UCAM Esports Club jungler Maik “Hadess” Jonker and support Pedro “Plasma” Simões Ribeiro: “The level of the LVP SuperLiga is still pretty good and hopefully we prove in EU Masters that we are still a top regional league, and that people still need to watch out for us.”
The LVP SuperLiga concluded spring with a historical finale: None of the big Spanish names or previous champions were in the finals. Spain would see a new and somewhat unexpected winner in UCAM Esports Club. For a team that entered spring with not very much expectations from external parties, what they’ve achieved is incredible.
UCAM enter the European Masters (EUM) as the Spanish champions, and they are out to prove that the SuperLiga is still one of the European Regional Leagues (ERLs) to be feared, especially with third seed G2 Arctic making it out of Play-Ins.
Since this was such a big win for the underdog, both jungle and support Hadess and Plasma joins us today to talk about their run to the SuperLiga crown, their EUM expectations and thoughts, and answering if jungle diff is support diff.
Thank you both for accepting this interview. Firstly, a big congratulations are in order for your first ever LVP SuperLiga title! It’s probably fair to say not many people expected UCAM to win it all, how did it feel to win and prove everyone wrong?
Hadess: Obviously winning feels really good, but to do it in the way that we did feels even better, because a lot of people didn’t expect us to win even when we reached the finals! But seeing this team succeed feels really good because I believe everyone here is really talented and deserves to win.
Plasma: Winning the title was really rewarding after all the work we’ve put in this team since the beginning of the year. Most people didn’t expect us to even be in top 4 at the start of spring, so I’m really happy to prove them wrong!
However, the road to winning the title wasn’t easy and in the early weeks of the regular season, UCAM struggled for consistency. What were the challenges early on and how did you guys overcome those problems towards the end of the season?
Hadess: I think it’s hard to say because we were not even playing bad in the beginning of the season. We were just not able to translate it into official games, as we’ve seen a lot of teams have trouble with. But we found some ways throughout the season to recreate the same vibes as scrims, so all the players wouldn’t be nervous in official games.
Plasma: I think we struggled a bit at the start because we were a new team. Even though we kept three players from the previous roster, changing the toplaner and jungler as well with meta changes forced us to adapt despite us performing decently well in practice early on. Luckily we managed to fix those issue after and play the same way in competitive matches.
“I want to make my old teammates Looca, Raqo, Orre and Quicktimer from LowLandLions proud since I’m the only one from our team in EUM this season.” — Hadess
The SuperLiga playoffs this season was very surprising, with teams like G2 Arctic and Vodafone Giants not making it to the finals. Considering the analysts didn’t predict it, did both of you expect to meet Cream Real Betis in the finals, and did you expect a 3–0 victory against them?
Hadess: For me, I didn't expect to meet Betis in the finals, but they showed up against G2 in the semi-finals and proved that they deserved to be there.
In the finals itself we kind of believed it could be a 3–0 but we always said to each other: “It’s okay to lose one or two games, we know we can win it all”. And this was even more true especially after the second game in finals where we were behind. But due to smart calls from players like João Miguel “Baca” Novais Bigas or Plasma, we were able to win it. Of course the two baron steals and Rafa “Rafitta” Ayllón Zapata’s pentakill helped a lot too!
Plasma: I didn’t expect Betis to make it to the finals, especially since they were against G2 Arctic who I thought at the time was the second best team. But obviously Betis proved me wrong when they 3–0'ed them.
After knowing it was Betis we would face in finals, I was pretty confident we would win since I believed we knew how they wanted to play the game very well and how we could exploit it. So for me it was always going to be a 3–0 or 3–1.
With the SuperLiga’s Regular Season being so close and the finalists in playoffs being so unexpected, there have been debates on the overall strength of the SuperLiga. Do you think that the level of play of the Spanish scene is better or worse compared to years past?
Plasma: It’s hard to say…I think some top players in SuperLiga left to the other leagues, which made the the overall level slightly lower.
But I would also say the level of the SuperLiga is still pretty good and hopefully we prove in EUM that we are still a top regional league, and that people still need to watch out for us.”
On a lighter note, I noticed that UCAM tends to constantly flash the MAD Team or Team Vitality emotes! Tell me the story behind that, why MAD and Vitality?
Hadess: It’s just a meme in the team itself where we use the MAD icon if we kill or outplay someone and we just say: “He has to be MAD right now!”
It’s nothing personal to the player itself, we just thought it’s pretty funny to have in the team to create chill vibes in scrims and official games. It’s never bad to have a good laugh in games right?
Plasma: This is the invention of our crazy jungler, Mr.Hadess, who had the brilliant idea of starting to use MAD icon every time he would gank, get a kill, assist or steal Drakes and Baron while sometimes yelling: “HE’S SO MAD AHAHAHAHA”. Not long after, everyone started using the MAD icon.
The Vitality emote was more because I saw G2 Arctic using it when they were playing Giants, and since they [G2] won I thought it would be a good idea since we were also against playing Giants.
