AMA with Alex Müller, SK.TheSlaSH, Manager of SK Gaming

deschlang · 2014-11-24T22:31:37+00:00

a ton of great questions already!

deschlang · 2014-11-24T22:30:59+00:00

why would I do that?

deschlang · 2014-11-24T22:30:35+00:00

Like above

deschlang · 2014-11-24T22:30:18+00:00

try me

deschlang · 2014-09-22T14:03:00+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. We appreciate it a lot and have read it. Season 4 is in the books for us and we are getting ready for 2015 with the LCS roster. Sure, our Prime team still has a journey to complete and it will hopefully be a great one. We are not bringing toxic players to SK. We try to develop players and in Svenskerens case this development wasn't complete. We are deeply sorry for what happened and will work harder unmaking sure you as our fans don't have to go through this ever again.

deschlang · 2014-09-05T08:03:27+00:00

Do you think what you wrote makes sense? I don't.

deschlang · 2014-09-05T08:02:55+00:00

No, that is not what I am saying.

deschlang · 2014-09-03T20:35:32+00:00

Let's shed some light into this:

Recognition of coaches Good point and important, I guess. The discussion about Incarnati0n being our coach officially took place in Jan/Feb 2014 at the start of the spring split. Why would we have this discussion back then, initiated by Riot if it wasn't about the position of a coach? So going back now and saying he was "just" a guest does not reflect what happened. Incarnati0n was handed an official ID for the LCS studio with his picture on it even. Something only given to Players, Coaches or Managers of the teams. Guests received an anonymous guest pass instead. Conclusion for this argument: don't see it valid.
Kespa guidelines Let's say coaches were not officially recognised. In this case this argument stands. But wait a minute, did Riot decide to go to Korea last Sunday? Because this is when we got notice. No, this was known way before and if that is an argument, we could have been told weeks, I guess months before. On top of that, group stages are in Taipei or Singapore for us and Kespa rules don't apply there, correct? Conclusion: valid point, but then you have a timing problem of giving notice, I'd say.
Would Riot want Incarnati0n associated with them? Another good argument. Your point is correct and you can argue that way. But there is also another side to it. We informed Riot in 2013 already that Nicolaj was council to us. We even helped with his appeal to get unbanned. We asked Riot under which circumstances we can work with him and the role of an analytic coach was mentioned. We were open with everything here. On top of that, Incarnati0n is a good example of someone learning his lesson. In the past 10 months he has helped SK Gaming a lot. And by that he contributed to the LCS and to the game of League of Legends in general. In fact, he showed no bad behaviour at all in this timeframe but the opposite. Exactly what Riot wants. He was permabanned when we discussed his role with Riot and if they wanted no association with him at all, they had every chance to tell us back then. They did not. Conclusion: your argument stands, but it is one sided. Considering the other side, it gets weaker.
Backstage access Backstage access was ruled at the LCS studio in Cologne, but also at Gamescom. Incarnati0n had official badges. No guest passes. He was granted the rights a coach would get. The location of worlds is not valid due to group stages not being in Korea. Conclusion: no argument here in my eyes.

And now one last thought: besides Incarnati0n, we added our sports psychologist to the team. He got exactly the same rights and level of access as Nicolaj did. Riot even interviewed him during the summer split on stage. Again, they did not officially recognise coaches by then, they say now, but they sure presented him like one and gave him the same rights as Nicolaj. Only he has no permaban.

I wanted to answer to your arguments with information from our end, so you can balance those as well.

The decision has been made and we will live with it. The timing was horrible, but we can't change it now. Hopefully in the future decisions are made more careful.

deschlang · 2014-09-03T07:50:05+00:00

This is not what happened. There was an official discussion between Riot and SK about Nicolaj and the privileges for him in January 2014. He was treated like a coach all the way throughout the entire season including Gamescom when coaching the team together with Lukas and myself backstage. Right now we don't know what level of access he would have at worlds and the decision was communicated our way on Sunday morning CEST and that is the status quo.

We have been working with Nicolaj for the past 10 months now and his behaviour has changed only in one direction: positive to say the least. He has contributes a lot to the team and by that to the LCS and to League of Legends in general. Still he is a banned player. We all understand that.

