As the top two European LCS teams are gearing up for the most hyped game in a long, long time, their former teammate prepares to analyze the teams’ efforts from the Riot studio.
And Lauri ”Cyanide” Happonen thinks that his new organization Origen can give Fnatic their first loss of the season come Thursday.
– Origen has this play style where their early game is really strong, so I think that if they can get the lead they can run away with it, he tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Even though the dream of having two undefeated teams face off against each other was shattered when Team ROCCAT managed to dent Origen’s stats last week, the prospect of seeing Enrique ”xPeke” Cedeño Martínez and Paul ”sOAZ” Boyer take on their former organization Fnatic and ex teammates Martin ”Rekkles” Larsson and Bora ”YellOwStaR” Kim has turned Thursday’s game into the most anticipated so far this year.

”Fnatic excel at the teamplay aspect”

On the analyst desk, the last link in what was Fnatic’s Worlds team 2014 is set to break the game down for the viewers. And the hype is real for Lauri ”Cyanide” Happonen too:
– I’m really hyped for the game. Honestly, I think Fnatic is a bit more experienced at this point. They played a lot last season already and went to international tournaments. But Origen has this kind of play style that their early game is really, really strong and Fnatic’s isn’t necessarily that strong but they excel at the teamplay aspect. So I think that if Origen can get the lead they can run away with it and win the game, he tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Are you surprised that Origen have looked so good in the LCS so far?
– No, I expected them to do good. They have sOAZ and xPeke who are both elite players, and Mithy who’s an experienced player and super motivated. Niels, one of the most talented ADC:s and Amazing who’s very, very experienced as well so they’re like a team of superstars more or less. Obviously Mithy and Niels aren’t that famous yet but the bot lane has been wrecking everyone so I expected it.

And looking and Fnatic, with the return of Rekkles. Do you notice any difference in their style compared to last year?
– I think Rekkles and YellOwStaR are pretty much the same now. Rekkles is a highly mechanical player but he’s not thinking about the game that much, outside of his own performance. And YellOwStaR being this ”giant brain”, controlling the game and roaming a lot doing really effective plays.

”I’m gradually getting better”

Cyanide, after retiring from professional play when Fnatic were eliminated from last season’s Worlds, has started showing up at the European LCS analyst’s desk. A role he’s slowly growing into according to himself.
– It’s a bit awkward for me sometimes, I’m not really used to explaining the game. But I think I’m gradually getting better and I really enjoy it. The only problem is that you actually have to work really hard. The crew works insane hours on the LCS days because you have to prepare the show and do the show and prepare for the show on the other day. You have to be in the studio for ten to twelve hours so it’s really insane but I enjoy it.

Do you ever miss playing competitively, since your retirement, or is it more of a relief to not have to stay on top in the game?
– What I miss the most about playing competitively is winning, but it’s a double-edged sword because winning on stage is the best feeling ever, but losing on stage is also the worst feeling ever. And I don’t think I have the motivation right now to play League twelve hours a day, especially just one role. That’s what makes it boring, when you play jungle you have three or four champions that are better than everything else so you have to spam those champions every day ten to twelve hours and it gets very monotonic. Right now I’m just having fun with the game and enjoying it a lot.

You’re still listed as a substitute in Origen, what would happen if you suddenly had to jump into the LCS again?
– It’s not really a realistic scenario that I would ever play in the LCS unless someone really hurts themselves, which can happen but it’s very unlikely. So I’m not really focusing on that, but instead focusing on streaming and YouTube and trying to have fun with the game.

”The Asian scene is gonna keep dominating”

With Fnatic performing well at the Mid Season Invitational and looking perhaps even stronger this split in the LCS, along with Origen making their way to the top in Europe the fans have started to hope for something big come Worlds. But Cyanide still thinks that the South Korean and Chinese teams will have an edge.
– I honestly think the Asian scene is gonna keep dominating, because all the teams there are really good so you always have good practices. They take it very seriously and you have all these great teams that you can practice against. For example here in Europe we have Fnatic and Origen and they are good teams, but you can’t train that effectively when not all the teams are at that level. But I think that this year we might have some chances at Worlds. Expecting to win is unrealistic, but even getting to semifinals is a goal that could be possible for the European teams.

And for the great debate, North America versus Europe, what’s your take on that right now?
– I just think that the North American teams are very static right now, all they do is farm and don’t really do anything. I think Europe is way stronger because junglers are more skilled here, they make more plays with support roaming and tracking the wards so at the moment I think Europe is the stronger region.

Also, there’s been a lot of talk about Ekko and people viewing him as overpowered. Do you have an opinion on the champion?
– I haven’t really gotten to play him yet and I’ve only played against him in solo queue where everyone kinda sucks with him more or less. But I think that champion has a lot of potential. Its a champion with a high skill cap so it’s gonna take some time for people to master him. I think we’ll see him more in the future and at some point people might consider him really OP. Some teams are really afraid of him already, but I can’t give that much insight since I’m not playing pre made at the top level anymore.

Fnatic takes on Origen Thursday June 18th at 8PM CET.