EU LCS Possible Relegation Scenarios

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos 

Remaining Games:

EL- GIA, FNC

CW- ROC, GIA

GIA- EL, CW

MYM- SK, ROC

ROC- CW, MYM

Approaching the final week of the EU LCS, not everything is set in stone. There is a variety of situations that can still entangle the Copenhagen Wolves, Elements, Roccat, Giants and Meet Your Makers. Before I break down what could happen, I can explain that it’s impossible for Copenhagen Wolves to be auto relegated and Giants Gaming or Meet your Makers to reach playoffs.

Here are three I picked out:

Scenario 1: What I think will happen: CW (2-0), EL (1-1), ROC (1-1), GIA (0-2), MYM (0-2)

This clinches at least sixth and playoffs for CW on 9-9 while Elements and Roccat fight out a tiebreaker for seventh which I believe will be won by Roccat judging by the standard of play of both teams currently. Although I wouldn't put it past Elements to surprise us, while Roccat have been consistently below average, Elements have been fluctuating between showing signs of hope and being completely broken. This also leaves the bottom two in a scrap for auto relegation, one I actually favour MYM for at the moment. The latter having shown improvements in synergy and survivability while Giants have failed to secure any kind hold on their split.

Scenario 2: Three-way tiebreaker for Sixth: EL (1-1), GIA (1-1), ROC (1-1), MYM (1-1 or 2-0), CW (0-2)

For this to happen, Elements would need to pick up Giants and lose to Fnatic, Roccat take down CW and lose to MYM and Giants also need to take out CW. This will leave all three on a score of 7-11 and force the most important three way tie for the last playoff spot, the LCS safe zone and the promotion tournament. Also in this scenario, the auto relegation spot is decided by if MYM beat SK to go 2-0. If not they also get a tiebreaker for tenth. EU love tie breakers and this is definitely one that could change a lot.

Scenario 3: Four-way tiebreaker for Seventh: GIA (2-0), MYM (2-0), CW (1-1), EL (0-2), ROC (0-2)

This scenario seems wild and really far-fetched but it’s still a possibility. Under this scenario the Wolves get the last playoff spot and the bottom four all finish on 6-12 opening up the biggest tie breaker possible for the safe zone, the promotion tournament spots and the auto relegation zone. While this opens up the biggest storyline comeback for the bottom two, it’s a scenario that can end ugly for Roccat and Elements who cannot afford to tilt at such a crucial time. It's also not too hard to see this happening considering that GIA are 1-0 up against both their opponents and MYM have been looking better as of recent.

Breaking Down IEM IX Cologne and Looking at Semifinals.

By Anel “Musinlol” Musinovic

With Cloud9 winning IEM San Jose, it is soon time to start IEM Cologne. Here is a bit about the teams that have the potential to win, the casting crew, what is at stake and when it’s going to be played.

Gambit Gaming - The IEM Legends

Cacochard, Diamond, NiQ, P1noy & Edward

A new Gambit at IEM will be trying to replicate the previous success of the old five players from Gambit. The former five: Darien, Diamond, Alex Ich, Genja & Edward, were also under the name Moscow 5 and won IEM Season VI Global Challenge Kiev & World Championship. IEM Kiev was the first LAN event Diamond ever had attended. After coming under the Gambit Gaming organization, the team followed up by winning IEM Season VII Global Challenge and placing 3rd-4th in the World Championship. The next IEM would have the exact same outcome for Gambit, IEM Season VIII Cologne was won with a 2-0 over Fnatic & again they placed 3-4th in the World Championship. Therefore, there is a lot of pressure on the new guys to perform.

A quick mention that their previous organisation won’t be participating in the tournament, Moscow 5 again sadly has Visa problems for their new five players. So Diamond & Edward sadly won’t have the chance to face their old organization.

Toplane - Cabochard : Since the departure of Darien, Gambit has been trying to to fill the toplane role with Kubon but, after a relatively short stay, they switched him out with Cabochard who had previously subbed for them when Darien couldn't get a visa to play. He quickly got picked up by NiP after subbing, but after they failed to qualify for LCS, Cabochard got picked up by Gambit. Cabochard is known for his confidence through laning phase, which makes him vulnerable for ganks. If they can play well with his style of play, he should be one of the better toplaners going into the next season.

Jungle - Diamond : Diamond has been with Gambit for a long time and experienced their IEM success and he'll be trying to replicate it with new teammates. Diamond is known as the innovator and has been one of the players to look at when you define how to play jungle. He is still considered as a elite jungler of EU and will hopefully, for the spectators, come out with something new again. He joined the old Gambit boys by Edward knowing him, despite being 1800 elo which was low for professional players. He is known for exceptional Lee Sin play and for popularizing Evelyn jungle with various builds, most notably the old bluepot start which would allow him to have insane early pressure.

Mid - Niq : NiQ spent several years playing for multiple Polish teams, but after failing to qualify for LCS EU with Denial he himself approached Gambit after Alex Ich's announcement of leaving the team. He had big shoes to fill and has shown himself to be a solid player for Gambit despite having a bad split. He seemed to favour Nidalee in the midlane in the EU LCS. Also, expect to see his favorite champ, Fizz.

ADC - P1noy (Krislund) : He is mostly known under the name Krislund, but changed his name after being confirmed for Gambit because he wanted to have something that represented himself since he is half filipina. He ddidn'thave a good relationship with his father so he changed the name to p1noy because it meant that he was filipina which came from his mothers side.

He is an versatile adc who has played a ton in the Challenger Series, but he's also subbed for Gambit in the Relegation Tournament. He can play both play aggressive and passive well and will most likely be aggressive with his support, Edward. He also shown that he doesn't fall under pressure; he played his first match with Gambit in the Relegation Tournament and showed up big.

