LVG Gum: “I don’t think [the Chinese community] expect much but they want to see us actually do something the right way”

In the leadup to the start of Group D in ESL Pro League Season 18, Fragster talked to Dai “Gum” Yifei, the head coach of Lynn Vision Gaming from China, for an interview about how he has managed the team, his transition to being a coach after working as a caster from 2019 to 2022, the Chinese community’s expectations for the team and more.

On LVG’s current form ahead of Pro League

Pedro Romero, Fragster: Despite Lynn being a young team, they have been able to perform well in recent months under your coaching such as qualifying for IEM Sydney and winning the Perfect World Arena Premier League Season 5: Professional Division. How has the team been able to play so well so far under your guidance and what did you do to make it possible?

Dai “Gum” Yifei: Actually, I’m maybe quite different from a traditional coach because, first, I’m the manager of this team and most of the time is spent on making our team’s chemistry and atmosphere good and make them have good communication with each other. That’s because most of the Chinese teams can’t communicate with each other professionally. It’s not very effective so that’s the main thing I came to LVG for: it’s to improve the team. For the strategic aspects, our players will try to take care of the strategic part of the team.

Fragster: So the players manage the strategy and you just manage the atmosphere then?

Gum: I would try to find something we are lacking and tell them we are like this during the executions of our strategies. I tell them what we are lacking such as rotation options after we have some flashes or smokes. I will give them advice about this and they will adjust our strategy upon my advice.

Gum’s transition to coaching LVG from casting

Fragster: Taking a little look into your time before being the coach of LVG., you were actually a caster from 2019 to 2022 so how were you able to make that transition from that to becoming a coach?

Gum: In becoming a caster, you will see a lot of games from a macro view of the whole map and you know how the teams rotate from the mini map so you gain a lot of experience. I’m like a database for many, many games and that’s why I had the ability to become the coach of the team, and in China, the first thing I found when I came to LVG was that the players only watched POVs. They would concentrate more on individual skills such as how to throw grenades one way but not about the whole plan.

Fragster: You touched upon a bit into how you coach your team but what has been the biggest obstacles for you when it comes to trying to create that perfect atmosphere that you’ve been looking to create within the team?

Gum: The biggest obstacle for the players is they are too young and you need to explain why we should do this, why we should improve our communication and why we should have a good atmosphere within the team. They need to understand this as I think that’s the cycle for being a good team.

Fragster: Looking at the team’s placement in Pro League, you guys are in Group D which features a lot of well-known teams such as Complexity, Cloud9 and G2. Where do you think the team stands in relation to the rest of the other squads within this group?

Gum: I don’t know because I think we are the underdogs in this group so we’ll try our best to show ourselves. I don’t have an expectation or I don’t know where our team will be standing in this group. Maybe the bottom, maybe the medium or maybe we can go to the playoffs.

Fragster: Since LVG is in a complicated group, there are not much expectations for them in this event, with all due respect. Even so, what do you think about the community’s expectations for this team in this event?

Gum: For this event, I think, from the Chinese community, I don’t think they expect much but they want to see us actually do something the right way. Maybe we would lose the games but we show them we are a very promising team and can improve later. That’s because, as you said, we are a young team so they want to see the potential.