Entrevista a Amazing tras dejar Origen

The European League of Legends scene was able to be proud of Origen’s squad surrounding Maurice ‘Amazing’ Stückenschneider last year. The team managed to rise from Challenger Series to semi-finals of the World Championship within one year. 2016 however proved to be the downfall of the lineup already and just recently the separation from the German jungler was announced. In an interview Amazing told us what the hardships during these times were and how he looks at the future.

How are you?

I’m quite fine – not just concerning the circumstances! I feel free like a bird.

This week the separation from Origen was made official. Is this sudden freedom accompanied by a certain fear of the risks lying ahead in the off-season?

Of course there’s always a risk, even when you are already in talks with another team. Every organisation can discuss new contracts with several players at once. The freeing part for me especially is being away from Origen and its situation. The most recent quarter held much stress for me and the players at Origen. The distance to these problems feels good.

Are you thinking of switching your region or would you like to stay in Europe?

From a strategic standpoint I have to keep all possibilities available to me, however my biggest ambitions still lie with the EU LCS and becoming the champion here. It would probably be easier to change my region and become successful there. This is because Europe just plays on a higher level than most other regions, except for South Korea. I want to keep my promise from last year: I will be satisfied with my own performance, as soon as I have the title of EU LCS Champion and not just second.

Considering the regions performance at Worlds, your assessment of Europe seems a little far-fetched. What is your take on this relation?

Actually Europe was one team with experienced players short at Worlds. Because Zven and Mithy had left Origen mid-season, the rest of the team made up of sOAZ, xPeke and me was unable to take part in the tournament. The three of us would have provided a big piece of the experience gained at the last World Championship for Europe, but we weren’t there. It was similar at Fnatic with Huni and ReignOver. All these transfers just caused the top teams of the EU LCS to bring less of the pool of experience available.

I was in NA myself at the time of Worlds and was gathering solo queue impressions. Even though I had moved very far from my comfort zone, I still faced an 82% win-rate as I was hitting Master. The NA solo queue is quality-wise simply inferior. You just have to focus on what your enemy is doing, because most of the time it will be obvious. This creates a great freedom for your own plays and the element of surprise. There is barely any communication between the lanes too. I got the feeling, the NA players are only listening to loud music and have next to no map awareness.

So you think Origen could have performed like it did in 2015 if the bot-lane had not been changed?

We would have performed similar, but we could not have reached the same peak again. The qualification for Worlds, though, was definitely possible as second seed through points. In a group like that of H2k we then would have had a just as good run at least.

Origen failed in the Summer Split. Would you rate your own performance similarly?

At the beginning of the split I was extremely motivated and had the ability to unite the team behind me. This option had to be let go soon however, because there were internal problems with Forg1ven and the rest of the players. Much of my effort was negated by this. We got back on our feet after that, got better and were able to prove this in scrims. For me this was the period, where I got implemented really well into the team and advanced to primary shot-caller. This was again a change for the team, as I before only held the substitute shot-caller position. It was yet another burden on my shoulders, but at the same time I beat the other junglers. According to my opinion I was then one of the best junglers in Europe. At the end of the season this all broke apart yet again, as we switched coaches from Nicothepico to Araneae. The coaching style was changed very abruptly from a facilitating coach, who looks for our strengths and uses them, to an authoritarian coach, who forces his way of the game and demands the players, to follow this. As a player I was extremely restricted by this.

As a jungler you always look worse, when your teammates perform badly. Do you think, the last season hurt your value on the market?

I think it definitely did. At the same time I believe that other teams are able to evaluate my real worth for a different lineup though. There are only very few players, who can actually tell bad stories about me – as both a teammate and a person. This personal aspect of esports is often overlooked. Because of that superstar teams come up, where then egos clash and don’t work with each other, as nobody puts the wellbeing of the team above his own. I have shown to perfectly play this role and be flexible enough at the same time, to take the role of a carry.

Can you be sure, your next team will provide the right requirements in order for you to show all this?

will never again find myself in a similar situation as with Origen. By now I have made up my mind, about what a teams has to offer me, what players I would like to work with and what kind of structure needs to go hand in hand with that. I know what is needed, so I don’t burn out and can instead focus in my game. I will take care of not again being placed in a situation, where I have to take over tasks in the team, which keep me from being the best player I can possibly be.

What is your outlook for Origen under LeDuck as new old coach?

It is still completely unknown, which players will be with Origen in the upcoming season. I assume that Origen will find itself in a similar situation to Unicorns of Love. Maybe the team is going to keep a player from last season and then fill in the gaps with young, ambitioned players. LeDuck is likely to do this and is very good at working with young talents. He will work with them on a system for the game from scratch. Their goal will probably be to steal one or two victories here and there and then sneak into the playoffs. Such a team will often play more aggressive and faster – at the same time less calculated though. This is good for the regular season, but these teams fail in the playoffs more often than not.

The next season will bring many changes in gameplay to the pro-scene. What do you think about the jungle alterations?

I believe the jungle will be more foreseeable, because the respawn timers are being increased. Now you have to make intelligent decisions: It won’t be as blunt, as to farm until level 6 and only then join the rest of the game. You will have so many more options. There are several camps, which are problematic to clear, so you either go full XP or focus on ganks. These early-game decisions will influence the entire game greatly. In my opinion, we will profit from these alterations.

What will the assassin update do for the jungle?

I think the assassin meta will require you to feed the mid-lane. In many other metas it’s different, the mid-laner there is feeding the jungler – it was that way last season: the jungler calls his moves and the mid-laner was relatively safe with Ghost and Flash. If the asassin meta becomes as one dimensional, as many believe, the mid-laner will call the plays. Everything will depend on him: He gets the lead, the game will be over soon due to side-lane pressure. The new jungle plants will play into this too.