‘Catching Up’ with LS

Last week, LoL team Supa Hot Crew added a new analyst - Nick ‘LS’ Cesare. He has quite the interesting past in pro gaming - from living in the Samsung house in Korea playing Brood War, SC II and many other games. Let’’s catch up with him to see where he’s at.

What made you make the switch from StarCraft to League of Legends, and what spurred your interest in the game?

Around the Summer of 2012, I was living with what was MVP Blue, Red and White at the time. I was still playing StarCraft II but my passion for it was fading off. That was partly due to the fact that nothing was really coming to fruition and I was getting really depressed with the game and I didn't like the direction the game was going. On top of that, StarCraft II was extremely top heavy in Korea and I just wasn’t doing very well. I was having to worry with finances and all these other burdens that were going on, and eventually my time for playing was just getting cut shorter and shorter due to depression and other stuff going on.

One day, imp, who sat kind of close to me in the house was duo queueing with someone named Kelly Rahee, who wanted to play with us three. I was completely against it at first but he eventually talked me into it and so I started League on that day. He made me an ID and my first champion was Mordekaiser. So, I was playing the game, and I remember being the biggest idiot on the planet. I remember feeling like I was playing World of Warcraft meets some really messed up custom StarCraft II or Warcraft 3 mod. I remember thinking, “I’m level ten and he’s level nine so I’m better.” I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, it was my first MOBA ever. So I played that for a little bit then I just stopped.

Two months later, I was bored, so I started it up again because everyone in the house was playing it. At this point, I wasn’t even playing StarCraft II anymore because there was so much going on with me at the time. I got an account to 30 but I absolutely hated the game. I hated the team aspect, I hated five people versus five people, it was awkward to communicate. I couldn't speak Korean back then and I was playing on the Korean serve - it was terrible. I didn’t know all of the champions, I remember feeling like I was in Pokemon. It was like Pokemon meets World of Warcraft to me, I don’t even know how to describe it. So I stopped again, and that was basically my relationship with League - on and off.

Eventually, I started playing it one day when I got helped from a player named Molly. I remember drilling her with questions because she was much greater than me and she had a lot of insight and a lot of knowledge of the game. I give her a lot of credit for basically enabling me to become the player that I became to be or have come to be. A lot of the reason I approach my coaching the way that I do and the way that I view the game is a lot because of her. Obviously I pulled from my past experiences in StarCraft, Magic, playing Smash competitively. Every game has its things to add, skills translate over. So, with that being said, I had this epiphany one day that I was only playing very limited champions. I was playing Mordekaiser, Teemo, Evelynn and Twisted Fate. I would see people playing these champions that I absolutely despised. Then I came to this realization when I was watching other pros in the house like DanDy, imp, Valentine would play these champions that I hated but they had passion behind them and they loved those champions.

I came to a realization that these players could bring these champions to a level that I would personally never be able to, because I lacked the passion and love for the role or that champion. So when I came to that realization, I found art and beauty in knowing that when five people come together that share similar passion and similar interest, it’s not actually a five-person game. It’s a one-person game. It’s a team game, but the people are irrelevant. And that to me was just art. That’s when I made my transition to LoL and thats when I fell in love with LoL. Now I would say that I have a passion for LoL that has only ever been rivaled by my passion for StarCraft I.

That was my entrance into LoL. I played it on and off after I hit 30. I officially full on started LoL after I stopped HearthStone which was in late November 2013.

What do you carry over from StarCraft that you can carry over to League of Legends in a coaching sense? What have you learned about being a pro gaming that you plan to apply with Supa Hot Crew?

Things that I have applied from StarCraft II to League of Legends is geometrical-based tactics. I can actually compare Terran timing attacks on a Protoss’ third to split pushing, because they apply similar game theory and similar strategic mechanics. So there were things that I was pulling from StarCraft and applying to League that were just working. Not only were they working, but I was also seeing them in pro play. On top of that, there was a lot of things in StarCraft and in League that translate over to each other, in terms of positioning and timing and micromanagement - all of these little nuance things that you wouldn’t think exist in both games.

