Kalec: From player to coach and back again
Riot·3/20/2015, 6:44:30 PM·0 votes·8,803 views
Rodrigo “Kalec” Rodrigues certainly has one of the longest professional careers in the Brazilian LoL scene, but you can't exactly say he's always been at the top. The AD carry has come close to representing his region on an international stage as both a player and coach, only to fall just short of that goal before fading into the background once more.
"My career and the teams I played in were always centered around the time when the regional was coming up. It was like, ‘Oh, four months to the regional. I better get to a team, better find a team, find four good players so I can compete in this championship and have a shot to go to an international competition.'"
Following his most recent defeat in 2014, when Dynasty failed to reach the qualifier, Kalec found himself re-evaluating his place in competitive League of Legends.
“I started thinking, ‘I love the competitive scene, I want to keep myself involved, so what can I do since I cannot qualify as a player?’”
“I had some friends here at CNB, so I contacted them [because] they had no coach at the time. We ran some tests. They asked a lot about my opinion about the game, strategies, and they decided to bring me in as a coach. After that, we played in the 2014 Regional.”
CNB’s run through the regional qualifier was impressive, including an explosive Best of 3 Semifinal against paiN Gaming, where mid laner Murilo “Takeshi” Alves’ Yasuo decimated paiN in their third match.
“Takeshi was playing out of his mind in that tournament. His Yasuo play against paiN was pretty insane,” Kalec laughs.
Unfortunately for CNB, they fell to KaBuM! e-Sports in the Final. The loss sent many members of the team to other organizations: Takeshi and jungler Gabriel “Revolta” Henud departed for Keyd Stars while Whesley “Leko” Holler went to paiN Gaming. AD carry André “Manajj” Rocha retired. As the team slowly dismantled, Kalec stayed on as a coach, attempting to rebuild the team anew.
“I was really doing my best. Both as a coach and playing Solo Queue to try to bring back my mechanics. When all the players went to their holidays, I stayed in the gaming house practicing. So they watched that. They paid attention to how much I wanted to get better. So when the first attempt to rebuild the team failed, they came to me and said, ‘We want you to play. We want you to play as AD carry since Manajj retired. And we want you to rebuild the team again.'"
Along with mid laner Lucas “Electro” Del Prá, CNB scrimmed with multiple lineups and players before settling on jungler Carlos “Nappon” Rucker, top laner Franklin “Aoshi” Gomes, and support Willyan “Wos” Bonpam to round out the new roster. All had no prior professional experience.
While CNB’s green players showed off their prowess, it was Kalec who came under heavy criticism for a lack of mechanical skill and positioning in comparison to his teammates.
“It was actually good that I was the focus of the majority of the criticism," he explains. "One of the most difficult points for the new players usually is the pressure. They don’t have the experience and they get on that stage and they are expected to perform at the top level. They can’t fail. CNB has tons of fans that are counting on them. Especially for people that don’t have the experience of being under pressure, being a pro gamer can be quite the stressful experience.”
Kalec admits that there were some hiccups at the team’s inception, especially with their new players. He cites their sports psychologist in addition to their coach Thiago “Djokovic” Maia for CNB’s quick development and success, reiterating the belief that it was best for the criticism to fall on his shoulders, rather than their rookies'.
“It’s only fair that the fans give them a little bit more time for them to show their game, to grow a little bit, and to actually become the pro player that CNB deserves. More was expected of me so it’s only fair that they criticize me more, they want me to lead the team and play better.”
As for his critics, Kalec is a firm believer in his strengths as an AD carry, offering a precise assessment of his own weaknesses.
“What I really consider the mechanic part of League of Legends, I don’t think I’m lacking that. My problem usually is getting caught out of position and not moving as efficiently as I should.”
“When you’re getting caught out of position, it pops in the game. When that happens, it’s easy for everyone to see that that was a mistake. When you make a vision control mistake, or a rotational mistake, or even a team fight mistake, it’s a lot harder for the general public to pinpoint that, but when you get caught out of position, which is my biggest flaw, it’s a lot easier for everyone to see that.”
With Djoko, Kalec offers a steady veteran presence, supporting CNB’s focus on placing macro strategy and team coordination above early aggression.
“Because we are a young team, sometimes it’s too ambitious and really hard to expect to play all of our all-ins aggressively, and communicate with the jungler, and have the vision you need to play aggressively in all the lanes without committing mistakes. We first tried practicing and improving our team play, macro strategy, and win conditions inside our team comp.”
This playstyle has suited CNB well. The team recently finished third place in their first competitive regular season, and now prepares for their upcoming playoff matchup looking more cohesive by the day. Kalec stresses that this is due to their support staff, and the flexibility of his younger teammates.
“They are learning a lot about competitive play, about vision control, about communication, the matchups. When they have to push, when they have to trade, our players are quite knowledgeable at this point,” he says with pride.
