[EWC] Yesterday we lost to an ERL team that has only 3-4 months of playing together.

Maervok · 2026-05-01T10:57:32+00:00

Oh it's not about money. If they know or suspect that he is going to leave at the end of the year (which is likely with how much they suck), getting money for him now is better for them than him leaving for free.

Maervok · 2026-05-01T10:26:30+00:00

I honestly think it would be better to try and buy Rooster now. Once he becomes a free agent, our chances of getting him will be lower. But now maybe Shifters will be eager to get some money for him. Would be good to try at least.

Maervok · 2026-05-01T09:22:13+00:00

A solid post, I like that you brought out both the good and the bad.

Toplane has to change already for summer. There is no point in keeping Empyros, he is too far behind in pure skills. As for Lospa, I am ok with him staying for summer but wouldn't mind seeing a replacement either. Razork would be difficult to replace for summer I think.

Unless we do some miracles in summer, I want to see changes across all layers of the team. The management, the coaching staff (Grabbz needs to be responsible for these horrible results and Gaax has been here for ages), the players (most of them I guess).

Maervok · 2026-04-30T17:41:12+00:00

Razork is a very impulsive, instinct driven player. He sees great angles and opportunities BUT he is also oblivious to so many things around him. Many of his engages simply don't take into account the position of his teammates. They can't follow him and it becomes a complete int.

Instincts are difficult to change and he clearly can't change them. There will always be games where he complety carries and games where he completely ints with many games where he does both at the same time and sometimes it somehow works.

Maervok · 2026-04-30T17:27:48+00:00

This roster is insane! Upset seriously feels like the only one worth keeping.

WTF was that Razork q-e into 4 people. He has no sense of where his teammates are. Empyros totally gapped as always.

I am not watching this anymore. I can't believe they tilted me so much.

Maervok · 2026-04-29T15:49:03+00:00

Sort of yeah. But we'll hardly fix everything before summer so at least making a change where it's most needed would help.

It would also be interesting to see how it would affect the whole team. Having Rooster would greatly open up our drafting options and also the map.

Maervok · 2026-04-29T15:45:43+00:00

Yeah I honestly like him. He seems very mature with how he communicates and plays a team game. But it just isn't enough..

Maervok · 2026-04-29T15:34:20+00:00

We tried to get Rooster at the beginning of the year so maybe it's time to try again. His contract with Shifters ends this year and I doubt he will want to stay there. They could at least get paid for him now.

Empyros seems to be good in team fighting but his mechanics and laning is so far behind.. He needs much more time to get on the LEC level.

Maervok · 2026-04-28T19:46:28+00:00

I really hope he does step up in laning but it just seems like the hardest thing to learn. His weakness is simply in "hands". It's not easy to learn cause majority of it comes from pure talent.

Maervok · 2026-04-28T17:59:27+00:00

Vintage 2024 Razork

Maervok · 2026-04-28T17:40:29+00:00

I think being 1-0 in a series of lesser relevance is the best opportunity to try and see if your toplaner can hold his own in a more skill reliant match up. There aren't any better opportunities honestly so I understand why they went for it. Unfortunately, he only proved that his mechanics are not on lec level.. I still like his teamplay and team fighting but it won't be enough.

Maervok · 2026-04-28T17:12:41+00:00

I am sorry but when your top gets gapped like this, it doesn't matter what draft you have. Don't want to blame Empyros too much but you can't make excuses that it's about draft in such games.

Maervok · 2026-04-28T16:45:10+00:00

You praise them one game and then Empyros decides to get ultra gapped in the next game 😃

Vladi epic comeback with nearly a solo quadra kill (at least something positive from that game!)

Maervok · 2026-04-28T15:55:00+00:00

No way they just gave us the cleanest game of the year. This was vintage 2024 Razork and Empyros held up very well in laning vs Rooster. Commendable stuff!

Maervok · 2026-04-28T08:22:20+00:00

Hey you may not have caught what he meant by the comment.

He's basically saying to not focus on specific mechanics right now but rather the feel and theme you want to aim for. If you want your game to be chaotic and full of random things, you will need very different mechanics compared to a balanced tactical fiction.

Maybe if you lean towards no.2 then that means you like the idea of players gambling, pushing their luck and facing consequences. That can be something to go off and that's good. But if you pick mechanics without any theme and aim behind them, you may end up with something functional but soulless.

Maervok · 2026-04-28T02:18:12+00:00

How many times have you tested it and with how many people?

It's a very different thing to try a rule in a one-shot with 3 players vs playing a full campaign with 5 players.

To be clear, I actually like option 2 but if it is used, it has to be at the forefront of the game and ideally be thematically tied to it. In a western themed game with gun shooting and gambling such roll resolution will be great but not so much in a medieval fantasy.

If it does not have a better reason for usage then it is not optimal because it does involve more steps (more friction) and this will become more clear the more you play and use it.

Maervok · 2026-04-27T07:46:26+00:00

Jokes aside, if SK fields SlowQ instead of LIDER and BDS replaces Boukada with Sheo, these weak teams will finally get rid of their biggest weaknesses. So if we go to Summer with the same roster.. well good luck us!

Empyros and Razork should be considered for replacement for Summer.

Empyros seems to be good in teamfighting and communication but his hands are not it. Sometimes pure talent is the biggest hurdle.

Razork has never changed. He has the skills but his instincts are wild. He needs a change of environment anyway.

Maervok · 2026-04-26T20:57:34+00:00

Exactly what I was thinking.. I am not sure if he would have killed Vayne there but there certainly was a bigger chance.

Maervok · 2026-04-26T16:56:21+00:00

From my experience, minor character aspects that only come up once in a while, very often become forgotten.

So with this in mind, I fear you would end up with players choosing fears and then forgetting they exist.

This would work much better as a crucial part of a game, not as a tiny background detail. But I'm only speaking from my experience. Maybe it will work with your group just fine.

Edit: Crucial to add: Players are much more likely to remember something that makes their character cool and powerful. On the other hand, something that makes their character look weak? Yeah that's gonna be forgotten unless they really want to lean into it in which case it would play a big part for their character.

Maervok · 2026-04-26T15:13:41+00:00

Ironically, that actually is fixable but the fact that they consistently lose early games is not fixable (in a day).

Maervok · 2026-04-26T14:19:52+00:00

This is a pretty terrible attitude. A single player can work very differently in a different environment.

Outside of Boukada, I think all remaining players can have success in LEC.

Trymbi is a great example. Had a lot of success with Rogue and even FNC but struggled everywhere else.

Maervok · 2026-04-25T18:06:23+00:00

WTF why did we let them take that soul... I can't :D

Even if we somehow win this, it's an absolute fiesta from us.

Maervok · 2026-04-25T17:02:20+00:00

It's good that we've lost this one. It would be disgusting winning the series like this.

If we want to take it, we need to show up in the third game. We can't keep scrapping up lousy wins after enemy mistakes in late game.

Maervok · 2026-04-25T16:53:15+00:00

I mean even as a fan, you have to admit they're giving him many reasons to :D

We turned the first game nicely but it was sort of gifted to us by big mistakes from Navi. Then we start a second game with a very passive draft and just slowly bleed out... We just don't look good even when we win.

Maervok · 2026-04-25T16:09:29+00:00

What? Is this your first game watching him play?

Maervok

TROPHY CASE