Interview: Fnatic Rising jungler Dan and head coach NicoThePico on winning the UKLC, their reverse sweep vs BT Excel and their chances in the EU Masters

“London is black and orange!” cried the triumphant Fnatic Rising, our back-to-back-to-back UK League of Legends champions, as they beat rivals BT Excel in a thrilling, nail-biting 3-2 reverse sweep in the UKLC Spring 2020 finals last weekend.

But there is little time to celebrate, for the EU Masters looms in the distance, featuring the best teams from European Regional Leagues. Megalodontus talks to Fnatic Rising’s jungler Dan (pictured left) and head coach NicoThePico (right) about their expectations heading into the EU Masters, as well as their views on the UKLC split and the recent finals versus Excel.

Congratulations on winning the UKLC! The first question I have is around BT Excel’s undefeated record in the group stages: What were your expectations going into the final versus them? Were there any special preparations?

Dan: Our recent week of scrims has been our best yet, so going into the series I was very confident that we could win. Also, in our games in the regular season against BT Excel, I felt we had very passive drafts so it was hard for us to create early advantages. Going into the finals, we planned that we would pick more proactive champions.

NicoThePico: We were confident going in. In my experience being overly cocky going into a finals leads to defeat, which was the case in this finals too, except we weren’t the cocky ones.

What was the team atmosphere like being two games down and the feeling after you reverse swept Excel? More specifically to you Nico, how did you encourage the players to get that reverse sweep?

Dan: For game 1, I honestly felt we just got smashed, however I felt that we should have won game 2. Since Excel hadn’t lost a game all season, the feeling within the team was that if we won one game, they would start to crumble and it seemed to be the case.

NicoThePico: Honestly, after the second game we were 99% sure we would win the series. We felt like we had a really strong read and understanding of what we needed to fix and this game should have been ours already.

Despite the amazing five-game reverse sweep, it’s fair to say Fnatic Rising didn’t have the smoothest of splits. In your opinion what were the biggest obstacles. New teammates? The meta perhaps?

Dan: Initially, I think we just needed to all get on the same page. We had two new players and I had just came back from the LEC way of playing for a split (which is far more aggressive than national level, at least in scrims). Once that happened, scrims started going far far better for us.

However, it sometimes was difficult to translate the aggression and proactivity from scrims onto stage.

NicoThePico: Our focus was on the playoffs and and the EU Masters, not the regular split. We were extremely willing to try things and figure out what’s good for us and what’s not.

Dan, you’ve played in the UK for a while now and found much success over the past year in the UKLC. Do you think the UKLC has levelled up this year in terms of competition or has it declined?

Dan: I would say the UKLC is definitely more competitive than it was in Spring 2019. However, I think there is still a large gap between the top 2 teams and the rest.

Nico, many people predicted Fnatic Rising to finish 2nd or even 3rd before the split started due to the new additions of toplaner Pride and support Bravado. Tell us why you picked them specifically, and were you expecting them to pull off such tremendous performances already in their first split?

NicoThePico: I’m very proud of Pride and Bravado’s growth so far. I’ve known Pride now for about a year and a half and known Bravado for a bit more than two. I’ve already coached Pride a full year in Switzerland, and felt very strongly that he would have a good future and I could very easily help grow him into a LEC-level top-laner.

Bravado is someone I was actually looking to get into Fnatic Rising last year, but because of national limitations it was not possible. I saw a lot of good aspects in both players and pushed really hard to give them the opportunity they need to snowball their career.

In case you missed it: The UKLC pre-season roster roundup and power rankings, where Fnatic Rising proved their doubters wrong

Dan, you were called up to the LEC team last year, but I don’t believe you played on the LEC stage. How was this experience for you, coming close to playing, and is the door open for another chance in the future?

Dan: I hope the door is open for another chance in the future, I really enjoyed my split scrimming and living with the LEC team. The level of scrims was far, far higher because I was playing against the best teams in Europe day in, day out.

I felt that I learned a lot despite only getting one or two games per day with the team, and I hope that I managed to bring that knowledge back to the academy team so that we can go far in EU Masters.

Who is your UKLC all-star team of Spring 2020?

Dan: To be honest I haven’t watched many games this split from the UKLC, so I don’t think I could accurately create that team.

NicoThePico: Our whole team, easily.

Let’s move on to the next main event: The EU Masters. No doubt this split should be the most competitive EUM to date with the format changes and additional teams. How do you think the UKLC representatives stack up against the best teams and what are your expectations?

Dan: From scrims I would say that we’re definitely one of the strongest teams, I haven’t seen Excel in scrims this split to really compare them to other national teams.

I think we will do well, though I’m not too sure about Excel, they seemed to be a mentally weak team in the final. It will be interesting for me to see if they are able to bounce back from that loss.

NicoThePico: I think that Excel and us have a good chance to do well at the EU Masters, as long as Excel got the wake-up call they needed after the UKLC finals.

What regions and teams do you think are exceptionally strong? Conversely, what teams or regions do you think people shouldn’t sleep on?

Dan: Germany appears to be a strong region, and I actually think that UKLC has definitely been underrated for the past three splits.

NicoThePico: I think the UK & Ireland is the region being overlooked the most. Germany is strong.

Another quick round: are there any teams you guys really want to meet and defeat (other than BT Excel of course, if you guys happen to meet in knockouts)?

Dan:  I don’t really care to be honest, none in particular.

NicoThePico: Honestly, no one in particular.

Before we end, I’d like to give the floor to Nico. You are a veteran within the scene and admittedly, you have picked up quite a big following of detractors over the years, with many being highly skeptical when you were announced for Fnatic Rising.

Now that you’ve won the UKLC, do you think it will make those people change their opinion about you or do you think you need to win the EU Masters for that? Or simply, do you not care what they think and just soldier on doing what you do?

NicoThePico: Public perception and what is actually going on within the teams are usually very different. I hope I can show my worth and do well, but I am not overly bothered much by the public perception of who I am or what I can do.

I think if we perform well in not only this EUM, but also the next, that is a good start!

Any final words or thoughts?

Dan: Thanks for the support, we are going to continue working hard in the buildup to EUM and hopefully make the finals this time!

NicoThePico: Thanks for supporting and watching us, we are very much looking forward to EUM and hoping we can put on a good showing!

We thank Dan and NicoThePico for doing this interview, and wish them luck at the EU Masters Spring 2020. You can catch all the EU Masters action at https://www.twitch.tv/eumasters starting on April 6th for the Play-ins and April 22nd for Groups.

Megalodontus

Megalodontus is a miraculous survivor from the mass extinction and somehow learnt how to use his stubby fins to operate complicated mechanical equipment and drink tea. Worryingly for cryptozoologists, he’s been writing League of Legends articles too.

A self-taught writer who’s had the privilege to work with good editors who aren’t terrified of his pearly whites, Megalodontus is often seen writing either independently or for various websites such as this one. When not writing, he usually runs it down mid in real life and is fascinated with watching paint dry.