“People don’t know how to play Phoenix” PRX Jinggg talks about playing Phoenix

At the VCT Pacific Week 4, Paper Rex took on the best VCT Pacific team in DRX. The best-of-three series had Paper Rex absolutely stunned in map 1. They answered back in map two but DRX came out guns blazing to secure the second map to win the series. After the game, Strafe had an opportunity to interview Paper Rex’s Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie. In an exclusive one-on-one interview, PRX Jinggg talks about the match, inconsistency of Paper Rex, personal performance, playing phoenix and more. 

Q. First of all, sorry for your loss. Does directly playing the second map somewhere affects your performance, since you aren’t as warm as your teammates?

PRX Jinggg: “I think in a way, maybe slightly because everyone has already played a map but I haven’t so it might. But I don’t think it is the reason we lost”

Q. Paper Rex was leading on Split on two different occasions, but couldn’t capitalize on the momentum and lost the map. What went wrong there?

PRX Jinggg: “I think they just adjusted really well to the way we played. They caught us off-guard multiple times. They just played really well”

Q. Paper Rex sometimes just takes over the games for eg. T1, where you just bullied them into submission, but sometimes you seem lost eg. Team Secret. What do you think is the reason for the inconsistency for the team?

PRX Jinggg: “ I think it’s the different playstyle of different teams. I think we struggle against certain playstyles. I think Team Secret’s playstyle isn’t the best for us and that’s we look a little lost”

Q. You have been the best performer of the team. But you seem to be struggling lately, why is it so?

PRX Jinggg: “I think it was just an off-day, I wasn’t hitting my shots. So I was just running in for my teammates and helping them I guess. I mean if you can’t hit your shots there is no point baiting your teammates, you can just die for them, since they are the ones hitting their shots so I was just missing many shots last week.”

Q. You joined Paper Rex much later than your peers. How was it adjusting to the team’s culture and adopting the team’s philosophy?

PRX Jinggg: “Adjusting to the team wasn’t really that difficult because I don’t know. We just scrimmed a lot, practised a lot and we just jelled really well together.”

Q. You have been playing Phoenix a lot on Pearl but the agent doesn’t see much light otherwise. What are your thoughts on playing Phoenix?

PRX Jinggg: “I just feel like, People don’t really play Phoenix because it has been bad so people don’t really know how to play the agent at a really high level. So people just don’t want to take the risks to pick the agent. Obviously there are maps where the agent is bad like Icebox but there are certain maps where Phoenix is great.”

Q. Bind would make its return to the map pool in the upcoming weeks. With Icebox leaving for a while. What are your thoughts on the change?

PRX Jinggg: “I think it's good because we as a team like to use Yoru and Bind is a good pick for Yoru so I think it's good for use because we enjoy playing Bind”

Q. Is changing map pool/meta mid season a good thing?

PRX Jinggg: “I think at the highest level it shouldn’t be a problem. Especially because Bind has been a map before and everyone has good protocols on the map so I don’t think it should be a problem.”

Q. What are your expectations from the season?

PRX Jinggg: “Ofcourse, we want to be top two for the season. Top 1 will be hard because we already lost two games but right now we want to end the season as top 2. If we win every single one of our next games, we will definitely be in the top two. If not top two, then we just hopefully qualify for the playoffs”

Q. Who do you think will be the toughest match-up going forward?

PRX Jinggg: “Maybe GenG, DRX match-up was the hardest until now so for the next few matches it’ll be GenG”

Q. What do you think Paper Rex needs to change to get better International results?

PRX Jinggg: “Honestly, I am not too sure. There are too many variables I can’t pinpoint on a single thing. I think there are too many variables”

Q. You’d face Global Esports next, What are your thoughts on the match-up?

PRX Jinggg: “I think they look really strong, they brought DRX to double OT, in their match. So I think it will be a close game hopefully”

Paper Rex will play Global Esports in the next week of VCT Pacific. While Paper Rex currently sits on two wins and two losses, Global Esports are struggling to close out the games. In terms of match-ups both teams have distinct playstyles and players who can easily take over games. Whatever the outcome, the game will be a treat to watch. 

VCT Pacific action resumes on 22nd April. Follow VCT Pacific's Twitter for all the updates regarding VCT Pacific.

Credits: Riot Games // VCT Pacific

You can also follow VCT Pacific on Strafe.