The future history of Immortals

Riot·2/4/2016, 10:07:33 PM·2 votes·25,029 views

Immortals arrived in the NA LCS like your drunk uncle arrives at a wedding, stealing the spotlight and looking to upset the natural order of things.

As of Week 3 in the 2016 Spring Split, they’re currently undefeated and have already set the record for the fastest win in LCS history (18 minutes and 16 seconds). So what do they attribute to their success? And what, if anything, are they doing to forge a place for themselves amongst the already established brands of the LCS? We spoke with Noah Whinston, CEO of Immortals, to find out what kind of future history they want to carve out for themselves.

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A long time coming

Noah was always into geek subculture. His first business was an online store for Magic: The Gathering when he was back in Chicago, so it was really only a matter of time until he ran into League of Legends. "The first competitive League of Legends I ever watched was the Season 3 World Championship. This was before I’d even downloaded the game -- I’d never played it before, I was just watching because it was an interesting spectator sport," he says.

Funnily enough, it was Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles who played an integral role in drawing Noah into the sport. "I’ve actually told this to his face, but you know Monte’s Korean hype train gimmick with his train conductor whistle at Season 3 Worlds? That’s what hooked me on competitive League of Legends. So Immortals would not exist without MonteCristo." I’m sure Monte is sitting in his lair somewhere, smiling to himself, sipping on a glass of NA tears at the thought.

For most people it would be a hell of a jump, going from watching Season 3 Worlds to being the CEO of an LCS team. For Noah it feels like par for the course. There is a certain confidence, self-assuredness about him that says if he wants something, he’s not just going to jump after it -- he’s going to dive in head first.

As Noah was drawn into the world of competitive League of Legends he was struck by the fact that there weren’t a lot of deeper analytics or statistics there, something that he was passionate about. "So I’m going to be a hipster now, but I was the first one to talk publicly about CS differentials at 10 minutes. Before Riot ever included them on their broadcast, before OGN ever started talking about it, I wrote two articles for Paravine about CS at 10 differentials, and how they reflected strong laning."

The more time he spent delving into the analytics behind League, the more he realized certain things just weren’t being talked about -- at least not publicly. He thought about becoming an analyst or coach, but it was his own ambition that held him back. "I realized, sure, I might make a fine analyst, I probably could have been a fine coach, but the impact you can have on an industry as an analyst or coach is really limited to one team and I like to do bigger things."

Taking a leap

It was these ‘bigger things’ that would lead him to founding Immortals. Which, by all accounts, was shockingly easy. The original plan was to self-fund a Challenger team, but after a Summer job at Vulcun, the DFS (daily fantasy site), Noah made the contacts that led him to his first investors. They were the ones who raised the money, opened the doors, and got things going. "Really I was just a college kid, doing an internship for the Summer, and then a month into it I was like ‘Wow, I’m really not going to go back to school, and I’m going to start an LCS team.’"

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Noah frames it as though he just kind of fell into it -- and there is probably some truth to that. But nothing about him strikes you as the kind of person who would fall into anything. He probably breezed over the mention of hard work, late nights, and unwavering dedication.

Once the doors were opened and the money was in the bank, it was time to build a roster. As any owner will no doubt attest, you go through various iterations of rosters during the offseason. Immortals were no different. The initial roster they conjured up was nothing like the one they finally settled on. "If I had just gotten the roster that I snapped my fingers for right at the very beginning it would have been way worse. I can’t imagine a roster I’d rather have than this one."

The usual suspects

Seong Hun "Huni" Heo and Yeu-jin "Reignover" Kim of European powerhouse Fnatic, Eugene "Pobelter" Park from Counter Logic Gaming, Jason "WildTurtle" Tran of TSM, and Adrian "Adrian" Ma of Team Impulse would be the final five.

Two Korean superstars fresh from conquering Europe and three North American talents who have experienced the highs and lows of the LCS and were dropped from their previous teams. It doesn’t sound like a formula for instant success, but since joining Immortals, each player has been showing arguably their best form to date.

