MSI 2025 Blog: 7/4 (FLY vs G2, Meeting MKOI), 7/5 (MKOI vs CFO)
Dang, I thought the past two days were huge days but today somehow mogged those in comparison. And it is definitely the best day of MSI by far.
So let me just go from start to finish.
Attending MSI
I woke up pretty early and we had to check out of this airbnb today. So I got to the arena nice and early this time, around 11:20 AM. I made my way to the seats, this time in the upper section 106, not the floor. After setting my stuff down, I bought a cheeseburger from the concessions and then I started… writing a letter? Oh yeah, I was supposed to be handing FlyQuest staff my gifts for the players today, but I seriously didn't yet have time to write out the letters, so I did it super quickly right then. I just did a combined message for the whole team because individually it would feel like too much maybe.
My data started dying again, so I couldn't talk to Daysie but she came in eventually and said her data died too. Rip.
The series was a quick 3-0. Being upper seats was chill, because the screen was way easier to see (and larger), and the camera only really films the floor area, so you don’t have to worry about making signs and showing them.
Let’s start with game 1. “They took away Quad’s Cassio??” And to be frank, it didn't look pretty. Caps did get caught a bunch. Inspired had an amazing game as Pantheon. In addition, they allowed Massu to get VARUS which was a mistake cuz this guy transformed into Gumayusi merged with Danny. It was a fun game with really crazy hype moments like the Varus baron steal, and the 4th of July home crowd just made it better.
Kyler, the super goated flyquest video guy, came over during game 2 draft to grab my gifts. Thank you a ton kyler~ I am told that FLY are super busy, understandably, I hope they still like the prints and stickers.
Anyways, game 2. Inspired had another pop off game, this time on Wukong. I can't tell you much else, just that it was a pleasure to witness.
Game 3, it was another clean and convincing game, I can’t tell you much, I remember Massu Kai’sa (iconic), I still have to rewatch the series, I’ve been so occupied but I’m excited to like, see Caedrel POV and stuff.
After the game, I saw the staff preparing Massu and Busio for a stage interview and their families were at the front recording them. Later, I suddenly saw Busio’s family (Busio’s dad legit had a jersey that says BUSIO DAD on the back) so I went up extremely shy and awkward and was like hii you're Busio’s family right, I just wanna give you some stuff, and I handed them my extra Busio Neeko print plus two laminated Busio golden retriever stickers 😭His dad said thank you, did you make this? I nodded very shyly and scurried off. At this moment I regretted not bringing extra FlyQuest posters with me. I will try bringing more to 7/8.
I legit also saw Massu’s family, but then I lost them when I was trying to get my stuff out, and I couldn't find them again when i looked so… I didn't have the chance to give them stuff this time around… my bad…
Anyway; the quick 3-0 was nice, so I was hoping for an early end to MSI. See, I actually coordinated with the MKOI team manager, Toni, to meet up around 7pm, so I was hoping MSI could be done before then. But then he told me he wouldn't want me to miss MSI, so we could just wait for MSI to end.
Which was good, since GEN.G vs AL wound up going all the way to 5 games, with GEN.G eventually winning. This was actually a pretty fun series to watch. Also, witnessing Silver Scrapes live was an interesting experience. People around the crowd turn on their phone lights and wave them while the song plays. And if you’ve never been to a lolesports irl event, everything sounds way louder all around you, like a concert. For example, during games, something as lowkey as the sound of CSing will sound super loud in your ears and you can even feel how loud these sounds are through the vibrations.
Meeting MKOI
Now for the real sauce, I’m sure most of you clicked in because you wanna know about the MKOI meetup. I’m sitting here and I still cannot believe this happened to me. I am still in complete disbelief that was real and not some crazy dream.
During the GENG vs AL match, I kept messaging with Kieran and he was reassuring me how meeting MKOI would be nice and fun and that I shouldn't be too nervous, which was really helpful since he has met them plenty of times.
After MSI, we got a Lyft to the meetup location and midway through the drive I started chattering with Daysie about what I should say and do, because I seriously still didn't know.
Also I told the manager we’d get there like 5 minutes later than we were actually getting there, because I wanted to be there first.
“Cuz what if we get there and they're already there?” I asked. “That's scary. I don't want that.”
I told Daysie I had been trying to think of interesting picture pose ideas with Kieran, since I didn't want our pictures to be boring and just standing there or making a default thumbs up or peace sign. She started throwing out suggestions, some of which I felt too shy about asking for, like cat/bear ears, cheek hearts, etc. I settled on at least finger hearts, since Kieran had gotten a picture with that so I knew they'd be fine with it. And then I wanted to think of a second pose that would be more ‘cool’, so I thought maybe punching or pointing.