Support - Edward : Edward, the man who was previously known as Gosu Pepper, is a huge playmaking support. He is known as the “Thresh Prince” for good reason. He has always been the player to flash in for a kill or for trading the flash of the opposite adc. He would often do this on Sona as well. He has previously been praised as the best Sona and was picking her very often. He describes his playstyle as “see hero, kill hero” which we have seen in the EU LCS multiple times. He has also been trying to innovate the support champions, spamming Vel’koz in soloq and busting out Gragas in competitive play quite a few times.

Roccat - The 5 players with a storyline for IEM

Overpow, Jankos, Ryu, Woolite & VandeR

Roccat are here because Fnatic couldn’t participate without a full lineup. Despite that fact, Roccat are seen by many as the favorites of the tournament and with new strong additions, they are likely to win. They have been praised by many for being good in scrims which has lead to a lot of hype around them at the moment.

Toplane - Overpow : Overpow was for the early of the EU LCS split highly praised and hyped but did not perform exceptionally well in the midlane in the split. He was good at times but really passive in the midlane with many strange picks such as Mordekaiser. He has been praised for being aggressive & having instant tp’s since his role swap to toplane. Many didn’t feel like the removal of Xaxus was a good idea, but Roccat seems to feel happy about putting Overpow top. The question stands if he will be living up to the hype and showing dominance in his lane.

Jungle - Jankos : Jankos was praised as the best jungler in Europe after a good summer split. If you go back and look at his games when he was in the challenger series he wasn't a good jungler, but he's really developed a good understanding of the jungle and mechanical skill over time. He has immense early pressure every single game and has an incredibly high rate of first bloods. He also prefers champs such as Lee Sin & Elise who has great kits for early pressure.

Mid - Ryu: This IEM tournament is going to be an important one for Ryu, with LCS soon coming and teams locking in their rosters. This “tryout period” at IEM for Ryu will be the dealbreaker, with players like Nukeduck waiting in the wings if he doesn't perform. He is known for Ahri and Fizz but mostly for his Orianna which he has mastered completely. He is so good at holding his ultimate in fights so he can zone out the enemy. Despite Roccat consisting of four Polish players they talk in English so Ryu can have a chance of understanding them. It will be interesting to see how Roccat will cope with the language barrier.

ADC - Woolite : Replacing Celaver will be the former Copenhagen Wolves' adc, Woolite. He is one of the products of Copenhagens continuing adc production. He was the shining light for CW and, with a strong support, they could be contesting for the strongest botlane in EU. Woolite is an aggressive player and will suit VandeR well. He'll be a strong replacement for the underwhelming and defensive adc, Celaver.

Support - VandeR : Vander can also be called VandeRlife, because he was definitely a playmaking support who was top two in the LCS. His Thresh is his best champion and was often banned away from him. It will be interesting to see the pairing of Vander and Woolite vs Doublelift and Aphromoo in the semifinal. He has been on the show First Blood and seems to be a really smart player.

Dignitas - Addition of two Koreans 

Gamsu, Crumbzz, Shiphtur, CoreJJ, KiwiKid

Dignitas are going into this tournament despite being behind CLG, Curse and EG, but Curse and EG didn’t have the opportunity to show up so Dignitas, with the depature of Scarra, ZionSpartan and Imaqtpie, have the chance to show off their two new Korean players.

Top - Gamsu : Gamsu is a Korean who has played with Alienware Arena in OGN Winter and also been a sub for Samsung Blue. Without knowing much about Gamsu, I am looking forward to seeing what this new player can offer to the Dignitas lineup. He has also been playing under the name loopercorn in SoloQ in NA. 

Jungle - Crumbzz : Crumbzz, for me, is an very underrated jungler in NA. He is often solid and is extremely versatile since he has played top, jungle & mid competitively. He has also been great on the analyst desk the few times he has been there. He is trying to become the shotcaller for Dignitas which is a very underrated skill. Shotcalling is very important but many seems to forget it when they rate the player. He has previously shown good performances on Elise, Vi and Lee sin. Something I think he has under his sleeve is a Kayle and maybe a Nocturne jungle pick since he has played it once before.

Mid - Shiphtur : Shiphtur came to Dignitas as a “star signing.” People had enormous expectations and in his very first game he did get a pentakill on Leblanc. This was followed by many good performance and Dignitas climbed the ranks. Their performance dropped as the split went on and they didn't do too well in play-offs. He shines on assassin champs and Ziggs.


Adc - CoreJJ : CoreJJ has been streaming a lot on twitch while playing under the name DubuKiD. Many have said that he hasn't been doing too well in soloq but that obviously isn't a big deal when you look at competitive which is a different environment. If you haven’t seen his stream I would suggest it. He is, in my opinion, a very entertaining streamer.  He previously played on Bigfile Miracle with Fusions' new midlaner, Huhi. Other than that, I don’t know much about him but will be watching him closely at IEM.

Support - Kiwikid : With the news that Dignitas was not going to be fielding Imaqtpie, people speculated if Kiwikid was still going to be on the roster. With his roleswap from toplane, he has been kind of underwhelming so far. If he could show up at IEM with huge plays on champions like Thresh, he would minimize the backlash from the community next split.

Counter Logic Gaming - Mystery

ZionSpartan, Thinkcard, Link, Doublelift, Aphromoo

Counter Logic Gaming with the most votes are going to be looking to please their fans. Fan favorite Scarra will be leading the team as head coach. 

Toplane - ZionSpartan : ZionSpartan was also one of the new signings. He is this carry style toplaner who could even pull out a Nasus pick against a Maokai for instance. CLG has a history of turning toplaners into how they want them to play though, but let's hope we can see Zion in a sidelane doing what he does best. He has, in recent vlogs, seemed really happy and has had a great attitude so it seems like he is getting along with the other players.

Jungle - Thinkcard : He has previously subbed for CLG when CLG was bootcamping in Korea. This time he is subbing as well because Xmithie had visa problems. He tried to qualify for LCS with LoLPro but wasn’t showing up in the series at all himself. He isn’t really about fancy Lee Sin kicks or anything like that but is warding the map and being the second support in that sense.