Interesting…On to the main topic: EUM. With this being UCAM and a number of players’ first time in EUM, both of you are technically the ‘veterans’ since you’ve attended past editions. What are yours and the team’s expectations and goals for EUM spring?
Hadess: For this EUM, I expect to be able to get better results compared to my last few attempts. The team right now is pretty strong together.
We got a mix of everything in here, so I think we can again surprise some people, because I believe many will not expect us to win a lot. Getting out of groups would be a great start, and then we just take it game by game to see how far we can go!
Plasma: Well, Hadess and I are kind of the “CEOs of not getting out of groups” and we would like to change that. And when we do, we will take it one game at the time and see where that gets us.
Other than that, our goal is just being able to show in EUM what we can do and prove our value as players and most importantly, as a team.
In terms of your group, UCAM are seeded into Group C with mousesports, Macko Esports and Illuminar Gaming. Tell me a bit on what you think of this group and how do you think it will go.
Hadess: Personally, I think its going be a pretty hard group, because all these teams have a completely different way of playing the game, which makes it harder to prepare for all of them.
But the teams that I think will qualify for Knockouts will be us and mousesports. I’m also looking forward to facing Milo “Pridestalkr” Wehnes since he is a Dutch jungler as well (laughs) !
Plasma: I think we have a really competitive group. Every team in the group is good enough to take games off each other, so we will need to be at the top of our game to make sure things go smoothly.
If I had to guess which teams would make it to Knockouts, I would say us and Mousesports, even though I expect Illuminar to be quite strong after their performance in Play-Ins.
Both of you come from the Dutch League and LPLOL respectively, where you both won domestic titles. Have you been keeping up with them? Do you think they’re slowly becoming more competitive in EUM?
Hadess: For the Dutch League, I think they still have a long way to go. The basic level from ERLs like the SuperLiga, LFL and the Prime League are just a lot higher, and I just don’t really see them competing with them anytime soon.
But the biggest reason for this is because the moment there is a good player in the league, they just move on to a bigger league. For example, toplaner Alois “Alois” Nelissen who is in SK Gaming Prime right now.
Plasma: From what I see in the LPLOL, I think they still struggle a lot internationally mostly because in this type of league, there’s usually a team that is way better than the others but since they spend a whole season without any real and close competition, they end up not improving as much as they need to stay competitive in EUM.
Clear examples of this are For The Win Esports in 2019 and most recently White Dragons, despite the latter giving a really good fight considering they had a very tough group in this EUM Play-Ins.
Another factor to these ERLs struggling is the fact that if there is a really good player in the league, he will most likely not stay for too long. As soon as he gets a chance in a top ERL he will take it, since there’s a big gap in competition and conditions.
Perhaps an often overlooked aspect of gauging a team’s strength is the jungle/support synergy and how they enable the team. How important do you think jungle/support synergy is for a team’s success in this meta?
Hadess: I think jungle support synergy is always important no matter the meta. Me and Plasma synergise really well together and I think it showed during the regular season already, but especially in the playoffs we showed that you can’t underestimate us.
Plasma: In my opinion, Jungle/Support is probably one of the most important synergies in competitive LoL, if not the most important. Since you can’t really have a great mid to late-game if you’re not playing together, so it’s very important to be in the same page with your jungler as a support and vice versa.
“Hadess and I are kind of the “CEOs of not getting out of [EUM] groups” and we would like to change that. And when we do, we will take it one game at the time and see where that gets us.” — Plasma
Before we end then, some easier questions perhaps to close the interview out! I believe it was Caedrel who said it: “Jungle diff is Support diff”. Agree or disagree? Go!
Hadess: Good supports make jungling a lot easier!
Plasma: Disagree! Jungle diff is Mid diff. And Support diff is Jungle diff!!!
Fighting words from Plasma! What champions do you guys really want to play but haven’t had the chance to or can’t due to the current meta?
Hadess: Lee Sin / Rek’Sai / Elise. Since they are really aggressive and I really like to play them, but they are just not really good in the meta right now with every farming jungler just being so strong. So for me I cant wait for them to be viable again!
Plasma: Shaco / Zilean. I was putting a lot of games into Shaco Support and it was going really well…Unfortunately, Riot nerfed him (sigh).
I was something of a Zilean one trick at some point so I love the champion, but I think in the current meta it’s really hard to have a scenario where he would fit in.
Any closing thoughts?
Hadess: I’m really looking forward for EUM because I believe just as we did in the SuperLiga, we can surprise a lot of people again. Besides that, I’m hoping for myself to get out of groups, which has been my goal since EUM began.
I want to make my old teammates Looca, Raqo, Orre and Quicktimer from LowLandLions proud since I’m the only one from our team in EUM this season.
Plasma: I’m very excited to play in EUM and hopefully carry Hadess out of groups, as well as representing Spain to the best of our abilities and bring some happiness to the Portuguese viewers and supporters!