“Or maybe the Faker pose,” I said, demonstrating the shush. “Wait, like, maybe if I say it's the Faker they’ll do it cuz it’s Faker. Right?”
Daysie looked faintly amused. “Sure?”
“It's a Faker pose, right?” I asked. “I’m not making that up?”
“No, you aren't.”
(I also said I’d love a selfie with Jojo and maybe the others, but I completely forgot about that during the actual meetup. TT)
Thank you to our Lyft driver who probably had no clue what we were yapping about in the back the whole time.
There was nothing to worry about getting there before them. We were dropped in a parking lot and walked a bit forward toward an area in front of a small outdoor basketball court marked by one hoop and a gray rectangle on the floor. Leading down to the court, there were a series of giant shallow colorful steps. There were random people and families around the area eating outside or hanging around. So it was pretty chill with a lot of ambience.
I immediately put my stuff down and sat on the upper step. Daysie was pacing back and forth around the vicinity while I was sitting there and staring at my messages with the manager in case he would say something. I knew I would be recognizable because I said I was wearing my FLY Inspired jersey that I wore to MSI.
Because I was nervous, I kept talking about what might happen and what I should say and do. I was worried that I was annoying Daysie with it, but she said I’m never annoying. She just found it funny how I was losing my mind and she kept trying to tell me it’ll be okay. And she’ll tell me if she sees a group of guys walking in this direction.
I explained how I was a lot more nervous for this because I just haven’t met any of them besides Jojo before. We started discussing what marker color would look good for signatures on the poster. I was thinking maybe white but then Daysie said she had a gold sharpie and thought it would look nicer. She also got a funny picture of me just sitting there and staring at my phone.
After a while I ended up just pacing around with Daysie. “I’m gonna forget what I was gonna say,” I said, since they seemed to be running ever so slightly late. Daysie was basically doing aggressive mental coaching at me. We eventually concluded that she’s the support and I’m the ADC who needs handholding.
My heart was still gonna explode from nerves. And after like 10 minutes that stretched into what felt like 10 years, we finally saw those guys approaching in the distance.
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “Oh my God.”
“Are you okay?” Daysie checked in with me. “Wait, dude, it’s fine.”
”Yes. Oh my gosh.”
Alvaro was leading the charge like an engage support, bouncing a basketball. Elyoya was a bit behind him beside Melzhet, and he had a hand in his pocket as he walked. Jojo and Supa were behind them. And Myrwn was in a blue MKOI jersey, standing out among all the neutral colors everyone else wore.
“Oh they brought the basketball,” I said.
Since they came here to play basketball together anyway, it made me feel like I wasn't bothering them or using up their time (which is something I worried about a bit beforehand). It felt like they were all happy and willing to be here, which was really cool.
We noticed that Alvaro was walking a good few paces in front of the others, and I waved at him and he waved back. Then I quickly pulled some of the gifts out of the gift bag so I could be more ready to show them.
Alvaro approached first and he was exuding friendly vibes, so I confidently said hello to him and he said hello back, and “nice to meet you.” We fistbumped and I said “nice to meet you!” back.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Toni, the manager,” the manager said with a big friendly smile.
I lit up at the realization, greeting him excitedly. As the others all joined us around the steps now, I said, “Thank you guys for coming!!” This was completely surreal, to be existing in the same place as these players I have been watching all year.
“Helloo,” Jojo said cheerfully.
I was holding the brown paper bag of art posters now and awkwardly took one of the posters out, turning it to show them. “I don't know if you guys saw, but like, I drew like, these…”
“Oh, I saw it on Twitter,” Alvaro remarked.
“Yeah, it looks nice,” Jojo said.
“Yeah, so um there's like a lot…” I pulled out a few more posters to show.
“Oh sh*t there’s more?” Jojo asked.
Words continued spilling from my mouth in a jumbled mess. “Yeah so like you guys can all have one and then the coaches can have some and like whoever else but um…” (Can you tell I’m nervous?? Stop spamming “like”, girl…😭)
“i’ll give it to everyone,” Jojo said.
And while I was saying this, Supa was behind Elyoya kicking the basketball with his FEET around the steps like a soccer ball… I am only noticing this now while watching the video Daysie took… LOL. He just kept doing it continuously.
“I was wondering if you guys could like, sign one for me?” I asked.
“We can,” Alvaro immediately said.
“Yes I brought this,” manager Toni said, revealing a black sharpie.
“Oh you brought one, okay, but I think the gold one Daysie said would be good,” I said, passing the gold sharpie to Jojo.
“Where do you want me to sign, I can sign?” Jojo asked.
“Uh, just- not on your face, anywhere that’s not on your face,” I said. Jojo started signing it while holding the poster just in the air.
