Interview – Snowball Esports [Legacy]

Pick 6: Nick “Inero” Smith

Andrew Wray — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 01:00:30 +0000

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.

How does someone go from OPL head coach to becoming the head coach for the LCS? Take us through that journey.

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.

A lot of people would consider themselves League of Legends experts. If they want to get into coaching, what advice could you give to get started?

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.

What is it like working under Rick Fox, how influential has he been for you as a coach?

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.

You're having a great split so far, what do you attribute to this success to?

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.

You currently have Lost on Echo Fox's Academy team and coached Tally over the break, what is it about Oceanic players that catch your eye?

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.

If you had to Pick 6 players who have ever played OPL with the goals of competing in the NALCS, who is in your squad?

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…

Coach: Aaron “ChuChuZ” Bland

Aaron is the smartest individual in the whole world and there’s nothing he does not know and also I love Penny.

Top: Tally

Runner up – Chippys

This one is really a toss up for me between him and Chippys. I think Chippys is an amazing player in OCE and I’m sure he could compete in NALCS easily. I hope he finds his way over soon too. I just know more about Tally outside of the game and how he approaches learning and improving, and I know he’d grow a lot as a player with stronger people to practice against every week.

Jungle – Shernfire

Runner up – Only

He’s the most dominant jungler in OCE. I don’t think anyone else is able to really match him consistently over there. I’m hopeful that Only will keep getting better and be able to match him someday.

Mid – Phantiks

Runner up – Swiffer

He’s nuts, man. I wish he kept up with playing. Him and Swiffer both could come over to NALCS and keep up with everyone there.

ADC – Lost

Runner up – K1ng

I mean, I already brought Lawrence over. I’ve never met someone with a mentality as good as his. I have no doubt in my mind that Lawrence will compete in the NALCS some day. K1ng and FBI are the next two that would be on my list, but I haven’t paid much attention to ADC there recently. K1ng just has more experience so I’d go with him.

Support – EGym

Runner up – Destiny

Imagine being Bryce “EGym” Paule and stopping the success train just to hang out with Spawn all day. I actually contacted Frank when I was in Mousesports to try and import Bryce over to there for the EUCS. They came over for a bootcamp and I was pretty impressed by him. I guess now he’ll just be the next guy to leave OCE for a big casting job instead. Other than him, I also thought Destiny and Cupcake were great.

Catch Inero’s Echo Fox in the NALCS face off against TSM this Sunday 25th at 11:00am AEDT on Twitch.

Follow Nick on Twitter @inerolol

Images courtesy of Riot Games/NALCS

Pick 6: Brandon “Claire” Nguyen

Andrew Wray — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 02:38:41 +0000

Pick 6 is our interview series where we ask a personality 6 questions relating to their experiences in esports.

This week I had the pleasure of talking with Brandon “Claire” Nguyen. Despite being a veteran to the region, Claire has only participated in the OPL for just over a year, and his full-time OPL debut in 2017 was highly anticipated. I was able to pick Claire’s brain on why he came back to the region, his experiences in Japan as well as his new role as Legacy’s Captain.

This year has seen you take the captaincy for Legacy, how has this transition been for you?

This year I’ve been much more vocal inside and outside of game. This is mostly because I gained a lot of experience from last year and I’ve used that to help the team out and tell them what to do in real life and in-game. Because of this, I was given the role of captain rather than me fulfilling the role as a captain after having been assigned it. The transition has been easy and I already felt the need to be a leading figure coming into 2018 with this new roster, it feels like it comes naturally.

How have you found being apart of a brand new roster this year?

Last year I was apart of pretty much a brand new roster and it was a refreshing feeling to have a clean slate and to learn how to play the game as a cohesive unit from the ground up. This year, I’m just repeating the process with a bunch of new and even less experienced players. It definitely has its upsides and downsides but I think in time we will be a roster capable of great heights.

How has Adelaide Football Club being involved with Legacy improved you as a player?

The AFC have helped bring Legacy up to a higher standard of performance and this means that we have much more out-of-game support than we did when we were just Legacy. We’ve moved to a new gaming house so that we can have better quality of life, we’ve been given more contacts and people to talk to in case we need support and there’s definitely going to be more improvements made over the year in regards to training and boot camping.

