GiantX Patrik on ADC role: “All the other roles are having a lot of fun”

On the last day of the LEC regular season, esports.gg sat down with GiantX's ADC Patrik "Patrik" Jírů to talk about his team's performance this split and why this volatile meta makes bot feel stale.

GiantX has slid into playoffs, avoiding a three-way tiebreaker for 8th place among 2-win teams by having one more game win over the course of the split. The team has their work cut out as a middle-of-the-pack roster facing down several dominant top-ranked teams. As his team locked a low-ranking but safe spot in the playoffs, Patrik chatted with us about the team's struggles, their improvements, and why midseason made the game go crazy.

Esports.gg: Obviously it's not the result you were hoping for, but you've made playoffs despite the loss today. What are your thoughts on the series and the split overall?

I think, today, we got too far behind to play with our comp. Since we’re four melee champs against Azir/Zeri, the moment they get some items, we might as well all get oneshot. I think for a comp like this we had to play way, way better to perform. I think, overall, this split, on a weekly basis we were improving. I think we managed to fix a lot of our issues when it came to being decisive and having more calm comms than before, so I’m kind of happy with that. 

What are those improvements in communications that you're seeing that have helped the team be more coordinated?

I just think that in the first few games we were really stressed in many situations. What was happening was that we had way too many people screaming and just cluttering the comms. At the moment it was hard to understand, but also focus. So now in these high-stress situations, a Baron start or a Drake fight, I think we can at least clearly tell what’s going on and what people are saying. So, it’s good. 

What improvements are you hoping to see from the team heading into playoffs? Where do you think you need to focus?

I think for us there are two things. I think our early game is not really that stable, I feel like we don’t go even. I feel like we go either ahead or behind. I feel like we should focus on early game to make sure the game is not completely lost like 10 minutes in. And then, midgame decisions, we are still a bit too slow. For example, today, when Soul was spawning for enemies we went to Baron and we got Baron, but we all died. I think if we were 20 or 30 seconds quicker on making that call, it would have been way better for us. I think just those two things. 

We just talked to Dylan Falco earlier today about the meta, and he was saying it feels very volatile. Do you think the meta since the midseason update has felt volatile?

Yeah, I actually agree. I think the meta with AP junglers coming in, it just gets kinda crazy in a way. They just clear so fast, and if they get a little bit ahead they just take over the game. But then you also have people who, like, completely ignore them in a way. There’s just so many things you can actually play. Yeah, I think with the exception of AD Carry, where there’s like only Zeri, Kai’Sa, maybe Jinx these days, all the other roles are having a lot of fun.

So everybody else gets to have fun picking Zyra and Mundo and you're stuck with the same three champs?

(laughs) Yeah. I didn’t expect the Mundo, though.

Would you like it if bottom lane was more open to non-marksmen classes, or are you fine with being the least flexible role right now?

I think the game is designed around having Marksmen right now. I think if you don’t have one, loads of games you just can’t win. For example, objective taking is really slow. If you ever want to siege, that gets really hard as well if you don’t have AD carry. So, I think for other things to come bot lane they would have to kind of change the game completely. I don’t mind it, it’s just how it is. I enjoy playing ranged champions and just doing some damage. 

If you could pick the region for Arcane Season 3, what region would you choose and what champions would you want to see?

This is a bit tricky, because I don’t know anything about League of Legends lore. I watched Arcane, but that’s it, yeah. I would like to see Kalista or Nilah, they seem like quite interesting champions.  

Looking into the playoffs, who is your favorite, excluding yourselves, to win?

My favorite, if we exclude GX, it’s G2. Even though they are a bit shaky right now, playoffs and best-of-five will come and nobody will beat them. Maybe they will win one game, but nobody will win three. For playoffs we will just see who we play, I think last time we played G2 and Fnatic this year, which is quite unlucky. I would prefer to play somebody else, maybe SK or BDS if they choose us.

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