There are also things from other games that I have played, like chess and even card games, that are actually even things that can apply to League of Legends and, in retrospect, StarCraft. It all comes down to mathematical, geometrical and overall game theory, like timing, synergies and components.

How did you get approached by Supa Hot Crew? A lot of analysts or coaches are former players or friends of players, but you’ve only really been dedicated to the game since November or December. Was it them seeing your analysis videos, or you reaching out to them?

What basically happened with me and League was that I was playing it full time from November. When I came back from America, since I was really sick there with my lung disease, I was playing Heroes of the Storm since that game just came out. Then, there were a few people messaging me in my Heroes stream for League of Legends coaching. I decided for the first time ever that I would publicly show my coaching, because I had always done it privately. In StarCraft II, I never allowed anything to be uploaded and never recorded VODs. I just figured, “What the hell.”. Scarlett suggested that I upload them to YouTube, and then it just kind of blew up. Then a few weeks ago, I got a message from the manager of SHC saying that he wanted to talk to me about doing an analyst/coaching job. I was kind of shocked at the message. We talked for a little while and I ended up talking with the team. That’s how it all started. There were other teams that had approached me. Two Oceania teams had approached me, an NA team that approached me an a EU team that wasn’t really that known but I ultimately ended up going with SHC.

onGamers: What NA team approached you?

Oh, they weren't LCS or anything. They were in the Coke league.

Did you have any concerns with joining Supa Hot Crew? They finished seventh last split and now they’re bringing on new players. Did you feel like you didn’t want to coach a team that hasn’t done so well, or a team that had some deep-rooted, unfixable problems? Or were you in a mindset where you wanted to coach and analyze LoL, and you would do it no matter what?

That’s a good question. That was actually one of the concerns I brought up initially. They’re not relatively new, but you’re right, there have been roster changes. That’s not always the worst thing, look at MVP Blue. The entire roster was destroyed and resurrected from the group up, and now here we are nine months later, and MVP Blue is in the OGN finals. I’m not worried about roster changes. As long as the players are good, they’re like solo queue gods but they’re not great in teamplay, that can be fixed. You can’t get mechanics, you can’t just learn to do mechanics. But you can be taught strategy, you can be taught rotations, you can work on all of these things. So I’m really impressed with a lot of their solo queue abillity. Even if they are not being matched up against the elite of the elite from Korean solo queue, they are still being matched up with the best representation that EU has to offer, and they all do really well.

So the goal for me is to bring over the Korean standards and the Korean approach. We’re going to be having two people outside of the team helping with with data mining for my analysis and coaching stuff. So while I will be working with them hands on as a coach the majority of the time, my secondary job is also the analyst. I’m taking on two roles at once, which I’m not really worried about.

Being in the mecca of esports, Korea, I’m going to see things that are hitting the solo queue ladder before the other regions even see it. Obviously you could op.gg and stuff, but I’m also going to be able to have luxury acess to customs, and see private games that just won’t be public. So I hope to translate a lot of things over that EU and NA simply aren’t offered. I’ve lived in numerous Korean pro houses, I know how the approach works inside of the house. I’ve been there for the lectures they give players. I know what they look for on the whiteboards and in their notebooks. I know what they look for when they data mine or how they analyze replays. I know how they do all of that. So while people may know about it, they haven’t witnessed it in person. So that I feel is an advantage for me and, ultimately, for SHC.

Are there any key elements or ideas with the Korean coaching method that people may not know about? Or things you will strive to accomplish with your coaching? You see MonteCristo and he talks about “Rotations and Coms” all the time. What would be your version of that?

I think when Monte mentions coms, it’s more similar to what one of the head coaches of Samsung does, where he would monitor how the players are speaking to each other and then he would break out useless information. If they are saying anything that isn’t useful, or pointless - shut up, get it out and never say this again. It’s basically disciplining them ingame - not emotionally, because that’s not my role. It’s not my job to make sure they are dieting and eating healthy. That’s another role. My job as a coach is to get them to play perfectly - mechanically and strategically, or as close as you can to it. As an analyst, it’s to give them all the raw information that they need so they are set up when going into tournament matches so they feel more comfortable. Like a tutor working with someone before an exam.

