Pick 6: Nick “Inero” Smith

Nick “Inero” Smith is one of the greatest coaching minds to grace the Oceanic landscape. In Jake “Spawn” Tiberi’s Pick 6 interview, he called Inero “the one that got away”.

After a brief stint at Tainted Minds showing some initial promise in his short stay, to then move into the NALCS with Echo Fox, he currently finds himself in 1st place at the half-way point of the split. He talked to us about his journey from the OPL to the top of the NALCS.

It was a bit of a weird one. I was recommend by a player for an opportunity at Echo Fox that had opened up right after I was cleared from the Tainted Minds situation. It was very last minute, and I had to say quick goodbyes to a lot of people that I cared about in Australia, but I knew I couldn’t turn down working for Echo Fox. Although I was originally just brought on board to work with the NACS team, the teams were merged and I was put in as one of the coaches for the LCS team about a week or so before the start of the split.

I really don’t know what to say to help people get started with becoming a coach. It’s something I just stumbled into and I’m constantly learning how I can improve and make myself better at it. Networking and building your brand are two huge things for actually finding a job in the scene with the way it is right now. Also, being open minded and humble will help you grow as a coach. I see a lot of people come in and get huge egos after a bit of success in whatever league they’re in and that usually doesn’t bode well for them. Realizing that you’re not this wild mastermind coach, and that you have even more room for growth than a player does, is extremely important.

Rick is amazing, really. You run into a few people in life that are able to just steal everyone’s attention with the way they speak and the words they say, and Rick is one of them. Whenever he has these sit-down talks with players/staff, you can tell his heart is really invested in everything he’s telling you and it makes it so easy to get on board with what he’s saying. Being that type of mentor for a younger generation of coaches and players is something that I one day hope to be.

Our staff’s approach to the scouting/recruitment part of the off-season paid off heavily. We managed to get an incredibly talented group of guys that all had a similar mindset, and that really carries everything. We had a few different roster scenarios that could have played out, but we placed a large amount of importance on how well the personalities and desires of everyone would mesh. With how our practice has gone, and the success we’ve seen, I think it’s pretty fair to say our assessment of this group of guys was correct. Huni, Dardoch, Fenix, Altec, and Adrian are all great to work with and they truly deserve the success they’re seeing so far.

The reason we looked at Oceanic players in the off-season was really just to gauge the strength of the region’s players as a whole by bringing over a few guys we knew were good. We reached out to a few teams to get their boys to come over, but Legacy were the only ones to get back to us. I didn’t have contacts or a real good grasp on what players in other wildcard regions were like, so OCE was the easiest target for me. In esports like CSGO and COD, you see players from countries like Brazil and Australia find a lot more success internationally than you do in League of Legends. There are definitely players in those regions that could compete in the LCS someday, but it’s really hard to break in and get a chance here. I’m very hopeful that the franchised league will make opportunities for those players more available in the future, but it’ll take some time.

Ok I’m gonna include a runner up in each position too because it’s really hard to say with a lot of the guys, but it’s usually clear who the top 2 are. I’m also omitting all my old teammates because I’m biased…