British League of Legends caster, streamer and personality, Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont, has opened up about the time he very nearly joined Vitality as a coach.
In late 2021, the popular LEC caster Caedrel was linked with a move to Vitality, which he now says was ‘incredibly close’ to coming to fruition.
Caedrel explained why he turned down the role in a new Reddit AMA, in response to a question by ZeeQue.
“At the end of 2021 I was incredibly close to joining VIT, almost locked basically, but I spoke to a few people in the industry who I trusted and they warned me not to jump ship from casting so early,” Caedrel said.
“They warned me that if things didnt work out I would become the ultimate scapegoat for the failure, especially given that ive never coached before.
“Also, something about that VIT roster made me feel uncertain, so towards the latter stages of negotiations I pulled out. It’s hard to say what I would have changed looking back, not knowing the internal struggles and problems, but I am a very very committed person when I work on something, and I’m quite arrogant and stubborn when it comes to making sure there is progress.”
Caedrel
“I would be drilling fundamentals and showing every single player vods of players around the world / povs of setups and plays or lane phases / pathings in matchups they struggle in and there’s really to be honest only so much a coach can do.”
Caedrel also revealed his ideas he discussed with G2.
“When I was talking to G2 and had a meeting with them as well at the end of 2021, their main question at a dinner together was what kind of roster I would want, and the roster idea I floated with them was kiin, jankos, caps, importADC that I would scout and mikyx,” Caedrel continued.
“I told them that domestic success is useless and if they wanted to compete for an international title this is the direction I would want to go in, obviously it never happened, they turned me down after reaching out, perhaps the roster was too expensive or was not their ideal direction, but top could have been interchangeable.
“And as for DK – it was just talks and ideas shot back and forth that never came to be, it would have been the biggest project ever with a staff surrounding me to really help breach the language barriers. I took Yamato going to LSB as inspiration for the idea but all in all we couldn’t find a way to make it work out – coaching in Asian regions as a non-speaker of the language creates a whole world of obstacles and maybe it happens one day but with DK it didn’t work out.”
Caedrel also spoke about how his career could have gone in a different direction.
“I think, looking back, different offers would have taken me to different teams, for example if I went to Roccat instead of H2K, if XL sold me to 100T after 2019, if I didn’t cast and joined AST / SK or something, I have no idea where I would be, but the success from casting has blown my mind.
“I’m just an ordinary guy who is super anxious in social situations and hardly ever thought that being on a camera and streaming was something I’d do. Streaming as a pro felt like a chore and I hated it, but now it’s really fun and a big part of my life.”
Caedrel also revealed he took his name from an old World of Warcraft teammate DeathKnight, back when he competed in Arena.
Caedrel said: “I played a paladin called Sovereign but my teammate had such a cool name and he was a DK called Caedrel, so when I came to League I yoinked it when I was like 17, haven’t spoken to him since the WoW days, wonder if he ever stopped and saw it one day hahah.”
Further reading: Interview with Caedrel on his return to Excel Esports in early 2022 (he later parted ways with the org)
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.
