How SHC and CW are Adjusting to Professional Life
Riot·3/17/2014, 7:16:53 PM·0 votes·346 views
Climbing the ranks from nothing to Challenger and then into the LCS isn’t an easy task. Teams must have great communication, mechanical skill, and dedication to coming together as a unified squad. They have to win against the toughest opponents; and then, they have to hold their spot in the highest tier until they get the opportunity to play for a spot in the LCS.
And even if they do make it all the way to the LCS, what then? They’ve got to adjust to playing against their fellow professionals on some the biggest stages in the world. Coming from playing online at home, to competing in person with a crowd watching every move can be a huge adjustment.
Supa Hot Crew’s MrRalleZ and Copenhagen Wolves’ YoungBuck are two players that have had to make that adjustment during the 2014 season.
MrRalleZ may have been one of the best ADCs in the amateur scene, but he says the level of play is at a whole different level in the LCS. “The skill level is way higher, because you are playing on a stage and many people are watching on stream. That makes everyone trying a lot harder, and that will obviously make the skill level way higher as well.”
As a result, whereas many Challenger-level players can reliably take down an opponent in a one-on-one situation, YoungBuck hasn’t found that he can pull off the same feat in the LCS. “Individual skills of the players are so high that 1v1 kills come very rarely.”
To make matters more interesting, adjusting to the public stage and crowd is the biggest change for MrRalleZ. “We have all been in the scene for quite a while, just not as ‘pros’. So we didn’t really have to adapt that much. The biggest change was just that we had to play on a stage in front of a lot of people, which we had to get used to.”
“I obviously feel more pressure when I'm playing on the stage, because a lot of people expect me to do well in every game,” he says. “But I’m not really nervous, because I’m very confident in myself in terms of playing League of Legends”
That pressure is only exacerbated when their teams are losing. “The hardest thing to overcome for us was having to change our mindset and accepting losses,” says YoungBuck. “Since we had no experiences with losing in the challenger scene taking losses was very hard for us to cope with in the early stages of the LCS.”
With both teams having struggled at different points in the season, they’ve had to find ways to deal with the disappointment of losing on the big stage, and work to improve their standings in the LCS.
MrRalleZ sees it differently as he thinks SHC was looking to the LCS for many of their strategies while they made their way there. “We should have pretty much the same strategies, because the challenger scene will look at the LCS and adapt to it.”
During their time as a Challenger team, they could sit back and wait to see what the pros did before changing their tactics. Now, that’s a bit different. “LCS teams have to play every week so we have to adapt a lot quicker to the new changes.”
For now, that seems to be working for the Wolves and we'll see if SHC can bounce back after a disappointing Super Week.
Watch Supa Hot Crew go up against Millenium and Copenhagen Wolves face off against SK Gaming when the LCS comes back on March 20.
Skills and Expectations
MrRalleZ may have been one of the best ADCs in the amateur scene, but he says the level of play is at a whole different level in the LCS. “The skill level is way higher, because you are playing on a stage and many people are watching on stream. That makes everyone trying a lot harder, and that will obviously make the skill level way higher as well.”
As a result, whereas many Challenger-level players can reliably take down an opponent in a one-on-one situation, YoungBuck hasn’t found that he can pull off the same feat in the LCS. “Individual skills of the players are so high that 1v1 kills come very rarely.”
To make matters more interesting, adjusting to the public stage and crowd is the biggest change for MrRalleZ. “We have all been in the scene for quite a while, just not as ‘pros’. So we didn’t really have to adapt that much. The biggest change was just that we had to play on a stage in front of a lot of people, which we had to get used to.”
“I obviously feel more pressure when I'm playing on the stage, because a lot of people expect me to do well in every game,” he says. “But I’m not really nervous, because I’m very confident in myself in terms of playing League of Legends”
That pressure is only exacerbated when their teams are losing. “The hardest thing to overcome for us was having to change our mindset and accepting losses,” says YoungBuck. “Since we had no experiences with losing in the challenger scene taking losses was very hard for us to cope with in the early stages of the LCS.”
With both teams having struggled at different points in the season, they’ve had to find ways to deal with the disappointment of losing on the big stage, and work to improve their standings in the LCS.
How to Win
When they were climbing the ranks of the amateur scene, both the Wolves and Supa Hot Crew could rely a lot on their individual skill to take them to the top. Now, however, they’ve found themselves in a spot where individual skill won’t cut it. Now, they’ve got to work like a team. YoungBuck says they used to play the champions they felt comfortable with, but now feel more pressure to play what works in League’s current state. “We change the way we build our team the way the meta directs it, which right now is damage junglers with tanky top laners, wave clear mid lane and a strong early [bottom lane].” Their strategies reflect what works against other pros, as well. Their games feature “more split-pushing and slower paced games. Most likely this happens due to teams respecting each other a lot and not wanting to give comebacks as a result.”
MrRalleZ sees it differently as he thinks SHC was looking to the LCS for many of their strategies while they made their way there. “We should have pretty much the same strategies, because the challenger scene will look at the LCS and adapt to it.”
During their time as a Challenger team, they could sit back and wait to see what the pros did before changing their tactics. Now, that’s a bit different. “LCS teams have to play every week so we have to adapt a lot quicker to the new changes.”
Getting It Done
The focus on teamwork has really settled in with YoungBuck, who told us that in order to deal with some of the pressure of playing on the big stage he focuses on doing what it takes for his team to win. “I think it's less [pressure], but only because I have learned to deal with it better and better the more experience I got. Early in the LCS, for example, I felt a lot more pressure and the need to prove myself, whereas now I am 100% focused on getting the best result for my team.”
For now, that seems to be working for the Wolves and we'll see if SHC can bounce back after a disappointing Super Week.
Watch Supa Hot Crew go up against Millenium and Copenhagen Wolves face off against SK Gaming when the LCS comes back on March 20.