How are you doing right now? How are you spending the offseason?
I'm missing League and I'd like to play competitively again. If I'm honest, the break is a bit too long for me right now. During the offseason I've focused on healthier routines: I meditate daily, hit the gym every day, and do things that are good for me. Of course I still play some SoloQ and watch VODs.
Describe your Spring Split in three words and briefly explain your choices.
Discipline, because I wish we had more discipline and would follow through on and stick with things.
Confusion, because so much was swapped around and mixed up. We changed a lot during the split (voice comms, gameplay, champion pool, …). This feeling of confusion wasn't just mine—the other players felt it too.
Hope, because in some games I saw that we can play really well and hopefully we can carry that over in summer.
The split didn't go as expected at all. How did you personally handle how it played out?
It was tough. I got a lot of messages, but I don't want to let that bring me down. I definitely want to keep giving it my all and I believe there's a lot you can learn from the split, especially things I could have done better personally. I've learned things I can take into summer and grow from.
At times you played really well. At the end of those matches the camera showed how much it meant to you. What was going through your head?
What went through my head was the expectation of a good performance that was fulfilled in that moment. That's what we showed in scrims in December. That's what I love about the game. It's not about thoughts like "we're going to win the league now" or "we're going to win this and that." I could also lose with a positive feeling in a game where we take something away, learn from it, and played good League of Legends. Sometimes there were games where I felt we could really play good League. That pushed me. Then another bad game came along and that feeling was gone. I think that also contributed to the confusion I mentioned earlier.
Many people probably think you'll train even harder for the next split. But was/is training really the reason for how things went? What specifically needs to be done better?
You have to be more honest and follow through on things more strictly in training. You can't change things too quickly and throw them out. Just play League of Legends. Of course the vibe wasn't so good anymore either after we lost so much in official matches.
What are you setting out to do in the coming months and where do you see yourself and the team?
I want us to improve on the things in summer and for all of us to work hard on that. We need more consistency. I personally will give even more in summer than I did in the Spring Split.