For the fans that might not been aware, you spent some time in Japan playing competitively, what was that like?

My experience in Japan was mostly positive, before I left Australia to go play there I definitely had my worries about whether or not this would be good for my league career and me as a person. I ended up going because even if I didn’t have a good time as a professional player, it would be an invaluable life experience. I ended up enjoying my time there and I had a lot of fun crushing the challenger series. The food was great, the country was great, playing Korean solo queue as well as competitive matches against a bunch of players I’d never played against before was amazing. I’d like to go overseas again to play in the future.

Were you ever considering staying in Japan instead of coming back home?

Towards the end of 2016, when I was starting to get offers from OPL teams, I was having a rough time deciding whether or not to stay in Japan. OPL in 2016 was purely online except for the LAN finals, so when I heard that OPL was moving to a LAN format as well as every team getting gaming houses and salaries going up across the region I was extremely interested to return home and play with the new knowledge I’d gained playing overseas. All of these factors led me to want to play in OCE again. (as well as the crushing defeat in the promotion tournament)

If you were to build a team around yourself with players you’ve played with or against in Oceania and Japan, what does your dream team look like?

In my opinion a dream team to build around me would probably look like:

I feel like Mimic has the highest potential as a top laner that I’ve played with and against so far.

Shernfire is the jungler I respect the most that doesn’t play in major regions.

Lost is the best mechanical ADC and least mistake making player I’ve ever played with.

Rogue for me is an extremely talented mechanical support and I think with this lineup that is what we’d need from our support player.

Watch Claire and the rest of Legacy take on Avant Garde and Tectonic this weekend in the OPL, you can follow his journey on his twitter @ClaireOCE.

Who would you like to see interviewed for Pick 6? Let us know on twitter @snowballesports.

Images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL

Pick 6: Jake “Spawn” Tiberi

Andrew Wray — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 03:00:58 +0000

There aren’t many people in the region that have had the experiences like Jake “Spawn” Tiberi has whilst well known, even at a global level for his casting talents, he has held numerous positions in the Oceanic region some of which include:

Coach of the Chiefs
OPL and LPL colour caster which includes being involved in the Worlds Finals coverage
LPL Product Lead
Head of League Infrastructure (OPL)
GM of ORDER

I’ve been fortunate enough to interview Spawn about his experiences as a professional in the Oceanic Esports landscape and how he has been so successful and adaptive in these roles.

Read the full interview below!

Firstly – I’m sure you get this question a lot but to all the aspiring readers out there who want to get involved in esports, how can they?

This is a question that I always find difficult to answer, as it’s like saying how do I get into a job. Really there are so many different roles an esports organization requires. They need administrators, sales people for sponsorship, players, coaches, support staff, social media, and artists so really my advice is find something you are really passionate about and then try to figure out how it relates to esports. Make yourself useful and find people that need that skill then keep doing it. If you are good and your skill is needed you will get a role and can turn it into a job.

While casting has been your mainstay, you’ve also been involved in a lot of other roles in esports, how does this come about?

Before I was a shout caster I worked in an admin role within insurance. From there I managed people within the same role, before also managing an offshore team. I also was always interested in money and numbers, and therefore when I was doing my DFP (Diploma of Financial Planning), I started to take a keen interest in sales roles within the company. I think this made me very well rounded and kind of a jack of all trades.

When I joined Riot it was to actually level up the other casters as a manager, I got very lucky that I had a talented group, but I think that I was quite successful at this. Later they needed someone with an administrative mind that could plan out the long-term strategy of the league, and this was a role I was well-suited to do. Riot is pretty flexible to allow you to work where you want. Now I am a GM, a job I have wanted to do since I first played video games, I get to help out on all areas of the team and I am in charge of performance overall it’s a pretty good fit for me. Obviously I have loved casting, however it has never really been the main thing I do, so while I do still cast (pretty well at times I hope) I am more passionate about the behind the scenes work.

Oceania has produced an incredible amount of broadcast talent, what do you attribute this to?

This is a tough one, so let’s go through the people we have sent overseas I guess:

Pastrytime, Papasmithy and Atlus: These three I cannot claim any part to their success they were amazing before I met them and continue to be elite in the field. These three are the trailblazers that probably made it possible for the next wave.

