By Jonathan “Westrice” Nguyen of Complexity Gaming
Hello, Westrice here! As you all may know, we got promoted into the NA LCS in April and we’ve been playing in it for about 5 weeks now. At the time of writing our record is currently 4-9, and we’re not too happy about it since it puts us in a three-way tie for last place. This is a very tough split, all the teams are extremely good and even EG just picked up a new jungler and have been showing improvement. Coming into this split, I was expecting extremely hard games from every team because almost all the players are competent. We’re going to need to step it up if we want to avoid relegations.
Anyways, I’m not here to talk about our games. You all know we’ve been considered as the “blue turtle shell” because we’ve mainly taken games off the leading teams, but other than that, I want to talk about what it’s like to play in the NA LCS. First of all, it’s a crazy experience. I’ve been around in the scene for a while, but my first time playing in the LCS is a lot different. You feel at home every time you walk into the studio, into the room, and set up on your personal Riot-provided computer. Riot gives me anything I need or ask for within reason, and it’s great. They really treat their players well.
My favorite part of playing in the NA LCS are the fans. I love winning games and going outside to interact with the fans who want to meet you. You feel like an inspiration to many people when they ask for a picture or your autograph and it puts a smile on my face. Worst part about the NA LCS is, obviously losing. When you lose a match, you feel awful and don’t feel like meeting fans sometimes. Occasionally I would go out to meet the fans anyways, but if I play terrible I just feel ashamed and just want to go back into the room and analyze the game. But either way, I love the fans that come out and watch even if it isn’t for me because they are a HUGE part of expanding eSports and making it bigger in the future.
I want to play well and I want my team to play well. I want to win as much as I can so I can relive this experience and play in the next split. I don’t want the dream to end because everyone on this team has worked hard to be here and we want to prove that we’re still easily a top 8 team in North America. There’s a lot to improve on but I feel like we’re headed in the right direction. I see a bright future.
Follow Jonathan on Twitter @coL_Westrice