100T Goldenglue – “I think our level of play [recently] has been pretty pathetic”

The man of many names, and the holder of the best alliterative alias in LoL esports, the Notorious G.G.G, Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer, sat down with esports.gg after 100 Thieves' loss to Team Liquid to talk about the loss and how 100T plans to get better.

LCS' first super week has been filled with a quick, one-sided series, and 100 Thieves' loss to Team Liquid seems no different. Goldenglue, coach of 100 Thieves' LCS roster, took the time to chat everything from mistakes to mage rebellions as 100 Thieves moves towards a three-week-long gap in the schedule.

Esports.gg: Coming off of your series against Team Liquid, how are you feeling heading into the break?

Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer: "Yeah, so, honestly I think our level of play [recently] has been pretty pathetic. I’m really disappointed in how we’re showing up right now. I’m really glad that we have a three week break to kind of get our sh** together because it just felt like after week one for some reason we just lost all the habits that we were doing week one to play so dominantly in that first week. So, I think we need to go back to finding ourselves and finding our confidence. I think our gameplay is also very not confident." 

What are those differences from week one to now that you're not seeing?

"I think one of the biggest differences is we have a lot more lazy mistakes, a lot less discipline, and the ways we’re losing are just really undisciplined. There are just ridiculous things happening in our games. In our first game this week we got the Elden Soul, sorry (laughs), Elder Soul. Too much Elden Ring popping up on my feed recently.

We got the Elder Dragon and we lost Baron. We didn’t even contest it, we just didn’t walk up. Losing the way we’re losing just feels really bad, and I think a lot of it comes down to lazy mistakes and just not enough assertiveness of ‘we need to do something.’

Like we have this Dragon Soul, we have to go fight Baron. Just facecheck and fight, we’re just missing a lot of assertiveness. There are a lot of mistakes that just give our opponents way too free of a lead."

We've been asking most folks what they think of the new international Fearless Draft tournament, and how they feel about Fearless Draft as a format more generally. What are your thoughts?

"I’m a huge fan of Fearless Draft, in general. I think it just adds so much to the drafting process and to the players’ process and champion pools, you see a lot more interesting strategies come out. A lot more ingenuity when you have to go into a Fearless Draft and you’re not trading almost the same drafts twice in a row. I feel like we’ve seen that a lot now that we have best-of-threes, people just run back the exact same draft in game two, or they only change one champion.

"So, I think it would be a lot more exciting to watch. And I think even when you’re in the room it’s just more exciting games, and it also promotes players who have wider champion pools and they’re not good at just like, one, two, or three champions.

Overall, I think it just adds a lot more depth and complexity, and I feel like I still dont know what the best format is. Like, a best-of-five in Fearless is something I think needs to get figured out. I think best-of-threes with Fearless is a very good format. "

I'm assuming you've looked at the ban and draft structure for Bo5 that Riot is using?

"Yeah, I’ve heard what [Riot] is doing. I don’t know that it’s the best format, I’m not saying I know what the best format is but I think it maybe breaks down into game four and give of a Fearless Draft." 

Sure, it seems like a ban-less game five with 40 champions gone could get really wacky, really fast.

"Yeah, definitely. "

What do you think the LoL Americas changes will do for the NA talent pipeline? How do you feel it will affect both new and established NA pro players?

"In terms of what these changes do for the pipeline, I these changes should be a positive because now the Academy tournament will actually be playing for an LCS slot. So they are incentivized heavily to win. I feel like, for a long time, basically since franchising, the Academy league has been…it feels bad playing in a League where winning isn’t all that important.

"The Academy league has been all about promoting and building new talent, which is an important part of the process. But winning Academy doesn’t really mean anything. Now, you’re going to get a chance to earn an LCS spot. So I think, for the pipeline it does a lot of good things. 

"For what it does for current NA talent is a bit of a question mark. Like, will some NA talent go play in Brazil? We won’t be imports there, I really don’t know what it’s going to do to the already-established NA talent. That’s going to be really interesting.

Obviously there’s going to be one less slot, because obviously one team won’t be picking up all NA players. It’s really hard to say what’s going to end up happening. But, yeah, in terms of the pipeline I think it should be a positive." 

We spoke to Inero about this, and he was worried that it would incentivize teams to try and win NACL rather than focusing on developing talent long-term. How do you see the relationship between those risks and the positives you see?

"Yes, there might be teams that do what Cloud9 did back in the day. Like, there’s a team that’s trying to farm the spot with more veteran talent. But, if you have these teams in the Academy league, then the players that are up-and-coming, they get to practice against better talent that’s going to prepare them for the LCS. So, if you better the quality of the league, it’s going to create better up-and-coming talent." 

"But, if you say it doesn’t matter, people don’t care about winning in the Academy league, and there are going to be a lot of up-and-coming talent that don’t get to practice against anything close to what it’s going to be like in the LCS.

I do agree that it creates that kind of problem, but I think having a more competitive tier-two scene even if it means there are going to be one or two less teams that are fully stacked with rookies, it makes all the other rookies better at a faster rate."

We've been asking everybody this question this week: If you could pick the setting for Arcane season three, what region would you pick, and what champion from that region do you want to see get screentime?

"Hmm…which character do I want more lore on. Oooh, Sylas is a fun character, The Unchained. I think he’s in Demacia, right? Yeah, a Demacia x Noxus situation would be a lot of fun to go into. 

Any words for 100T fans heading into the break?

"I would just say to the fans, thank you for supporting us so far. Even now, with how we’re performing. I appreciate your patience, and I understand if you’re frustrated, and I want you to know I’m doing everything that I can to better the team. I also think the players are working really hard. Right now it’s not enough, but we’re going to keep working as hard as we can.

I’m just super grateful we get to live the life that we get to live, to keep trying to be the best at a pro gamer, being a coach. I’m very appreciate of the fans’ support. Without that we wouldn’t be able to do what we do."

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