Karmine Corp came up one step short at the EWC, swept 3-0 by Dplus KIA in the grand final on home soil in Paris. Trixcity caught up with KC ADC Caliste "Caliste" Henry-Hennebert after the defeat to talk about a DK side that deserved the title, the confidence KC found across the run, and a Summer split that starts in just five days.
How are you feeling, and how do you explain this 3-0 off the cuff? Did you expect it to be this much harder than yesterday?
Obviously I'm very, very disappointed. We really didn't expect to lose 3-0 like that, and certainly not in that fashion. I thought Damwon were really, really strong in their games, and above all very confident and very sharp — both individually and in how they took fights and positioned. They were very, very good, a very good team, and I think the title is deserved. On our end, of course, we're extremely disappointed.
We'd have loved to win that grand final in front of our fans — it would've been a beautiful story.
So many fans turned up, they brought so much noise, so much energy, and they placed so much hope in us. So we're truly sorry — we honestly can't find the words for how sorry we are.
In-game — don't you think there was anything specific that lost it, you really think it was a global thing?
It's a little tough to say right now, because I haven't had the chance to review the games yet. We'll run a debrief and go through them to make sure we return stronger, learning from our mistakes and from why they were so strong. Off the top of my head, I honestly think it's everything combined. Their teamplay was really good, every player was individually really sharp, and they made strong, very quick plays — you really had to come well prepared.
What's your assessment of this whole international campaign for KC, and what do you take from it as a team for the rest of the year?
What I take away is that, as a group, we can be a really, really good team if we adapt well to the meta. Each player just needs to listen to himself, to trust what he believes is best for him. Everyone has to trust themselves. I genuinely think we can be a very, very good team — we showed it at the EWC.
Le trophée nous échappe cette fois, mais la fierté reste immense !! Nos joueurs ont tout donné et ont prouvé qu’ils avaient leur place parmi les meilleures équipes du monde en les affrontant et en les faisant tomber sur leur chemin Merci pour votre soutien sans faille 💙 Show more
We just can't lose that confidence — we have to keep snowballing it, keep this momentum going.
I think we can be a good team, and we can't let it get us down.
Do you think it's better for it to go this way than the other — G2's way? Meaning a strong MSI and a weaker EWC?
Honestly, I don't know, it's hard to say. The most important thing is that we managed to put in a good performance at one of the two tournaments. That's really the most important thing — it's what we needed to head into Summer with good guidance, good lessons, a bit of confidence. That's really what we needed, because at MSI we didn't perform well and we felt we could do better. So the fact that we did better at this EWC, despite the grand final loss — take away the grand final, and we're all happy with our tournament, individually and as a team. We have to remember that too.
Just to finish, do you know the program for what's next? You play again in five days — will you get to rest at all in between, or not?
Clearly, the next focus is the roadtrip, the start of Summer. We'll probably play the three best teams, if they pick us. There won't be any rest time, and there'll probably be content in between too, so we won't really have time to rest — that's just how it is, nothing we can do, it's competition. So it'll be a very important focus on those first three BOs. The most important thing will be to grab wins for good seeding — seeding will matter for Worlds. So honestly, it'll just be about giving it everything, really pushing to the limit, pushing ourselves, to put in a good performance in front of our fans and take some good wins.
