, and hopefully all my other teammates have been doing that, and then we can just be really cohesive and just worry about yourself, because if you’re worrying about somebody else, that affects your own gameplay I feel.

 

Okay well now you kind of figured yourself out and your role on the team, do you feel pressure when going into these NA LCS matches, or especially like this one, the relegations, do you feel pressured, especially for, although our record wasn’t good, one of the big names of the LCS? Like, nerves, something else like that before?

BillyBoss: No, I don’t really have any nerves anymore. I’m just pretty chill now, it was a problem before but now it’s just play better. I’m just not playing optimally, and I don’t think I can attribute that to nerves, I didn’t do what I should be doing at certain times in our LCS games in particular.

 

So when you go into a match in terms of your mental game, is it just business as usual? You’re just going from practice to a game and it’s the same thing, or do you have a routine and psych yourself up?

BillyBoss: I’d usually just listen to classical music to calm myself, but typically we just play like how we do in practice. In real games actually it’s a bit different because a lot more’s on the line and it’s just a lot more serious. There’s no routine that I do, I just wake up, eat breakfast, listen to music, meditate before the game. Same old same old.

 

You do meditate, you kind of actually take a moment and pause and then kind of collect yourself. Do you just try to clear your mind?

BillyBoss: I don’t really clear my mind, I just think about what I have to do. There’s usually like a to do list or a checklist and I remember I mentally check off everything that I need to know before the match and that’s typically what I do. So I don’t forget, and I just focus on the thing I have to do and not anything else.

 

And talking about improving yourself, and as you’ve grown being a part of the team, do you think that when you joined that you were a part of the meta, like that you fit well into the current meta, or did you think that you needed to actually kind of change yourself and adapt from Challenger to LCS meta? Or is there much of a difference at all?

BillyBoss: There’s not much of a difference at all, I don’t think I’m like particularly amazing at any particular meta, but this metas very easy, you just play tanks and you have to work on your fundamentals that’s the biggest part. It’s not like before, when I liked playing Fiora before I thought that fit me more but this meta is just tanks and just playing around your team and I’m trying to learn about that more and more.

 

And maybe speaking of top lane meta, but in general how would you compare this season to past ones, is there anything you never thought would happen or like you totally expected?

BillyBoss: Right now it’s just tanks, but before you could play anything. Like I remember the Gnar, Hecarim, Maokai meta, obviously Gnar is a lot harder to play with than Maokai, you just have to get accustomed to the champions, some are harder than the others, I’m pretty sure that it’s all do-able though.

 

Ok, and then talking about moving forward into the second half into the split, there’s a change of the format as it goes from BO1’s to BO2’s, but you guys have been practicing so much right now, for the series and BO3’s, how do you think Dig will do not in a BO1, we’ve had a lot of trouble with BO1’s, how do you think the team will do in a more extended game scenario?

BillyBoss: Well right now we’re just worried about relegations, not gonna talk about anything regarding next split, I don’t know how I will fare. I don’t think I’ll do particularly poorly at any aspect, but I know everyone on Dig right now is very experienced with BO5’s, and I don’t think I’ll have a big problem with it.

I think we’ll even be playing better than the other Challenger teams, like TDK for example. We just have more experience in BO5 formats, versus Renegades I know they practice it a lot, and they’re also an LCS team. So I think Renegades will definitely be a harder opponent, but TDK I think will have the upper hand because of the BO5 format.

 

And in terms of who you guys, looking back on the split, who you played, was there anybody or any team that you really enjoyed or had a memorable experience playing against?

BillyBoss: There’s so many heartbreaking losses, ya’know?

 

Yeah, I know aha.

BillyBoss: I guess the TSM one was pretty nice, but we had a lot of very close games versus very, very good teams. Actually, not really, but there’s always been small problems and I think if we just hash them out, because I think we’re a very solid team right now, but we always fall short somehow in some aspects. Versus the immortals games for example, when we just didn’t wait for two inhibitors and we just lost, that was really random, well not random but just an aspect of just so close to being really good. But we’re just not there yet, so hopefully by relegations we’ll fix these issues, and then I don’t think we’ll have a problem because if we can almost beat Immortals, I think we’ll be OK versus other challenger teams.

We’ve got one final question: Would you rather fight 1 Alistar sized Teemo, or 100 Teemo Sized Alistars? In real life or League, it’s your choice?

BillyBoss: Teemo is actually large, I don’t think he’s very small. Like, a hundred Alistars…

 

Well when you compare Alistar to Teemo, like Teemo’s a fraction of the size?

BillyBoss: But like 1 hundredth of a size, I don’t think so…

 

No no no, like 100 Teemo Sized Alistars!

BillyBoss: Yeah, 100 Teemo sized Alistars would definitely be bigger than 1 Alistar sized Teemo, that’s really scary. Probably an Alistar Sized Teemo, because I’ll have a better shot, they’ll both beat you up but whatever man.

 

Awesome man, any shoutouts, any last words to end the interview?

BillyBoss: Hi Mom! That’s it!

 

No sponsors to thank or? Haha.

BillyBoss: Oh yeah, uh, Corsair, and stuff. WD, everyone on my jersey. Alienware, yep, OK!

 

And thank you guys for watching, thanks for supporting us, and we’ll see you guys in the relegations, and hopefully next split! For weekly LCS content with Team Dignitas, keep checking out our Website, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter! In addition, don't forget to follow BillyBoss on Twitter.