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The EU LCS has seen several differences to their previous seasons. A lot of new faces, increase in total teams and a lot of new talent amongst teams ensured for an exciting season. While some of the newer teams definitely delivered in terms of the entertainment and performance, other seasoned teams failed to live up to their expectations.
As difficult as it were to predict how well certain teams were going to play during the EULCS, some teams were already gunning it to claim the spot as the best team in Europe even before the season started. Teams such as Elements, Roccat and even SK had managed to acquire players who would be considered upgrades to their former members. With several teams improving in overall strength, how could a season with many "star" names be disappointing?
Acquiring slightly better players doesn't guarantee better results, especially if the issues that held you back from being an even better team are not addressed. This is the case of Martin "Rekkles" Larsson's transition to the formerly named team Alliance (now called Elements). Coming in as a substitute of Erik "Tabzz" van Helvert (who was a contender with Rekkles for the title of best AD Carry in the Summer Split of 2014), Rekkles had found many of the same issues that were haunting him during his time on Fnatic. Unorganised preparations, dysfunctional communication, and an overall misunderstanding amongst players lead the team to not only a disappointing start to the 2015 spring season, but ended up persisting till the end of the split, denying them the opportunity to play in the 2015 spring playoffs. It didn't matter how well the players got along when the core of their problems were not addressed. The departure of former coach, Jordan "Leviathan" Thwaites, left a gap in the team's management that wasn't properly filled.
Players inconsistencies are quite possibly the biggest hinderence to a team with the caliber of players such as those on Elements. The World championships in Seoul, South Korea, showed us exactly how much this issue can affect a team. Alliance had simultaneously one of the best performances of their lives against Najin White Shield, but later fell victim to international wildcard team, KaBuM e-sports. In particular , the jungler for Alliance, Ilyas "Shook" Hartsema, was guilty of being such an inconsistent member. Shook has either hard carried the team by himself, or been completely irrelevant regardless of whether his team won or lost.
As weeks progressed, Elements' issues in the drafting phase and shot calling got more and more exposed. You could read their pick ban phase like an open book. Let Froggen farm, give Rekkles a safe lane pushing AD Carry, play for late. Ironically enough, their issues were never truly with the approach they took to this very skirmish heavy league. Their issues were with the execution, making very basic level mistakes in timings that would often leave them with a deficit from which they never understood how to come back from. Not rotating to defend/siege an objective, not sending the jungler to the top lane who is getting repeatedly dove, invading buffs on the side of the map without team support and simply getting caught when going to ward has made this team lose many games throughout the regular season. There was no sugar coating the situation; Elements had piss poor communication amongst its members and it showed. Mid way through the season, Elements drafted Mitch "Krepo" Voorspoels to their roster, in hopes to improve their terrible communication and from what we heard, it started well. However the inconsistency issues remained and, ultimately, Elements failed to deliver.
In all honesty, I don't know where to put ROCCAT at the moment. ROCCAT had quite possibly the best performing jungler in EU during the 2014 summer split LCS and one of the best supports in the league. On top of these very solid players, Roccat added Pawel "Woolite" Pruski to their line up who, during his time on the Copenhagen Wolves, demonstrated that he had nothing to envy from his peers. If that wasn't enough, Erlend "Nukeduck" Våtevik Holm also joined ROCCAT in the mid lane. Nukeduck was a very good assassin player who rose to the top of the EU LCS during the summer of 2013, but had gotten banned (for his toxic behaviour on the rift) from all Riot events for the remainder of 2014.
There were still question marks surrounding Nukeduck's current form and whether or not he'd be able to adapt to the team. Early on in the season, this was often the excuse as to why this line up filled with potential was not living up to any expectations what so ever. Nukeduck's champion pool had been proven to be very shallow by several teams deciding to ban many of his favored champions. If that wasn't enough, Woolite was continuously getting caught out in overly aggressive positions. These 2 players underperforming created a domino effect on the rest of the members of ROCCAT. Without the freedom to roam, Oskar "Vander" Bogdan found himself glued to the bottom lane in attempts to keep his AD Carry as safe as possible, while the lack of synergy and pressure from mid lead the king of first bloods of 2014 summer split - Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski to have very little impact in several games.
The dreadful icing on this horribly baked cake was the fact that their current top laner, Remigiusz "Overpower" Pusch, never truly made a clean transition from playing in the mid lane to playing in the top lane. The champions he was taking to the top lane were.... Odd to say the least, and would occasionally not even fit the team composition ROCCAT were willing to run.
It seemed as if ROCCAT themselves were unable to identify their issues. I personally do not know how much of these issues can be attributed to the coaching staff, but it seemed as if the players had no guidance on how to tackle their problems as a team. As much as players try to deny it, they are narrow minded in their approach to games. It takes a person with a different perspective that the players have whilst playing for them to be able to understand the bigger picture. We can only hope that their new coach Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi will bring in a much needed breath of fresh air for the team.
This season of EULCS is the first season where having a coach on the team actually has meaning. Up until now, most of the coaches in the EU scene were merely an extension of the analyst role that many teams already had acquired services of. This kept the main issue with a team intact -- the fact that players under the age of 23 were in charge of a team, which under no circumstance should be the case with how far League of legends has developed. Players are players; their focus should always be on playing the game to the best of their capabilities. Having management level decisions resting on shoulders of these young players places unnecessary stress on them which could ultimately affect their gameplay. You do not need more evidence than what the EU LCS has shown you throughout this split. Louis "Deilor" Sevilla helped Fnatic understand each other as players, Neil "Pr0lly" Hammad helped a fairly lost h2k find its identity as a team, Karl "dentist" Krey took a group of average players and aided them to understand their weaknesses and play around them.
Coaches are not just helpful, they are an integral part of the team. It's their responsibility to remove all burdens from the players, have them focus entirely on the games and help them cope with the frustrations of playing this game and adapting to changes in the meta.
Screenshots courtesy of dailydot, lolesports and riot games.
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