Midlane - Link : Link has been under a lot of criticism and a great way to shut them up would be to come out strong at IEM. He has also been trying to roleswap to jungle but CLG felt like keeping him mid would be the best solution available for them. He will probably be playing farm/poke heavy champions despite of a lot of assassins being strong right now.

ADC - Doublelift : Doublelift is the front of CLG and the one CLG fans value most. He also has a unique story behind him. He was kicked out from home at age 16 because he wanted to be a pro gamer, and had to live with Travis Gafford. The glory days of Doublelift seem long gone and retirement has been an area which has been discussed. He often has Vayne bans against him but always plays the meta adc otherwise. Often he can get caught off guard and be in a bad position in teamfights. With that said, he does make a good botlane with Aphromoo. He has a reputation of trash talking opponents, but for himself, I hope he doesn't trash talk Woolite because I see Woolite getting the better of him.

Support - Aphromoo : Aphromoo is the star of the botlane but often doesn’t get enough credit because his duo partner has such a big name. He is one of the most lovable guys in the scene and has grown as a player since his role swap from ADC to Support. Rush hour as the botlane pairing is called, will have a hard time against the new botlane of Roccat I believe.


Semi-finals

Semi-finals are going to be hard to predict since we haven’t seen many of the teams in action and all of them have new players, but I believe that we might see an EU final here.

I don’t dare to predict the scores but I think that Roccat and Gambit are going to be in the final. Roccat has been sounding strong and will be trying their best to win IEM while on the other hand CLG weren’t sure if they were attending the event and have a sub as well. It wouldn’t be IEM Cologne without having Gambit in the final at least, and Dignitas took a while to get going against Aces High, which could be worrying sign.

IEM Casting line-up

Krepo, Deman, Deficio, stvicious, JoeMiller, Dexter & Sjokz

When to watch?

Saturday - December 20th

13:00 to 18:00 CET - LCS EU expansion winners match (BO5)

18:00 to 21:00 CET - Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Roccat vs CLG (BO3)

21:00 to 0:00 CET - Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Dignitas vs Gambit (BO3)

Sunday - December 21st

13:00 to 18:00 CET - LCS EU expansion decider match (BO5)

18:00 to 23:00 CET - Intel Extreme Masters Cologne final (BO5)

The IEM Cologne prize pool is 30.000$ and every team gets a bit of the cut obviously more for the higher placed teams. 

Teams that didn't make it: Also Dolphins of Wall Street & Aces High eSports Club participated in IEM but didn't make the semifinals.

The Rise of Teamwork MOBAs

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Recently I got lucky and saw the Heroes of the Storm icon pop up on my Blizzard launcher, so I dove in and played it the hardcore way to discover the possibilities of the game, both casual and eSports wise. Also, along with thousands of other viewers, I watched the small tournament hosted during Blizzcon featuring several big gaming structures. So I can ensure now : HotS is a teamplay-based game, very different from League of Legends, with great potential. It was what Blizzard publicized and they held on to their promise: short games, never-ending action and teamwork on various maps. In the end, my personal feeling is that Blizzard took the best out of Dota 2 and Counter Strike to make their own MOBA. But, as much as it will help the casual gamer enjoy this kind of game more easily than in Dota or LoL, isn't it dangerous regarding eSports and competition ?

Team too heavy, can't carry alone.

These words, we at least heard them once during our solo queue adventures in League of Legends. Why ? Because, to some extent, it is possible because of the inherent meta to have one player shine above others with a top-notch performance and help his team carry on and get the victory. It is almost impossible to do that in HotS for two reasons: shared experience and no gold/items system. In League, you can grow stronger and faster than your opponent because of the gold and the powerful items you can buy. If you farm better and get a few kills, you'll have more experience but also more gold - therefore more items and more power. You can then proceed to walk on the map and help your team secure objectives, kills and help the team grow stronger as a whole. Quite simple.

In HotS, it is almost impossible (if you take two players of the same level) to perform a 1v1 kill. You'll need help from your team to make a kill or to secure the big “objectives” on every map. And even if you get a kill, you won't be stronger than your opponent when he comes back. You'll have a bit more exp but that doesn't help you - except if you could secure another skillpoint (which are not available at every level). And if you have one more skill point, it doesn't mean you can really pressure your opponent, nor is it always worth doing so. Almost every time you try to go for a solo kill, you'll take too much time and the enemy team will be able to catch and insta-gib you. 

Even if you look at Assassins, which are supposed to be able to kill opponents easily because of their permanent invisibility, their burst might be not enough and one CC can easily turn the situation. They can't grow stronger because of items, therefore their potential is limited, especially in end game. 

One of the best things in the game : play an Elite Tauren Chieftain

If I can't outplay my direct opponent, what's the point ?

Well, the point is that your team can outplay the opponents, not just you. And when I talk about this around me, there is a clash of opinions. “Heh, I can already never count on my team on LoL, why would I be able to do so in HotS?” “I would never play a game where I can't feel that I'm making a difference on my own,” “Well, at least it should reduce the number of people trash talking because you lost your lane a bit,” “I don't care as long as I can watch Kerrigan's booty.”

While the latter seems a very constructive point, I'd prefer to look at a very interesting opinion here: “I want to feel that I'm making a difference.” And truly, who doesn't ? If we play videogames, we want to personally be the hero, to perform better than the others, to show off a bit. That's the point of several videogames, and moreover, that's the point of competition. HotS may be a more casual-oriented game, but it still is a MOBA, therefore a competitive game where your ranking is important. Ranked games aren't available yet so I couldn't test what is going on and if teams were truly behaving like they should (with reduced toxicity.)