At this point in time Supa wandered back to us and started looking at what was going on. You know, he really does have that bird energy, if that makes sense…
“I mean honestly he could have drawn on his own face it would be funny,” Daysie quipped.
“No,” I said, laughing.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”
“It's too late,” Jojo said, passing the poster to Alvaro.
“I will try to- I will put it here okay,” Alvaro said, now setting the poster down on the top step aka the ground and kneeling down to sign it.
“Make it niice Alvaroo! Alvarooo~” Jojo said playfully.
“Okay,” Alvaro said.
“Jojo’s signature is so nice though,” I blurted out. “Like, it used to be-”
“I used to not even have one,” Jojo said, turning to me and shaking his head a bit.
“Yeah, why did you decide to get a real one?” I wondered. “Like did you just randomly-”
“You have more aura,” Jojo explained, putting emphasis on the last word.
“You do!!” I agreed.
“Like if you have a nice signature,” Jojo said.
After Alvaro finished signing, he passed the poster to Supa, who didn’t kneel down, he straight up just bent his knees and completely leaned forward with his head down like.. like, um, a shrimp. (Sorry but watching Supa shenanigans in this video is the funniest thing to me cuz I didn't notice any of it in the moment, I only had a vague impression of him sorta just off doing his own things on the side throughout. Seriously, he’s like a bird). His signature is fast, so he quickly handed the sharpie off to Elyoya who was sitting on the step waiting on the side.
Elyoya grabbed the poster and brought it closer to him to sign, still sitting down. Watching this video back I am fascinated with all these different choices when it comes to signing in a unique place aka outdoors on some giant steps aka the ground.
“We’ll see who has the best signature,” Jojo said, because he has to make everything into a competition.
“To be honest, Elyoya,” someone, I think the manager, said.
“Elyoya’s full tryharding,” Jojo noted since he was taking his sweet time signing. Legit all four of the other players were standing and staring at Elyoya completely locked in on signing this poster. The guy wasn't even sitting anymore, he was in some weird position with his left knee and forearms resting on the upper step while he was completely leaned over the poster. I don't even know how to explain this so I’ll just give you guys a picture.
“I mean it looks really good no?” Alvaro complimented.
Jojo made some noises of excitement while Elyoya finished up his signature and gave the sharpie to Myrwn.
“And now Myrwn here,” Alvaro said.
“How did scrims go?” I thought it might be a good time to ask Jojo the burning question.
“It was great!” Jojo said with a smile.
“It was great?” I repeated.
“Scrims couldn’t have been better,” Jojo said.
“Okay so you win tomorrow! (🤡) I’ll be there watching!”
Yoya picked up the basketball and started dribbling it. Myrwn started signing in pretty much the same position Elyoya was signing in.
“Joseph, do you want to give the merch?” The manager then spoke up, passing him the jersey and shirt package he was holding.
“Ohhh!” I exclaimed, now finally realizing what he was holding. “So you really got one…” I hadn’t gotten my hopes up too much for the jersey, but I was super thankful and elated to receive one.
“Yeah for sure! We can sign it too but we’re gonna have to open it first.” (Since it was in the plastic.)
“Yeah yeah! Oh my gosh, wait, thank you guys so much. Cuz like, legit shipping for this is -”
“It’s expensive,” Jojo said.
“It’s like 50 dollars,” I said.
“Yeah, my mom told me,” Jojo said understandingly. “I didn't know we had this, we had this?” He asked disbelievingly, gesturing at the Jojo’s Plan shirt.
“They’ve had this for like a while I saw it and I was like the shipping is really expensive but it's funny. You didn't see anyone wearing it?”
Jojo shook his head. “I sign the back?”
“Yeah the back,” I said.
While we were chatting, Myrwn had finished signing the poster and was just kinda standing there holding it. Alvaro noticed and took it from him. He approached me with the poster and asked if I wanted Melzhet to sign.
“Oh yeah maybe at the top or something?” I said. Alvaro then took the poster to Melzhet off to the side.
Myrwn giggled. “Naw, f**k the coach,” he said, laughing again for good measure.
I was busy talking to Jojo so I didn't hear Myrwn’s joke at all. I was asking Jojo if he could sign really big at the top so that it’d look like his jersey, and he said he’d try but it might be hard (still signing on the step aka the ground).
“Elaine, he said fk the coach,” Daysie told me while still laughing and barely able to make her words coherent.
“Huh?” I said, not really understanding what she said.
“Like while asking for the signature,” she kept laughing. “I’ll tell you later.”
“No it’s fine,” I said, still confused. “What? What?”
“It’s fine it’s fine,” Daysie said.
Alvaro returned with the poster, set it down on Daysie’s jacket, and gave the sharpie back to me.
“Letting Jojo sign that [jersey], it’s so hard to sign,” Alvaro noted.
