Showing posts with label NA LCS Expansion Tournament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NA LCS Expansion Tournament. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Support-Staff Heavy Enemy Esports Readies for Battle


by Josh C

Enemy eSports' League of Legends team was finalized less than two months ago; their support staff has been working with the team for less than a month, and their coach has been around for ten days. But even if their team and staff-building seems a bit rushed, it's paid off for Enemy, who may stand as a prime example of the third-wave 'support staff' world of today's eSports. Playing their debut match this weekend, the team showed up with a dominating 2-0 over opponent Noble Truth. Next week, they'll be facing one of the hardest opponents of the tournament: the mysterious Team Fusion - and they seem to be feeling confident about the encounter. I had the chance to reach out to Team Manager, Angel "Angel" Vigil, and Team Coach, Hussain "xDaku" Moosvi, to talk about the importance of support staff and their preparations for Enemy's hopeful road into the LCS.

Q: Angel, Enemy eSports picked up this team less than two months ago: How did you go from having nothing to hiring one of the most extensive support staffs in League of Legends?

Angel: The first month was entirely focused on getting the players, so I actually had less than two months to get the support staff ready. In fact, we started with a different coach which didn't pan out. Prior to NME, I haven't had to put together coaching team and support staff. Before, I had people who helped out, but no real coach. My initial thoughts were to get someone who had the most experience, and they could then hand that experience off to the players. I reached out to Nicholas "nubbypoohbear" Harlan, who had played under me for a year and a half. We had a lot of experience together and a friendship. But in the end, it didn't work out, because even though he had a lot of great knowledge, he wasn't really a coach. So when the team needed more than that, two weeks before the LCS Expansion Tournament, I brought in Hussain, who had reached out to me earlier with an interest in coaching for NME.

As for support staff, we had kept Brad Marx, our former analyst, but we had him and a dozen other applicants apply for head analysts position, and after a long interview process Brad was determined to be a better fit for the team. The knowledge and resources he provided really worked well with the team. Our Sports Psychologist we found on Reddit after he did an AMA--is that something I should be saying?--and he had specialized training to become a sports psychologist.


Q: Where did this inspiration come from? Most LCS teams have a sparse support staff; even Curse just hired a Sports Psychologist.

Angel: I've been managing teams since before the LCS even began, and I've had these ideas since the LCS at least. There was always things I thought teams should be doing once they have the profit to do so. They should build the team first, and with that comes the growth and the profit. Most teams focus on the profit first.

Farther along I want a nutritionist - I want them to be healthy. I have all these ideas I want to be implemented in the future. People who were in the LCS at first were inexperienced: they found five mechanical players who took little effort to maintain. As the LCS expanded, they needed more to become better. If you look at Korea and the infrastructure, the biggest difference between Korea and the Western scenes is infrastructure. The thing that sets us apart is that we don't just have strong players, but we also have the staff to support them and make them that much better.

Q: Hussain, how was it to come in with so little time before such an important tournament, and how has working with the support staff helped you in your new role?

Hussain: I got lucky, but in the past I've had analysts and two other support staff members working under me and experience on using their information to improve the play. When I came in with less than two weeks to go, the team had a lot of the base parts already in existence, compared to a lot of teams I've dealt with before. After watching the second scrim block I saw what clearly needed to be fixed. With the Sports Psychologist and Analysts I had a lot of information coming in, and this helped me see what I could go with. Talking with the players and seeing how scrims went, I was able to map out weekly strategies for growth. This allowed me to implement positive change very quickly.

Q: What did you and the team do to prepare for the LCS expansion tournament?

Hussain: I came in and completely changed how the team practiced. When I first started, I had a huge meeting with the players, analysts, and management. We mapped out what we’d be doing for the coming days and how we’d be going into the tournament. In the end, I restructured our entire way of practicing.

Q: What is the support staff doing to help this process?