Until I can experience ranked, I'm still worried about that point since I've been seeing a special type of champion inside the game: the “siege specialists.” It means what it means, those champions are literally afk pushing lanes the whole game, or even afk in base giving a few buff to the team if you look at Abathur. It means that in several games you'll play almost 4v5 or face a split-pusher in a teamplay-based game. Of course, it increases the number of strategies, but it'll just lead to more toxicity and trash talk.

In HotS, you have to pay Gangplank so he can throw his ultimate for you.

So...Should I watch it ?

I'm only getting to the main point now, but I wanted to offer sufficient background to those who couldn't play the game at all yet. Whenever I see a MOBA now, I can't help but think of its eSports potential. Competition and a strong community are the keys to MOBAs success and it'll be a truly successful game only when it gets a competitive scene on its own, with its own large community. Blizzard clearly showed, by hosting a tournament during the Alpha, that they want to be on that eSports stage, and not just wait to watch what will happen like for Hearthstone.

So what of HotS potential? I'm torn. On one hand, I know a lot of people have gotten sick of the League of Legends scene because of the toxicity, the failures, and because it got boring. And Blizzard is a force that cannot be stopped when you consider its marketing and communication potential. They might be the gaming company with the strongest loyalty too, because of their history. An example? How many of us consider that the future Warcraft movie has poor casting and will probably result in a deception, but will still go see it? And the sequel? If you've been playing Blizzard's games for a while, you cannot not go see it. Another example, just recently they launched Warlords of Draenor and got 3 millions players back by snapping their fingers. No other company is able to do such a feat.

But let's get back on track. Do I want to watch a competition where I can't see outplays on an individual scale? Let's just take a look at the famous Faker vs Ryu Zed/Zed outplay. We were all stoked to see this. And we will continue to shout at the top of our lungs each time a 1v1 or a 2v2 trade engages. Almost none of those trades in HotS will result in a kill and you may only see 5v5 teamfights. I can't help but think that it'll get pretty boring very quickly, even if games are shorter. I want to see teams battling each other and outperform their opponent on a strategical point of view but I also want to see individual actions. And I want to be able to catch my breath between them. In HotS, it's action 100% of the time: no laning phase, no anything, and I'm afraid some viewers will be lost in what's going on and never get the time to understand it, since the game is already over twenty minutes in.

On the other hand, Blizzard has found a counter to this by offering a large panel of maps with different objectives and strategies, and they plan to bring more to the table. That's the Counter Strike side of the game: teams will be able to perform better on some maps while their opponents will outperform them on others. And along with the pick/ban phase of every game, you'll have a drafting phase of the map choice like for Starcraft or CS. Strategy-wise, it's pretty interesting and appealing, so long as teams don't decide that some maps are hard to play and never pick them. (I'm thinking about the Dragonshire map where taking the objective in a 5v5 premade scenario is almost impossible without taking drastic risks.) But we'll have to wait a bit more until we can see that.

Just an Alpha, yet a tournament with Fnatic, EG, C9 and more. 

That's how powerful Blizzard is.

It's not LoL, it's not Dota, it's not CS:GO, it's...different.

The major advantage of HotS is that it's a game bringing something new to the table and it benefits from Blizzard's very strong marketing power. We've seen what they can do on a game where eSports is not one of their first objectives, like Hearthstone, and damn, their studio at Blizzcon was amazing. For HotS, I have high expectations and I want to see what they can deliver. It's extremely interesting to see a new scene potentially rising up. Will they implement a league system? Will they copy the WCS model? What will the studios look like? Will they partner with Riot to create a global eSports convention?

Of course, I also might be dead wrong and teamplay-based games with non-stop action is what people want to see. Maybe they want to see 5v5's all the time, and how one team will outperform the other on this specific objective. But I mostly think that HotS will appeal to a more casual genre of gamer, and moreover, a casual genre of viewers. Studies have shown that a large part of the eSports viewership is not part of the “hardcore” gamers and they might be drawn by this casual looking MOBA with no pauses and no time to look away. It could also attract lovers of Bo3/Bo5 instead of Bo1 since it'll most surely be the standard format for this game.

In the end, HotS will probably be a success on the eSport scene and all the big multi-gaming structures will have a team. But I might not be watching if I can't find a way out of its repetitiveness. I do have high expectations that the pro teams will prove me wrong and show me how many strategies they can pull off in a game where an individual's performance is minimized, but how do you identify which player might have bigger potential than another? Do you only rely on personal affinity to recruit a new player? If your team is performing badly, how do you identify the weakest link?

One thing is for sure: Heroes of the Storm is a new kind of game inside the MOBA genre and is one of many. TOME, which just came out on Steam, is looking strongly like HotS on some points and trying to make a name in the competitive teamwork market. For now, I can only wait and propose a whole bunch of questions for which I'll be eagerly looking for answers. 

----

 by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Support-Staff Heavy Enemy Esports Readies for Battle

by Josh C. 

Enemy eSports' League of Legends team was finalized less than two months ago; their support staff has been working with the team for less than a month, and their coach has been around for ten days. But even if their team and staff-building seems a bit rushed, it's paid off for Enemy, who may stand as a prime example of the third-wave 'support staff' world of today's eSports. Playing their debut match this weekend, the team showed up with a dominating 2-0 over opponent Noble Truth. Next week, they'll be facing one of the hardest opponents of the tournament: the mysterious Team Fusion - and they seem to be feeling confident about the encounter. I had the chance to reach out to Team Manager, Angel "Angel" Vigil, and Team Coach, Hussain "xDaku" Moosvi, to talk about the importance of support staff and their preparations for Enemy's hopeful road into the LCS.

Q: Angel, Enemy eSports picked up this team less than two months ago: How did you go from having nothing to hiring one of the most extensive support staffs in League of Legends?