“I’m trying,” Jojo said, still laser focused.
“I appreciate you trying,” I said.
Then completely uncalled for and out of nowhere Alvaro asked me: “Will you go with FlyQuest or with us if we play each other?”
I paused for a good few seconds (bro stunlocked me). “Okay I thought someone would ask me that and that’s really difficult it’s like, it’s like…”
“Just say MKOI, dude,” Daysie said in an exasperated half-whisper.
“MKOI MKOI,” I said immediately. “Because Jojo is the goat. Mainly.”
“Yes,” Alvaro said.
“But you guys are all goated too like this is like my first year watching like LEC because i'm an NA fan but then I had to watch because of him but it was really fun watching you guys even though it was like up and down,” I yammered.
Although I’m sure my hesitation gave away that I’m still not really sure about my answer to this question. But thinking back to last year, Jojo vs Inspired teams was also difficult for me. However, inside my heart, there was always a slight lean toward Jojo and C9. And now, I think it's much more even because I have grown to love all of this FlyQuest roster so much, but at the same time I love this MKOI roster so much.
Given that, I think I have to give MKOI a slight edge for setting up this really special fan meet and giving me this signed jersey, who can blame me for saying that?? Wouldn't you also pick MKOI in this situation? I want to express my gratitude more too.
(And of course, I would never say FLY to Alvaro’s face?? My real answer was probably a cop out like ‘I can't choose one.’)
Daysie’s video ends here, so visually all I have left to go off is my own memory (not the best), but I do have the audio to piece together the rest of the meetup.
“The time of schedule is bad or not that bad?” Alvaro questioned.
I was about to answer, but then Jojo asked me if I wanted everyone to sign the jersey. And i said yeah, the other players.
Then I resumed conversing with Alvaro. “The time is like early, like morning, maybe 8 am sometimes, 10 am sometimes-”
“That's fine,” Alvaro said.
“But I was really night owl, but then this made me wake up early for the first time-”
“She stays up to 2 am,” Daysie exposed me.
“I stay up really late, but for your guys’ games I always watch- I always get up early.”
“Thank you so much,” Jojo said, now listening to us after he was done signing the jersey. “What time does it start in…”
“Sometimes 8 am sometimes 10 am, but like I’m just a night owl so its kinda hard.”
“So the first game’s at 8AM?” He asked.
“The LEC games yeah.”
“I see. Alvaro did you sign?” Jojo asked.
“But it’s so hard, no, to sign?” Alvaro asked. “You guys are insane.”
“You signed so big, no?” Supa asked Jojo, clearly not in the loop about the whole ‘sign so it looks like your jersey’ deal.
A gust of wind tried to blow the signed poster away, so I retrieved it and put it under my bag.
“Supaaa!”Jojo called.
“Suu-paa,” I said, because it’s fun to say it like that.
“Suupa,” Jojo repeated. “How’s Alvaro’s signature? Oh its cursive, you went cursive art.”
“I mean, its hard to sign,” Alvaro said.
“AlvaROOOO,” Jojo said for no reason in particular. “Alvaroo!”
“Did you see the back of that truck when you came here?” Daysie asked.
They all said no. We explained it said ‘Soupa Bowl,’ which they apparently had not seen. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture to show you guys.
“How long did it take to drive here?” Jojo asked us while the jersey signing was still commencing.
“From the arena? Like [redacted] minutes by Lyft,” Daysie answered.
“You guys watched the game, right?” Jojo asked.
“Yeah. It was fun-” I started.
“She was happy,” Daysie added.
“The 3-0, I was happy,” I blabbered.
“I mean, I was happy too,” Jojo said with a bright smile.
“You were hap-” I said, cutting myself off for some reason.
“Yeah of course. If we get to verse them thatd be crazy,” Jojo said.
“We kinda need that like it’d be really fun,” I said eagerly.
“I have to send Inspired home,” Jojo said.
I repeated what he said while laughing because of course… I love the friendship of those two.
“This should be good,” Jojo said, passing the finished signed jersey to me.
For the upcoming photo time, I put the jersey on, but I do have to say I tried to put it over my FLY jersey first and then Daysie was like, girl you have to take off the FLY jersey first, so I did which was fine since I had my jacket underneath and all. Just I really thought putting it over would be okay, but it probably would have been too much like that.
The manager brought up photo time while the boys were playing around a bit with the ball on the steps.
“We gotta do something more interesting than just standing there,” I took the opportunity to say. “Like…”
“She wants you guys to do poses if that’s okay,” Daysie clarified helpfully, catching my drift.
I know Elyoya was right in front of me, and he was looking at us then very inquisitively.
“Not anything crazy, like uh…” I said, trailing off.
“What do you wanna do?” Daysie asked.
