Movistar KOI kicked off their Summer Split on Saturday, August 9, with a win against GIANTX, followed the next day by a tightly contested BO3 against Karmine Corp, featuring last Spring’s champions against last Winter’s, with KC emerging victorious. After the series, Sheep Esports spoke with Quentin "Zeph" Viguié, the Spanish team’s assistant coach, in an interview covering their loss to KC, the upcoming jungle meta changes, key takeaways from their MSI and Esports World Cup participation, and the teams he expects to reach Worlds.

What are your thoughts on the series and on your players’ performance despite this loss?

Quentin "Zeph" Viguié: "Karmine Corp drafted well—Game 1’s draft was solid, and in the other two, we came out ahead, which made sense. In Game 3, I think things could have gone much worse for us, but they never put us in a truly bad spot, so that was fine. I’m fairly happy with how we bounced back in the series after Game 1. In terms of player performance, we’re still far from the level we had not too long ago. There are a lot of mistakes, solo kills, and situations that almost never happen, plus plenty of catches. That’s fairly normal given we haven’t had much practice since the break, and these are issues we can fix easily. I still think we’re the stronger team when it comes to controlling the game and building a gold lead, but we showed no real respect for our opponents on the map. Today, they simply played better than us, so credit to them.

In Game 1, you picked Yone and Lillia. This duo isn’t common in pro play lately—why bring it out today?

Zeph: We had several options—Sejuani, Maokai, Lillia. Against Skarner, Lillia felt like the right choice. Then we locked in Alistar for some frontline; he works really well with Lillia and Yone, and is strong into Lillia. They answered with Yunara–Milio, which we didn’t anticipate and which fit their comp very well. Still, I don’t think it decided the game—we made a lot of mistakes, like solo kills top. Canna (Kim Chang-dong) played an excellent game, and KC did well to start objectives and force us. But overall, we played the fights and the series poorly.

Aurora didn’t work out against GIANTX or Karmine Corp today. Are you reconsidering its priority?

Zeph: It’s obviously a problem, and we’re being a bit delusional here. By “we,” I mean the players and their own assessment of their level on the champion. It’s also a tough choice, because I don’t think we’re playing very well individually right now, and Aurora is still a strong champion despite the 0-2. It dealt heavy damage in fights and still had value. Back at the EWC and MSI, when we scrimmed against top teams, Aurora was very strong for us and even helped us win against Korean teams, so naturally we saw it as a good pick. Now, we’ll have to reconsider. Canna has played Aurora in solo queue, so I think he can play it. We could have gone for Rumble and given them Aurora to keep both toplaners a bit less comfortable—that was an option we considered during draft—but we thought locking Myrwn’s (Alex Villarejo) comfort pick would work in our favor. Now that it’s failed twice in a row, we’ll probably change.

In Game 2, you managed to snowball the map without necessarily securing kills or aces against KC. As a coaching staff, is that something that satisfies you?

Zeph: Yes, that’s something we do well, even in games where we’re 0-3. In Game 2, we basically inted for fun with Rakan—we thought Taliyah would ult, it turned into a 2v2 death, just weird plays. But despite that, we stayed ahead in gold and in control, which shows our draft and players are strong. The problem is, we were just stupid today. In Game 3, there were three key mistakes. First, Myrwn engaged while our AD carry was mid, and we knew it. He felt too confident, forced a 4v5, and KC got four kills on Caliste (Caliste Henry-Hennebert), who went from behind to ahead.

Then we had to stall the game. Vladi (Vladimiros Kourtidis) makes a mistake face checking a bush. Later, with full drake control, we didn’t pull it, turned into a 50/50, and Yike (Martin Sundelin) smurfed, giving them soul. And in the final fight—which should have ended the game for us—Caliste made a huge mistake, but Supa flashed in 1v5 and died. The pressure in these matches is impressive. It really could have gone either way. That’s why I’m not upset—it’s good for us to be exposed like this. It’s a wake-up call for the players.