Rusty, Dom, Froskurinn, Raz, Fish, Pulse, Myself. I think the success of this team was the diversity we had within it. We all had covered multiple regions, most of us had played or coached, and we all were incredibly passionate. I think we saw ourselves as the second tier of casters from a second tier region which meant if we didn’t work twice as hard as everyone else we would fail. It meant that we worked our asses off. We also had raw number of games on our side. I think at one point we had 4 bo3 for the OPL and 10 bo3 for the LPL in a week. It meant that we got to play and experiment a lot with our craft.

You left what some would consider a safe position at Riot Games Oceania, was this a hard decision? How did you get involved with ORDER?

Honestly the decision had nothing to do with work at all. Jenna and I were expecting Jasper to arrive in November, and Sydney was never home. The decision was either figure out how to move Riot to Melbourne, or to leave. Whilst I love my work, I love the rest of my life more, so it was a no brainer for me. I was lucky enough that Riot was happy for me to fly in fly out as a freelancer to cast but regardless I was always going to be in Melbourne.

I talked to a tonne of people as I was leaving, from AFL teams, to current owners and was lucky enough to be put in touch with Gerard (Murphy, owner of ORDER). Once I’d left he sat me down and told me the vision of the team. I am a sucker for Melbourne, its culture, the lifestyle, the sports; really the state is everything I love. So I agreed to come on board and try to help him build it. We have been very lucky, we have the top CS:GO team in the region going to IEM Katowice, and a very good League of Legends outfit that I am obviously very excited about but we also worked hard to make sure we are ready when opportunities present themselves.

You’re now based in Melbourne, why?

It’s all about the coffee! Really I couldn’t stand dirt water that Sydney sells for $4.50 any longer. But honestly Melbourne is home, I’m a sentimental guy and this is where Jenna and I wanted to have a family.

You’ve covered the OPL for a long time, if you had to create your OCE All-time All-stars, who would it feature?

I love this question. I have covered the OPL for as long as there has been an OPL and it’s a really tough one to answer.

Coach: Nick “Inero” Smith

The one that got away, I only got to meet and talk to Inero for a few months before he went back to the states but by far and away the best mind OCE esports has ever had, big loss for the region he left.

Top: Richard “Phantiks” Su

The most dominating top laner we have ever seen. 2015 Dire Wolves were so close to taking down The Chiefs at their pinnacle and most of that was based on how good he was top. Sure, he is a legendary mid too but I was always a fan of Perfection.

Jungle: Sam “Spookz” Broadley

He has more titles than anyone in the league. He at his best is the most dominant jungler and he’s a leader. I think Sam is slept on in the OPL (maybe my fault as I meme him a lot) but we saw in the gauntlet run how good he is still. Even with Shern now starting to dominate the OPL for the last year, Sam’s legacy and ability to still take over a game makes him the choice here.

Mid: Simon “Swiffer” Papamarkos

I always say that Swiffer is the best player OCE has produced and I still think so. In his prime in 2015 he was untouchable. Still a classy player now I think he has a few years left in him ?

ADC: Derek “Raydere” Trang

Derek was the best ADC in the region, the best player for 2013 / 2014, studied full-time, hit the gym and was an all-round good guy. This is an undisputed player on my list.

Support: Bryce “EGym” Paule

Bryce who now casts with me is the no brainer for this role. 2014/2015/2016 (NADA not included) he was the support player. Unrivaled in his role, he is a large part of both Legacy and The Chiefs success. He also probably retired a year too early as somehow I still think he has some KM’s in the tank.

Sub: Shern “Shernfire” Tai

The man who killed the kings. Shern’s entrance into the OPL has shaken the scene to its core. The perfect foil of all the good guys in the scenes, Shern and the Dire Wolves were able to win back to titles and look pretty damn good still. Only having spent two splits in the OPL it is hard to make the starting five, but he’s earned the sub spot.

We’d like to thank Jake for his time and for everything he’s done and continues to do for Oceanic esports. You can find him on twitter @spawnlol – or his Facebook fan page, or casting the OPL every weekend from 2PM AEDT on twitch.tv/opl