Angel: The first month was entirely focused on getting the players, so I actually had less than two months to get the support staff ready. In fact, we started with a different coach which didn't pan out. Prior to NME, I haven't had to put together coaching team and support staff. Before, I had people who helped out, but no real coach. My initial thoughts were to get someone who had the most experience, and they could then hand that experience off to the players. I reached out to Nicholas "nubbypoohbear" Harlan, who had played under me for a year and a half. We had a lot of experience together and a friendship. But in the end, it didn't work out, because even though he had a lot of great knowledge, he wasn't really a coach. So when the team needed more than that, two weeks before the LCS Expansion Tournament, I brought in Hussain, who had reached out to me earlier with an interest in coaching for NME.

As for support staff, we had kept Brad Marx, our former analyst, but we had him and a dozen other applicants apply for head analysts position, and after a long interview process Brad was determined to be a better fit for the team. The knowledge and resources he provided really worked well with the team. Our Sports Psychologist we found on Reddit after he did an AMA--is that something I should be saying?--and he had specialized training to become a sports psychologist.

Q: Where did this inspiration come from? Most LCS teams have a sparse support staff; even Curse just hired a Sports Psychologist.

Angel: I've been managing teams since before the LCS even began, and I've had these ideas since the LCS at least. There was always things I thought teams should be doing once they have the profit to do so. They should build the team first, and with that comes the growth and the profit. Most teams focus on the profit first.

Farther along I want a nutritionist - I want them to be healthy. I have all these ideas I want to be implemented in the future. People who were in the LCS at first were inexperienced: they found five mechanical players who took little effort to maintain. As the LCS expanded, they needed more to become better. If you look at Korea and the infrastructure, the biggest difference between Korea and the Western scenes is infrastructure. The thing that sets us apart is that we don't just have strong players, but we also have the staff to support them and make them that much better.

Q: Hussain, how was it to come in with so little time before such an important tournament, and how has working with the support staff helped you in your new role?

Hussain: I got lucky, but in the past I've had analysts and two other support staff members working under me and experience on using their information to improve the play. When I came in with less than two weeks to go, the team had a lot of the base parts already in existence, compared to a lot of teams I've dealt with before. After watching the second scrim block I saw what clearly needed to be fixed. With the Sports Psychologist and Analysts I had a lot of information coming in, and this helped me see what I could go with. Talking with the players and seeing how scrims went, I was able to map out weekly strategies for growth. This allowed me to implement positive change very quickly.

Q: What did you and the team do to prepare for the LCS expansion tournament?

Hussain: I came in and completely changed how the team practiced. When I first started, I had a huge meeting with the players, analysts, and management. We mapped out what we’d be doing for the coming days and how we’d be going into the tournament. In the end, I restructured our entire way of practicing.

Q: What is the support staff doing to help this process?

Hussain: The team is made up of good players, but they've never really competed on this level of the expansion tournament. Even in challenger, you can’t just have a good team play and win it. Managing the players and guiding them a certain way is important - absolutely everything relies on the support staff right now. We have good players, but the support staff makes them perform like great players.

Angel: I just want to add on; five mechanical players are good, but five coachable players are better.

Hussain: The players have been very receptive to the coaching and support staff. They want to improve themselves, as individual players and as a team, so they are very coachable.

Q: Once/If you get into the LCS, what would you do to change your infrastructure to compete with top tier teams?

Angel: I’ve talked to a lot of LCS players and coaches and tthey've commented on how strong our support staff is. I wouldn't want to change much: maybe a little more structure as far as diet and sleep schedules go. Our scrims and practice routines are good, but I want to get Hussain into the house - I feel like that would help a lot. Give us a couple of months and we’ll be able to compete with LCS teams. We haven’t had a ton of time to develop the players, only two weeks, so we've been giving players crash courses to improve. So really the biggest thing will be allowing time for the support staff to make a real impact on them.

Hussain: A lot of the way we practice, in the way of scrimming and player management, was taken from LCS players and teams. Going into the LCS we’d be ahead of a lot of teams already just with the support staff we have.

Q: With your large support staff and team philosophy, how do you get the most out of a day of scrimming? How does all the information come together?

Hussain: When it comes to practicing, we plan out everything for the week and scrims before. Going into scrims we are all on the same page, which was the #1 philosophy when we made the practice schedule. We constantly keep in touch with everyone involved, and go back and forth on what the right direction of the team is. We make the right moves beforehand, that way everyone is on the same page, and we also keep in touch with management quite a bit, so we get a feel for what is best for the players. Our biggest goal is to make sure everything we do is done universally.

Angel: One thing I did when I was made team manager was to increase communication among different tiers of management. If everyone is involved it gets everyone emotionally invested in the team, which benefits the team itself. If we decide something on the coaching staff, I'll talk it over with the House Manager, Sean "Hadaka" Mulryan, and then we bring it to the general management. If a decision ever stops being made by us, another tier of management can come in and make educated decisions. Luckily, we rarely see a disagreement with upper management. The culture we built within Enemy has been positive: everyone feels like they are part of the team from myself, to the coaching, to the graphics artists, brand managers, etc. They feel like they are contributing and that creates a fun atmosphere without hindering professionalism.

Q: I know you can't talk about it that much, but what are you doing to prepare for the elusive Team Fusion match next Sunday?

Hussain: Without giving too much away: whatever Fusion has on Enemy is very different than what we are right now, even from what we practiced last week. I don't think they really have an edge on us. The best team will win that day and that's how it'll play out. It's not easy for them to scout us at the moment either. We have been preparing for Fusion, but we've also been preparing intensively for the teams beyond Fusion. We won't be happy with just a Fusion win.

-----

If Enemy eSports makes it through to the LCS, they may stand as proof that a strong support staff = a strong team. For more on what constitutes a great support staff, check out my post "The Support Staff of a Winning Team," and let me know your thoughts on the importance of support staff in the comments.

You can follow Enemy eSports on online at: Facebook, twitter, their website, and Azubu.TV. They are sponsored by Better Builds, West Coast Chill, Azubu.TV, and Neen.

by Josh C. 

