Meet the Fans: EU LCS Summer Finals 2015
EU LCS fans who made the trip to Stockholm last weekend were treated to some thrilling matches. There were Baron steals, rocket-jumping pentakill chases, and even the dreaded combination of the two: stolen pentas! H2K’s Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook decided to put the Ahri in ‘sorry-not-sorry’ after stealing the final kill in Petter "Hjärnan" Freyschuss’ unicorn-hunting spree. The Swedish fans packed into Hovet Arena brought good luck with them, as both H2K and Fnatic’s Swedish AD carries, Hjärnan and Martin "Rekkles" Larsson, emerged victorious in their respective series.
Before the doors opened on Day 2 of the event, we headed outside into the sunshine to talk to the Swedish fans to see how they were enjoying the event.
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You didn’t have to squint to locate the Fnatic supporters queued up outside. The team’s signature black-and-orange jerseys were everywhere. We spoke to one of these fans, a Stockholm resident named Roberto “Epicmau” Carlos, who’s been following Fnatic ever since he started playing League and realised there were people at the highest skill tier playing it professionally. When Fnatic shook up their lineup before the start of the 2015 season, he stayed true to his team. “At first I was a bit sceptical because of the new players,” says Carlos, “but then I saw a very big potential in the team. I think they can have a big impact in Worlds.”
Highlight of Day 1: The Hjärnan penta that got away. “It was really exciting,” Carlos says. “But I saw [the steal] coming. It look him too long to get the penta. I was like, arghhh, Ryu's going to take it! But yeah, it happens.”
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Some things are simply better when shared, even LCS playoffs. Based on the complementary signs they’d created in the community area, we were able to safely assume that Rikard "Killsforpleasure" Tholén and his fiancée Isabella "Death By Izzie" Mickols were duo-queuing for the weekend’s festivities. The two met four years ago in school and started playing League at the same time in December 2014. Tholén is a jungle Nunu main while Mickols enjoys throwing demonic teddy bears around as Annie in mid or bot lane. They’re both Fnatic supporters with a soft spot for Fnatic’s star top-laner, Huni. “He's so adorable and he's a beast,” says Mickols. “It's just the two perfect things.” At this affectionate remark, Tholén casts a side-eye her way and deadpans “I mean, he’s ok.” The pair break into a giggle.
Highlight of Day 1: Meeting the EU LCS caster team after the conclusion of the H2K-Unicorns of Love series. “We got Quickshot and Krepo’s autographs and so on, which was fricken amazing,” Tholén gushes. “They are so down to earth.” Mickols jumps in to supplement an all-too-crucial detail: “And selfies!”
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Who doesn’t love a road trip with pals?
We bumped into Mattias "Virgin Senpai" Siterri who’d piled into a car with several friends and driven up to the event together from near Malmö, a 5-6 hour trek. Siterri proudly sported a spray-on Origen tattoo that he got in the nearby community village, and shared his excitement over how well his favourite players xPeke and SoaZ had done in their first split back in the LCS. “I thought we were going to do good,” he tells us, “but not this good. Origen’s doing really, really well in almost everything. It's a big surprise, but I'm really happy for it.” Unsurprisingly, he picked Origen to win Sunday’s Finals: “I'm hoping for a 3-2 because I want more games. I want to see more of them. But yeah, I definitely think Origen will win.”
Siterri shares his favourite team’s passion for competitive League. He’s a Sona main who’s been playing since launch and aims to break out of Gold for the first time. “I’m Gold I, but I hope to hit Platinum this season. I've been in promos to Plat two or three times, but I can't make the jump.”
Highlight of Day 1: Mythical creature sighted in the wild! “We met Unicorns of Love after yesterday’s games at a restaurant,” he tells us. “It was really cool seeing them out in the open, just as normal people, it was really cool. Even though they lost, I still rooted for them. I rooted for them so hard!”
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Ahri has been nerfed before but never like this. When we catch up with Swedish cosplayer Nicole "ismiriu" Hamren in the refreshments queue after Hovet Arena’s doors open for Day 2 of the Summer Finals, her signature nine tails have been plucked clean off. Don’t judge her, though, there’s a good reason. “So yeah, the chairs are really small. Each tail is 1 metre long and fluffy and there are nine of them so uhhh, it's kinda hard.” Hamren bought her costume on eBay prior to the event, which allowed her to partake in the cosplay fun without being blocked by the challenge of handcrafting something in time. There are no rules to cosplay, after all, and she’s had a great time meeting other cosplayers at the event. “I didn't know any of them when I came here,” she says. “I've seen some at other conventions in Sweden, but other than that I didn’t know them at all. But they're very friendly and nice!”
Unlike some of the other people we chatted with, Hamren doesn’t have a favourite team she’s pulling for, she’s just hoping for some exciting matches and maybe an off-meta pick or two (“That’s the most fun!”). [Note: Our interview took place before the Fnatic-Origen series, but it’s nice to know that Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim granted her wish with a surprising Tahm Kench lock-in that very evening.]
Highlight of Day 1: Power Of Evil’s mid-lane Kayle. “I loved it when PowerOfEvil went with Devourer on Kayle and people in the audience, when he farmed jungle camps to get his stacks, people started going 'heeeyyyYYYYY’ to celebrate each camp cleared.”
Watch vods of the EU LCS Summer Finals at lolesports
