NiQ's Big Break
Riot·5/28/2014, 1:06:05 AM·1 votes·1,271 views
It could have been something out of a movie. A great team's star player and captain stepped down in frustration from the squad he'd once led to glory, and now the struggling legends needed someone to step-up and fill the void. They settled on a relative unknown, someone whose opportunity had repeatedly passed by, and whose career seemed stuck in the "minors."
If Super Week played out to the script, Sebastian "niQ" Robak would have been a hero, rising to the occasion and saving Gambit in their hour of need. The unlikely replacement for Alex Ich would have shown that he deserved his place in the LCS, and Gambit would have rediscovered the magic that's been waning in recent seasons.
But life isn't a movie, and niQ did not play hero this weekend. Instead, as the first week of the 2014 summer split is in the books, niQ's position remains ambiguous. The questions facing Gambit are not easy. What can they reasonably expect from a replacement mid laner coming into a difficult team situation? How much was his performance a product of his own abilities, and how much was it a product of Gambit's larger strengths and weaknesses?
NiQ might be new to the LCS, but he's no stranger to high-stakes League of Legends competition. He is a veteran of Denial eSports' European squad, and their failed campaign to earn an LCS spot over the Copenhagen Wolves during the Summer Promotion tournament. He's been competing in the Polish League scene since 2012, and has crossed paths with several of the ROCCAT squad members over the years. In fact, he was practically a founding member of Kiedyś Miałem Team.
But opportunity didn't smile on him. He left KMT (the team now known as ROCCAT) just before their march into the LCS spring split, to find a new home with Denial. He got tantalizingly close to the LCS with Denial, and then watched as teammate Woolite was recruited by Copenhagen Wolves. NiQ's teams perform well, but he's never the breakout star.
Now, as a part of Gambit, niQ has just had his biggest chance yet. But did he earn another one?
You could not have a more ambiguous start than niQ had in his first game against ROCCAT, a team that has been dominating Gambit all year. In a fairly lopsided defeat for his team, niQ went... 0/0/0.
His first game is a Rorschach test for people who've already made up their minds about niQ and Gambit. If you think he's a solid mid laner with potential to help the team, you can say that his Nidalee play was smart and pragmatic. He made the best of a bad situation, as the rest of his team melted in fights and denied him the time and space he needed to put damage down. But while his teammates were falling right-and-left, niQ stayed alive and kept trying to hold back ROCCAT.
If you think niQ is a career backup, nobody's first choice for a starting role, then his first game showed an excess of caution and no playmaking ability. He was a nonfactor from start to finish, backing out of fights rather than trying to at least get some trades from ROCCAT.
The truth is, the ROCCAT game said more about Gambit's issues than niQ. Their composition left niQ with few opportunities, and they left him tangling with an increasingly dangerous Overpow, whose Twisted Fate was getting out of control within the first few minutes of the game. NiQ farmed well, but he was also missing from some key engagements. It’s unclear if the problem was Gambit's calls or his own game-sense, but NiQ was never quite at the right place at the right time.
He looked much stronger in Gambit's victory over SK Gaming. His Kayle finished a respectable, if unimpressive 5/3/4, but two of those kills came in the endgame and set up favorable exchanges that allowed Gambit to finally smash through. He was an early difference-maker, zoning out Jesiz' Yasuo at Dragon and killing Svenskeren's Lee Sin while the rest of Gambit ran down CandyPanda. At 26 minutes in the game, he had gone 3/0/2 and was a major threat for split-pushing. SK responded by targeting him in every subsequent fight, but some of the credit for Gambit's victory goes to niQ’s cool, steady play at the start of the game.
On the other hand, the SK game was the only time during Super Week that Gambit really had their act together. Genja and Darien turned in heroic performances, which made niQ's life far easier. It's the classic problem for assessing a League of Legends performance: was it the player or the team?
There are no definitive answers for Gambit or niQ this week. NiQ had an unambiguously terrible game against Millenium, with a disastrous Syndra pick going 0/5/1 as Kerp and Kottenx killed him at will. On the other hand, Gambit's game fell apart so quickly that niQ never had a chance to recover.
Likewise, his game against Alliance was another hard-to-judge performance. He went 3/6/4 as Yasuo, and was contending with a 10/2/12 Froggen. He made some key plays, including disrupting a key Baron attempt from Alliance. But he didn't fare particularly well in team-fights, and his best plays came when he was away from the rest of the team, fighting for his life. Again, is that because niQ didn't perform well as a part of the squad, or because Alliance's composition was so much better in those 5-on-5 situations?
