TL vs C9: Pre-game interview with Mark Zimmerman
April 11 2015
Following a stunning 3-0 upset against CLG in the LCS quarterfinals, Team Liquid fans rejoiced. But TL knew it wasn’t time to celebrate, as our semi-finals match is a best of 5 against Cloud 9.
During the split, we went 0-2 against C9 in two fairly convincing defeats. Even in the past, C9 was known to be our bane so ample preparation time is needed. Towards the end of every LCS split, C9 as a team is known to end strong, and with a Team Liquid team on an upwards spiral, this series is one to watch.
Team Liquid Pro sat with Mark Zimmerman to discuss how our LoL team is preparing for their match.
Team Liquid Pro: With your surge in momentum both in the series vs CLG and the last few games of the split, do you think that will carry over vs C9?
Mark Zimmerman: I hope so. The team atmosphere has been mostly positive and we feel pretty good about the compositions we play. I think as long as we play well and C9 doesn't bust out something new and crazy we can't deal with (which they sometimes often do), it should be a close series.
Team Liquid Pro: How has the team been preparing for the match against C9?
Mark: It's tough, because on one hand C9 has very obvious, standard preferred champions but they are also some of the first to change the meta in both picks and in-game strategy. In playoffs they almost always come out with something new, so we are trying to balance preparing what we know they've played all season and what new stuff they might have worked on.
Guessing you guys are looking at the champs that might have hidden strengths after the patch right?
Mark: well we play on 5.6 so it’s nothing new in terms of patch but there are some tricks you can pull with jungle camps for lvl 1's that C9 might try. Also C9 have played a lot of new stuff in solo-q so it’s hard to know how hard we want to read into that or their past LCS games.
Mark: well we play on 5.6 so it’s nothing new in terms of patch but there are some tricks you can pull with jungle camps for lvl 1's that C9 might try. Also C9 have played a lot of new stuff in solo-q so it’s hard to know how hard we want to read into that or their past LCS games.
Team Liquid Pro: C9 likes to run tank heavy compositions and with Piglet in the line-up, kill the Piglet compositions, how do you plan to address this possible concern?
Mark: Well the biggest problem is when our draft lacks a really strong identity. If we run a juggermaw comp, then we hopefully have the tools to deal with lots of engage. We also tend to run a lot of tanky/engage/aoe which isn't very ADC centric and then it's 2 engage comps looking to see who gets the good engage off.
Team Liquid Pro: Historically, C9 as a franchise has given us a hard time much like how we give CLG a hard time. From your experience as head coach and analyst, what differences are between the then and now moving into this match?
Mark: Honestly I'm not sure there's a ton different from then and now. I think we are slightly better mechanically than in the past and are a little more aggressive overall. C9 in the playoffs are always scary though and they end their seasons strong.