So Monte has an excellent and beautiful approach to coach with rotations and coms. But, as Monte would say himself, he does not work on the individual laning aspect of the coaching, which I’m going to be able to do. That’s primarily because he doesn't play the game himself. I mean, he does, but not at the level that you would need to in order to evaluate the lanes on a nitty-gritty level, in terms of minor trades etc. I feel like that’s another advantage that I would be able to bring, being able to really talk with the players one on one.

There has been a lot of talk recently and especially after All Stars about how the top EU teams may be stronger than top NA teams but people feel that as a region Europe is weaker as a whole. Where do you think Europe lies on the global scale of regions?

I think the opinion on Europe not being second or third best, of course when you consider China, is not true. Basically, the issue with it is Cloud 9 is not NA. Cloud 9 is basically pseudo Korea-NA, in the sense that they are the closest thing to Korea that white people have, and no-one would deny that. They are basically mini SKT. If I were to give a StarCraft analogy, it would be like saying that back in the heyday that Greg ‘idra’ Fields was the closest thing to a Korean that you could get. Cloud 9 is to Korea what idra was to Korea.

It’s not that EU is behind. EU would probably smash on the majority of NA and nobody would deny that. In the majority of video games, EU has toppled NA. So EU is overall better and I think, as time progresses, EU will still be better. I’m not really worried about that. Infrastructure and stuff does play a part in terms of overall growth. But when you have a real team, we’ve seen historically that non-Koreans can beat Koreans. It’s not like it’s unheard of. We’ve seen that in multiple games and multiple titles. Even though the sample size is extremely small, it can be done. And those are the elite of the elite. Those elite aren’t gods, they got there somehow. So it’s not like they can’t be educated or brought into the community. I think EU is definitely third best, behind China and the NA.

What are your goals in terms of placing this split? What are your goals overall? Like, a measurable example, where you could say, “Right now, the team’s communication is X and this aspect is Z.” So I want to know that for this split, and what you hope to accomplish in the next season as well.

My goal for this split is I can foresee a top-four finish. I think it’s unrealistic to assume that we can be first this split, because there a lot of new players on the team and I just joined. MVP Blue, when it was reformed, did not just go on to win Spring or Summer. It takes time to form. I do believe with where they are currently standing and the knowledge I can bring over and how hard I will work to aid in their improvement in relation to the other teams they have to go up against, I think a top four finish is extremely fine. Right now, as players, they are all really, really good. Moving forward, we will address all of the problems that they have as an overall team. If all goes well, next split, even better. I don’t think anyone in any region can safely say that they are going to get number one ever, maybe Cloud 9.

What allows you to be a good coach or analyst besides from just being a really good player and being in the Samsung house? What do you individually offer?

In terms of what makes me able to be a player into a coach, or what enables me to be a player or an analyst, is that I’ve always viewed the game from a mathematical, geometrical and time-based standpoint. No matter what game I played, I always thought about it that way. In Starcraft II, there were a lot of things that I knew I should be doing but I wasn’t doing. That’s just because of my inability as a player. I would fall short of my own opinions on what I should have been doing. That’s my fault as a player, but it doesn't mean that I wasn’t thinking about it. So, I sometimes felt like my abillity to coach would sometimes be better than myself as a player - how I approach the game, and seeing so many different styles and methods of coaching and being surrounded by it. During my instances battling with financial issues etc and not playing the game, I was still thinking about the game. I wasn’t a person that only enjoyed playing it, so there’s that component to it as well. Also, I strive to see people succeed. If I can play a part in it, I will want to see it. In that sense, I will ensure that SHC improves.

LS wants to thank Artosis, Tasteless, DoA, Wolf, Scarlett, MonteCristo, mk, Susie Kim and everyone who’s helped him in Korea. He also wants to thank Molly for getting him into League.

Photo Credit: Inven, Riot Games