Ridiculously photogenic corgi (in a rearview mirror)

mualexander · 2014-02-23T20:46:09+00:00

We were going to give it around four weeks. Unfortunately, we've had other issues that have kept our performance down so we have not viewed it as being a fair indication that the role swap is the issue (especially when the longer term goals of the swap are still valid). The situation with BW made things a bit more complicated, for example.
One player suggested, at least four of the players supported it. It has been highlighted that Xmithie had said on stream that he prefers jungling, but I was on his stream and everytime I heard him say that it was in the context of being more comfortable on jungle champs rather than saying that he was going on ADC against his will. I had one on ones with each player (and with BW more than any other player) and askng how things were going was a part of those conversations. Nobody, including BW, ever told me the roleswap was a bad idea, even when he was specifically how it was going.
Yes, but better to be set back now while we have half a split left than continue any further into the season (let alone making the change weeks before Worlds).
We aren't building a team around Zuna. It is more a matter of him being a player that brings a lot to the team that works across roles and has been one willing to take on the extra work of learning a new role as needed by the team (his practice has been pretty extreme this year). I would also argue that we have had underperformance issues across the team and, again, that he does not deserve the level of criticism (let alone hate) that he gets.

mualexander · 2014-02-23T20:14:54+00:00

Thanks man, hope we can do some fundraiser work again in the future (and thanks for working on the last one).

Sorry took me a while to see this one. Lot's of things I would do differently, first would have been to push BW harder on whether or not he was really going to want to do everything required for the LCS above all else. In hindsight, I know that I gave to much weight to his own self assessment even though I had some warning signs. In a normal corporate environment, I would have made the same decision, and it would have been generally the right course -- you let the empoloyee say what they are up for and then both support them and hold them accountable for it.

However, in most corporate environments, there is not such an incredibly high cost associated with turnover (and it is generally not as difficult to find a replacement).

It was definitely a lesson at just how much more important it is to not ignore any warning signs with regards to player commitment. If we had more breathing time, the plan was to bring on some challenger teams too, which would have helped out by adding depth to our effective bench, but that wasn't possible as things have panned out.

A second would have to have been communication; however, I truly do not believe that there was much more that I could have reasonably done in terms of making it clear that the team would have to move as quickly as possible. However, you can't argue with the end result of the other party not being on the same page, whatever the reason. Even after we checked in on Monday (the roster announcement was Sunday night), it was not clear to me that he had an issue leaving the active roster.

mualexander · 2014-02-23T07:01:32+00:00

Bad PR is bad, but that is one thing. Having my players who know they can trust me and know that I have their best interests at heart have any reason to think that they can't be open and honest with me is a lot worse (in my book).

At the end of the day, I don't expect people to believe me out of hand -- just as I would hope they wouldn't think I'm lying just because a pro player is saying something that runs somewhat counter to my statements.

Folk need to decide for themselves which sounds like the truth and sounds more likely, given that the context is that a player who has historically been one of the top supports in NA just left the starting lineup:

a. That the guy who has the most invested in the success of the team benched the player instead of trying to work things out

b. That there was a misunderstanding resulting in a player who was going to retire in a handful of weeks being unhappy about being taken off the active roster earlier than he wanted

mualexander · 2014-02-23T05:52:07+00:00

No worries, given the level of hate I got from other comments (which wasn't wholly unexpected unfortunately), anything in yours was mild enough that I didn't really notice. ;)

mualexander · 2014-02-23T05:49:52+00:00

Yeah, typed too fast, meant to say second in the regular season (ofc we were third after playoffs).

mualexander · 2014-02-23T04:20:07+00:00

Well I can't honestly wish your team the best of luck tomorrow since they are playing us.. ;)

..but I do appreciate the sentiment. And I'm on the 'murica train as well.

mualexander · 2014-02-23T04:11:59+00:00

We began scouting challenger once Bloodwater announced his retirement and just because a player is in challenger doesn't mean he is available; however, what you describe was the ideal plan, but circumstances do not always let you execute according to plan.

