Thomas "Kirei" Yuen is one of the three new players for Team Dignitas for the upcoming Spring Split. Currently jungling for Team Dignitas, he has previously played in the EU Challenger Series on teams such as Denial Esports & Copenhagen Wolves Academy. Coming into the Spring Split, he has high hopes for Team Dignitas!
Hello all Youtube Dignitas fans! Roscoe here with Kirei and this is just before the first matches of the LCS. So we're excited to get the players talking about the things they've been up to just before practicing, scrimming, and of course Cologne for these guys. Of course, there have been a lot of articles, power rankings, talk of all the different teams in NA, and how they stack up. A lot of them view Team Dignitas on a little bit of a lower scale but what do you think? How do you think Team Dignitas is going to stack up this split?
Kirei: Well, one thing for sure I can guarantee is we're probably not going to be the 9th team.
Well, that's good!
Kirei: Maybe 10th.
Oh, maybe 10th? Just not 9th. Anything but 9th.
Kirei: Yeah, haha. So, looking forward to the results, I guess!
Alright, hopefully not 9th or 10th! So you used to play for Denial. That was a Challenger team. It was mostly online. What are the big differences for you between the two teams?
Kirei: The differences between the teams, well... Basically, the events weren't live. We were just playing online so we weren't in a gaming house and we just scrimmed from 3 to 6 or something. After the scrims, we just played solo queue. It's not like we were chilling with each other. It was actually a real work relationship.
Whereas now, it's maybe a bit more personal? Because you guys are a lot more... close quarters. Maybe more friends?
Kirei: The thing is in LA, since we're all in the gaming house, everyone's basically in the gaming house. So let's say if you don't get along with each other then that's fairly unfortunate. But I'm glad that everyone gets along here. It's a good thing and everyone's a nice person so that's a good thing.
Yeah, from what I've been able to see and I keep hearing from all of you guys that you all like each other and get along pretty well. Let's talk about junglers in NA. How do you think that you stack up against some of the bigger names like Rush and Svenskeren?
Kirei: Well, the thing is they've already proven themselves to be good and that's what I have to do. I just have to prove myself that I'm one of the top as well. I just have to show people what I'm capable of.
You definitely gave us a primer at Cologne. You had a bunch of really good games like the 1st one on Elise or maybe it was the second one. One of the games, you were on Elise and you went bonkers. You went like 2-0-4 so hopefully we'll see some more of that! Now that you've been in NA for a few months, of course technically you've been back in EU for a little bit, but what are some of the different experiences you've had? Any kind of stories? Any experiences?\
Kirei: Differences between EU and NA?
Yeah and not necessarily League of Legends. Lifestyle!
Kirei: The thing is in EU, everything's flat. You don't have mountains. You don't have a lot of hills. When you're in LA, there's a load of hills, houses, structures, and buildings. And the food... You have Chipotle here, a lot of different kinds of food. Whereas in the Netherlands, you have kebab and fries.
Kebab and fries are amazing though!
Kirei: Yeah but those are pretty unhealthy though and I don't like those. It's mainly... just the food I think as well as the temperature. Because here, it's Winter and it's still 10-15 degrees (C) but in Netherlands or any EU country, most EU countries are pretty cold. In the summer, it's going to be pretty hot.
Yeah, it definitely is hot in the summer and right now, it's cloudy and pretty average temperature. You mentioned kebabs, and while I love kebabs.. haha. Speaking about you guys and health. We just went to Costco and you're really conscious about the different foods that you got. Of course, you guys are regularly working out. Can you talk about your health and how you guys have been making sure you're fit mentally as well as physically?
Kirei: Basically, we go to the gym 3, 4, or even 5 times a week. Everyone in the house is watchul of what you eat. If you eat bad stuff, we just feel bad.
You don't physically feel bad. You just feel guilty!
Kirei: Yeah, exactly. Health-wise, we'll do fine.
Speaking back to the LCS in particular, what teams are you most excited to play against? I know that you guys have been able to scrim against a bunch of them but of course you're not going to scrim against CLG & NRG. But what teams are you most excited to play against?
Kirei: I'm already excited to play against any team but I'm excited to play against the best team. But I can't really say who's the best team cause we haven't scrimmed all teams so I can't really tell.
But based on who you have scrimmed, how would you say they stack up?
Kirei: I would say Immortals is first. Then we have... we haven't scrimmed that many teams and all the teams are pretty equal so it's pretty hard to tell. But Immortals do show high level consistency which they'll probably show in real games as well since they have a lot of experience.
Yeah, they've got the the two Fnatic; Huni and Reignover as well as Wildturtle, Pobelter, and Adrian. There are no challenger rookies. No one that's needing to prove themselves. Switching to the topic of the meta. There's a lot of changes. It'll be really interesting to see what you guys first bring out in terms of champion picks and item picks. Cause there are so many new items too. What are some of the changes that have affected you the most?
Kirei: There's really not that many changes. It's just mainly the picks which people go "Oh, this champ is good. This is good." and people start playing the champ. But like items-wise, there's just been small changes . Not anything special in particular. I remember in season 4 through 5, you had those jungle changes where you'd smite a camp and you'd get a buff. That's something totally new but... Runaans and Rapidfire Cannon but that was like one or two months ago when the preseason started.
Runaan's like Runaan's Hurricane?
Kirei: Yeah, they actually changed Hurricane a little bit, the stats. And Rapidfire Cannon... Those new items are really good. Those are not items that people don't buy. Sometimes Riot brings out items, for example, Zz'Rot Portal. Almost no one buys it. But like, Rapidfire Cannon and all the small changes to new items are pretty good, I'd say.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the interesting champion picks that you guys have been bringing out in scrims.
Kirei: Cheese champions.
That'll be fun! I remember like one of the first matches, Cloud 9 vs TSM, Hai brought out Teemo. That was hilarious. It went over pretty well too. Alright, wrapping up the interview. Do you have any last shoutouts? Any final words?
Kirei: Thanks for my family for supporting me with what I'm doing. Thanks to all the sponsors!
Thank you guys for watching and be sure to check out our YouTube channel. We've got some social media. I'm sure you've heard of that. We'll see you guys at the LCS!