Fashion in Esports

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Is it weird to talk about fashion if we're talking as subjects of a group of teens who are playing hours of video games? Maybe, although I believe even geeks, nerds or whatever you call them, have their own fashion in some way, despite being far away from the “fashion” world you see in everyday mass media. But is it weird to talk about fashion if we're looking at a sport? Clearly it isn't. Every sports has its own fashion. Basketball, American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Golf, etc. they all have a clear set of clothes which is common only to them. So why not eSports? This discipline is still new and unites a bunch of people who weren't used to being in the spotlight before. Still, every successful team is selling its own merchandise and wants to popularize it. What is different from other sports is that eSports doesn't require a special outfit, and a lot of teams seems to have a different idea of what they have to wear mainly depending on their region.

Asia wants to be classy.

Asian teams (Korean, Chinese, South-East Asian) have somewhat united to wear almost the same outfits when they're performing on stage, or at least for the upper body. A lot of teams we saw at worlds are wearing low-key polo shirts with a little room allowed for the team logo and the sponsors. Regardless, they are still visible especially when Riot is making a lot of interviews and close-ups on players. A small difference is visible for EDG & AHQ where they're wearing classic t-shirts but are almost always wearing sports jackets which follow the same rule as before: subdued logos from sponsors.

In some way, the fashion these teams are putting on is really close to what you'd find in golf. And it's quite logical: golf is a sport, but not as intense as some other sports like Soccer or Basketball. Some might categorize it as “not really a sport,” but the same could be said for eSports. Also, Golf is a sport which requires a lot of focus, mental strength and precision. Same for eSports! The only difference here is on the lower body of our favorite players. Koreans are often wearing absolutely horrible sweatpants. I mean, I wouldn't dare to wear those kind of pants outside of my house nowadays, and I don't think it sends a good image around the world, since it'll keep pro-gamers classified as “geeks in sweatpants.” They also keep wearing them in advertisements like Faker did recently. I mean...come on.

Chinese and South-East Asian players are wearing a bit more classy jeans and you have to give them props for it. I know sweatpants are comfortable for playing in, but man, jeans aren’t that hard either. It's not because you wear jeans that you'll perform worse considering the level of those players.

Europe, too much soccer?

Despite being a fan of Europe's performance in eSports, I still don't understand how some structures think regarding their team clothes. I mean, yes, we like soccer a lot, but it doesn't mean you have to copy it and import it into eSports. Why did sports jerseys, of all clothes, make the cut here? My guess is a lot of people investing in eSports come from an average social class, not especially poor or rich, but with a middle-class culture which is obviously greatly centered around the most popular sport in Europe. No other sports come close to it, and it has a clear and vast influence on a lot of people.

Coming from this social class, eSports players and fans wanted to say their passion for video games was as great as some peoples passion with soccer (or as great as their own), and directly imitated its style, importing the sports jersey you can see on a lot of European teams now: Fnatic, Copenhagen Wolves, etc.

I honestly don't think this is the best piece of clothing for eSports. It isn't, properly speaking, a physical sport. It requires a lot of focus, and while you sweat a lot during an official match for sure, I don't think it requires such an outfit. The core “physical” and psychological needs of pro-gaming is mental strength and precision, which are mostly shared within sports like golf, or maybe baseball.

North America went in the right direction but stopped halfway.

North American LoL teams have embraced eSports fashion in a different way than other countries by not trying to make it look like a traditional sport, but almost all the teams have a different style of clothes. White hoodies and sky blue T-shirts create Cloud 9's theme. Dignitas has black hoodies and CLG wears long sleeve cotton shirts. TSM players wear satin varsity jackets and Evil Geniuses scored a fashion knock out in their amazing black leather jackets. Only Curse seems to enjoy the sports jerseys (and they should fit them more, because it looks like they're way too big for some players!)

But unfortunately, the NA teams are almost too convoluted. All of them want to differentiate from the one another too much, and none of them, except Curse, are reasoning as a business by renewing their official clothes regularly. At some point, a new season into LCS should mean a new set of clothes. Fans are generally happy to see those changes and feel like they need to buy the new ones to be a better representative of the team. Yet, a lot of teams are hesitant on this point and just play around with colors to offer more than one set.

In the end, I think eSports clothing styles may actually be too diverse. Hoodies, sports jerseys, polos, t-shirts (and even an attempt at polo-shirts and hoodies from SK) can be a little weird. All these pro-gamers play the same game but none of them are wearing the same thing. It comes across as a bit disorganized. But that just means that eSports has nothing written in stone yet. I like it, because then we can only go up.

Setting up some standardized fashion code might help set values and integrity inside the community. Moreover, it helps show the world that eSports are real, that they are happening here and now and that mainstream industries needs to invest now to get the bigger piece of the cake. I think polo shirts are the best option, but it doesn't really fit with the gamer image we have in our Occidental regions. Nevertheless, it has been shown in recent studies that a lot of eSport viewers are not hardcore gamers, and looking closely into this population might deliver the answer.

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

The End of Complexity?

By Descend

As of October 4th, two of the players who shone the brightest on compLexity are no longer starting on the team. Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee has stepped down as their AD Carry to make some decisions of either competing in the 2015 LCS Season or to stream full time. He will still be on the roster as a back-up. Neil “pr0lly” Hammad, fresh out of his latest wrist surgery, has been replaced by Greyson “GoldenGlue” Gilmer. GoldenGlue has had some light in the LCS this season with a brief stint on Dignitas and has been on a few NA Challenger teams for coL Red and Coast. In my personal opinion, GoldenGlue is not an LCS-quality mid laner, while pr0lly had actually improved and was competing with the best of them. Let’s not forget when he made Shiphtur look like a weak mid in their matches against Team Coast, who had gotten relegated in the spring split of this year.