“Maybe something like this,” I said, making finger hearts and trying to make sure all the players could see. Elyoya copied what I was doing and sort of shrugged like he didn't mind. And Jojo said that’d be fine.
We lined up together on the steps and somehow I wound up between the two tallest guys so I look even more short than I already was. Well…
Daysie took several photos of us and then asked if we wanted to do a different pose.
“Can we do the Faker and just do this?” I asked, demonstrating the pose and instantly putting the Faker Pose Theory to the test.
“Okay,” Alvaro said readily.
“Faker?” Jojo repeated, sounding a bit uncertain of what he should do.
“3… 2… wait Jojo you gotta put it up to your…” Daysie said
“Closer?” Jojo asked as Supa and Alvaro turned to look at him and Elyoya started laughing quietly.
“Closer!” someone said.
“Gotta do it right,” I said.
And it's funny, we all tried to act cool with our expressions but Jojo just kept smiling.
“Okay!” I said after the photos were done, feeling like asking for more poses would probably be asking too much.
“Thank you,” a bunch of them said.
“Thank you guys. We have the last stuff for you guys, like, uh…” I hurriedly said, scampering to the area we set our belongings down at.
“Ohh sheet,” Jojo said in anticipation.
“But I already gave Jojo yesterday, but uh,” I said, retrieving the individual sticker bags from the Ziploc bag they were in.
“Oohh sheeet!” Jojo repeated, a bit more excitedly.
“There’s like stickers uhh…” I took out a random bag of stickers, which happened to be Elyoya’s.
A bunch of oohs and ahhs ensued.
“-if you don’t want all of them you can give it to your friends or something,” I yapped, handing Elyoya’s to him.
“Thank youu!” he said.
Daysie also had her phone charms to give them, but I was occupied with distributing my stickers so I didn’t see exactly how that went down. What I remember is how when I gave Supa’s, he smiled really big while looking at it, so even though we didn’t really exchange any words this meeting, I knew at least he was happy with the gift.
And the last thing, I very nearly forgot but thankfully remembered- I pulled out the last envelope for Jojo.
“I don't know if you still wear Crocs but-” I started, opening the envelope to take out the bag of croc charms.
“Every once in a while,” Jojo said lightly.
“I made like the custom, IDK if you saw I have like these…” I put my foot up on the upper step and pointed out my own croc charms- the custom Jojo, Inspired, Vulcan, and LCS trophy.
“Oh sheet, nice,” Jojo said, a bit surprised. “Oh these are Jibbitz?”
“Yeah so like I got these made for you, and there's two more prints like these ones,” I said, showing the small prints briefly.
“Ooh, the circus~!” Jojo said.
“You’re the circus master?” Alvaro asked.
“I mean I was the circus master, right,” Jojo said.
“Yeah that teaser was really fun,” I said shyly.
“Thank you so much. Thank you Elaine,” Jojo said kindly, and he looked over at the Jojo’s Plan shirt which was still in the plastic on the upper step. “I hope you enjoy our gifts too, I mean-”
“Yeah no I really appreciate it so much ‘cause it’s really expensive like-”
“Yeah I mean I heard the shipping was really expensive - my mom said it too.”
“Yeah it was.”
“It is kinda crazy. Alright thank you so much,” Jojo said once again.
“Thank you all for coming,” I made sure to tell them one last time. “It's really cool to see you in NA ‘cause I never thought-”
They laughed a bit. “Yeah it prolly won't happen again,” Jojo noted.
Alvaro said to him something I couldn’t make out, about next year's Worlds.
“In NA?” Jojo asked, seemingly unaware. “They're making an international in NA?”
“Next Worlds,” Alvaro said.
“But congrats on winning LEC,” I continued yapping while not really hearing what they had said in the moment. I pointed at the brown bag of posters resting on the upper step. “You guys should keep this.”
“We will of course,” manager Toni said. “We’ll distribute them later!”
“Thank you so much, it was a pleasure,” Elyoya said sincerely, giving me that bright big smile of his that can light up a whole room. I swear my entire existence melted that moment and I can't forget it. In that instant, I thought, I will seriously be an Elyoya fan.
“Thank you, good luck tomorrow!” I said. Many thank yous were exchanged briefly.
“Nice to see you again,” Jojo said as they were turning to leave. “See ya-”
“Byebye!” I said.
And then they headed to the basketball court together to play some ball.
Unable to process everything that just happened, I quickly started gathering my belongings so we wouldn’t linger too long. “They were so nice,” I gushed quietly to Daysie.
When we finished gathering our stuff and were ready to leave, Daysie asked if I wanted to say bye. In the distance, the boys were already starting to play basketball together.
After a moment of hesitation, I turned and yelled “Bye!” They looked over and some of them probably waved and said bye back. “Good luck tomorrow!”