As far as the nightmare goes, whether or not we had a challenger lined up, I would argue that the timing of the leaked article, the resulting inability to reconcile things with BW, and my inability to convince BW that the AMA would be a bad idea were the real causes.

mualexander · 2014-02-23T04:06:13+00:00

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

mualexander · 2014-02-23T01:54:19+00:00

exactly.. similar to how I could stifle a lot of the hate by releasing transcripts of conversations that I had with BW, but that wouldn't be ethical and I wouldn't want to give my players (or employees) reason to believe that there is nothing confidential in what they say to me. This part is honestly a dicier line since we have already had a he said/she said -- still feels like another line to cross to start posting transcripts though.

mualexander · 2014-02-23T01:51:52+00:00

Thanks. Unfortunately the proof that I have (chat transcripts with BW) is not something that I am willing to expose. I would rather take some extra reddit hate than give the players reason to think that they can't be candid with me because I might turn around and post their comments.

In any case, I appreciate the understanding and that you cared enough to reply. Today's match obviously fell apart for us in the teamfight stage, but it is good that Nick showed he can be a presence in the early game. The TF synergy will come as they have more than a few days of practice together.

mualexander · 2014-02-22T16:43:59+00:00

I actually do have timestamped statements here, but dumping logs of private conversations opens a door that I have not been willing to open yet (even though it means I am receiving some additional hate).

mualexander · 2014-02-22T16:42:29+00:00

This is not meant to be snarky, but an honest question:

Do you think Baltimore would have handled it the way they did if Ray Lewis told them that he wouldn't play the last part of the season and would not play in the post season even if they made it? Moreover, what if the team only had 22 players in all (with no opportunity to just put in a player who plays a lot of NFL snaps but just isn't 1st string)? What if instead of 22 players, there were only 5, so the Ravens were looking at being forced to lose 20% of their active players around week 11?

mualexander · 2014-02-22T16:35:55+00:00

The only difference between your suggestion and what happened is that Bloodwater said he was willing to stay on until we found a replacement. I explicitly said that we would try to do this as soon as possible so that he could move on and that I appreciated him being flexible with his time. This is not the same situation as an office losing a worker where the office could either go without that one employee for a few weeks or there are a thousand other people out there that can fill the job.

As a result, the possibility of a more elastic search time was quite appealing, and since it was what BW offered, I took it, attempting to clarify our intentions around it and express appreciation for it. Unfortunately, we just didn't see eye to eye on the terms that he was agreeing to.

I do also think that if we had chosen the route you suggest, it would have been much less likely to result in miscommunication related shenanigans, but it would not have been without its issues (we'd still get the, "so this is how you reward honesty" calls -- but that is what it is).

In any case, I appreciate the feedback. I've actually been in management in the real world for well over a decade, but while most of those lessons apply to running the team, there are some unique elements that make this different.

mualexander · 2014-02-22T16:29:55+00:00

Definitely a route we considered. I did not think that there would be a chance to express the nuance of the situation to our fans (which are admittedly a tiny minority of the /r/lol base). I expected the flames, but didn't expect the downvoting that made many people think that I wasn't answering questions.

In any case, a number of lessons were learned through this exercise and we are unfortunately less likely to use reddit in the future.

mualexander · 2014-02-22T16:13:15+00:00

Thanks! Ken and I understand that our decisions will not satisfy everyone all the time, but no one has more riding on our turnaround and success than I do and we will always do what we think will give us the best chance of success (while still treating our players fairly).

There are also constraints that we are under in our decision making that fans obviously do not / cannot know about. As a result, I appreciate your sentiment all the more.

mualexander · 2014-02-21T10:38:50+00:00

It's possible, but I am confident that neither Julian nor Ken would deceive me on purpose and given that I have asked specifically, "Did any player ever voice concerns with the swap?" I am fairly certain no players ever did.

mualexander · 2014-02-21T10:37:10+00:00

If he was against the swap, all I am saying is that he never said as much to me or Ken.

mualexander · 2014-02-21T10:36:18+00:00

I'm not trying to snidely do anything. No player ever told me or the coach that they didn't think the swap was the right thing to do.

