Giants Gaming have just won the regular season of the Summer 2022 LVP Superliga in Spain, with 13 wins – a big improvement over their seventh place finish in Spring.
Dominic Sacco interviews Giants’ UK trio Nubar ‘Maxlore’ Sarafian (jungler), Lorcan ‘Lorcz’ Elliot (assistant coach/head analyst) and James ‘Zero’ Woodland (data analyst) on their season, chances at the upcoming EU Masters and thoughts on their competition, including Heretics, who will play in the LEC next year after acquiring Misfits’ slot.
Update: Giants lost to Heretics in the final, which pulled in record viewers:
Congratulations on winning the Superliga Summer 2022 regular split! How would you reflect on the season?
Maxlore: The start was rough, but we developed more synergy and found better ways to play to our strengths.
Zero: I’m really happy to see the development across the split, with us going 8-1 in the second half, and always finding ways to win – even when maybe we shouldn’t, such as with the final G2 Arctic game. It’s nice to have won the regular season but the real challenge starts now, first securing our place in Madrid and a main stage EUM spot and then coming first in playoffs.
Lorcz: Thank you, I am really happy with the progress this season. I’m fully aware we are not playing perfect League of Legends but we have had a really good run at the moment and even when we are not playing our best, we are still picking up wins.
The team has faced a lot of issues this split (not in-game, but things like illness etc have made practice more difficult). Despite this, I am happy to see the results we have had. I think this season has been really nice for me because I was able to bring Zero to Giants and having his experience on the data side of things has made my job a bit easier, so that I can focus on other things. His work has brought us some really valuable insights into the team.
Personally it has been nice to be more hands on, learning new things myself and spending more time with the team in person whilst on my university summer holidays.
What do you think of Heretics, given they finished second behind you and you will face them in round 2 of the playoffs. What are your thoughts going into the playoffs?
Lorcz: Without a doubt heretics are the strongest team we will have to face. I think their roster is well balanced and clearly their new coach has done wonders to transform the team from one that missed playoffs to one fighting for the title with only one player change.
Ibo has shown that you can carry in the top lane consistently and has stood out alongside whiteknight as one of the best in the league. Also, having superstar ADC Jackspektra on your team helps (Jackspektra LEC 2023?).
“Anyone going into an event without the intention of winning it is making a mistake. I fully believe that we can challenge the top LFL teams at EU Masters and that we have a good chance of winning the whole thing.”
Lorcz, Giants
What are your ambitions in the EU Masters Summer 2022?
Zero: To win it. With this roster I don’t think there’s any reason to look at anything below that.
Lorcz: Anyone going into an event without the intention of winning it is making a mistake. I fully believe that we can challenge the top LFL teams at this event and that we have a good chance of winning the whole thing. I would like to face Attila and Kasing on X7 because I think it would be good fun and I’m happy seeing them doing well recently in the NLC, and the same goes for Stend on Dusty, who had a fantastic split.
LDLC are definitely the favourites and I think you could make a case that a number of their players are LEC ready, but I thought this last split and KC managed to beat them. Actually, KC would’ve been a dream match for me (had KC not been prevented from qualifying by GameWard), because of the hype and facing another former Giants teammate in 113. We are in it to win it, that’s for sure.
What are your views on Heretics taking Misfits’ slot in the LEC next year? Giants in the LEC when?
Lorcz: I think it caught a lot of people off guard for sure. I would be lying if I said it was not disappointing seeing another LVP org move into the LEC before Giants, but sometimes things go a different way and you have to get on with things.
Maybe they’ll want to hire us all from Giants after we beat them in the Superliga finals? And as for Giants in the LEC, I hope it happens soon because the staff here are wonderful and the fanbase in Malaga and around Spain have been incredible.
Maxlore, you have worked hard in the Spanish league over the last few years. Do you feel you have shown you are capable of returning to the LEC? What are your short term and long term career goals?
Maxlore: I’ve shown that I’m worthy of being given a shot. My short term goal is to win EUM with my team, long term is to make it to the LEC.
Maxlore, your background is storied, from UK scene to Misfits in the LEC. To Lorcz and Zero, please tell us about your history in League of Legends/esports and also your personal goals for the future.
Zero: I got into esports because I was bored. I’d only ever watched esports previously and I’d just started a placement year at university during the first year of covid and was just working from my parents house. There wasn’t much to do after work except play video games and eventually even that gets boring.