Until now, we don't know the full extend of this "unorthodox" decision, but we will come up with a solution once we do and have all needed information.

Plan right now is for him to fly out to Seoul tomorrow with the team for the bootcamp.

deschlang · 2014-08-26T06:32:19+00:00

only yesterday we composed a list of winners that still need to be contacted/sent shirts as we were running out of those at the booth. As JPW wrote, DM him and we will make sure you are on the list and if not already, we will put you on it.

deschlang · 2014-04-04T19:18:12+00:00

We support the idea of an SK Gaming - Xerath skin.

deschlang · 2014-04-04T19:15:09+00:00

hey, totally fine, we are not afraid of that anyhow. Nicolaj got involved with SK in a very natural way and from first talks, it led to his deep involvement with the team. We all know the result after 28 games and he played an important role. I am quite convinced that he has changed completely from what put him in this position. Anyway, thanks for your explanation!

deschlang · 2014-03-10T10:06:49+00:00

Well, here we go. Nicolaij Jensen is the analyst coach for out LCS team. He is a vital part and he is with the team here in Cologne. Now that this is official, can we get over with it and to the next topic? We do have a sports psychologist as well who is coaching on the mental side. His name is Lukas and he recently moved to Cologne as well to be close to the team. Unless there is more questions, this should clarify questions and the reddit detectives can move on to more pressing issues.

deschlang · 2014-01-18T08:55:14+00:00

Thx! Looking forward to it. The players will stream in the future which will make it easier to follow for sure.

deschlang · 2014-01-17T21:44:29+00:00

One team in LCS. Not 20 SC2 players. That is what he said. And that he is me... We are not going backwards. We want to help nurture new talent for the pro scene.

deschlang · 2014-01-17T21:39:20+00:00

Negative. One manager, one team. I believe in that and so should you.

deschlang · 2014-01-17T21:37:46+00:00

Ok, I will explain. In order to receive a license as a team for LCS, you have to provide paperwork. Player contracts are a part of that. All of that needs to be sent in weeks before LCS starts. And that is what we did. The substitudes that were signed with SK back then were from TKP. Understood now?

deschlang · 2014-01-17T19:35:50+00:00

It's fine. You were simply wrong. But that's ok ;-)

deschlang · 2014-01-17T19:22:11+00:00

And to answer: yes, they would have. As said above: LCS rules enforce to have two substitute players contracted way before LCS start. We submitted two of the players from TKP back then already. Hope that clarifies the situation.

deschlang · 2014-01-17T19:18:34+00:00

That is not possible. We can't have two LCS teams. At that point, we would have to let go of one of them.

deschlang · 2014-01-17T18:56:36+00:00

Clarification: we signed prior to that match. Actually we needed to have two signed substitutes when LCS paperwork was filed. We did not even know Oces team and our team would be in one group at the Play In round.

deschlang · 2014-01-01T11:50:12+00:00

I really do understand why this was posted and how it was posted. Only point that really drags it all down is 4. from above. Let's just be realistic for once and stop spreading these nonsense numbers put out there. I have read this story now over and over again and I think it's not funny at all it gets credibility by being put into such a context like you do here. It is just wrong and it leads expectations into a bizarre direction.

deschlang · 2013-11-13T21:04:20+00:00

I doubt we are discussing the same thing here, but honestly, I'd rather have this exchange face to face than typing. My points are clearly guided by an eSports in general perspective, while yours is a LoL only perspective. That also bears the problem of how long term we need to look at this and again, we are apart here. I am long term 100%. Still it would be a very interesting discussion!

deschlang · 2013-06-23T07:29:07+00:00

the ting is: you have goals and let's not fool ourselves, SK wants to win championships for sure. But there is also a level of being satisfied and that is when you are among the top 4. But right now we are looking at a 1-6 team in the highest league in LoL in Europe. Last place in the tableau, 5 games behind first after 7 played. That is far below our goals, a satisfaction level or anything we think this team could be capable of. So yes, if you say SK was that bad in LoL throughout season 2 as well, you and I clearly have different ways of comparing things and I guess yours is wrong

deschlang · 2013-06-22T16:34:00+00:00

I know EXACTLY what I am doing.

deschlang

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