While compLexity didn't have the best split and in turn, lost their LCS slot to Team 8, their 10-18 record didn't stop them from having great games against top teams such as Cloud 9 and Curse. They had a huge fanbase that was always behind them for being the fun underdogs and they did not let up, even if it resulted in a loss. They pulled out all the tricks and made a name for themselves. The removal of their two top players right before the promotional series for the new LCS 10-team league is sure to affect them. Lets hope that this isn’t the last we see of ROBERT or pr0lly as they are very charismatic characters who show heart and play with all of it. In the meantime they are holding try outs for the AD Carry position. I would like to see the likes of Gosu trying out and possibly making the team as he is a reckless playmaker with incredible mechanics who beats even the best of NA’s ADC’s in solo queue on a regular basis.

Reaction Time : What Is It...And How Can You Improve It?

by Jodi "PunkLit" McClure

An enemy jungler jumps out at you from the bushes unexpected. You activate your shield and hit him with a stun a split second later, before backing under your turret. Reaction time, that tiny interval between stimulus and response, needs to be extremely fast in pro gamers. Your brain has to make a nearly instantaneous assessment so you can act accordingly. It differs a bit from reflexes, which are involuntary or instinctive movements you make without conscious thought. With reaction time, you need to have a high capacity for strategic thinking.

For visual based stimuli, it's possible to decrease your reaction time with three weeks of practice, and the effects of practice last for at least three weeks, so continual practice should keep your reaction time at its trainable best. In fact, there are plenty of gaming sites online (like Aim400kg) with programs specifically made to help you hone your aim, speed and accuracy.     

Gamers (and everyone else) tend to react more quickly to auditory queues than visual ones, because an auditory stimulus only takes 10 msec to reach the brain, but a visual stimulus takes 20-40 msec. You probably don't even realize how much you rely on auditory clues in League until you play the game with no sound.  Then, you're stuck watching out for things you normally listened for, like the sound of Varus drawing back his bow or Zac preparing to jump.   

Training alone won't help you with speed, though. Age and sex are both strong factors in how quickly you react, both instinctively and intentionally. While most people tend to believe it is teens who have the fastest reaction time, repeated studies have found the optimal age for reaction time is in your mid to late twenties. Ditto with reflexes. It's also interesting to note that men have slightly faster reaction times than women, a disadvantage not reduced by practice or training. Perhaps this in part explains why natural-born female gamers haven't breached the highest levels of pro-dom.

Another important factor affecting reaction time is 'arousal,' or your state of attention, including muscular readiness. Reaction time is fastest with an intermediate level of arousal, and lessens when the player is too relaxed or tense. A good night's rest is essential to performance, as is the experienced calm of a confident player. Plus, in the cool air of the LCS studios, the hand warmers we see players gripping before their games helps to both stimulate and loosen the finger muscles for maximum flexibility. Visual fatigue also plays a part, although the jury is still out on the effectiveness of Gunnars and other gaming glasses.

Despite most of us not worrying about our own execution on a scientific scale, video game players in general still have faster reaction times than their peers (up to 25% faster.) Gaming also improves a players perception, attention and probabilistic inference (aka decision making), and can enhance the players skills and performance both in and out of game - a fact the US Military (and Sci-fi writers) take full advantage of. (Ender's Game, anyone?)     

If you want to be a pro gamer, training to improve your reaction time and reflexes could be vital to your success, and good old-fashioned practice really does help in this regard. Try out online training games to improve your click speed / aim, and make sure you are playing at your awake, attentive and confident best. Don't play when you're tired or tense, or when you've just woken up and your body isn't functioning yet. (And remember to fine tune your computer settings, because latency is the one reaction time killer you can't do much else about.)  

Ref: 

A Literature Review on Reaction Times by Robert J. Kosinski Clemson University

Improved Probabilistic Inference as a General Learning Mechanism with Action Video Games  by C. Shawn Green, Alexandre Pouget and Daphne Bavelier

Military uses video games for training troops by Mathias Ask

---

Marketing & Esports : A Future Fairy Tale?

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Esports teams do basic marketing, but do they have the future in mind? Esports is gaining in popularity, with a viewership boasting over 70 million people. Gaming structures are faced with a swiftly-growing market and need to adapt very quickly, and that requires planning out their future.

Esports has huge potential because it represents a bridge between traditional sports and high technology. Moreover, a new game-breaking technology is on the verge of being achieved and commercialized and it brings new stakes both for high-tech industries and Esports.

To Infinity and Beyond

Across social media, we've seen teams offer merchandise like clothing and accessories, do giveaways for sponsors, and even participate in commercials. Tech companies and electronics conventions like CES are showing the world what could be the next big step concerning technology and computers. After bringing smartphones and tablets, it is time to bring something which could revolutionize our habits once again: flexible computers.

You can see manufacturers such as Samsung and LG talking about flexible phones like this one and praising their merits. It is a cool innovation, but the best part will come just a bit later. What can you do with a flexible screen and components? You can twist it at will and include it in objects you couldn't before like glasses, clothing and wristbands. With it, you reach the full potential of this new technology. Wearable computers. If you're curious enough, you can see plenty of stuff about Apple having some “secret facility” working on the new iWatch which will basically do what your smartphone is doing: email, music, agenda, etc. You also have Google Glass which does the same but with a little bit more virtual reality included. Maybe the next step is a Wi-Fi hat with a screen inside it. The possibilities are infinite.

Of course, not all of these technologies are available to the masses yet, but Esports is also not fully developed yet. And we can assume that, in some way, those two worlds will reach a new point at almost the same time, creating so many new possibilities for tech companies to advertise their new products.

One of the most effective marketing techniques at the moment is using brand ambassadors: whether they are movie stars, famous bloggers, or from a rich dynasty. It doesn't matter as long as they can wear or consume your products and give a good review; promoting them in whatever way possible. This kind of marketing relationship can bring very good image to the company if their values and personality are matching those of the ambassador. It is also long-lasting and so can bring a lot of profits to both parts.

