Nobody expects the Wildcard inquisition. In yet another upset at the World Championship, Albus NoX Luna took down CLG after a tense game. CLG nearly pulled it back through strong teamfighting, but Albus outsmarted CLG with a sneaky baron and eventually powered through them. Colin “CD Mangaka” Nimer got to speak with top laner Dmitri “Smurf” Ivanov about the upset, his teammates, and his personal history in League of Legends.

Colin Nimer: I’m here with Dmitri “Smurf” Ivanov from Albus NoX Luna, who just defeated CounterLogic Gaming in a very exciting game. Smurf, what was the game plan against CLG? Did you guys actually expect to beat them, or was it like Kirill "Likkrit" Malofeyev said, you’re just playing for fun?

Dmitri Ivanov: Actually, we’re taking all of our games very seriously. Before this game, even though CLG managed to upset G2, we still thought they were the weakest team in our group. So we actually wanted to win this game.

CN: You were able to play Trundle in top this game. We haven’t seen him a lot. What made you guys want to play him? Are you just comfortable on him, or was it just good against CLG’s composition?

DI: Trundle is a really comfortable pick for me, I’ve played it a lot. The truth is, we didn’t plan it in advance. It was just the last pick for us, and we felt it would be good for our composition against CLG’s.

CN: One reason why the Wildcard teams aren’t favored at these tournaments is because they come from weaker regions that don’t have as much infrastructure or coaching. What have you guys been doing to prepare for this world championship? Have you been scrimming in Europe? Have you been doing vod reviews?

DI: It’s true that for Wildcard teams it’s usually harder to prepare for tournaments like this one. But for us, it was maybe a little easier because we could train on European servers with European teams. We didn’t go to Korea to bootcamp, but we still figured out what are the picks and what is the meta, and got ideas about the states of other teams, so that actually helped us to prepare for Worlds.

CN: What first got you into League of Legends as a player? I’d like to know more about you since there isn’t much said online.

DI: So, my story is like this: I just randomly started to play League of Legends after I played some Dota. The genre was really familiar to me. From the start I managed to climb pretty high in the ranks, so it was around… maybe two years maybe when I was playing at a good level, and it was at this time I started to play with a professional team.

CN: Back when Moscow 5 was still a team, they were a very good team, and Russian. Did you look up to them at all when you were playing League of Legends? Did you get a chance to meet any of the players?

DI: Definitely. When I started to play, I noticed there was a Russian team that was really successful on the international stage. So it was a nice feeling to have someone representing the region there. But it also was disappointing when they started losing a lot and the team dissolved. Of course, I’ve met all of the old Gambit crew in real life, because they were attending some of the events I was playing on.

CN: So when you have a teammate like Likkrit who gives these fiery quotes in interviews, and he’s funny and he’s bantering, does that ever put extra pressure on you guys or do you all just laugh together and enjoy it?

DI: It’s great to have a teammate like Likkrit, because he is super emotional and sometimes when the team performs really well, he becomes cocky and can say some interesting things in the interviews. It’s good that he can express himself in this way. Sometimes it’s funny to see the community reaction.

Images courtesy of Lol Esports Flickr