I started coding little League adjacent things, helping get stats from solo queue and professional games. At that point I saw that Viperio was looking for more staff and I knew of Chris Sword, the owner, through an ESI London event that I attended with NSE, so I got in contact with him.
I worked for Viperio for the 2021 spring split, getting a ton of good connections through that, and was then approached by Sotze to work for NYYRIKKI during the 2021 Summer Split. We went on to narrowly win the TESF, come second in Telia Masters and then qualify for NLC Division 1.
I worked for them for this past summer split and was then picked up by Giants to help them get more of a hold on their data side, and to help automate parts of their workflow. I’ve sort of just always gone a level up every split I feel from UKEL to TESF to NLC no playoffs, and then LVP playoffs, plus EUM. My only real goal is to keep that same sort of trajectory, so maybe LEC next split – but I do really enjoy working at Giants currently.
The very end goal would be turning this into something I can live off, but from the other people I’ve talked to that’s definitely not an easy achievement.
Lorcz: I started coaching in League of Legends a while ago now, but it was at a very low level of competition. I think the first proper team I was involved with was NSG in 2020 – we won the UKEL in spring and the regular season of SQ1. After that I joined London Esports last minute in the UKLC and following that joined Tricked for the NLC fall cup, which was an amazing experience.
Spring 2021 was a challenging split for me at Demise and I definitely lost some confidence from that, but after Supa (another Tricked analyst) recommended me to Giants. I started here I never looked back. Since Summer 2021 I’ve been here now and after this split I don’t really know what will happen. I would for sure be happy to stay with Giants and they have been brilliant to me, but I would definitely like to put my name out there for the LEC as I was so close to joining this summer, but things fell through last minute and I think I could benefit a lot of the coaching staff out there.
Balancing all this with my medical degree has been hard, but I don’t think I will rush to any decisions with either thing.
“I’ve shown that I’m worthy of being given a shot [in the LEC]. My short term goal is to win EUM with my team, long term is to make it to the LEC.”
Maxlore, Giants
To all of you, what is it like as Brits playing in the Spanish league? And how do you think this league compares to the NLC?
Lorcz: It’s nice seeing a different culture in person and there have been more live events and chances to meet new people. I think the NLC has done a great job in recent times with their production, but I think the league is still a bit behind the LVP and LFL, with there being no live events this split.
The talent they have on screen is great in the LVP – all really friendly and that is similar in the NLC – I think the casters and analysts etc on there have done a great job making the league entertaining to watch. I also think Archarom is amazing to watch and listen to on the desk – get him on the LEC.
In terms of team strength, it isn’t really a question. I think you match us vs Dusty and we would win, I think you match 10th place LVP vs SNG and 10th place LVP would win.
Zero: I really like it here, mainly because all Superliga Twitter and Twitch chat is in Spanish, so I can pretty much ignore it. I think the gap was closing between the leagues in spring, X7 with Tempt and Haru primarily, and then players like Shikari showing up huge for Bifrost.
The showing from Superliga teams in spring was disappointing, with Barca’s decline starting in LVP playoffs and seemingly continuing into EUM, Bisons’ unique style not seeming to translate and FNTQ not living up to the expectations put on them.
Unfortunately for the NLC, I don’t think it’s going to be the same story this time. JDXL already qualified after a five-game loss streak, which included the three of the four teams that didn’t make playoffs, and the unfortunate circumstances that surrounded that, and I don’t think Dusty will fair too well.
If I was NLC, I’d put my hopes in an X7 qualification. I think Heretics are super scary and their bot lane can blow through most teams, I wouldn’t want to give Jackspektra’s Draven a free kill at level, personally. The Giants roster has been massively upgraded from the one that didn’t qualify in spring and for our third seed, currently I’d put my money on KOI after their showing vs G2AR where Whiteknight and Xico seem to be getting into their stride.
I do think in general it’s hard to compare outside of EUM performance currently. This NLC structure is new and definitely hasn’t settled yet compared to a more mature LVP league, where team structures and setups make it much easier to do stuff such as make content (not that that’s an excuse for some NLC teams as the likes of CeeJayShaw and DonJake have proven).
I think there’s always going to be issues for the NLC though, just including so many different countries compared to most leagues that primarily cover one, which will ultimately cause unique problems for the NLC that other leagues won’t have to face.