Hussain: The team is made up of good players, but they've never really competed on this level of the expansion tournament. Even in challenger, you can’t just have a good team play and win it. Managing the players and guiding them a certain way is important - absolutely everything relies on the support staff right now. We have good players, but the support staff makes them perform like great players.

Angel: I just want to add on; five mechanical players are good, but five coachable players are better.

Hussain: The players have been very receptive to the coaching and support staff. They want to improve themselves, as individual players and as a team, so they are very coachable.


Q: Once/If you get into the LCS, what would you do to change your infrastructure to compete with top tier teams?

Angel: I’ve talked to a lot of LCS players and coaches and tthey've commented on how strong our support staff is. I wouldn't want to change much: maybe a little more structure as far as diet and sleep schedules go. Our scrims and practice routines are good, but I want to get Hussain into the house - I feel like that would help a lot. Give us a couple of months and we’ll be able to compete with LCS teams. We haven’t had a ton of time to develop the players, only two weeks, so we've been giving players crash courses to improve. So really the biggest thing will be allowing time for the support staff to make a real impact on them.

Hussain: A lot of the way we practice, in the way of scrimming and player management, was taken from LCS players and teams. Going into the LCS we’d be ahead of a lot of teams already just with the support staff we have.

Q: With your large support staff and team philosophy, how do you get the most out of a day of scrimming? How does all the information come together?

Hussain: When it comes to practicing, we plan out everything for the week and scrims before. Going into scrims we are all on the same page, which was the #1 philosophy when we made the practice schedule. We constantly keep in touch with everyone involved, and go back and forth on what the right direction of the team is. We make the right moves beforehand, that way everyone is on the same page, and we also keep in touch with management quite a bit, so we get a feel for what is best for the players. Our biggest goal is to make sure everything we do is done universally.

Angel: One thing I did when I was made team manager was to increase communication among different tiers of management. If everyone is involved it gets everyone emotionally invested in the team, which benefits the team itself. If we decide something on the coaching staff, I'll talk it over with the House Manager, Sean "Hadaka" Mulryan, and then we bring it to the general management. If a decision ever stops being made by us, another tier of management can come in and make educated decisions. Luckily, we rarely see a disagreement with upper management. The culture we built within Enemy has been positive: everyone feels like they are part of the team from myself, to the coaching, to the graphics artists, brand managers, etc. They feel like they are contributing and that creates a fun atmosphere without hindering professionalism.

Q: I know you can't talk about it that much, but what are you doing to prepare for the elusive Team Fusion match next Sunday?

Hussain: Without giving too much away: whatever Fusion has on Enemy is very different than what we are right now, even from what we practiced last week. I don't think they really have an edge on us. The best team will win that day and that's how it'll play out. It's not easy for them to scout us at the moment either. We have been preparing for Fusion, but we've also been preparing intensively for the teams beyond Fusion. We won't be happy with just a Fusion win.

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If Enemy eSports makes it through to the LCS, they may stand as proof that a strong support staff = a strong team. For more on what constitutes a great support staff, check out my post "The Support Staff of a Winning Team," and let me know your thoughts on the importance of support staff in the comments.

You can follow Enemy eSports on online at: Facebooktwittertheir website, and Azubu.TVThey are sponsored by Better Builds, West Coast Chill, Azubu.TV, and Neen.




Sunday, November 16, 2014

Expansion Tournament Sunday Preview: Fusion Continues to Successfully Hide from their Enemies.



by Jodi "PunkLit" McClure

The Expansion Tournament continues today with six fight-ready teams, but outside of some minor hype around tourney favorites, LolPro, today is really all about Team Fusion and its top laner, Korean stand-out and all around fun guy, Yoon "MakNooN" Ha-woon. MakNooN has won over American fans with his delightfully upbeat persona, and Fusion is a 'who's who' of LCS fan favs who have never reached their full potential. We love these guys. All of these guys! And it would be great to see them happy, but before I talk about the unusual particulars of their match, let's take a look at the rest of today's offerings.  