A few days ago on Jean "TraYtoN" Medzadourian’s stream, you said you didn’t have enough data on Yunara. Now, with the information from all major leagues, what do you think of the pick? Do you see Aphelios as a good answer into it?

Zeph: Yes, otherwise we wouldn’t have picked Aphelios. I think it was a good answer. There are other options, but I won’t share them. So far, we’ve seen things like Xayah–Rakan, some teams trying Kai’Sa. Kai’Sa can be risky, depending on how good you are on the champion. For this game, we felt we needed Aphelios, and I think it was the right call. Again, I believe it was more about the Milio into Lillia, plus Canna having a huge game, that made the fights harder. A lot of small details made the game tough to play, so credit to them.

The next patch contains a lot of changes in the jungle. Do you think it will shake up the jungle meta?

Zeph: Yes, definitely. I think jungle Nautilus looks really strong, especially with his clear speed. He’s already an excellent champion in general, and if you can flex him, he’ll be picked very quickly in games. I think Trundle will still be around—not necessarily a first-pick every game, but at some point he’ll become strong. So yes, probably. I haven’t seen the rest yet, but I’ve seen Nautilus’s clear, and it’s a solid champion—I like it.

In Game 1, KC started an Atakhan with all ten players alive topside, you got a kill on Canna and jungle resources. What’s your take on that play?

Zeph: I think it was a really smart Atakhan call. It wasn’t a bad idea at all. They pulled Atakhan after noticing Yone hadn’t backed and had 3000 gold, so we were 3000 gold behind in the fight. We got a kill and some jungle resources, but honestly, one kill isn’t worth the Atakhan—it was a very good call for them. If Yone had two items, maybe we could have defended, but the way they played it—pulling through the lane, Yunara kicking Yone—we just couldn’t. Getting a kill was nice, but it didn’t change much.

If you had to highlight two or three positive takeaways from your double participation at MSI and the EWC, what would they be?

Zeph: For me, the most important takeaway was how we handled the early game. It wasn’t everything, but at MSI there was a big weakness there, and I think both G2 and us have improved on it. Europe is quite different—there’s less level 1 invading and overall early aggression. In Game 2, Elyoya (Javier Prades) asked if there were wards; I said there were defensive wards, but he still tried a level-2 invade and got punished. Generally, though, KC has solid defensive ward coverage in the early game.

Another takeaway is that, after today’s BO, we really need to step up to compete at Worlds. Facing teams like Gen.G, T1, or Bilibili Gaming will be completely different—they’ll pull the trigger instantly, the lanes will be harder, and you can’t just draft freely. Even something like Xayah-Rell into Corki-Neeko might be okay in Europe, but it’s a tough matchup elsewhere. These assessments are made because we’re playing in Europe; against Korean teams, we don’t allow ourselves such leeway. Even though I personally think we could, we feel we can’t, as the players we lane against are stronger.

Which two other teams do you see going to Worlds in China alongside you?

Zeph: G2 and KC. I don’t see any other teams for now. Fnatic could make it, but Oscarinin (Óscar Muñoz) will need to step up, otherwise it’ll be tough. Razork (Iván Martín Díaz) improved a bit in the first week, but so far they haven’t faced very difficult matches, so it’s hard to say. We started with the two worst games of our group and could have easily gone 2-0—it was very close. In the end, it came down to small details. Of the three winnable games, I think their best draft was in game 1. The others were roughly 50-50; we just played poorly today.

What does a debrief look like after a loss like that, once you get back to the KOI office?

Zeph: Normally, we’d head back to the office and review the game, but since some players had to appear on EUphoria, the debrief was delayed. Generally, it’s focused on player feedback—covering the last couple of days and the game itself. If anyone wants to discuss, they can. Depending on how severe the game was, either everyone goes to the office, just a few players do, or people head home. It really varies, there’s no fixed routine.