ESL Premiership League of Legends team Cyclone have a new coach – Lasse “Fykling” Sleby – and he has some bold plans.
“Right now, everyone’s main goal is getting top two in the ESL Premiership,” he said in an interview post on the Cyclone website.
“At this level of play, not many rosters stick together for a year, but since we get along within the team I could see it happen.
“If we keep improving I’d like to add some more staff to help the team out. We want to be recognized as one of the top teams in UK. People are going to have to get used to us.”
Fykling, a 20-year-old trainee teacher who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark (and whose favourite champion is Malphite, pictured), also says that Cyclone have a serious work ethic.
“We want to work a lot harder than any other UK team. We don’t have any egos. We want to be at every big tournament.”
“We want to work a lot harder than any other UK team,” he explained. “We have no days off, we’re scrimming every day. We’re not only playing a lot, but also discussing the game and spending hours preparing. We’re going to put in the most hours and make it the most efficient practice possible.
“In all the teams I’ve ever coached, I’ve never came across five players that are this motivated and ready to learn. We also don’t have any egos, It’s the first time I’ve seen high elo players without egos.
“We want to be at every big tournament.”
Check out our player profile interview with Cyclone jungler Liam “Demo” Milburn here
What about Fykling’s coaching style? He says it revolves around drafting and macro, and to make sure the players always have a gameplan and are on the same page.
“If my players don’t understand the plan, it’s my fault,” he said. “I give my players a lot of freedom, so we try out a lot of stuff that isn’t meta. We can do this because I have a lot of trust in my players.
“I’m so happy to be on Cyclone. When I’ve been on other teams, I was inexperienced and thought a lot about what others thought of me.
“Now on Cyclone I have freedom, and I want to prove that we are a team to reckoned with.”
Cyclone are currently joint fourth in the ESL Premiership.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