Starting out the day is Curse's Team LolPro vs Fission eSports. Lolpro is strong coming into this series, having destroyed all comers in the Black Monster Cup. Fission, on the other hand, can be inconsistent, one moment dismantling top teams like Coast, and the next losing to ladder unknowns. Lolpro 'should' make fast work of Azingy and his mates, but I wouldn't say Fission can't be dangerous. So long as Lolpro comes to play, a 2-0 here is probable.

The second offering of the day will be Enemy Esports vs Noble Truth. Another top contender, Enemy eSports finished second in the Black Monster Cup and have been looking very strong all season, fairly dominating ranked 5s with their 'The Cackson 5' moniker. Loaded with Challenger veterans, Enemy will undoubtedly have little trouble with relative newcomers, Noble Truth.

And finally, there is what would have been the dessert of this three course meal, but unfortunately, Team Confusion has already forfeited their match. The exact circumstances aren't really known yet, but MakNooN and Fusion have officially moved on to Round 2, and while this is good for Fusion, it is potentially disastrous for their next opponent. There are literally no VODS of Fusion playing as a team, and there's a ton of them out there for Enemy. Fusion has a strong support staff too, so there's no question they'll make use of this advantage, giving them a pretty glaring edge in next week's games. For fairness's sake, here's hoping that Enemy Esports can rise to the challenge.

Friday, November 14, 2014

NA LCS Expansion Tournament Preview


by Jodi McClure

If you've been suffering withdrawal from the NA LCS, relief is just around the corner. Starting today, NA challenger teams and the top seven finishers on the NA Ranked 5s ladder will be battling it out to occupy the two open slots in the new Ten Team LCS. Both veterans and unknowns alike will be competing during this weekends' Round 1 - which will be a Best of 3 Single Elimination series.

The tournament kicks off at 2:00pm est (7:00pm GMT) with a pretty even match-up between two middle-of-the-pack teams, Zenith eSports and Final Five. Final Five has some really good players, including LCS veteran, Rhux, but pseudo-newcomers Zenith managed to beat a strong Team 8 in the Black Monster Cup. Analysts seem to be giving the slight edge to Zenith, and if karma has anything to say about it, they'll be right. Not taking away from the rest of the team, but Final Five's AD Carry, Prototype White (aka Prototype Black), was a very toxic player and he doesn't deserve to win.

Today's second match-up is between the familiar down-home roster of compLexity White and relative unknowns, Monstar Kittenz. White is coL's ladder team offering, with a line-up full of recognizable names like Westrice, goldenglue and Kez, but there's a reason why these guys aren't still on their old teams. They were all underwhelming performance-wise (and lately getting stomped in ranked 5s) but they still have confidence and experience, and that alone could help them defeat the underdog Kittenz. Plus, Lohpally is a good shotcaller in the late game, and (unlike Black) they've got the added bonus of a coaching staff backing them up. Kittenz, unfortunately, have to sub out their top laner due to age, however...I wouldn't discount them altogether. They aren't a bad team, having placed 8th on the Ranked 5s ladder - and they certainly aren't the worst this tournament has to offer. White definitely needs to show up.

The final match-up of the evening is perhaps the most lop-sided of today's offerings. Fan favorite, Team Coast, who recently added EU pros Jesiz and Impaler to their roster, is by far the stronger team than their competitors, UCLA's Call Gaming, who barely made it into the tournament as it was. Even though Coast has been a little hit or miss as of late, this should be an easy 2-0 for them.

While not in the LCS studios, the tournament will be streamed live over lolesports.com with shoutcaster teams Zirene and PiraTechnics and EGAD and Azumoh. The Tournament Bracket graphic and a listing of the Team Rosters can be found here.

The tournament continues on Sunday with three more match-ups, including a team that's received more buzz than any of the others. Be sure to keep an eye on LCS FanZone this evening for Sunday's Expansion Tournament preview!


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