There’s other UK talent in your league. What are your thoughts on Deadly with Barcelona and Jarge, coach of Movistar? They are both experienced UK talents now
Lorcz: Yeah its great to see other UK talent out there. I think Jarge the last few splits has done tremendously well in the league and his results generally do better than what anyone would predict with the rosters, so he is clearly doing a lot of things right (despite this split’s results).
[Barcelona ADC] Deadly is a great guy and I think is one of the best ADCs in the league for sure. I think you put him in either of the top two teams and they would both perform very well. I don’t know if Barca will make it to EUM but Deadly for sure should be there.
Please tell us about your team, what kind of camaraderie do you have behind the scenes, and what’s it been like having Advienne join from Excel after the difficulties he had leaving the UK org?
Lorcz: I think our team has a great balance and it’s really good when everyone gets on well outside of the game too. Jiizuke is one of the funniest people I have ever met, to be honest. And I get along great with everyone – I have nothing negative to say about any of the players or staff.
Having Advienne is really great – Excel should have kept him and for sure he better be back in LEC next split (I could say this about any of our players). And the added bonus is he has a great attitude towards League and has great food recommendations.
Some LoL fans might be surprised to see Fnatic and Mad Lions academy teams in eighth and ninth place in the Summer Superliga. Why do you think these academy sides are not doing so great, and do you expect them to improve for 2023?
Zero: G2 Artic also just fell out of playoffs too which I think means the Superliga is the only major ERL not sending an academy roster to EUM. I think for Fnatic it’s very much a factor that they didn’t upgrade from spring to summer. Both Heretics and Giants didn’t make playoffs in spring, so were both massively incentivised to make upgrades where needed – and had the funds to make the moves happen.
It’s just also unfortunate that they went on a massive loss streak near the end with their final match deciding if they made playoffs or not, and I can’t really speak to why that decline happened.
I’m not too surprised about Mad, they ended ninth in the spring split as well. Even though they made changes I don’t feel that they were at the same level as the rest of the league.
When you’ve got teams bringing in former, arguably current LEC level players, like Jiizuke, Advienne and Whiteknight,it’s hard to match that. I think as time goes on it’s going to become more difficult for academy teams to find a balance between getting results in terms of wins on the board and EUM experience, and developing the next generation of players, whilst other teams get to focus primarily on the former and can bring in bigger-name players, tempting some away from the LEC, LCS or even the LDL and LCK CL.
Lorcz: I think when you look at the quality of players for Mad academy and compare to the rest of the league, I would say that I did not expect them to challenge for the title, but seeing their recent performances I have been disappointed and think they could have at least contended for playoffs.
FNTQ was a big shock for me – they have extremely talented players and a coach who has had great results in LVP the last two years. Burnout could certainly be one answer – it is hard when you play a lot and win a lot for this to change. It’s hard to think about why a team doesn’t live up to expectations though when you don’t know whats happening on the inside.
Maybe LEC offers after spring could have affected the mental and chemistry? I dont know if I expect to see much change – again these are hard to predict but I think that both teams will make some changes if they want to contend next year.
Is there anything else you’d like to add/any shoutouts you’d like to make?
Lorcz: Shurpa and Supa are the former analysts at Tricked – they both helped me out a lot when I started this job and Supa recommended me for it. I still speak with Shurpa and he helps a lot.
All the staff at Giants (Jandro, Fearless, Xavis, Lozark, Zero, Javi) are amazing to work with, as are all the players.
Pad (Mad Lions) I think was the first high level staff member I got to work with and he really inspired me and taught me a lot about the game.
I recently met Watson (performance coach from London Esports when we were both there) and he has one of the best attitudes towards esports. He’s someone I look up to in most aspects of life – he helps you keep things in perspective and is just a great guy.
[JDXL coach] Torok – and all the past players from Giants as well – each helped teach me something different.
Zero: I’d really like to just shoutout the people that I used to work with at Viperio. Dan Holt is currently doing a great job with Verdant in NLC Div 3 and Coach ATN who barely missed out on an EUM spot with EGN in the LPLOL this split.
Also, the Giants fans. They’re really active on social media (in particular the giants Ultras account and the gcorner) and it’s a really big boost to have that kind of support in both wins and losses.
You can follow Giants Gaming, Maxlore, Lorcz and Zero on Twitter here
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.
