NA LCS Rookie of the week: CLG's Stixxay

Make sure to read about our other Rookie of the week: G2 Esports' Trick

Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng was among the first non-Korean players to play (and have success) in the OGN / LCK circuit back in 2012, and has been hailed as one of the best mechanical talents in League of Legends.

It's not easy to replace a legend.

And that's exactly what Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes is up against in his NA LCS rookie season in 2016. He's already making waves in professional play after leading Counter Logic Gaming to a runner up finish at IEM San Jose late in 2015, and a great opening performance in Week 1 of the 2016 NA LCS Season.

Where did this prodigal ADC come from, and can he return CLG to Faith Age glory?

A silly little game

Stixxay grew up in a rural farm town 20 minutes outside Phoenix, Arizona. He had a pretty normal and quiet childhood. "I played guitar for five years from like 10 to 15 years old, then I stopped playing because I just wanted to play video games all the time," Stixxay told us.

His love of gaming was born out of an addiction that many of us can empathize with: World of Warcraft. "I played WoW since Vanilla, I was like 8 years old [when I started]," Stixxay said. "My brother played it, so I played it too." And his love of gaming eventually led him onto the Rift.

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"Me and friends were playing WoW, and we were bored, and everyone was playing this new game called League of Legends, so I was like 'let's try it out,'" he said. While he was initially slow to get involved in the game, it eventually enveloped his entire life. "I played one game and I was like, 'I can only play one game a day or something,' but then I started playing it more and more and more and then started playing it all the time."

"I used to duo with my best friend all the time," he continued. "We were Gold Elo, duo-queuing bot lane. I thought I was pretty good, but we weren't winning. I used to come home earlier than him from school, so I'd always play solo and always win. That's when I thought I'd play solo more, so slowly I told my friend I can't duo and I started climbing a lot."

He laughed before adding, "My friend doesn't play much anymore."

The climb

Stixxay's self confidence wasn't unfounded, he very quickly found himself climbing the Solo Queue ladder, all while he was still in high school. "The first time I realized I could be pro, I was Diamond 3 or something. And I thought I was really good mechanically, and thought if I could be smarter I could be even better."

A greater focus on macro-level gameplay shoved Stixxay further up the ladder. Eventually, because of his Solo Queue prowess -- and earning respect from LCS pros through games he played with them -- CLG decided to add him to their rebooted Challenger team CLG Black in 2015. "I never had super good performances in competitive when I played in the Challenger Series, so I just got known from Solo Queue, and how I played in scrims."

"I was recruited on CLG Black when I was still ending my time in high school," he continued. "For me I thought it was an investment. I thought I was getting really good, and I wanted an LCS offer or spot by the time I was graduated so I could go from school straight to LCS."

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"I kind of did that, but it took a bit…"

Stixxay played on CLG Black during 2015 NA CS Spring without much success. And during Summer, while CLG was enjoying the most success the organization had in years, Stixxay started to think about whether he'd ever get a chance to play.

But CLG never lost faith in Stixxay. Throughout his time on the bench, management had discussed him potentially starting for CLG eventually. His opportunity would eventually come, but not in the way any CLG fan would want.

Not only adoration, but respect

After CLG's rollercoaster ride through, and subsequent crash out of, Worlds 2015, CLG made the previously unthinkable decision to remove their franchise ADC Doublelift. "I moved into the house after I graduated," Stixxay recalled, "And then eventually Doublelift was removed from the main team. I got put in because they liked me more than the other candidates, and especially cause I had known the players already so they liked me previously."

Stixxay has performed admirably since taking up the ADC mantle for CLG. His KDA at IEM San Jose was a modest 3.7, but he was instrumental in a number of his team's clutch wins over squads such as the Jin Air Greenwings and the Unicorns of Love. He was also key to their CLG's NA LCS Week 1 win over TSM, in which he clocked in a 8/1/11 scoreline -- outperforming the legend he replaced on the way to victory.

That's not what Stixxay was focusing on, however.

"I only thought about [the TSM vs. CLG rivalry] before I played the game," he said. "During the game, they're just five players. It's not like, 'Oh I'm vs. TSM, I need to be scared,' or something, I'm vs. five players. I play with names off."

"After the game, I almost felt bad cause they didn't have a lot of time [to practice] together. It felt like it wasn't a fulfilling win to be honest," he continued. "Of course it feels great to win, but you know they just started playing together. I wanted it to be an even playing field. If it was even I'd be really happy."

Given that Stixxay and CLG followed up their statement win against TSM with a lopsided loss against Team Dignitas, it's fair to say that there's still some work to do. Regardless of CLG's 1-1 start, Stixxay has high aspirations for his Season.

"I think we'll finish Top 4 as a team," he says. "For me personally, I want to prove I'm really good to the public. Among the pros, people value me pretty decently, at least I hope. But among the public, people haven't seen me too much. So I want to prove to them I'm good."

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Despite his initial success, Stixxay has constant reminders of his humble beginnings and the support of those closest to him, "My mom was actually at the studio Saturday, so she's really supportive, my dad is really supportive too. My friends all think it's super cool that I'm in the LCS, cause they play League, too."

"During downtime, we have a couple guitars at the house so I play sometimes," he laughs and adds, "But I'm not that good anymore."

"I still play with my friends, I play an ARAM or normals with them before scrims sometimes."

Will Stixxay continue to grow as a pro player? Can he help CLG back to another Championship? Make sure to catch his Week 2 match against Liquid on January 23, 2016 at 12:00 PM Pacific Time.

Frank Fields is a Senior Editor for Lolesports.com. He has worked in esports as a player, manager, owner, and content creator in multiple game titles and various organizations since 2003. Feel free to talk to him about Power Rankings, Smash, Magic: The Gathering, League or anything else on Twitter.