Interview conducted before BT Excel won the quarter-finals
Excel Esports academy team BT Excel, the sole UK representatives in the Spring 2021 League of Legends EU Masters, finished the group stage at 3-3 and qualified for the playoffs, after a turbulent first round of games. They’re now in the quarter-finals again, with glory in their sights.
Megalodontus speaks to British ADC bot-laner Matthew ‘Deadly’ Smith before they play against Misfits Premier later today (April 28th, 3.30pm BST). He talks about BT Excel’s form and matches in EU Masters, and which players from the UK people should watch.
Thank you for doing this interview and congratulations on making top 8! It’s not been an easy journey for BT Excel so let’s start off nice and easy, how does it feel to make it to the spring 2021 EU Masters playoffs?
It feels good, obviously. I’ve been here before since I made the finals with Vodafone Giants in 2019 and quarter-finals last spring, but I’m still pretty excited. It’s kind of disappointing that we did drop a couple of games in groups but at least we made it out, right?
Speaking of those dropped games, BT Excel looked quite different compared to your games in the first round robin, where you guys looked a bit shaky. What changed in the team to make this run to playoffs?
I think our biggest problem last week was we kind of went in… I wouldn’t say ‘unprepared’, but we started panicking really early on in the couple of games that we played. This week we were more relaxed and we didn’t put that much pressure on ourselves since we were still tied at 1-2.
We took it game by game, had separate meetings for each one, and were doing things like stretches between games so we enter the next ones in a focused state. It definitely paid off compared to last week, where we were talking for about about the games for a long time and making up scenarios that would completely never happen. So we stopped overthinking and went into the games with a clear head, and that was the decider.
“I’m pretty sure that 30% or 40% more players from the UK can actually make it to other ERLs or represent LoL at a higher level, for sure. But most people just stop playing during their studies before they can advance onto better teams.”
And for playoffs, BT XL have drawn Misfits Premier. Any thoughts on your opponents and how the match-up will go?
In my opinion, I think they are one the most difficult teams that could we face. But if we get a good week of practice in and show up on the day, I’m sure we can challenge them for a close series.
I reckon we can definitely defeat them, our top side of the map should be better, but they have a really good bot-lane duo that’s probably the best outside of the LEC. It’ll be exciting how me and [BT Excel support player] Advienne will face up against them.
Before the Main Event began, a lot people – including myself – said that Group D was the ‘group of death’ due to the perceived strength of its teams. Now that you’ve played through it, what did you think of the strength of your group? Was it easier or more difficult than expected?
I don’t necessarily think it was the group of death. We came from Pool 3 (during group draws) so any group that we would have been drawn into would be a lot harder just because of the strength of our roster.
Having BT Excel in your group would just make it the group of death, because you’re always going to get a Pool 1 team which is a major European Regional League (ERL) champion and a Pool 2 team which are the runner-ups.
I don’t think the other teams in our group were bad, it was probably just that Karmine Corp and BT Excel were that much better than the other two teams.
On Karmine Corp, you had to face them twice and they quite handily defeated BT Excel both times. A lot of people are saying that Karmine Corp are the tournament favourites due to their incredible performances so far, tell us about your impressions of them and do you think they really are a level above the rest of teams at the EU Masters?
Alright, this might sound cocky but here goes: Karmine Corp are definitely the favourites to win the whole thing, but I do think they have a lot of weaknesses.
In our first match, I think if we played to the strengths of our draft, we should have pretty much won that game uncontested at 25 minutes, especially if we played like how we do in scrims.
I thought our draft was incredibly good and if it was any other team apart from Karmine Corp, we probably would’ve just won the game. Karmine Corp play their team compositions really, really well and they know how to put a lot of pressure on the map, and that made us play more panicked than usual.
But for the second game we played, I wouldn’t say we played ‘for fun’ but we definitely didn’t try hard either, since the game wouldn’t affect any results or standings. The game was more laid back for us and if we have the chance to face them against in a best-of-three or five, we could definitely give them more of a challenge.
You’ll only have the chance to meet them again in the finals. Also since you’ve played Karmine Corp twice, you had the chance to face an old UK bot-lane rival of yours in xMatty, having faced him many times in the UKLC and NLC already. Tell us what your impressions are of him as a bot-laner right now.
I think xMatty is a top-tier bot-laner outside of the LEC. I’ve been playing against him an awful lot in the past three years and I even played against him in the EU Masters 2019 summer semi-finals, so he’s definitely been a long competitor of mine.
He’s been improving very fast in Karmine Corp and he’s a really good player for how their team plays, since his playstyle is perfect for it. He definitely deserves all the fans, recognition and credit he’s getting right now.
Is there anything you would like to say to him?
Just that he got 2v2 killed by us in the second game and ask him about it if you can!
Very well! Some analysts, fans and writers have said that while Karmine Corp are one of the favourites to win the EU Masters, BT Excel should be in contention. I spoke to your coach Swiffer before the EU Masters and he said that it’s more important that you guys try your absolute best. But for yourself personally, did you feel that kind of expectation or pressure and, if so, how did you deal with it?