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There are no doubt numerous contributing factors to the success of the team and the form of the players, but one in particular stands out to Noah. "I think it’s massively due to the environment, but I don’t want to make it sound like we’re taking all the credit for it. It’s pure dumb luck that things meshed together this well -- I expected it to mesh well, but not this well. But I think the environment we created is really important to insuring those bonds don’t get broken, right?"

Whatever bonds that have been crafted between the players, they’re certainly working. To the average viewer the team looks as though they’ve been playing together for a very long time. Their coordination and rotations make them look like a well oiled machine. There is also something about each of the players that feels strangely familiar to each other. A certain goofy, approachable charm. Though this wasn’t a defining characteristic they had in mind when they were putting together the roster.

"What we were looking for when we were doing the roster was not just skill, but a willingness to be adaptable and sacrifice and put the team before yourself. A willingness to sacrifice your own personal success for the success of the overall team and the success of your teammates."

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"I’ll use Adrian as an example. He didn’t die in his first three games and was on track to have one of the highest KDAs anyone could have ever reached in LCS, right? Would have been super easy for him to just play for his own personal KDA, his personal records, and let his teammates die. Then today he’s flashing with Soraka into danger to try and save his teammates. He’s not looking to make records himself. He’s looking to do what his team needs him to do."

Noah also attributes much of the Immortals' early success to the team behind the players. Dylan Falco, their head coach (former analyst of TSM), is incredibly smart about strategy, and the players respect him when it comes to pick/bans, Level 1 strategy, and rotations. Jun "Dodo8" Kang (the former support of Team 8), is one of the few League pros with a college degree. When Immortals bought Team 8’s spot, Dodo8 chose to stay on, and as a former pro himself he makes an excellent player manager. Robert Yip, their performances manager, looks after all the player welfare. He keeps the environment simultaneously positive, laidback, and focused.

"We don’t bring the hammer down on players because, and I think this is indicative of a larger brand philosophy, these guys are professionals. We put a lot of trust and responsibility into them to take care of their own sh*t. We’re not going to try and micromanage them and force them to do things. We’re going to make it easy for them to make healthy choices -- make it easy for them to go to bed at the right time and focus during scrims and we trust them to make the right choices. So far, they have."

Moving on up

When asked about how he felt his Immortals were doing taking on the Gods of esports, Noah was quick make a distinction between ‘being the best’ and the goals of his organization. "Of course, we want to be competitive, but our goal isn’t to win 1st place every time. Our goal is to transform what it means to be an esports organization. Creating a brand that exists independently of the brands of the individuals. I think that is something that TSM, C9, CLG, and Liquid have all managed to do, and not many other teams have."

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To become an established esports organization is a long road to walk, and it’s already littered with the corpses of those who didn’t make it. Though Immortals seem well and truly on the way. They’re building a fanbase, amassing followers on Twitter, Facebook, and I’d like to see the statistics on Reddit flairs. They’re showing how their brand values align with the individual values of their stars. They’re not stuffy, they’re not uptight. They can holo holo holo and have fun. They can be respectable and goofy at the same time. Then these jokesters turn up on the LCS stage and dominate anyone who stands in their way.

The future is bright

As for future prospects and international competition, Noah doesn’t want his players to get too far ahead of themselves. At the start of the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split it was very clear that he’d be happy with top 3 in NA and nothing has changed since then. "Just because we’ve had a hot start doesn’t mean I’ll be unhappy with 3rd. The immediate goals are the same."

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"Ideally, I’d love to win MSI and then win Worlds, right?" Noah’s face splits into a grin as he laughs. "But realistically, some very achievable goals are I’d like to get to MSI, I’d like to win our first Split, I’d like to qualify for Worlds, and I’d like to make it out of Groups. Everything on top of that is gravy. It’s only the middle of Week 3. We still have a long way to go."

However long their journey is, Immortals are happily taking us along for the ride. They’ll step into Week 4 of the 2016 Spring Split undefeated, coming face to face with former champions Counter Logic Gaming and a resurgent Liquid, arguably their toughest challenges to date.

Regardless of the outcomes it will be a great test of character -- whether they can maintain the tenacity to continue on their winning run, or learn from their mistakes and bounce back from a loss.

Either way, we’re excited to find out.