Avant Gaming out to break fifth place curse as OPL playoffs loom

The number four has a bad reputation. In Chinese culture, it is considered to be unlucky. In Christianity, there are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the Olympics, fourth place is quickly forgotten. And I wish I could forget the fourth Indiana Jones film. But one team who would take issue with my bias assessment of the number four is Avant Gaming.

Unofficially labeled the perennial fifth place team, Avant has finished fifth in the last three OPL splits (and fifth in all but two OPL splits ever). They have lost every one of their gauntlet matches during the fifth game, and currently sit fifth on the OPL leaderboard. With two new players, a new training space, and a solid work ethic, Avant’s unwanted relationship with the number five is one they are working hard to erase.

Earlier this week, I chatted with Jackson “Pabu” Pavone and Jayke “Jayke” Paulsen from Avant Gaming to find out how they feel about this OPL split, and why turning to the Darkside will help them fight the fifth element.

Pabu: I don’t have any explicit results-based goals for myself as a person or as a player. My goals are process oriented, more aligned with “being the best version of myself that I can be”. No matter where I place, I’m not going to be satisfied. The team wants to improve, as always; anything 5th or below is a failure. We have the players to compete with everyone.
Jayke: My goal, as with every split, is to place first… and have the opportunity to play in an international event. I’d like to hope that my teammates had similar goals to mine. Hahaha.

Jayke: As with every addition to a team, they have both offered new and interesting perspectives on problems that we have faced in the past and new ones that arise in our training. Aside from new ways to tackle problems, they are both mechanical upgrades to their predecessors which allow for more opportunities to be taken advantage of in game.
Pabu: Praelus brings a fun loving attitude and a lovely spirit to our practice and gameplay. His vigor and energy really do bring our gameplay to the next level. Darkside is suave and has a smooth voice, and is real good at clicking his buttons… More seriously, they’re just strong players with open minds that are very malleable in their play and easy to work with. In their top form, they can both contest the top players of their roles, and allow us to have a solid chance against anyone in Oceania.

Jayke: Not really. I think people highly over rate synergy a lot of the time. If you have two really strong players together who are playing without as much communication or “synergy”, they will usually beat an opposing lane with average players who might have better communication because the better players usually see more opportunities and openings to attack.

Jayke: The office space provided to us by Avant and Bastion has been an amazing upgrade from the previous 18 months strictly playing and living in gaming houses.
Pabu: The new office provides a separation of work and life, which I believe to be very important in maintaining a serious work space and a joyful life outside of work.
Jayke: It’s nice to be able to have a super clean and professional environment to scrim and play solo queue out of, which doesn’t have someone’s bedroom 5 meters away.
Pabu: And the people at the office are lovely and friendly, and they also bring their dogs to the office (probably the best part to be honest).
Jayke: The only drawback from our office is that it requires a bit of travel time each day so we don’t have as much free time as we’d like.

Jayke: Other people may see it as a curse, but we see it as being right where we want to be… Jokes aside, we’ve taken up triple blocking scrims for the remainder of the split in an attempt to secure our gauntlet placing. There’s no room for rest after our unacceptable loss against Mammoth last week.
Pabu: Look, I’ve only done it once but I’m already sick of placing fifth. Every week, we look at the standings and the schedule, make our estimations, and make sure that the end result of our games will end up with us placing either fourth or sixth… Not going to place 5th again. Every point means the world to us, and we’re practicing as hard as we can to make sure we can take every single point we can.

Jayke: I’ve had a lot of big games (3 best of 5 gauntlet losses for 5th place) that definitely didn’t pan out the way I or the team had hoped they would. I usually go to the gym and get straight back into practice the next day, and try to remain neutral on the things I thought went wrong in the games that caused us to lose, until we review the games as a team. I think the biggest problem most people have is becoming too emotional about what they think happened- it’s usually something completely different once they investigate it a little more.

Pabu: Jyles, our brilliant Creative Director, is Avant’s greatest asset. The man is a social media genius and is absolutely incredible at building a brand and furthering one’s reach. I’d consider him crucial to the success of both Avant as an organisation and the individual players.
Jayke: Definitely Jyles – he has always done a great job! He comes up with different ideas and knows exactly how he wants to execute them. It’s nice to be able to share video pieces and updates about how I’m doing with people like my Grandparent’s back home in Victoria.

Pabu: ‘Pabu’ is the animal companion of one of the main characters from The Legend of Korra. He’s a little cheeky fire ferret, that I named myself after for one tournament. We did well, and everyone started calling me Pabu, so it stuck. I’ve had a few others gamer tags in the past, but people started calling me Pabu… so it was sort of chosen for me.
Jayke: I’m really not creative with naming in games. Even in MMO’s I have pretty generic names because I don’t want to get tied down to something weird.

Jayke: We have an ice cream sponsor- everyone likes ice cream! Also, the fact that we are pretty consistent with our content and interviews means that people can get closer to our players than most other teams in the league.
Pabu: And Avant is by far the best looking team in the OPL. Between Jayke’s glorious beard, Leon’s stunning jawline, Jordan’s dazzling smile and Alex’s handsome visage, there are enough pretty faces to make up for my lack of redeeming features.

Pabu: My hair itself doesn’t really do anything… but it’s a powerful placebo. Look good feel good, they say. I want to look my best on OPL days – it helps me feel like I’m ready to play at my best, so I dress… not exactly formally, but just in clothes I like. The hair helps me feel like I’m looking good.

Pabu: I’ve had to learn a lot of lessons over the years, but something I wish I had of learnt early on is that the only person I can blame is myself. Admittedly, once you get on the rift, you can only control your character, but being a pro is more than just how you click. It’s how you critique yourself, it’s how you critique your teammates, it’s how you bring them up and level them out. You can’t blame anyone else for your lack of success – you can always do more, and help others more. Take more upon yourself, bring the others up around you, and you’ll find success.

Jayke: Don’t think things that you do are good just because they work. Always rewatch things and think about what your enemy should have done differently. If your play would have worked if your opponent had played optimally, then you know it was the right play.

Pabu: There are a lot of people around me who help bring me up. However, the best help I have received is from my mum and sister. They send me pictures of my doggo back in Melbourne.
Jayke: I’d like to thank my mother and my friends for their support over the past 18 months. They’ve stuck by me. Even when I have only focussed on playing League of Legends and haven’t responded to messages, they’re always there when I do need to talk to someone.