"I'm the Best Laner in the West — But That Doesn't Mean Much If We Don't Win Everything" — Jojopyun After Week One
Photo Credit: Riot Games
Eight solo kills in five games. A dominant individual start on paper — but Joseph "Jojopyun" Pyun isn't satisfied. After a top 3 in the LEC Versus and a 1-1 opening week of Spring, MKOI's mid laner sat down with RFT.GG to talk about what still needs fixing, why he thinks Winter splits are cursed for him, his contract extension, what it'll take to actually compete at MSI, and more.
How are you feeling after today?
I'm feeling pretty good. We could still have done a lot of things better today for sure. It's only week one, so I'm happy where we are — but we still have to improve on a lot.
What are the main things to work on?
On me individually, my fundamentals past the laning phase — my lane assignments, my team fighting.As a team, we have to understand the win condition more and understand our role in the game. Of course it's going to vary game to game depending on our champions, so we still have to improve a lot at that. And just coordinating with Elyoya more in the early game. Those are probably the most important ones.
Loading comments...
It's funny you say that because you've been stomping every midlaner so far, at least individually.
That's why the games are much easier than they should be — I'm winning lane very hard. But the games were still harder to close with the leads I had. I still think we have a lot to improve on.
And I can't build these leads consistently in playoffs — unless I'm legit Chovy. And even Chovy's not doing it right now.
So I still have to get better at using my leads, and when I'm not so ahead, we have to get better at playing together as a coordinated team.
You faced Vladi today and had a pretty dominant match against him. You used to talk about him as a top three mid laner in the league last year. How do you see his trajectory?
I haven't scrimmed against him at all since we played them in Week 1. I think it's still the same issues — his laning can be much stronger. He has good mechanics, that's his strength. But he still has to understand how to win the game more and his fundamentals have to be stronger. He still has a lot of potential under the right coach or the right mindset, I think he can become a very good player.
Eight solo kills in five games. Would you say you're the best laner in the league right now?
For sure I'm the best laner, but I'm still far away from where I want to be. There's so much I need to improve on if I want to really dominate at MSI and easily compete with the best midlaners in the world. That's my goal. At least right now I'm still very far, because I'm not going to get these leads at MSI unless they misplay.
I'd say I'm the best laner in the West, but it doesn't really mean too much if we don't win everything and if I don't get my mid game to the same level as my laning phase.
Loading tweet...
You're known for not grinding solo queue as much — you prefer watching and analyzing VODs. Why that approach?
Solo queue is only useful for learning new champions or laning. If you're trying to practice a new champion, understand the damage, the combos, or just get comfortable on it — that's good practice. Or if you want to practice laning matchups.
But for actually learning the game, you learn way more watching VODs than laning against Scrub Daddy 400 on the Malzahar.
A lot of people don't watch VODs because solo queue is much more fun — I get way more dopamine playing solo queue than watching VODs, it feels like I'm in school. But I know it helps me a lot.
I do think I have to play a bit more solo queue on the champions I want to improve on — that's the benefit of it. But besides that, it's a lot of fake data. You get rewarded for doing a lot of dumb stuff that wouldn't work in competitive. So it's not really useful data.
Let's come back on your LEC Versus. You've always been the player who plays on the edge. The story of your Winter looked a bit like your first split last year. Do you view Winter as a testing ground?
Maybe I'm just cursed in Winter Split at this point. I think it's the Berlin weather — I really like going outside, getting some sun and reflecting. And I can't because it's so cold. So I'm just reflecting in my room. I don't go outside enough because of the weather.
It’s not like I trolled Winter, or that I’m not trying but for sure — I didn't take it as seriously as Spring splits.
It was more about building my foundation. Winter is when I find out what works and what doesn't, not really caring too much about the results compared to what I'm actually learning.
The learning experience in Winter is much more important than the results, because nobody's going to remember if you have a good Winter — unless obviously you 3-0 Gen.G at First Stand.
You're Canadian — how do you explain the cold is getting to you?
I get cold pretty easily now. I think I've been outside of Toronto for too long.
You've been in Europe for over a year now. Do you miss home?
I think about it. Even in LA, my family and friends were not there. So I'd say I miss the weather the most, probably. But Europe is pretty peaceful. Being in Berlin — even though I'm in the middle of nowhere — there is some peace in that. There are pros and cons to both sides. I think I've found the pros in Berlin at least.
Melzhet said in a post-game interview that you're the biggest talent in the West right now. Do you see yourself that way?
I'm not sure. I think I'm talented in the sense that I can pick up things really fast and learn concepts really fast — in that aspect, yes.
But if I don't put in the work I need to put in, the talent doesn't really matter at the end of the day.
I don't know if I have the most talent compared to other players. I'd say I'm pretty good at picking things up.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
There have been rumours that MKOI have been trying to extend your contract since last off-season. Where does that stand?
I don’t know how much I can say about it.
I think they wanted to renew me, but there was uncertainty about whether the LEC would be in Spain or Berlin — it would’ve been different salaries because I’d get lower taxes in Spain or something.
At least for now I'm not really focused on the renewal. I just want to play my best and try to do well internationally.
Do you think this year is going to be harder to qualify for internationals?
I don't think so, because Fnatic was actually stronger last year too. NAVI got better and Vitality got better, but we were still losing to Vitality last year and they were playing well against us in the regular season. So I don't know if the level is really that much higher. Different teams got better than other teams — that's the main difference.
