LFL, League of Talents [1/8] — Yukino: "These teams I'm playing against — it's just child's play"
Photo Credit: LFL
Right before LFL playoffs, Karmine Corp Blue jungler Yukino sat down with RFT.GG — and didn't pull punches. He reflected on his decision to stay at KCB rather than join FlyQuest, what last split's LEC stint left the team with, his shift into a vocal leadership role this season, the LFL competition he's gleefully labelling "child's play," and the very specific gap he still needs to close before making a real LEC move.
Last time we met, you told me you wanted to stay with KCB. A lot has happened since. Looking back, would you still say you made the right choice?
I'm not gonna lie, if I was in their position, we would have won everything.
But right now, performing at KCB, we kind of found what works for us. Honestly, ask me this question after I see what we do in playoffs. After we beat , my confidence wasn't really 100% — In the Galions series, besides the throw we had, we kind of dominated them from start to finish.
I knew I had good players, but we weren't working that well together. Now I feel like we found what works.
Looking back at last year, would you say the LEC experience has been beneficial for the team this year?
Yeah, definitely. There's a lot of stuff that happened to us last year that we now use in our playbook against other teams. The G2 series especially — we took a lot of learnings from that, it kind of figured out our playbook, what was going to work for us and what wasn't. Going through the LFL split, it took us a while to actually apply what we learned at LEC. But right now, we're finally up to form.
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How has your individual role evolved compared to last year?
Last year, I only had to focus on the mechanical side.
Jungle is usually supposed to be the leader of the team, right? But that role wasn't needed in KCB last year.
If I wanted to lead the game, it was just too many voices — I had a lot of veterans on the team, all with their own ideas of how to play. This year, I have a lot more rookies, so I can speak my mind a lot more about how I want games to be played. I'm taking more of a leadership role.
Of course I still need the mechanical skill — I've been spamming a lot of solo queue. I ended rank 5 last split, and I'm climbing really fast this split too. I think it's better for my development that I'm taking on this leadership role.
Are you comfortable in that role, or are you still struggling to find what works in that new position?
It's pretty easy for me, actually. My problem last year, as a rookie, was that I was really scared to speak my mind. When you're working with veterans who have way more experience than you, no one's going to listen to a rookie unless you start doing really crazy stuff — and I didn't start doing really crazy stuff until summer playoffs. Before that, I kind of had ideas on how I wanted to play, but I was too shy to speak up. Because I was a rookie, I was not confident 100% of the time on the plays I called.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
This year, I can speak my mind a lot more, have conversations with people so we get on the same page. It took time. At the beginning it wasn't easy, but right now everyone's pretty much on the same page most of the time. The whole process of getting everyone on the same page is really hard — you have a lot of arguments during that period — but right now we're good.
What has been your biggest challenge as a team so far, in-game or outside?
Our biggest struggle is just that people see the game differently. We're a bunch of rookies, we see each play differently — we don't really have much experience.
I'm trying to be that main voice — I'm the one leading the game from start to finish.
It's definitely hard, because when I have to focus too much on leadership, I'm missing windows — like, wait, I could have done this, I had an opportunity here — because I'm trying to make sure everyone's on a clear plan. So it's been hard in that aspect. But recently — we're chilling.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
How do you see the next steps for your career? Obviously you don't want to stay too long in tier 2 — do you have a plan, or are you taking it day by day?
I do hope by the end of the year I'm going to LEC.
Honestly, these teams I'm playing against — it's just child's play. It's so easy.
The stuff I'm seeing in games, I'm like, there's no way I'm playing in the same league as this.In terms of actual gameplay, I know I'm better.
The reason I stayed this year was because I was missing that extra bit of juice — the leadership role that most teams pick up a jungler for. I didn't have it yet. If I want to promote, if I want to prove to teams that I'm insane, I need to have this. I need to show it in replays, in comms — I need people talking about me, going, yeah, this guy's an insane leader. I don't have that yet, and that's what I need to move to the next step.
I have the micro side, the mechanical side — I'm insane at that. For sure. But I need the leadership. So I'm getting it this year.
Le petit prince 🥹