This was the true end of that, like, fifteen minutes or so. While I can’t remember exactly everything that happened before my eyes, I tried to write as much down as possible to preserve this precious memory.
To close out this section, I want to talk a bit more about my brief impressions of the players. I sent my friends this immediately afterwards, regarding the vibes I got from every player:
myri 😆 yoya 🥰 jojo 🥹 supa😎 alvaro ☺️
To explain a bit more:
Myrwn felt like a silly goofy dude, and he was just kind of vibing. Actually, he's born the same year as me, 2003, which I forgot to mention to him. He just felt like a funny guy willing to crack jokes like the one earlier, and he’s always wearing a smile that looks like it's one second away from becoming a quiet laugh.
Elyoya had a strong aura to him, for lack of a better word. Almost a little intense, even when he isn't saying anything?? When I see him, I feel like he just exudes the ‘leader’ energy. And that energy actually made him feel slightly intimidating, for lack of better word again. He is kind, yet feels firm, not as bubbly as Jojo or as goofy as Myrwn. However, the last interaction revealed that he does have a very sweet side.
Jojo is Jojo. I don't know if he realizes it, but he exudes the maximum lilbro energy possible at all times. The thing is, on every team, he has always been the youngest player on his team. Plus, he is the youngest in his family. Naturally, on his teams it always ends up feeling like he is everyone’s lil bro and they're all taking care of him in that sense. He's cute and bubbly, bright and playful with his teammates, making his tone of voice more playful and singsongy when he’s teasing them. And then he is also quite thoughtful. To the extent that you can see those budding leadership traits in him. He tries to be nice, and that's why people who know him in real life always like him. If you meet him, you will understand why he gets along well with everyone.
Supa, the toucan with a free spirit, has a bit of aloofness to him, but not in a bad way. He was smiling and in a good mood, but pretty quiet. And I totally understand that, I’m often a quiet person too. He reacts expressively, but not loudly, not explosively. He gives off that cool and calm vibe, and like he's doing his own thing on the side, he went off and played with the basketball a bit in the middle too. He feels maybe a bit shy, especially compared to Alvaro.
Alvaro, another ‘03 boy, is so friendly, like a puppy. He makes you feel at ease. He walked ahead of the others and waved at us from a distance, he approached first and fist bumped me. He talked to me a bit and asked questions, he was the only one besides Jojo to try making conversation like that back and forth. So when talking to him, it felt really comfortable. What a nice guy, I could tell from the videos that he was nice, but I really got to witness it here. He speaks in a really calm and stable deepish voice, not much changes in intonation or pitch or speed, and that gives off the calm, collected, reliable vibe. Especially compared to someone like Jojo, whose pitch goes all over the place (it's another fun thing about Jojo).
Anyway, that's my evaluation of the KOI boys. The staff and coaches were there too but sorry that I didn't pay too much attention because my attention was on the players so much… I was definitely a bit starstruck having never seen 4 of them in real life before.
Afterwards, Daysie and I went to eat udon together. The beef udon I got was really yummy. Our social batteries were fried but we were happy and vibing. I returned to the new airbnb (super nice) and realized that I should try to get a floor ticket for the next day because the recording cameras don't really record anything above floor during champ select. I wanted to show off my new jersey. So I bought one from someone who couldn't go anymore.
I still haven't had time to make a new MKOI sign but I can just make one during the games tomorrow.
7/5; MKOI vs CFO
I should make this short because it's painful memories.
Dude it is 2 am as I write this blog but I can hear Azael’s voice ringing in my ears am I fried??
I am so sad I can hardly focus except to get the main points out so I can refine the blog later.
That morning, I woke up earlier than I should, with the happy memories of meeting MKOI lingering in my head, I couldn’t go back to sleep, but I felt happy.
I saw that Vulcan implied he was taking a flight at 4am to film content, so not wanting to leave with regrets, I asked him if he was gonna be at MSI and on which day. Because I actually have my C9 Vulcan jersey with me, and I have his croc charms too because they were in the same bag with Jojo and Kacper’s. I was asking in case because well, it would be nice to have the jersey signed and to be able to give Vulcan the gift here so I wouldn't have to mail it to someone later.
Right as I got into the car, Vulcan got back to me, saying it could be today and a friend was trying to get him in, but he’d have to leave in the evening. So I was like: “wait a second Vulcan might be here today can I go back in get my Vulcan jersey real quick?”
“You brought Vulcan’s jersey?” my mom asked, surprised. Yeah, it had been a last second decision to bring Vulcan and Yeon’s jerseys with me to Canada. I brought them just in case, thinking maybe if in the final days my teams aren't playing, I can mix up the jerseys and wear those two.
