Yuma on LGD Gaming’s drafts: “Right now, we’re playing to our strengths more than ever.”
David Mchedlishvili
LGD Gaming players Yuma “Yuma” Langle and Mateusz “KJ” Jungles Diniz spoke on the ALL CHAT podcast about the BLAST Slam VII final and named the team they find most difficult to play against.
On LGD Gaming’s drafts
Yuma: Right now, we’re leaning more toward comfort because we’re playing to our strengths more than ever.
On the BLAST Slam VII final against Team Yandex
KJ: I don’t know—you know that feeling you’re talking about: “Yeah, you can pick anything because you’re confident everything’s going well.” Now imagine the complete opposite. We played that final in a way where you can’t just pick whatever you want. Everything’s going wrong, the series isn’t going our way, and you pick your comfort picks, but they don’t feel comfortable anymore. It was a strange series.
We talked about it afterward. I think we could have analyzed things better right after our first loss to them. We had some kind of mental block about certain things—we didn’t feel confident in the things we’re usually confident about. In terms of gameplay, we tried to do things, but during the game I didn’t feel like this was our team. It didn’t feel like that same HEROIC. We lacked that hunger to win in long, two-hour games. It felt like we were LGD Gaming, but an LGD that lacked the patience and that very strength to close out such long games. And as for the drafts, too—I think we made things harder on ourselves. We could have just played our own game and tried to shut down certain aspects, but instead we tried to outplay them during the draft phase to make things easier for ourselves. In the end, it didn’t work out the way we wanted.
On the team that’s tough for LGD Gaming to play against
Yuma: Well, at least from my perspective, I’d say Team Yandex right now, because we had a hard time beating them. But at BLAST, with all the teams we had trouble against—at least for me personally—which were BetBoom Team, PARIVISION, and even Team Spirit to some extent—we beat all of them in the group stage or in the playoffs. Yeah, in the group stage, I guess. There were 11 best-of-one matches there. So, I guess they’re not really like Yandex anymore.
Cap: What about scrimmages? Is there a team that’s particularly tough to play against?
KJ: I generally agree too, but I think we’ve had problems in the past with PARIVISION and Team Liquid—we never beat them. I’ve never felt that way against Team Yandex. Personally, I don’t think Yandex is that bad from a mental standpoint, but for some reason, it still affected some of our teammates. It seemed to me that we were losing the games we should have won—for example, a certain match against OG in the group stage that we shouldn’t have let slip away—and then, conversely, we were beating strong opponents. Overall, I felt like we could beat anyone.
Earlier, Yuma “Yuma” Langle and Mateusz “KJ” Santos Jungles Diniz discussed Natus Vincere’s progress and commented on their matchup against PlayTime and the draft strategies in the decisive matches of The International 2026 qualifiers.
David Mchedlishvili
