Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco caught up with players from three top teams at Insomnia Gaming Festival i71 on the weekend, to ask them about the £3,000 tournament and the current state of UK LoL (League of Legends).
i71 saw Cabbage Corp win their fourth back-to-back League of Legends Open, after they beat Ruddy Painkillers (Ruddy Esports’ second team) in the final.
Paragon finished third, while Brod & Friends were fourth. You can see more in our i71 esports winners roundup.
We sat down with Tyrin (jungle), Akkers (top) and Krisyss (mid) from Ruddy Painkillers, along with Cabbage Corp’s Greggers (support), and Brod & Friends’ The Governor (top), Squid Salah (jungle) and Gnemly (mid).
Cabbage Corp on four back-to-back Insomnia wins
Greggers: Cabbage Corp are now four-time back-to-back winners. It’s my first time joining the team, but me, pawp, Alphamoss and qqr all played for our university, so I have three years with them through NSE and NUEL, so I know exactly how those four play. The difference was me playing support and also with Spark, who’s really good. So it was easy for me to join.
Ruddy are the biggest challenge [for us at Insomnia] and the only team that can contest – no offense to anyone else. We lost one other game here and took five smite TPs, and went five bot-lane and tried to rush their base, which didn’t really work out (laughs). We’ve played so long together as a team, everyone knows what they’re doing and we have synergy.
‘I owe a lot to London Esports’ proving grounds’ – Krisyss
Krisyss: I came onto the scene in 2020/2021, I played in the uni league then London Esports ran a proving grounds and I played in that. I joined Demise in the UKEL and that’s how I met all the Painkillers boys through that.
I can’t thank that proving grounds enough, I met all the boys through that, I have a great time and have come to Insomnia multiple times now.
I don’t intend on continuing to play League, because I hate the game (laughs). But I don’t want to leave them in the dark now we have the UKEL spot, if it goes well I might keep going.
“The Valorant Women’s Cup teams are more than entitled to being on the main stage, but it’s the fact they had semi-finals as well as the finals, we felt it was a bit unfair.”
Tyrin
On the League of Legends final being on a smaller stage at Insomnia i71
Tyrin: The Valorant Women’s Cup teams are more than entitled to being on the main stage, but it’s the fact they had semi-finals as well as the finals, we felt it was a bit unfair. We pay the same as everyone else, League might not be as big as Valorant, but for us to play the grand finals [on the small stage was a bit unfair].
Greggers: League is meant to be big and instead we’re on the second stage. It’s still good, but the fact we heard we were on that stage like one or two days ago, I thought I’d be on the big stage at my first LAN, but no!
On a lack of esports orgs in the Insomnia LoL Open
Greggers: I don’t think people are willing to finance it. There’s a prize pool that’s pretty low (£3,000). For us as a team, we get first place prize and we’ll probably break even with the costs of going here. We also get the tickets back free for winning the last one. So it’s really close or you’re making a loss.
You’re coming up here, staying a few nights, going out to eat… I think there’s not much incentive for orgs to send a team here. They’re not getting their money back, so it feels like it’s fallen off a cliff, almost. And you’re on a smaller stage so you’re not getting the publicity of it all.
On the return of the UKEL with the new 4 Nations UK LoL tournament
Tyrin: It’s great, it’s really cool that they’re actually bringing stuff back. I was saying on Twitter a few months ago responding to the view that UK League is dead, saying that it’s frustrating because other than Insomnia, there’s absolutely nothing going on in the UK. There’s nothing being run or organised, so no wonder it’s dead because there’s nothing for anyone to even enter.
So it’s great they’re bringing UKEL and 4Nations back. There were nearly 30 teams in the qualifiers, a lot of names that haven’t played League or been seen for years. The interest is there, it’s not even about the prize pool, we just enjoy playing the game, this is our hobby, it’s our sport. So hopefully it’ll go well.
Hopefully with UKEL 4Nations we might gather a bit of interest and bring more of an amateur scene back into the UK, because the opportunity is there for it to happen. Obviously it wouldn’t be as big as the French or Spanish scenes, but I don’t think there’s any reason why there can’t be a bit of a UK scene.
Greggers: I don’t know what the other boys are thinking, but I’m not entirely sure [what our plans are for tournaments like this]. We didn’t register in time for UKEL. It’s a bit of fun for us [at Insomnia]. For me personally I know the boat has sailed for me going pro or anything, I was in the UKLC for a bit. I have a job, this is just a couple of days off work to have fun and relive some of my days at uni. So I don’t think we’re entering [other tournaments] at Cabbage.
“Hopefully with UKEL 4Nations we might gather a bit of interest and bring more of an amateur scene back into the UK, because the opportunity is there for it to happen. Obviously it wouldn’t be as big as the French or Spanish scenes, but I don’t think there’s any reason why there can’t be a bit of a UK scene.”
Tyrin
On Riot’s LoL community event at Insomnia 71
Tyrin: Shoutout to Riot. They’re doing the right thing – they advertised Insomnia in the [LoL game] client, so thanks for doing that and for setting up the community event at Insomnia.
Unfortunately it was only on the client maybe a week before the tournament started and I feel like, at that point, it’s a bit late and people have probably already made plans. This one was Thursday to Saturday rather than the usual Friday to Sunday. Maybe if it was announced quite a bit in advance, maybe more people would have looked at it.
On Brod & Friends putting their stickers all around the LAN
The Governor: If the UK scene is gonna be like this, why not have fun with it? We work in the shadows, Brod & Friends, we’re puppet masters of the UK scene, we’ve got all sorts going on.
Related content: Watch our interview with Ruddy at i69 and interview with Cabbage Corp’s pawp from i68 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.