I got to the venue before 12 and it was pretty empty in the first three rows at the time, I started sketching out an MKOI sign with all the players. But then I started feeling like that would take too long. so I put it down and decided to focus on watching the game when it started. Perhaps a mistake. I prefer not to remember how bad it was. I was so sad Jojo lost on Yone, one of his best champs usually, and he seemed to be having an uncharacteristically worse day.
The second game wasn’t much better. Jojo played Twisted Fate, a champ that was winless, 0-7 or something at the time. And the enemy team got Azir, a champ that I personally think I’d always much rather have than TF, and another champ jojo is really good at. Well, this game went better than the first for sure, and I would especially say Jojo didn’t necessarily look bad that game, but it still wasn’t good and TF was looking way less useful than the Azir.
Now for the highlight of the day. Vulcan let me know he was on the way, and he legit appeared on the screen after game 2, on the analyst desk, wearing red in representation of Canada or something. He was talking about Jojo and how the series was going, calling Jojo his little brother which was really cute. I slowly made my way to the back to be ready for the end of the segment so I could catch Vulcan afterwards.
I waved at Vulcan as he was coming down the stairs and I quickly handed him the bag of croc charms- he understood what it was. Then I asked if he could sign my jersey, which he kindly did while using my back as the ‘table’ since there were no tables around. However, I was probably too stressed from MKOI flopping or something so I forgot about like, pre shaking and pre testing the markers, since they’re paint markers, they need to be shaken a bit before use… The white marker i gave him was probably a little too dry at the moment, so he pointed that out and I said ah maybe you can use a different marker, and he agreed… I gave him my black marker but I started feeling a little bad for taking up time since there was a steadily growing crowd of fans behind us gathering probably in hopes of talking to Vulcan or something…
“There’s a bunch of people,” I told him as he gave my jersey and marker back.
“Oh sh*t… it’s suddenly a fanmeet,” he said.
A fan standing beside me immediately asked Vulcan if he could sign her sign, she didn’t have a marker so I lent her mine.
“Do you have time for pics or naw?” I asked Vulcan while he was signing that.
“Um… I’ll just sign this and I think I have to go,” he said.
Sadly i couldnt get a vulcan picture but i understood, I congratulated the random fan for being the only other fan to get a vulcan signature, I waited for the signing to get my marker back adn then while Vulcan was about to head off another fan there came with his phone and said “vulcan can we just get a quick picture?”
Vulcan ever so nice said “alright” and they got one, and then he really did have to go and I waved bye and said thank you to him. I returned to my seat happy that was over with and it was time for game 3. Game 3 I would rather exist in forever. Myrwn picked Irelia into Yorick, a counter matchup that’s been hyped for a while but hasn’t been seen yet. He demonstrated why it’s a very effective counter, and I have to say that my favorite myrwn is the myrwn who picks unconventional stuff and wins with it. Supa also had a good game.
Between game 3 and 4, I decided i really will make a sign because I am stressed and the idea of drawing felt like maybe it would be fun and relaxing! Well i mean in a sense it is, especially because i Love drawing Jojopyun, but it was still kinda stressful because I was rushing so hard to get the sign done in the time before game 4 champ select ended. And I barely ran back to my seat as the second round of picks was commencing. Thankfully, the camera crew did circle around to us toward the end of select and i barely got shown at the last possible second.
The girl on my right was a T1 fan who had arrived sometime during game 3 I think. She looked at me after the cameras left and asked if I had drawn that sign, I said yes and also showed her my jojopyun fan.
“Oh, are you jojopyun’s fan?” She asked.
I said yes.
“Oh, did he sign this? Is that his real sign?” she asked. I nodded eagerly. “That’s so nice!! I hope you guys can win.”
“Really? Thank you,” I said.
She nodded. “I like cheering for dark horses! When T1 isn’t playing, you know, I just want…”
“Something fun?” I asked.
“Yeah, something fun,” she said.
Sadly, game 4 didn’t go well.
Picking the winless Kalista didn’t give me the most confidence. On top of that we had a last pick jojo Aurelion Sol and an Elyoya Lee Sin. I sat here thinking like have these guys ever practiced this mid jungle combo ever. We are letting Jojopyun second time Asol in an elimination match? I missed some of draft since i was drawing but you guys know I always prefer Jojo on champs with more agency and playmaking. Asol is just… a farm and scale sort of champ that I don’t like to see him play as much, like the angle has to be really good for me to feel confident about that. But I didn’t understand how Asol synergizes with the other champs they had that were more early game focused. And uh… let’s just say we had like zero damage all game and got destroyed.