A Bridge Between Esports and High-Technology

Where is the link with Esports ? Our favorite e-athletes can't really hope for sports companies to support them since they are not committed to any true physical effort; and they don't really need sportswear. What pro-players use daily is top-notch gaming devices which can help them reach a better performance. Nevertheless, they are considered, at least for the moment in some regions, as professional athletes and bring entertainment to millions of people who are also hardcore users of computers, gaming devices and every kind of technology.

Since that audience is most likely to adopt these new products, we represent, as Esports lovers, a great target for those companies. With the rise of Esports, they might have found the faces of the ones who will represent their company on the field.

If we project ourselves three or four years into the future, I truly believe Esports will have grown a lot more and every company will be taking a closer look at "this new thing.” Also, tech industries will release the first projects of their new “flexible devices” and they will want to boast them as much as possible. Trying to sign sponsorship contracts with some great multi-gaming company can bring fame and profits to both parts.

As a matter of fact, you can see that in Korea, where Esports is kind of a national thing, it is technology companies which sponsor the teams: SK Telecom and Samsung among others. I think at some point in the future, when Esports are acknowledged by everyone, we might see the same deal in our occidental countries. Imagine “Google Solo Mid” vs “Microsoft Cloud 9”. (I really hope we won't have those team names though.)

Whether or not Google and Apple would buy pro-gaming teams is a different matter. But what we can be sure of is: Esports powerhouses will be sponsored by one specific brand and they'll build long-lasting relationships by advertising their new products on the players while obtaining fame from the team results, in exchange for money.

Beware of Fairy Tales

Bringing tech companies, which represent a lot of devices every one of us is using on a daily basis and which represent what kids will consider “normal” in a near future, can bring further fame and importance to the Esports world. If you mix this with the “international future” of Esports, and by that I mean that they are shared worldwide and not only popular in one region, it could become something bigger we could ever imagine.

I may be over-reacting, but I think bringing such companies into the Esports market will at least bring our virtual sports onto the same level as big traditional sports such as soccer, football or baseball. Traditional sports will have sports companies more than Esports, but Esports can claim sponsorships from bigger companies. Such deals would bring further development to the Esports world and help gaming structures improve their infrastructures, their team salaries, their staff and their power.

On the other hand, such deals can bring tons of money to a quite new sector, and with it some disappointments. With an industry growing that fast and that big, everyone is playing with the balance between investments and rewards. For the moment, gaming structures are trying to court any advertising possible to upgrade their financial possibilities, but many problems could come arise from that. For example, you can see with the last Dr. Pepper marketing campaign with the European LCS teams, that they're selecting only one player to represent them, and not the whole team. So where does the money go? Towards the team or towards the player?

Lots of teams might try to take advantage of their players by “selling” them to whichever company offers money while not paying attention to the overall image of the person. Or players' egos might get in the way as they want to claim part of the money for their own personal benefit. Such moves would potentially slow down the industry as a whole and discourage big companies from investing as they could.

Esports is growing at an explosive rate. Technology companies are on the brink of unveiling cool, innovative stuff. This may be destiny. The two industries will find a lot of common interest if they manage to create sponsorship contracts. The most important part of all this being: the first to hit is the first to win. Pro-gaming structures need to be aware of that fact, and need to decide on a precise marketing strategy oriented towards the future.

What are your feelings towards all of this ? Do you also think sponsorships between high-tech industries and pro-gaming structures might exist someday ? Feel free to leave your comments, everything is open to discussion! 

Promise's Recovery : Slow...but Promising.

by Jodi McClure

Two months ago, AHQ League of Legend's pro, Cheon "Promise" MinKi, ruefully admitted on the Inven forums that he intentionally threw games due to threats from his team's manager. Just minutes after writing the post, Cheon attempted to take his own life, jumping from the top of a twelve-story building - but the flexible metal roof of a shed and the pliable plastic of a recycling bin mercifully intervened. Despite all odds, the young marksman lived, although multiple fractures (including a broken right arm and leg) now devastated his body. Promise emerged from his coma, underwent several hours of surgery, and began a slow and painful path to recovery.   

(The shed Promise hit.)

His story garnered international attention for weeks. Fund-raisers brought an influx of substantial donations from well-wishing fans. Fellow players streamed for him and NA LCS teams kicked in proceeds from their merchandise sales. In total, almost $53,000 US Dollars were raised. The last update we had was during a visit last month from Inven, when Promise became overwhelmed with emotion. Barely able to write due to his injured hands and unable to speak due to a badly broken jaw, he could express only that he was sorry for his actions, thankful for his survival and amazed by the outpouring of love he was receiving from everyone.

So how is he doing now?

Latest picture from Promise

This past weekend, Promise updated his Facebook page, showing just how thin he'd become while lamenting his half-swollen face (labeling one half 'Starved Promise' and one half 'Fat Promise,') but considering his condition two months ago, he looked remarkably well. His jaw, which had been wired shut, can now move, and his mouth is able to open a fair half-inch. (A feat he measures by how many stacked tongue depressors he can fit in there.) 

His spirits seem brighter, despite considerable bouts of pain. His Facebook posts reflect a craving for pizza and a desire to game again. While it may still be some time before he can eat solid foods, he's been enjoying soup and ice cream. He is in and out of the hospital and rehabilitation for treatments. His hand (which had several pins placed in it) is very weak and his thumb function is bad. (He's been working on gripping and moving a mouse.) He eagerly looks forward to getting rid of the splints on his arm and leg.

From the tone of his posts, Promise seems to have grown mentally stronger. It's an encouraging sign from a young man who was at such a point of despair back in March.

His Facebook page is MinKi Cheon if you'd like to send him a fast hello or note of encouragement. I'm sure Google Translate will make your words understandable enough.