Araneae: A new chapter

Sports are like no other profession. A player trains their entire young life, hoping to one day be counted among the lucky few who earn a living through their ability to game. Those who do reach the mountaintop are rewarded with fame, money, and a tough question facing them at the end of their career--what happens next? In League of Legends, players at the top of the game will retire in their mid 20’s, still needing to find a way to pay their bills and support their families. Having known only eSports in their adult lives, many pro players are remaining in the competitive scene as analysts and coaches. This split, Araneae joined the ranks of those players who have found a second career on the other side of the game. After a disappointing 9-19 spring split, Millenium’s long-time jungler made the decision to leave the team. “I was really stressed due to internal problems on the team,” Araneae said, “and I also had my exams in a couple of days.” He added that the team had seemed to lose motivation over the difficult split. By leaving the team, he hoped to allow Millenium to resolve their internal problems, and let a new jungler provide a spark of motivation for the team.

Leaving the Jungle for a Desk Job

Faced with free agency for the first time since 2012, Araneae decided to forgo the grind back into the LCS, and joined Fnatic as an analyst. “I was with Yellowstar on SK, and we had a similar game knowledge, and I gave them some tips for last split’s playoffs.” Long time fans will remember that Araneae and Yellowstar were on the SK Gaming team that went to the Season 2 World Championships. After winning the spring split, Fnatic found that Araneae’s advice was useful to the team, and brought him in. Early on, Fnatic struggled with finding a way to utilize their new analyst effectively. “In the early season… they were more focused on their training and solo queue than on the preparation vs the enemy team,” said Araneae. He mentioned that for the first few weeks since officially joining the team on June 21st, he had simply been chatting with the team online. In the two weeks leading up to Super Week, Fnatic went 2-2, suffering very disappointing losses to Millenium and the Supa Hot Crew. Their wins in those weeks were against the struggling Gambit Gaming and Copenhagen Wolves. Before Super Week, Araneae was able to move into the gaming house with the Fnatic roster, and get to work. “Now we spend a lot of time preparing against every team, and finally the results are coming in.” In a recent video for Fnatic TV, Araneae and Soaz broke down the team’s preparation for each game in Super Week. Soaz in particular had a much improved performance in Super Week and, from his conversation with Araneae, it appears that much of Soaz’s surprise picks and renewed strength came from the new coach. Araneae added that with the playoffs on the horizon, Fnatic will only continue to improve their preparation. Moving from a teammate to a coaching position, Araneae has found that his voice carries more weight with the players of Fnatic than it did while on Millenium. While he’s always gotten along with the players of Fnatic, he finds it easier to turn his passion into strategy as an analyst. “I try to prepare for every game as if it were a final. [As] part of the team, your word is the same as the other players, but since I’m a coach they tend to listen to me more.”

Grinding Strategy

For Araneae, the analyst is a multi-faceted position. “To become a good analyst, you have to put a lot of effort into keeping Korea and China in track, and also track enemy solo queue champions. Also try to predict their comps [by] analyzing old LCS games.” In team practices, Araneae said that he talks with the team before each scrim to ensure that the whole team understands the goal of each practice match. He also watches every game the team plays, “even some solo queue, and try to help them if they had troubles.” In scrims, Araneae is primarily concerned with the macro goals of the game—Objective control, rotations, team fights, etc. In his chat with Soaz on Fnatic TV, Araneae mentioned that he has been working particularly hard on improving the team’s control over the dragon. In Super Week, the team averaged 4.5 dragons per game, up from a 2.1 dragon average over the four previous weeks. He added that while his players are extremely gifted mechanically, analysis plays a pivotal role in the team’s long term success. He said that analyzing the opponent is critical, from scouting to theorizing champion select, in case the enemy team pulls out a strange pick or ban.

Where Do We Go From Here?

While Araneae is very happy with his role on Fnatic this split, he is unsure about his future. “I would like to continue as a player obviously, I miss being on a stage and shouting a little bit, but I’m also feeling really close to this team, so it’s going to be hard to tell what I’m going to do.” He noted that his decisions will be based in part on his success as an analyst. “My goal was always to become the best at what I do, and I feel I can be a really good coach with some time.” The road has been long and bumpy for the former Millenium jungler. However, with Fnatic closing out Super Week 4-0, it seems that Araneae may have found a new calling. He is grateful for the support he’s received with his new team. “I would like to thank all Fnatic fans and a special thanks to my family, who support me harder than anyone!” There are still plenty of games to go, but if Fnatic can ride this new momentum into the playoffs, perhaps more teams will look to former players to provide them with that extra bit of preparation and passion that Araneae has given Fnatic.

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