SR Insanity – “[I] wouldn’t be surprised if [top laners] start picking [supports]”

Esports.gg sat down with David "Insanity" Challe, the mid laner for Shopify Rebellion, after their series against Team Liquid, discussing lane swaps, the team's struggles, and why lane swaps aren't going anywhere.

We got the chance to chat with Insanity on Week Two Day Two of the LCS 2024 Summer Split, after an 0-2 loss to Team Liquid that put Shopify Rebellion on a 0-2 series record. Insanity took the time to discuss the team's struggles, his views on upcoming changes to LoL esports, and why he believes lane swaps are sticking around, and might even get worse for top laners.

Esports.gg: Obviously it's not the result you were hoping for, but how are you feeling coming off of today's games, and how are you feeling about the split more generally?

David "Insanity" Challe: "Well, obviously we’ve only played two series and we have five more to go, we actually need to win a lot of our next couple of series to be able to compete in playoffs, I believe. Especially because we went 0-2 in both series. It’s a pretty disappointing way to show ourselves on stage. In general, I think our scrims have a lot better than this, as a showing. I believe we just really didn’t show up today or the series before that. I don’t know what to say for my teammates, but personally, I feel like I didn’t play like myself. We played with less confidence, less awareness maybe, whatever, I wasn’t really myself at all. "

What would you point to as the difference between your stage and scrim games, why aren't they translating?

"I wouldn’t really point to it as nerves, or the difference between scrims and stage, really. We’ve been practicing, obviously, somewhat of a different strategy for our macro game. I think maybe we just weren’t confident heading into today’s games, like, while we were playing. Maybe there’s a bit of a disconnect there, otherwise I’m not sure. But it definitely felt like we just didn’t trust ourselves at a lot of points."

One of the biggest pieces of news in the recent LoL esports update was the addition of a Fearless Draft international tournament. What do you think of Fearless Draft?

"Personally, I would enjoy Fearless a lot more than what it currently is. A lot of the time, the meta just becomes a stalemate where people pick one OP, trade for another OP, and then it doesn’t really matter. You just keep trading those for the duration of them being strong and then it just becomes boring to watch. I think Fearless brings a lot of creativity and then it’s also a lot of fun for people to watch because it’s new champions, people need to think about what they’re going to play, just a bunch of random stuff. It just brings, in my opinion, a lot of randomness and chaos and that’s fun for people to watch, compared to what it is now. "

Do you think that Fearless Draft should be limited to one tournament per year, or should Fearless Draft become the way that pro LoL is played?

"I think it’s just one or the other, in my opinion. You just [commit] to one or the other. If Fearless stricks around when they try it out, I think they should just pick Fearless for all the other tournaments. LCS, LEC, whatever, everybody should be participating, and if they play in that then it should be there for the Worlds stage as well."

How are you feeling about the midseason update now that it's had time to settle in?

"I think, for the most part, the game seems pretty similar in my opinion. Obviously, lane swaps are less meta now but they still exist to some degree. I don’t think there’s a way to push that out entirely. It’s definitely a step in the right direction from before, where people were literally lane swapping every game. I dunno, it just felt really weird, it didn’t feel fun to play, It wasn’t enjoyable, in my opinion. "

We talked to Massu about something similar to your points on lane swapping. Has Riot just not disincentivized lane swapping enough, or is this a Pandora's Box that we can't close?

"I think that people are just realizing that lane swaps, or this way of playing the game, has probably been doable for a long time now. There was really no punishment for it for years and years, and nobody did it still, but now that people realize that it’s a viable option, teams have tried to figure out more, learned about it, and have realized that it’s actually beneficial in a lot of situations. I think more people will just continue to experiment with it at different stages of the game. "

So lane swaps are just something we're going to have to accept? We should expect to see more level 1 top laners at four minutes or so?

"It’s probably something we’re just going to have to accept. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if [top laners] start picking another support champion and just running around the map. "

Any quick message for your fans, looking ahead to the split and your next games?

"Thank you guys for continuing to support us, even though our last two sets have been pretty damn disappointing. I’m really sorry for that, I think we’re a lot better than we’ve shown so far, and hopefully we can show you guys that heading into the next games."

Insanity and Shopify Rebellion's next game is on Thursday, June 27, against Cloud9 at approximately 1 PM PST.