DIG’s Season ended a few weeks back, and as the team transitions into the off-season to both rest and train for Summer Split, I was able to take the time and talk to Tomo about the split’s end. We talk about his rise from the Academy lineup to the LCS stage, what this second chance has meant to him, and some of the moments throughout his time this split that really makes him hopeful and hungry for Summer Split '23.

So, the split’s over for you guys - Most eyes are forward to the MSI and other events, but you guys were able to end off with a win over Golden Guardians. What were your feelings like after that last match?

Tomo: I’m just happy we ended the split with the win. I’m just really happy for the boys, ya know? Me joining the split mid-way, they didn’t have any wins - So, any win gives us a boost. And since our next match in LCS is like 3-months or so away, it would’ve sucked to end on a loss and us just dreading that whole time to play again.

What does this time ahead look like for you and the team? Is there a break period, or are there plans to jump into grinding Solo Queue or maybe scrimming against other eliminated competition?

Tomo: I don't think we'll be playing against any NA teams, since hopefully the meta will be very different. But we are going to be doing a boot camp in Korea here in about a month. We'll be playing Solo Queue and hopefully scrimming some Korean and Chinese teams while we're there.

The last few weeks DIG looked scrappier than ever and a large reason for that is attributed to your introduction to the main line-up. Can you talk to me about your transition from the Academy Roster to the LCS line-up and how those talks unfolded? Thinking back, how soon did you know you were going to be starting, how much practice did you have coming into that first week?

Tomo: After their first super week, they went like 0-3 and the over all record being 0-9 at that point, it's like really hard to make the playoffs. You pretty much have to win like every other game or every game from that point on. And even then, it's just a maybe if you can get in. So the staff was like, "This really isn't working." Which kinda sucks because you had Ignar coming in really late as well, so there wasn't a lot of time to make it work. Sadly, Spawn wasn't doing well individually, which sucks for him since I think he's actually a pretty good player... But, ultimately, they wanted to test some stuff and try new things out with me, and we had this chat over Discord.

So, I was still prepping for Academy at that time. My schedule that week was me with the Academy team for some scrims, then me with the main roster team for like 3 or 4 games. Once I had my Academy match, it opened up. But I didn’t really have an off-day that week.

When I interviewed Jensen a few weeks back, we talked about expectations for the roster. Naturally, I assume coming into the roster you had some expectations for yourself and Jensen says you guys all had conversations about what to work towards, so can you unpack what those talks were like and what goals you guys set for the remainder of this split?

Tomo: From my perspective, the expectation was that Spring was pretty hard, right? It was almost impossible to make playoffs at that point since we were too deep in. So, the goal became more about do what’s best for the team in Spring and use it as prep time to better get into the Summer with momentum.

Considering those expectations and that you’ve played on the LCS stage before, what has been the biggest difference maker for you this time around?

Tomo: I think the first time I was in LCS, I had a lot of nerves going on. Quite similar to what Spawn’s been experiencing, I think. I felt like I couldn’t be confident in myself, and that lack of confidence didn’t let me put out good performances. That lead me to have a lot of regrets, and it all kinda stacked because I think I’m a lot better than what I showed on stage. So, I decided if I ever got another shot at the LCS, I didn’t want to waste it because I feel like I can really make a name for myself. I just wanted to improve myself and the perception that people have of me. My first game was against EG too, who’s a really good team in my opinion, but I decided to play like I didn’t have any fear and I think that really showed what we could be capable of.

Considering some of the plays you’ve made specifically, I think to games like the series against CLG where you’re extremely willing to put yourself in harm’s way and entirely nullify Palafox’s ASol just before a huge fight, and in other series you’ve shown a willingness to hang into the mix of a fight until the last moment to pump out as much damage as possible, what enables you to play so aggressive?

Tomo: Honestly, when I moved up to LCS, I didn’t feel a lot of pressure. The team really helped me ease into the role and the games felt really easy to play and I knew that if I just played with that abandon and punished people for the obvious mistakes they made - thinking that I’d be an easy lane, it’d work out. And I think as we got more games in and showed that we were really more than our record showed, and that we were willing to really push to make plays to stay into every game.

Talk to me about establishing a rapport with Ignar specifically, what have you two worked on because it seems like both of you are really starting to lock-in and understand the flow of each other’s game?

Tomo: It kinda sucks since me and Ignar were basically 4 weeks behind the other Bot Duos since they had that entire time from the start of the split until I joined to work with each other. So, me and him had a lot of catching up to do. Especially since there are a lot of meta bot lane pairings right now. So, every patch we just felt like we were just a beat or two off of everyone else since there’s so many things to practice. But ultimately, as we played more, we still found our one to two pairings that we really clicked on. And I think he’s just one of the smartest lane partners I’ve played with, so I’m excited to see what we can do when we’re starting off with every other duo out there.

When it comes to in-game communication, when you think of a series like against EG where Jensen made several plays over and over again to turn things around for you guys, what sort of talks are happening in the moment to help you guys lay out what should happen?

Tomo: I think a lot of people forget that Jensen was the one that started the chain-int that game, haha. He randomly got Gragas ulted into tower when we were sieging and at that point it just started devolving and made the game a bit spicier. But Jensen’s got that clutch factor to his play, I feel like I can always trust him to get in there and carry a fight. Which is great for me because it takes all that pressure off of me and lets me play loose and play my part in focus.

In terms of comms, it’s a mix of voices when we’re playing. Everyone contributes information, everyone’s talking about what they see and keeping each others' spirits high and focused. And it just seems like there’s this unconscious understanding of what’s needed next, and in that game specifically, we knew it was going to come down to one fight and we all just played towards it.

DIG seems on the rise in terms of finding what works for you guys, but there are still some improvement areas for the team overall. What in your mind is the biggest thing for the team to work towards to have better success for the next split?

Tomo: I don’t know about anyone else on the team, but I personally just want to really show out in Summer. I know we all want to make it to Worlds too though, so we’re all just going to level up as much as we can and really do our best to put the team in the best spot to get in.

So, there we have it folks! Thanks to Tomo for sitting with me and chatting about his experiences this split! If you’d like to follow Tomo on social media, you can find him at the following links:

Twitter
Twitch