Veteran jungler Sebastián “Oddie” Alonso has been praised as one of Latin America’s best-ever players, but until this year the region had never seen one of its sides win a best-of series on the World Championship stage.
Oddie’s Movistar R7 changed that this year by beating 100 Thieves, but a subsequent loss to GAM Esports has put the team on the brink of elimination. We spoke to Oddie following the defeat.
Esports.net: Having lost today, why do you think you were unable to repeat the kind of performance that saw you beat 100T yesterday?
Oddie: I think the first game was okay for us. I think, they skipped a lot of fights and they just won every side. So it was kind of hard to force fights, they bought a lot of time and they just farmed. We thought that we could just fight and make them lose. So I think that’s one issue.
And then the second game, I think we lost since draft because the champs that we picked were pretty bad at how we communicate, how we want to play. I think it was a pretty bad draft, in my opinion. And also we played poorly.
So they just played better. They just had better champions to fight. Yeah, they played the map very well and, with our champions, it was pretty hard to play.
Lee Jones: Having beaten 100T, I’m sure many will still consider you as favorites ahead of a potential matchup with either VKE or SHG.
How important is it to get the positivity back ahead of the next series?
Oddie: I’m very confident. Even though we’ve lost this match, I feel like we were okay if we played like a good draft. Most likely we will communicate better for the next match, so I feel like we can do it.
To be honest, I feel like if we play like today, we are gonna lose versus any team. So we’re just gonna try to fix this, and we’re still confident that we can do it. Obviously it was a pretty rough loss… but yeah, I think we are pretty confident.
Image credit: Riot Games
How did you find the jungle matchup with Levi?
Oddie: I feel like game one he played pretty good. And we were trading CS for drakes, so obviously he’s gonna just scale and be really annoying with his champ. So that’s why we also gave time to Yone to come back to the game because he was really behind,. But we didn’t play really aggro, or we couldn’t, I don’t know. But in the second game, yes, he played really well.
I think the matchup with him, knew how it was gonna be; he’s really good at CSing, and he knows when to do it. So even though we lost, I just knew how he was gonna play. I think he did pretty good. And also we played pretty poorly.
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Lee Jones: You seem to belong in this unique group of players from smaller regions that are always recognisable names that seem to be ever-present internationally, like Levi, Maple, Evi, TitaN (or brTT before him).
Do you feel any kind of connection with these kinds of players from that shared experience, even if you’ve rarely ever interacted with them directly?
Oddie:I mean, it’s just because we are like the old people. Well, not old people, because TitaN is not that old.
But yeah, it feels like we are kind of the dinosaurs of the regions. Like, Levi’s been winning for a long time. Also me. So yeah, I feel a connection with everybody. I feel a big similarity with them and they are the GOATs of their own regions.
Image credit: Riot Games
Lee Jones: We touched a little on the 100T win which made history for Latin America. Given that this is the last time a team will go to Worlds solely representing LLA..
Does it create a ‘demand‘ for you and R7 to go on a memorable run, rather than just a ‘hope’?
Oddie: We all know that this is probably going to be the last time we see each other. Who knows what’s going to happen next year? So with that in mind, and also that the league is already dead, we want to win. I think that’s the motivation that we have right now.
So obviously for now, this loss means a lot of pain.
I feel if we lost this series in the past, we would just say we can do it in the next match. And we’ll do the same now. But for now, it hurts so much for everybody because we just blew one chance. It’s the last one, literally is the last one, the last chance, the last bullet we have.
So yeah, it’s a pretty rough defeat. And also, like you said, it’s going to be the last one. So it means a lot for us, for the entire region.
It’s not gonna be any different – if we win or we lose, the region is dead already. But we want to make the entire region smile for the last time.
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