The Swedish Shot-caller: G0DFRED
Giants Gaming's support Oskar "G0DFRED" Lundstrom's first split in the European LCS has shown him no mercy. Not only has G0DFRED been charged with the responsibility of shot-calling for his team, a challenge usually reserved for veterans, the young Swede has to coordinate with his team in English when, prior to his arrival, team communications were entirely in Spanish.
Despite being thrown into the deep-end upon arrival, G0DFRED and the rest of Giants Gaming have battled their way through seven weeks of play and are currently tied with the Unicorns of Love in fourth place. With only two weeks left in the regular season, Giants Gaming is looking to crush the opposition and barrel their way into the LCS postseason.
Rising to the occasion
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G0DFRED is unique in the fact that he is a true rookie to the scene, making the jump straight from the Solo Queue to the LCS stage. After crushing the ladder for a while, he started duoing with fellow Göteborg native Martin "Rekkles" Larsson which caught the attention of Giants Gaming.
"The Giants were looking for a new support and saw me, a no-namer, Duo-queueing with Rekkles. They let me try out, which I managed without any experience in the Challenger scene," says G0DFRED.
Giants' gamble on the untested newcomer appears to have paid off, and G0DFRED is quickly becoming an integral member of the squad. In terms of the atmosphere on his new team, G0DFRED couldn't be happier. "The guys are really nice and are trying their best with English, even though they are not that used to speaking it, which I think is really nice of them," says G0DFRED.
He's a natural
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Even as he makes team-wide calls in English, G0DFRED says that the team have adapted by using their own unique mix of English and Spanish in game. "Since I make the calls the majority [of communication] is obviously in English, but sometimes when jungle or top is ganking it's easier for them to communicate in Spanish because it goes faster. However, when something concerns the whole team, it's in English," he explains.
The role of shot-caller is not for the faint of heart, however. As a rookie to the LCS, G0DFRED's ability to understand the game on the macro-level and make decisive calls for his team is all the more impressive. According to G0DFRED, his leadership skills come from his time spent as a midfielder in football. "I've been playing football my entire life till a year ago, and always had somewhat of a leadership role, so I'd say it comes naturally," he explains.
"I think its quite similar, you have to be confident in what you want your team to do. If you aren't confident about your call, then your team won't be confident about it either," says G0DFRED. It seems that making the decisions on the pitch leads to good shot-calling on the Rift.
Fredgana
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As if overcoming language barriers and filling a leadership position right out of the gates wasn't enough of a challenge for a player in their rookie season, his opposition has near-unanimously decided to target him in the pick/ban phase for most of the season, not that you can blame them.
After the first three weeks of play, one trend became remarkably clear: if G0DFRED gets Morgana, Giants win. In the four games he managed to get the Fallen Angel, he won every single one. Denying G0DFRED quickly became the go-to draft strategy for teams after Week 3. Morgana was banned or first-picked away from G0DFRED in the next seven matches in a row, with the Giants only picking up two wins during this time.
"I feel she is almost the perfect champ for me," says G0DFRED of his beloved Morgana. "She let's you make big plays while staying safe, and she has a good catch/peel kit which is good with a lot of the long range poke-comps we are running."
On Day 2 of Week 7, Gambit decided to buck conventional wisdom and left Morgana available for the Swede after over a month of denial. The Giants snatched the Fallen Angel off the board with their first pick without the slightest hesitation. "Finally, Fredgana is back," G0DFRED told me after the game. Sure enough, Giants went on to secure victory to move one spot ahead of Gambit in the standings; G0DFRED finished the match 0-1-19 with 83% Kill Participation.
The Soul Shackles are off
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In all likelihood, that will be the last time a team lets G0DFRED play Morgana this season, but the young support star looks at the attention he gets in champ select through a positive lense, "It's not really that [annoying] to be honest. I find it more funny and flattering. I'm comfortable playing other champs as well, so it's no problem," G0DFRED explains.
G0DFRED's confidence on other champions needs to translate into results if the Giants mean to make a meaningful run in the playoffs, however. Currently 2-7 on anything that isn't Morgana, G0DFRED has been dedicating his practice time to expanding his champion pool. "I play a lot of Solo Queue to keep all the supports we want to play up to par mechanically, but I don't really play much Morgana since I feel like I have her kit to my maximum potential already, and [I'm] confident in playing her on stage without playing it in scrims or Solo Queue. Maybe 2-3 games a week max with her," he explains.
Giants Gaming will be leaning on G0DFRED's preparation and natural leadership abilities to help steer them into the postseason. As for G0DFRED, he's confident in himself and his team, "I think we can only get better from here, it's all up to ourselves on how good we want to get, cause the potential is there."
Find out just how far Giants Gaming can go when they face H2K in the upcoming EU LCS Game of the Week on Thursday, July 16th right here on Lolesports. To catch up on all of the Giants' past matches from this split check out our spoiler-free VODs page.
Schuyler Winter once put way, way too much salt in his fish tacos which nearly poisoned his best friends. He loves discussing all things Lolesports and you should totally hit him up on Twitter.