The verdict on niQ at the end of the first week is a resounding "…maybe?" That's a disappointment for niQ, but one that likely says more about where Gambit are at, than his individual skill. Their picks weren't working well, and his new squad mates were having bad games and making bad decisions. NiQ wasn't the solution to Gambit's problems, but he wasn't the cause, either. For now, he just has to hope that is good enough for another chance.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
NiQ might be new to the LCS, but he's no stranger to high-stakes League of Legends competition. He is a veteran of Denial eSports' European squad, and their failed campaign to earn an LCS spot over the Copenhagen Wolves during the Summer Promotion tournament. He's been competing in the Polish League scene since 2012, and has crossed paths with several of the ROCCAT squad members over the years. In fact, he was practically a founding member of Kiedyś Miałem Team.
But opportunity didn't smile on him. He left KMT (the team now known as ROCCAT) just before their march into the LCS spring split, to find a new home with Denial. He got tantalizingly close to the LCS with Denial, and then watched as teammate Woolite was recruited by Copenhagen Wolves. NiQ's teams perform well, but he's never the breakout star.
Now, as a part of Gambit, niQ has just had his biggest chance yet. But did he earn another one?
You could not have a more ambiguous start than niQ had in his first game against ROCCAT, a team that has been dominating Gambit all year. In a fairly lopsided defeat for his team, niQ went... 0/0/0.
His first game is a Rorschach test for people who've already made up their minds about niQ and Gambit. If you think he's a solid mid laner with potential to help the team, you can say that his Nidalee play was smart and pragmatic. He made the best of a bad situation, as the rest of his team melted in fights and denied him the time and space he needed to put damage down. But while his teammates were falling right-and-left, niQ stayed alive and kept trying to hold back ROCCAT.
If you think niQ is a career backup, nobody's first choice for a starting role, then his first game showed an excess of caution and no playmaking ability. He was a nonfactor from start to finish, backing out of fights rather than trying to at least get some trades from ROCCAT.
The truth is, the ROCCAT game said more about Gambit's issues than niQ. Their composition left niQ with few opportunities, and they left him tangling with an increasingly dangerous Overpow, whose Twisted Fate was getting out of control within the first few minutes of the game. NiQ farmed well, but he was also missing from some key engagements. It’s unclear if the problem was Gambit's calls or his own game-sense, but NiQ was never quite at the right place at the right time.
SIGNS OF LIFE
He looked much stronger in Gambit's victory over SK Gaming. His Kayle finished a respectable, if unimpressive 5/3/4, but two of those kills came in the endgame and set up favorable exchanges that allowed Gambit to finally smash through. He was an early difference-maker, zoning out Jesiz' Yasuo at Dragon and killing Svenskeren's Lee Sin while the rest of Gambit ran down CandyPanda. At 26 minutes in the game, he had gone 3/0/2 and was a major threat for split-pushing. SK responded by targeting him in every subsequent fight, but some of the credit for Gambit's victory goes to niQ’s cool, steady play at the start of the game.
On the other hand, the SK game was the only time during Super Week that Gambit really had their act together. Genja and Darien turned in heroic performances, which made niQ's life far easier. It's the classic problem for assessing a League of Legends performance: was it the player or the team?
There are no definitive answers for Gambit or niQ this week. NiQ had an unambiguously terrible game against Millenium, with a disastrous Syndra pick going 0/5/1 as Kerp and Kottenx killed him at will. On the other hand, Gambit's game fell apart so quickly that niQ never had a chance to recover.
Likewise, his game against Alliance was another hard-to-judge performance. He went 3/6/4 as Yasuo, and was contending with a 10/2/12 Froggen. He made some key plays, including disrupting a key Baron attempt from Alliance. But he didn't fare particularly well in team-fights, and his best plays came when he was away from the rest of the team, fighting for his life. Again, is that because niQ didn't perform well as a part of the squad, or because Alliance's composition was so much better in those 5-on-5 situations?
The verdict on niQ at the end of the first week is a resounding "…maybe?" That's a disappointment for niQ, but one that likely says more about where Gambit are at, than his individual skill. Their picks weren't working well, and his new squad mates were having bad games and making bad decisions. NiQ wasn't the solution to Gambit's problems, but he wasn't the cause, either. For now, he just has to hope that is good enough for another chance.
