Chris Luck: "I'm really emotional about Major in Peru, because other players are going to try the food. I think our food is the best" Exclusive
Evil Geniuses midlaner Jean "Chris Luck" Gonzales Salazar explained why exactly he is excited about the Major in Peru, revealed who EG scrimmed against, and even named the best mid players for us. The interview was taken by our reporter in Lima, Polina Mashina, on the third day of Group Stage.
— How were the games against Tundra? Did you expect you'd win 2:0?
— The first game was really complicated. We won the early game so much, but then committed so much misplays that we lost all of our advantage. I think, patience was what let us win this game. Before we came here for the Major, we played three, maybe four scrims against them. So we were preparing for this game. I think that helped a lot.
— How do you feel about the Major in Peru, in South America?
— I'm really emotional, because other people, the players and teams, are going to try the food in Peru. I think our food is the best.
— What's your favorite Peruvian food?
— I like ceviche [a mix of lime, fish, sweet potatoes and other foods], tallarines rojos [pasta and chicken, with tomato and carrot sauce], and rosca mariscos.
— What is it?
— Rosca mariscos is rice with seafood.
— South America is super strong right now. Do you have explanations why? Was it last year's TI that boosted you so much?
— We went to every tournament, and we played with other teams, so we learned a lot. We learned how to play versus other regions, teams from Russia, NA, or China. I think it helps a lot for the scrims. And the more and more we scrim, the better we play.
— StingeR said that your bootcamp is in Brazil and you scrim with European teams. What's your ping, and is it hard to find an opponent for scrims?
— The first time when we went to Brazil before we finished DPC, we scrimmed with teams from Europe. We had 90-95 ping to Europe. But when DPC finished, we came here to Peru for a break and then came back to Brazil for scrimming. But this time some problems appeared, issues with our VPN. So we had to play scrims with a 140 ping. In the end we canceled practice matches against Europeans and just played versus NA and SEA.
— What were the EU teams you played against?
— We played against Entity, BetBoom, Liquid, HellRaisers, and Nigma. I don't remember all, but we played against a lot of teams.
— How were the scrims before the Major going?
— We felt that our performance was really good. We played scrims a lot. That helped us, we are prepared for the teams that came here to the Major.
— Do you watch other midlaners, and who are they?
— Sometimes. I watch gpk~, maybe Nisha, but not a lot. Sometimes I watch when we play versus other teams. Here, we had a match versus Talon, and I watched a game or two.
— I think you're one of the strongest laners in the world. Could you rank other midlaners, like the top-5 of the world?
— I never thought about that. It's different because some players have differences in the lane. Some are aggressive, others play safe, waiting for a misplay from their opponent. Gpk~ is a good laner, and Nisha is too. I think there is a lot of good players. I don't know how to rank them, but they are the first two.
— Who is the hardest opponent?
— I think gpk~ is a good laner.
Evil Geniuses found themselves in the middle of the Group A chart after day 3 in Lima. They share 4-5th place with PSG.LGD, and will face the leader, Gaimin Gladiators, in the next match.