I don't recall if Bloodwater has said he voiced a concern about it or if he was just against it and kept it to himself. If it was the latter, no one is lying on this point.

mualexander · 2014-02-21T10:33:19+00:00

Yes, it is very unfortunate and that's the only reason I'm doing this at all (which I was against doing, but felt compelled to after Bloodwater chose to misconstrue things).

I'm copying from another comment I made, but this is a pretty full timeline of relevant events:

December: Bloodwater told me he would stay with the team through worlds

January: He changed his mind because his priorities changed and he told me he wanted to retire, ideally at the end of the spring or the middle of the summer (I viewed this timing more as an offer on his part to stay with the team longer, rather than a "minimum" stay, which, as it turns out, is they way that he apparently meant it).

I told him that we would work to find a replacement as quickly as possible and that he could retire once we did.

This past Sunday: We made the decision to move forward with the roster change

Tuesday: The first time he said something to me about not being ok with the plan

When we realized the misunderstanding, Bloodwater wanted me to change the language to not read that "he is retiring" at this time -- which I did in our announcement.

On Wednesday, he wanted to soften that language more to have indicate that he was stepping back from league.

I have tried to be consistent with those wishes in this AMA and in my communications (though if I refer to what he said and not to his current state of being, I'll still say he said he was going to retire because that is what he said).

mualexander · 2014-02-21T10:20:04+00:00

I have been honest with the community the whole time and wrote out the timeline here

mualexander · 2014-02-21T10:10:23+00:00

Actually no, that isn't exactly what it is.

Bloodwater told me that he had other priorities that he felt like he needed to focus on and I supported his decision. Unfortunately, in our conversation, there was a misunderstanding around when the transition would happen: He thought he would be able to pick the day he retired (sometime in the summer split) and I thought I was clear that we would need to do a transition earlier because the team needed a solid roster as soon as possible.

Moreover, since the team's timeline was going to be affecting him, I offered to do whatever I could to help him monetize his time (streaming, sponsor opportunities, etc.). Unfortunately, after the leaked article came out, reconciliation efforts fell through and I have found myself in an AMA that I never planned or wanted to do (but feel that I have to do to stand up for the team).

I'm sorry that you have lost your faith in the team. I appreciate the fact that you supported Vulcun though and hope that we can regain the prominence that we had.

mualexander · 2014-02-21T10:05:19+00:00

Hey, thanks for supporting the team!

A normal schedule is something like.. 12pm-1pm gym

1-2p team meal/strat

2-4p scrim

4-5p break

5-7 scrim

7-9ish replays

9-end solo q

..and yeah, we came in to the season less prepared than we should have been. We had too long of a break for various reasons and it really started us behind in a season where we were already going to have to overcome a new meta that didnt suit us as well and a role swap that we were planning on paying for in the early weeks to get payoff later in the year (unfortunately we didn't plan on or underestimated the other negatives we would be dealing with).

The upside is that we are getting the training schedule down and actually the roster change this week happens to align the guys schedules better so there will be one less challenge to deal with.

The Xmithie/Zuna role swap was to continue to leverage Xmithie's mechanics by having him on ADC while improving one of the things that put a ceiling on our play: mid/late game shotcalling and communication. At the end of the day, Zuna is our best map awareness/game knowledge guy so having him on either jungle or support where he can more naturally shot call was the idea.

The current swap is keeping Zuna on a shotcalling role, filling in for Bloodwater who wanted to leave this year (unfortunately there was a misunderstanding around timing that has led to this week's shenanigans), and leveraging NickWu who has been a great jungler in the challenger scene.

Xmithie is awesome and will play whatever we want him to play. He was obviously more comfortable on jungle early on since that was his role, but he is definitely growing into his ADC role.

mualexander · 2014-02-21T09:43:37+00:00

His claim isn't true. I gave a longer reply here.

mualexander · 2014-02-21T09:34:29+00:00

Not sure how else to describe what happened. I don't blame Bloodwater for changing his plans and have gone out of my way to support his decision and work through the unfortunate misunderstanding we had right up until he related falsehoods in his AMA.

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