It was horrible how hopeless it felt in the final minutes of the game, feeling like the comp didn’t even have tools to win fights from this position and they just lacked too much damage to even stand a chance. So as they encroached on MKOI’s base, I was already bracing myself, just feeling those early feelings of despair and disbelief. It’s going to be over just like this? But they deserved so much more, that’s what i was sure of. They could be so much better, I knew. What went wrong, I didn’t know. Why was Jojo having an off day, I don’t know. The mixture of horrible feelings bubbled up as the nexus exploded and I was dead silent feeling like I might cry while applause and cheers erupted around me.
I gave my best shout for the boys when they walked up front to give the Vancouver crowd their final bow. That’s as much as I could do that day.
Regarding being at MSI alone and not having like a close friend along with me, I felt awkward and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it…
I thought it would be fine because I also watched some days of Worlds 2022 alone, but maybe it’s different now. Or maybe it’s just different because it’s them…? I just met them, and I felt like even more emotionally connected because they had been so kind and lovely and I had also seen how comfortable Jojo looked around them.
And with this format, the team only played two series in two days against two opponents. It just felt like everything was over too quickly. Like they had barely done anything and now it was all over.
I noticed myself crying and i tried my best to hold it in because people were around me: i wanted to get out but it was too hard.
My tears shed for Movistar KOI in the midst of all the noise and lights in the Pacific Coliseum floor. My tears shed for the sweet boys who defied all odds to come play in Jojo’s home country and had their run cut too short. My tears shed in honor of the team who, in order to show that in the middle of an ambivalent crowd, somewhere, someone was rooting for them, someone cared so much, someone’s heart was aligned with theirs though I’m sure they all felt it much worse. Maybe…. maybe it was okay to be there, to witness their final moments on the MSI stage.,,, or maybe it wouldn’t have hurt as much if I wasn’t there, hearing the crowd roar for the other team and seeing the dejection on the boys’ faces and the celebrations on the other side…
Finally, I made it out after champ select started and the staff yelled at everyone to return to their seats. With my spotty data I walked all around the venue trying to see if the data would return anywhere. I knew I couldn't leave without finding that one Vulcan fangirl again, the one I met two days prior who had the boyfriend wearing the Jojopyun jersey… Eventually my data worked long enough for me to receive her message saying where she was waiting.
I found her and her boyfriend who was still wearing a Jojo jersey. And she was wearing a Vulcan jersey also from the EG days! She totally freaked out seeing that Vukcan showed up today. I handed her my LTART special gold foil Vulcan card and let her know that it's rare. But I just wanted to give something to a Vulcan fan. As a fellow Vulcan fan i can respect that highly.
So that interaction left me at least feeling kinda wholesome as I departed, feeling like hey, at least I accomplished something by being present here today...
When you walk out of the venue, you turn right and go toward the street, and you turn left in front of the street and go forward- there's a quaint little grassy park RIGHT THERE with plenty of benches and some playground equipment like swings, slides, etc. Well I went there and sat on a bench for like 45 minutes. My data came back for good after about 5 minutes and I tried giving an update to twitter on what happened. As I tweeted that, I found myself crying again. I was glad no one was really around as I really had a lot of tears to get out of my system, what can I say, I’m sensitive like that…
I was dried up after a while and I was just sitting there typing to some friends still processing my emotions on everything and how sad I felt in that moment.
I…
sighs.
First of all, I’m not disappointed in the team…
i am just sad for them, knowing how devastated they probably feel about these results.
And…
They only played two teams on two days.
It was so short.
I feel sad.
I wanted Jojo to have more time on the Canadian stage.
Please bring Worlds 2026 to Toronto for him.
I have last-second decided to attend FLY vs BLG on Tuesday, so the blog will probably return again tomorrow and I sincerely hope that FLY does well. (Even if they don’t, at least i’ll have some friends present this time.)
It has been a truly roller coaster two days.
It is funny that I met Jojo twice and met Vulcan, but I didn't meet Inspired here. Don’t get me wrong I'm not asking for it, I’m just really appreciative of the opportunities that I didn’t expect beforehand. Just like how last year at lcs finals I accidentally ran into Inspired outside the venue and got to greet him one last time.
Many people have told me these days that I made their experience better on lolesports twitter. I have to be extremely appreciative of these things and the love I’ve received here. While things have sometimes gotten very tough over the years, stuff like this at least helps me feel like… like at least there’s some sort of positive impact occurring from the stupid and silly things I’m doing here. I still… I still feel sorry because I wish I could be more resilient and less, I dunno, sensitive… But I can’t help it. So… I guess I’ll feel what I feel in the moment, both the despair and joy, and those feelings will always be the strongest toward the certain players and rosters that my heart has chosen. And I have so much experience with all of this now. I know that… soon, months from now, years from now, when I look back at this… I’ll just remember the best moments. I won’t still dwell on these sad moments. And there will be new memories then, good ones too.