“Now we are finally arriving at a point where we are finally starting to get satisfied with our play. Our goal from the start has always been to be the best team in Brazil. It’s not an easy thing to achieve but through a lot of hard work and good understanding of the game, I think we’re getting there.”
CNB e-Sports finished the regular season at third place in the standings. See how they fare in the next stage of the tournament against KaBuM! e-Sports Black in the CBLoL 2015 Quarterfinals on March 21 on Twitch.
From Player to Coach
“I had some friends here at CNB, so I contacted them [because] they had no coach at the time. We ran some tests. They asked a lot about my opinion about the game, strategies, and they decided to bring me in as a coach. After that, we played in the 2014 Regional.”
CNB’s run through the regional qualifier was impressive, including an explosive Best of 3 Semifinal against paiN Gaming, where mid laner Murilo “Takeshi” Alves’ Yasuo decimated paiN in their third match.
“Takeshi was playing out of his mind in that tournament. His Yasuo play against paiN was pretty insane,” Kalec laughs.
Unfortunately for CNB, they fell to KaBuM! e-Sports in the Final. The loss sent many members of the team to other organizations: Takeshi and jungler Gabriel “Revolta” Henud departed for Keyd Stars while Whesley “Leko” Holler went to paiN Gaming. AD carry André “Manajj” Rocha retired. As the team slowly dismantled, Kalec stayed on as a coach, attempting to rebuild the team anew.
“I was really doing my best. Both as a coach and playing Solo Queue to try to bring back my mechanics. When all the players went to their holidays, I stayed in the gaming house practicing. So they watched that. They paid attention to how much I wanted to get better. So when the first attempt to rebuild the team failed, they came to me and said, ‘We want you to play. We want you to play as AD carry since Manajj retired. And we want you to rebuild the team again.'"
Along with mid laner Lucas “Electro” Del Prá, CNB scrimmed with multiple lineups and players before settling on jungler Carlos “Nappon” Rucker, top laner Franklin “Aoshi” Gomes, and support Willyan “Wos” Bonpam to round out the new roster. All had no prior professional experience.
A Carry Under Fire
While CNB’s green players showed off their prowess, it was Kalec who came under heavy criticism for a lack of mechanical skill and positioning in comparison to his teammates.
“It was actually good that I was the focus of the majority of the criticism," he explains. "One of the most difficult points for the new players usually is the pressure. They don’t have the experience and they get on that stage and they are expected to perform at the top level. They can’t fail. CNB has tons of fans that are counting on them. Especially for people that don’t have the experience of being under pressure, being a pro gamer can be quite the stressful experience.”
Kalec admits that there were some hiccups at the team’s inception, especially with their new players. He cites their sports psychologist in addition to their coach Thiago “Djokovic” Maia for CNB’s quick development and success, reiterating the belief that it was best for the criticism to fall on his shoulders, rather than their rookies'.
“It’s only fair that the fans give them a little bit more time for them to show their game, to grow a little bit, and to actually become the pro player that CNB deserves. More was expected of me so it’s only fair that they criticize me more, they want me to lead the team and play better.”
As for his critics, Kalec is a firm believer in his strengths as an AD carry, offering a precise assessment of his own weaknesses.
“What I really consider the mechanic part of League of Legends, I don’t think I’m lacking that. My problem usually is getting caught out of position and not moving as efficiently as I should.”
“When you’re getting caught out of position, it pops in the game. When that happens, it’s easy for everyone to see that that was a mistake. When you make a vision control mistake, or a rotational mistake, or even a team fight mistake, it’s a lot harder for the general public to pinpoint that, but when you get caught out of position, which is my biggest flaw, it’s a lot easier for everyone to see that.”
Growing A New Team
With Djoko, Kalec offers a steady veteran presence, supporting CNB’s focus on placing macro strategy and team coordination above early aggression.
“Because we are a young team, sometimes it’s too ambitious and really hard to expect to play all of our all-ins aggressively, and communicate with the jungler, and have the vision you need to play aggressively in all the lanes without committing mistakes. We first tried practicing and improving our team play, macro strategy, and win conditions inside our team comp.”
This playstyle has suited CNB well. The team recently finished third place in their first competitive regular season, and now prepares for their upcoming playoff matchup looking more cohesive by the day. Kalec stresses that this is due to their support staff, and the flexibility of his younger teammates.
“They are learning a lot about competitive play, about vision control, about communication, the matchups. When they have to push, when they have to trade, our players are quite knowledgeable at this point,” he says with pride.
“Now we are finally arriving at a point where we are finally starting to get satisfied with our play. Our goal from the start has always been to be the best team in Brazil. It’s not an easy thing to achieve but through a lot of hard work and good understanding of the game, I think we’re getting there.”
CNB e-Sports finished the regular season at third place in the standings. See how they fare in the next stage of the tournament against KaBuM! e-Sports Black in the CBLoL 2015 Quarterfinals on March 21 on Twitch.
