At the end of week one at the 2016 World Championship, Taiwan's second-place seed ahq E-sports Club is a surprise at the top of Group C. Although ahq wasn't able to overcome its constant international tormentor Edward Gaming two days ago, it defeated Europe's H2K on opening night and followed it up with a methodical, clean win over Brazil's INTZ to end the weekend.
ESPN caught up with ahq's Liu "Westdoor" Shu-Wei following the group-topping win.
Many of the players from South Korea are commenting about how incredible the crowd is in America for the World Championships. How does it compare to the crowds for the League Master Series in Taiwan?
It feels like the fans from Taiwan are shy and conservative, but it seems like the fans here treat you as [friends] and equals. [America] has more regular fan interaction, so I think that's why.
Coming into the tournament, a lot of Western media overlooked ahq as a challenger, and it was consistently ranked near the bottom with the wildcard teams. Do you have anything to say to them after having a strong start to the tournament?
The wildcard teams are really great, actually, so no [offense] to that. I think all the teams that are here [are] all really good, well prepared, and well conditioned. Everybody has a chance to get the championship.
This is your third World Championship. What's the difference between your rookie year and you now in 2016?
The first year, I really wanted to prove myself on the world stage. Second year, I wanted to use my experience to lead my team further ... [but] I didn't perform that well. This year I want to make up for it and get my team even further.
Last year you did well enough to get all the way to the quarterfinals before meeting SK Telecom T1 and Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok and losing in a sweep. If you are able to meet Faker once again, do you believe you can go even or defeat him?
This year Faker is still really good, but I think I can bring different skillsets and different champions here to beat him.
Finally, do you have anything you want to say to the Taiwanese fans at home supporting your journey through Worlds?
Thank you for supporting us even when we're down. Your cheers mean a lot to us, and we'll take that as motivation to keep correcting our mistakes and getting better and better.