With a strong start to the LEC 2024 Spring Split, Hylissang and his team are now hoping to bounce back from a difficult winter split. Now 2-1, Team Vitality aims to continue its recent streak as they head into week 2. In this exclusive interview, the team's support, Hylissang, discusses his thoughts about the team's performances so far and looks back upon his career.
Team Vitality, competing in the 2024 LEC. Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games
| Despite a difficult game against SK Gaming, your team has had a positive week, ending with a 2-1 score. How are you feeling after week 1?
Hylissang: "Yeah, I mean right now I'm pretty sad since we just got stomped by SK and I have a bit of mixed feelings. Our first game was very shaky but we won. Then, the second game was very solid and we won. And this game was very bad and we lost. So, yeah, I feel like we're like kind of... we can do everything, right? I'm not sure what's going on and if I should be happy or sad."
| Some said the draft seemed difficult to play, what do you believe went wrong?
Hylissang: "Honestly, I think we were happy with our draft. We might've underestimated them a bit in terms of how effectively they could punish us. I feel like they did a really good job of playing better than us with the draft they had, I don't think our draft was weaker. We just weren't comfortable executing what we had to do for our draft to start working, we never got to that point. I think we also didn't play well just because we were having, like a very scaling composition, right? So we didn't take the windows that we had to take to make our composition go to late game."
| Do you feel like Vitality is stronger in Spring than in Winter? Are you excited for the rest of the split?
Hylissang: "I want to say we're stronger, but I don't know. I'm sure we're stronger at some things because we learned a lot in scrims and practice, right? So, we learned many new concepts and we're implementing them in the game. I see a lot of improvement, but I don't know for sure because every game is a bit random."
| Are there any specific aspects that you improved? Maybe communications?
Hylissang: "I mean, one of them is communication for sure, and the other one is just using fog of war and how much information we give to the enemy. It's something that we really worked on."
| You began your career around 2014 and now, you've been in the LEC for almost 10 years. How do you keep yourself motivated to play? What future do you foresee for your career? Do you think you'll keep on playing for a long time?
Hylissang: "I want to believe that, I'll be able to keep going and do what I enjoy doing. I don't see when I'm gonna stop. I just really like my job and, I feel like that's what has kept me in the scene for so long. If you like what you're doing and you're good at it and it's working out, right? That gives me motivation."
"Also, the team that I'm working with, just looking at how hard they're working... I know I can help them out as well and that brings me joy. I'm just really happy with Vitality right now and, I want to give my teammates some of what I've been taught throughout the years by former players and coaches."
| Do you have a pro player "bucket list" of things you wish to achieve before retiring?
Hylissang: "Well, winning Worlds is definitely one of them, I hope that happens one day. I haven't really thought about my goals but, just being one of the best supports in Europe and being on the best team in the region is definitely at the moment. Going to international events and showing off what Europe can do... It's one of my goals, always has been."
| Over the years, you've received countless compliments and criticism. How do you manage all these fan expectations and feedback? Does it affect you when people criticize you?
Hylissang: "Yeah, usually it doesn't really affect me, but sometimes it's getting too much. Recently, I've just decided that I am kind of staying away from social media because I don't think I can be positively impacted. I mostly get negatively impacted, and I feel like this is not what I need. I'm sure there are a lot of fans who support me, but with a lot of fans comes a lot of haters too, so I don't want to bother with them too much because they do only harm, right? I'm very grateful for all the fans, of course, supporting me, and I'm trying to give them joy still. But yeah, I'm kind of trying to stay away from social media, Twitter mainly, and just try to focus on my game and give them not a 0-6 Nautilus like today."
| What are your goals with Vitality this year? Are you looking at Worlds?
Hylissang: "Yeah, Worlds is a good goal because I think Vetheo, Photon, and Daglas have never been to Worlds, right? Carzzy and I, hopefully, we'll try to get them there. I think that's a pretty reasonable goal. Vitality has been only once to Worlds if I'm not mistaken. That would be very big for the organization."
| I think it was the Yamato line-up.
Hylissang: "Yamato, Cabo, Jiizuke, I think. Yeah, this lineup. So, I would like that to happen. I think it's doable, for sure."
| Thresh has been one of your favorite picks of all time, but we haven't seen him in the pro-play meta in quite some time. What do you think is the reason for that?
Hylissang: "Thresh was already buffed on the last patch, which we are already playing on, but the buff didn't do much because they buffed max rank E, which is completely useless. You'd never go to level 18 Thresh, right? His ultimate cooldown was reduced by 20 seconds, which is something, but I don't think it's what he needed."
"However, I think Thresh is still pretty strong, especially in solo queue right now. I enjoy playing it a lot, but it requires you to have... I think he's a really hard champion, and you can die very easily with him. In competitive, it's a bit harder to make him work because his gameplay is not very reliable unless you do the lantern flash combo with your jungler. That's reliable."
"He's not like a Nautilus, which is more straightforward since you can just flash auto-attack, or like a Blitzcrank Flash + E. There is always something more reliable than Flash + Flay. There are for sure spots for him to be picked, but people in competitive rely more on what's meta and what's more straightforward than having Thresh. Which is sad, because I like the champ a lot."
| Next week, you are facing MAD Lions KOI, Rogue, and Fnatic. Is it going to be a 3-0 or?...
Hylissang: "It's gonna be... [hand gestures] 0-3! [Laughs]"
"No, I'm joking. These are kind of strong teams. I think I would like it to be 2-1, but it will be a hard week. It depends on the day, but I feel like all of them are pretty solid right now, including Rogue, even though they lost every game so far. I think they were pretty good in scrims at least recently. FNC and MDK are also solid teams, so it will be a hard week."
Header Photo Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games