I wouldn’t said I felt the pressure, but I did set expectations upon myself. Not as a team, but personally, because I’ve been to the finals already and if I don’t reach the finals again, I feel like I’ve somewhat failed myself, since I’ve been there and done it before. If I can’t do it again, it feels like it’s really poorly done on my side.
As for my team, I think we have a very, very good team set up and we definitely want to reach as far as we can in the EU Masters. We know we’re a good team and our scrims have shown us really good results in the past couple of weeks. If that’s not something to go by, then we have to show how good we are in official matches, because if we just talk about names on paper it doesn’t mean much if you can’t put it into practice.
“I think xMatty is a top-tier bot-laner outside of the LEC. I’ve been playing against him an awful lot in the past three years, so he’s been a long competitor of mine. He’s been improving very fast in Karmine Corp and deserves all the fans, recognition and credit he’s getting right now.”
Regarding that, BT Excel more or less stomped the NLC to get to the EU Masters, and it’s pretty disappointing not to see Fnatic Rising join you in the Main Event. What do you think of the level of the NLC then, in general? Are BT Excel a level above the rest and because of this, does the NLC deserve only two seeds in the EU Masters at the moment?
The NLC definitely deserves three seeds, with two seeds going to the Main Event and one going to Play-Ins. Obviously Fnatic Rising were a very strong team and the other strongest team from our ERL, but I also believe there are other dark horses in our region. Of course the NLC is strong, but not as strong as the likes of the LFL or the Prime League, though there are some teams here that could definitely take games from teams in the bigger regions.
I don’t want to throw shade at the other teams, but I feel the biggest problem in the NLC now is most players dropping out after one season instead of playing a couple of seasons together, which means team synergy is not always there. I believe if some of those teams continued to play together longer, they might become top teams.
That’s an interesting take. As a UK player, there is the pervasive narrative in the community which is that ‘UK talent does not exist’. But we still see players like yourself and xMatty, as well as Dan in the LEC. In your opinion, why do you think we are not seeing more players from the UK reach the very top level of play at the moment?
I honestly think most players from the UK choose to continue their studies instead of putting time in the game, because playing professionally in the UK right now is a meme I guess. If you’re not playing for a top team, it’s feels like there’s no point playing, so it puts people off before they even have a chance.
I started off hardstuck Diamond 1 but I actually had the chance to get into teams. I wouldn’t say I stopped studying, but I just kept going along with it until I got really good at LoL, which allowed me to get picked up by foreign teams.
But most people just stop playing during their studies before they can advance onto better teams, and I don’t know if it’s family pressure or something else, but people generally prefer studying over playing in the UK. I’m pretty sure that 30% or 40% more people from the UK can actually make it to other ERLs or represent LoL at a higher level, for sure.
Do you think if the NLC and the UKLC grows in the future, we will see more UK talent being represented at a higher level?
Definitely. Right now, we even have some talent in the UK who are already popping off. There’s a top-laner called Eragon and I thought he was pretty good and if he continues playing, I could definitely see him be a top talent in an ERL team.
What other UK talents right now do you think deserve a mention and that people should keep an eye on them?
I want to say Sof but maybe that’s favouritism because that guy’s a legend but… yeah, Sof and mid-laner Chemera are definitely a dynamic duo that I will definitely keep an eye out for.
What do you think of the current bot-lane meta in the EU Masters so far? Do you think we’ll see more diverse picks like mages or do you think we’ll see marksmen continue to dominate?
I can tell you that for this patch, mages in the bot-lane suck, dude. You are going to be 50 CS behind and you’ll lose your turret. You can see Varus right now for example, who’s rising in popularity and there’s two ways to play him, as such he can fit into almost every single team composition.
There are some picks you can whip out like Kalista, but it heavily depends on the player or the composition that you’re going to run with. I actually enjoy this marksmen meta as I feel like it’s quite diverse, but at the same time it also depends on your support. We could pick something new though in the later stage of the tournament, who knows?
“I don’t want to throw shade at the other teams, but I feel the biggest problem in the NLC now is most players dropping out after one season instead of playing a couple of seasons together, which means team synergy is not always there. I believe if some of those teams continued to play together longer, they might become top teams.”
I’d like to ask, what do you make of Samira? We haven’t been seeing her at all other than some very fringe picks. Do you think she’s viable in the current meta or she’s just a sub-optimal pick at the moment?
I think she’s a weak pick at the moment because every meta support completely stomps her. Tahm Kench, Braum, Alistar… they all destroy her. They can even 1v1 Samira, so it’s no point picking a champion that could just outright lose to a support. I think Samira only really does well in ranged matchups which no teams are really playing right now. That’s the cause of her downfall I guess.
That comes to end of the interview. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Keep your eyes out for us in the quarter-finals for BT Excel!
You can catch BT Excel vs Misfits Premier on April 28th from 3.30pm BST on Twitch or YouTube.
Megalodontus is a miraculous survivor from the mass extinction and somehow learnt how to use his stubby fins to operate complicated mechanical equipment and drink tea. Worryingly for cryptozoologists, he’s been writing League of Legends articles too.
A self-taught writer who’s had the privilege to work with good editors who aren’t terrified of his pearly whites, Megalodontus is often seen writing either independently or for various websites such as this one. When not writing, he usually runs it down mid in real life and is fascinated with watching paint dry.
