GX Isma on his team rebuild: "We'd reached the end of a cycle"
GIANTX needed this one. A week on from being upset by SK, Ismaïl "ISMA" Boualem and GIANTX edged Shifters 2-1 to get their Summer back on track. RFT.GG caught up with the GX jungler after the win to talk about the mistakes still creeping in, his own progression, what Oscarinin and Flakked bring to a roster that had hit its ceiling, and a mid-season gamble he's happy to take.
How are you feeling after that match, and what's your read on the series?
I feel good — we won, so that feels good. We didn't play game two very well; we had a big lead and I kind of trolled with my Lee Sin. I wanted to do crazy stuff when the game was just won, you know. So my bad. But honestly, I think it was much better than last time. It's cool, we won — go next, and we'll see about the next series.
You touched on it — your first match . What did you take from that kind of loss, and how did the group react?
It's a BO3, so obviously it feels bad to lose in the moment, but whatever. Go next, focus on the next series, and normally we should win the next ones — it's as simple as that. You're a bit down that same evening, but there are eight more BOs after that.
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Does the fact it was a team that's weaker on paper add something — make you think you missed something there?
Honestly, we really didn't play well, but it happens — we did crazy stuff in those games. Go next, go next series, and that's it. Obviously you're annoyed. But from my point of view — I don't know about my teammates
But whether I play SK or G2, the pressure's the same for me.
In the sense that I just try to look at what I can do, and that's it.
On a personal level, at the start of Spring you told us that the criticism about your mid and late-game mistakes was the hardest thing to fix, because you didn't want to lose your aggression. We saw a few slips again today, like the Lee Sin. How do you rate that progression compared to last split?
I think I've improved a lot on pretty much everything — on the map, on my champions. But being a good jungler in Europe isn't easy, so I try to give everything I can. I'm happy with my improvements;
I think I'm becoming a good LEC jungler. Not top yet, but I'm happy.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
Obviously you always criticise yourself a bit, and I'm not satisfied yet, but I think it's going in the right direction. Maybe a bit slowly, but I can see I'm improving — or at least that's how it feels.
Those slips seemed to spread through the whole team — everyone made their own mistake. How do you explain it? Communication? Being a new team? Pressure after the last loss?
Not pressure, I don't think. But we get in each other's way a lot in comms, maybe because we're still a new team. We still have different ideas — one wants to turn, one wants to finish Baron, one wants to cross for Drake, and so on. That's what leads to the catches, and then we're unfocused. I think that's the main reason it happens.
I spoke to Jackies at the end of Spring and he said you played really well together in mid-jungle during playoffs. Why does it click so well between you two?
Honestly, among mid laners I really like Jackies, because I like his aggression — he's a bit of a Sylas-Akali player, you know. He's always up for it if I want to fight or invade. And he's really improved in the mid game, especially in game two; he calls a lot in the mid game now. There's the human side too — I get on well with him. I think all of that makes it work. There are big mid-junglers in the league, and we're not at that level yet, but I think we're up there.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
With this meta, the jungle-support-mid trio is hugely important. It feels like one of your strengths as a team — is this meta made for you?
Yeah, I think it's good for us. But I think there are still better teams than us in the league, and we'll have to work even more. It's one of our strengths, but we're still not the best at it — there are better ones above us.
What are the areas that could let you take that step?
I don't think there's one particular thing. Being a good player is understanding how to play your skirmishes, understanding what you have to do in the next minute. I don't think you can just focus on one thing — there's a huge amount you have to react to in a split second in League. For example, you see the support on vision top side, that unlocks a play. The mid laner has no ult, that unlocks a play. There are always small things to improve, but I think we need to improve a lot of things — from camera control to tracking the enemy's conditions, tracking tempo. There's an enormous amount that goes into being a good player. What I try to do is focus on one thing at a time. But overall, I feel like we have to improve a bit of everything.
Yeah, we'd reached the end of a cycle, plain and simple and I think the changes are there to bring something new.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
Oscar is much more aggressive than Lot — in playstyle he's much more aggressive. Sometimes he'll go a bit too far, but sometimes he'll create a lot of opportunities, and that's what I like about him. Lot was more about control. They're two different players; I think both are very good. And Flakked compared to Noah — the problem we had with Noah, I find, was consistency: you could go from a game where he's 7k ahead to a game where he's 7k behind, and sometimes he'd be out of it, really out of it. So Flakked brings a lot of stability, and he's also more active in comms.
Isn't it a strange time to do it, though, given it's the last split? Doesn't it weaken you short term, since you lose your automatisms?
Of course it weakens us short term. But honestly, between finishing fourth or sixth — I like taking the risk. For example, you finish fourth, you play a BO against NAVI and then you lose. Between doing that and not playing that BO, I don't feel there's much difference. The way I see it, whether I finish fourth or sixth in the LEC is roughly the same, as long as you haven't crossed the threshold into the top level. And with GX, we were in the mid-top before — I think we were a good team, but things were clearly missing.
From a personal standpoint, how do you see this Summer split? As a pro, you never know what happens at the end of a season — do you feel a particular pressure to perform, or are you not paying attention to that?
Not really, honestly. I tell myself I'm doing the best I can, and I look at my own goals. If it has to stop tomorrow, it'll stop tomorrow. I trust in God and I move forward. I play and I try to do my best. I think I'm improving — it's not enough yet to be in the top, and I'm trying to improve a bit. Whoever I play with, I try to do what's best for my team so that we win. That doesn't mean we'll be first tomorrow, but I try to do my best and to improve, and I think that's the most important thing. If I'm not here next year because I played badly this split — well, it happens.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
Tomorrow you face MKOI, who've bounced back from a catastrophic weekend in Paris. Do you think the team has what it takes to beat them, and what are the key points?
I think MKOI are a good team on the map. In fights, maybe a bit below the very top teams. But MKOI are definitely a big team on the map. They have a lot of choke moments, though, I feel — games that are ultra free wins, or they turn up on a bad day and the day is completely fucked up. So we'll see, it'll be interesting. I think we can learn a lot from the match. We'll do our best. It won't be easy — harder than SK and Shifters for sure — but it'll be interesting and we'll try to do our best.
