ATF on playing for Nigma Galaxy: “To be honest, that was the most enjoyable period of my career.”

I didn’t want to stay. I mean, I wanted either Misha to leave or me to leave, because I wanted everything to be as simple and clear as possible. Over the course of the year, he missed about three or four tournaments. At that point, his rank was around 1,000. Although, to be honest, being ranked 1,000th is pretty bad even now. And I was like, “No, we can do better.” I even suggested that he could just become a coach, and Chu could play. That was the simplest solution, because we had literally just won a tournament. And Chu was incredible. He literally won that tournament single-handedly. So the decision was simple, but we just didn’t want to do it that way. That’s why I thought, “Okay, then, I guess just cut me from the team.” Yeah, they chose Misha. I don’t even blame them. Even assuming that I would have been the right choice, to be honest. When you’re the one who has to make that kind of decision, it’s… not that it’s bad, but you realize it looks pretty harsh. Like, “I want to kick you out.” So you’re more likely to side with the person who says, “No, please, I’m a human being. Don’t shoot me,” or something along those lines. So it’s completely understandable why they did what they did.

To be honest, that was the most enjoyable period of my career. Here’s the thing: if we had won, it would probably have been four or ten times more fun, or something like that. But even so, it was incredibly enjoyable. Both while I was there and now, looking back, I realize just how great it was. And it still is to this day. Yes, I still always enjoy seeing KuroKy and Sumail-. And I always wish them the very best. Actually, I want them to come in second and me to come in first. Literally. I always want them to win if I lose. And if I win, I want them to come in second.

I just didn’t like their contract. But they had a choice. I even told them they could just sign me on loan from Nigma Galaxy. And Nigma Galaxy actually treated me very well. They said, “If you want, we can let you go to them for free.” So, essentially, they would only have to pay my salary. Let’s say I wanted to make $2,000—they’d only have to pay $2,000. I said, “You can take me for free.” In other words, I wouldn’t have cost them anything—I’d just play for them. In the two most important tournaments, I would literally have carried them to the top 4. I wouldn’t say I would have carried them all by myself, but, at the end of the day, I would still have strengthened their team. But they just told me, “No, either you sign the contract or nothing.” And I was like, “Hmm, something’s not right here.” I wasn’t happy with the contract itself, either. So I said, “No.”

[If you had signed that contract, they would have kept you on the team after TI, right? Meaning you would have continued playing for them the following season? Or were there other aspects of the contract you didn’t like?]

I just wasn’t happy with the contract. If they had fixed it, I would have signed it. But they didn’t. I had certain conditions, and none of them were changed. I thought: “Okay, it seems like the easiest solution is to just sign me on loan for now, and we’ll see what happens next year.” But they replied, “No. Either sign it, or goodbye.” And I told them, “Goodbye.”