Last month, an ambitious project was announced by DreamHack to merge UK/Ireland League of Legends esports with the Nordics, heralding the birth of the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC).
Riddle Esports, a Norwegian outfit, signalled a clear statement of intent with their team announcement on May 22nd. Their head Coach, Louis ‘Smeagol’ Green, started out in the UK scene with the likes of Excel Grant and former player Tundra back on Last Remedy. Since then he’s been around Europe, with Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition, Fenerbahce and more. Now he’s back to conquer the NLC, and he chats with Megalodontus to tell us how and why.
Please introduce yourself Louis, tell us about your background and how you first got involved with esports and the UK LoL scene.
I’m 22, was born in Brighton and initially I trained to be a chef but I’ve currently put that career on hold to pursue my dream of working in esports.
I’ve been playing League of Legends since the end of Season 2 and have been coaching players since Season 5, but it wasn’t until I joined the UK Scene with Grant Rousseau from Excel in 2016 that esports actually became a reality to me.
I met Grant online, after multiple discussions and creating a brand we decided to put our own team together. Our team competed in the UK ESL Premiership in which we finished second. That was my first real experience in esports.
Read more: A throwback when Smeagol and Grant Rousseau put together the team Last Remedy
You are very well travelled as a coach: Russia, Germany and Turkey are some of the places you’ve been to. What are your favourite memories from those teams?
I have so many memories from each of those teams some of which I’ll never forget.
Russia: My favourite memory from Russia would probably be stepping on stage for the first time. It was my first time working offline in a gaming house so the whole concept was new to me. But being on the stage in front of an audience coaching behind the players… It was an amazing feeling and I loved the pressure.
Germany: Having the pleasure of representing an organisation like Unicorns of Love was a great memory in itself, but the best memory from Germany was being at the World Championship with the CIS team. Hearing the fans chanting and getting the DACH and CIS teams together was a great experience.
Turkey: Similar to UOL, representing one of the great clubs in Turkey: 1907 Fenerbahçe Esports. They treated us well and I made many friends. But the best memory for me would be when the club organised for us to go and see the Fenerbahçe Basketball team play live from a private booth. We went as a team with all the staff and it was a crazy experience.
How would you compare the teams and leagues you’ve coached in compared to the UK & Ireland scene? What made it the right time for you to join the NLC?
For the past two years, the UK scene has been very top-heavy with Excel and Fnatic’s Academy teams usually taking the top spot. The level wasn’t very high outside of those teams, so it wasn’t very enjoyable to watch either.
In Turkey and Russia I think there are also only two to three good teams in each league. So in that regard, all three leagues are very similar in that they’re all very top heavy, unlike the DACH scene. It’s very competitive there and all the teams are capable of taking a game off each other. It’s much more enjoyable to watch and work in.
For me, with the merging of UK & Ireland and the Nordics, it felt like the right time to return to the UK scene. This merger vastly increases the national talent pool in terms of rosters you can build, and so it’s not all the same orgs in a rat race trying to secure the same players.
What do you think of the merger between the UK & Ireland and Nordics? Do you think the current organisation of the league allows the NLC to better match up against the other strong ERLs such as Spain, France and DACH?
I think the merger is a great idea. Both leagues were pretty bad outside of the top two or three teams. This merger allows us to have a league similar to Germany/Spain/France, and I think it’ll be way more competitive.
The level of players has already increased with the likes of Sencux and Maxi already being announced and with rumours of Maxlore, Hiiva, Taikki and Chrisberg also joining the league. I’m really excited to see what line-ups other organisations put together with so many great players to choose from.
“The goals for the organisation, myself and the players are all aligned: We want to have a good showing in the NLC, go to the EU Masters Summer 2020 and have a deep run there.”
Beneath the NLC, the UKLC is one of five national leagues that allows teams to promote and relegate, along with other grassroots/secondary leagues like the UKEL. What are your thoughts on this system, and do you think this will greatly help develop UK talent?
I think the UK has some promising upcoming players. The UKEL/UKLC platform gives them a chance to grow and prove themselves, and the best part is that the UKLC teams can promote to the NLC. So this definitely gives these upcoming players something to aim for rather than it being just a low level Division 2 League.
Ok, now onto the main topic: Riddle Esports. Tell us how was this roster put together, what was the thought process like and did you have a big say in the chosen players?
This particular group of players all really wanted to play together. They’re all friends from Denmark and so the team was already built before I came on board.
Usually I like to have a say on what players I work with – but after a couple of scrim blocks with these guys I can tell they all want to win. They’re all very smart about the game, and they all take responsibility whenever they make a mistake. It’s a really healthy team environment.
What are Riddle Esports’ goals for the Summer Split? Do you think Riddle could be the famed ‘academy killers’ in the NLC?
The goals for the organisation, myself and the players are all aligned: We want to have a good showing in NLC, go to the EU Masters Summer 2020 and have a deep run there.
I think our games against the academy teams will definitely be exciting to watch, but at this point I can’t say we’ll be the ‘Academy Killers’ just yet.
From what you currently know, how strong do you think the competition will be for the Summer Split?
I think this split of the NLC will be very competitive. From various sources I have a good idea of what our competition will look like and I’m confident that we can make a playoffs run.
The lower end of the NLC looks slightly disappointing, but I’m confident it’s gonna be a step up from previous UKLC Splits.
Do you have any personal or other goals this split, like wanting to beat a rival team?
Well… I have friends on both Fnatic and Excel so I’m excited to face them, but other than that not really. I think the biggest rival for Riddle Esports is Nordavind as we’re the only two Norwegian teams in the tournament.
“I think the UK has some promising upcoming players. The UKEL/UKLC platform gives them a chance to grow and prove themselves, and the best part is that the UKLC teams can promote to the NLC.“
So before we end, I noticed on your Leaguepedia page it says your favourite food is steak. So we have to ask, how do you like your steak cooked (please don’t say well-done)?
As someone who’s associated with the food industry – to cook a steak anything more than Medium is a sin and I’m proud to say I love my steak cooked medium rare.
(Author’s note: Good man! I have reliable insider info that Dom likes his steak so well done it can be used to make leather shoes. It’s good to see some hope in humanity!)
(I will be consulting my legal advisers regarding this slanderous accusation, medium is my steak of choice! – Dom)
The NLC starts on June 16th and you can catch all the action live at https://www.twitch.tv/nlclol
Related posts:
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.
