It was all business for ahq e-Sports Club on Day 4 of groups. Predicting INTZ to camp top lane, ahq sent its jungler and mid to backup Chen “Ziv” Yi top and deny INTZ the snowball. After that, it was a slow choke to close out the game. Colin “CD Mangaka” Nimer caught up with Kang “Albis” Xia-Wei to discuss preparing for INTZ, Flash Wolves disappointing performance, the support meta, and his thoughts on playing his former role of AD carry.

Colin Nimer: I’m here with Kang “Albis” Xia-Wei after ahq’s decisive victory over INTZ. After INTZ upset EDG on the first day, were you worried about going up against INTZ, or did you consider that victory to be a fluke?

Kang Xia-Wei: I think that the first day, the reason EDG lost to INTZ was because it was the first time EDG played against them, and they didn’t have much information to go in and research the team members. (And) their team composition was not good to go against INTZ. But for us, we actually had two extra days to watch them, figure out what their team comp is, and prepared a full day just to make sure we won.

CN: You played around Chen “Ziv” Yi a lot. Xue “Mountain” Zhao-Hong and Liu “Westdoor” Shu-Wei visited his lane, and Ziv took off on Jayce. People say that playing around Ziv is a shift in your strategy. Why did you shift to that today?

KX: Through the past few days of watching (INTZ), we saw that Gabriel “Revolta” Henud kept going to top lane to help out, so we wanted to make sure that Ziv wasn’t in a disadvantageous position. We wanted to help him out as much as we could to make sure they didn’t snowball out our toplane.

CN: There was a moment where you engaged onto Felipe “Yang” Zhao’s Kennen, and then the rest of your team didn’t follow up, and suddenly you were overextended and you died. Walk me through what happened there with the comms, and why that happened.

KX: That’s actually my personal mistake. It seemed like my team wasn’t willing to fight at that moment, but I didn’t hear them when they said “let’s back off,” and I went in and that’s what happened.

CN: Yesterday, Flash Wolves had a hard time closing against Cloud9, and they actually lost in a comeback. Does that put pressure on you to perform, since the other team from your region lost in that manner?

KX: For us, it doesn’t really concern us that much. Yesterday, Flash Wolves should’ve won, but they didn’t pay attention to the enemy team’s teleport or where Lee Sin was. That’s how they lost. They should have paid more attention.

CN: You’ve played a lot of different positions over your career, like jungle, AD carry, and now support. Which is your favorite position to play professionally?

KX: My favorite position is actually AD carry, because as an AD carry you don’t have to talk too much in coms. Also, all you have to do is stand behind teammates and keep dealing damage.

CN: Would you say it’s the easiest role to play? Is it your favorite because it is easier to play just because you don’t have to talk as much?

KX: A partial reason is that it is easier, plus I’m kind of introverted. I don’t like talking too much. Personally, I can focus on the game if I talk less.

CN: We’ve seen a lot of variety in the support position again. There are melee tank supports and ranged mage supports. We’ve seen this before at international competition, and it seems like as the tournament goes on, the melee supports win out. Which personally do you think are the best three support champions, and why?

KX: So personally, including my own playstyle, I think the best three supports would be Bard, Tahm Kench, and Karma. But of course, it depends on team composition. Each support works differently, and that’s why we see such a variety in supports.

(Featured image courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr)