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Interview with Akaadian On His Year in The NACS and Dream Team
Dig Sage talks to Akaadian about his year in the 2016 North American Challenger Series. We go more in depth about the contrasting structures of Dream Team and Team Liquid Academy, his time on Dream Team and his ideas on how the NACS should be a platform for undeveloped players to grow.
Akaadian playing under Team Liquid Academy. Taken from the Riot Games Stream.
So you have had time to rest and prepare yourself for next split. How has your off-season been so far?
Akaadian: Off-season has been great for me. I've had a lot of time off to de-stress, play less soloqueue, focus more on my personal health and take care of doctors appointments and the like. Right now, I'm basically just waiting to see what I'm going to do, but I have a pretty good idea.
You were able to successfully qualify for playoffs both splits on TLA and Dream Team, would you say that you are happy with the way this split turned out?
Akaadian: I'd say that I'm generally happy with this year, on TLA we ended around where I expected us to, but on Dream Team I thought we were really good. It made me sad that we got put against Cloud 9 Challenger because nobody really had a chance to beat those guys just based of individual player skill. I think this split turned out well for me though, I'm at a good place and am ready to move my experience into next split.
Why did you have more confidence in Dream Team as opposed to TLA? Was it because of your team;s abilitiy to play as a team?
Akaadian: On Dream Team, I think we just had more confidence in each other as players. If someone was having a bad game during a match, we would try to build them up and just focus on what we could do to win. We were really good at moving around the map and everyone had a very strong sense of macro play on the team so if the game went past 30 minutes as an even game, we would rarely lose. So yeah, I'd say it's just due to our team play that gave me more confidence.
Would you say that if the promotion still hosted three teams, you would have been the third place team?
Akaadian: Absolutely. We were definitely better than Nova.
Qualifying for LCS has become a lot tougher with the new rules to the promotion tournament that only allow two teams from NACS to qualify for LCS. Does the change discourage you from winning NACS?
Akaadian: No. I think only about two teams come out of the challenger pool with the potential to even make it into LCS vs an LCS team every split anyway, so i don't really mind the change i think it's fair. The only thing that is discouraging is having stuff happen where top LCS players come and stomp challenger for a paycheck like Cloud 9 Challenger did. I think winning NACS and making LCS is still a very real dream for a lot of people.
I can definitely understand that. Instead of trying to foster talent like TLA, they relied on LCS proven players to make more money. Do you believe doing what Cloud 9 Challenger did help the NACS scene or does it hurt it? Is there a solution that can stop Cloud 9 Challenger from happening again?
Akaadian: Honestly it didn't help or hurt the scene at large. Just took a spot away from either Nova or Dream Team from getting a shot at LCS. I don't think anyone got better playing them, as they had a very distinct style that you would ONLY see on game days so i guess our team personally couldn't get much from them. But yeah it honestly hasn't changed anything. As far as a solution goes i have no idea, that's for riot to decide. When it's something that blatant I think something should be done. Players that went to worlds and playoffs for LCS the season before shouldn't be playing in challenger. Granted, I don't know everything. I'm just sitting from a very salty (noob) challenger player perspective and there's probably others out there with much different ones.
I can completely understand. The NACS should function very similar to traditional sports leagues farm systems. It should be used as a stepping stone to nurture the talent into an LCS calibur player. I have actually heard about stories of C9 in general performing completely different in scrims. Could you elaborate on what you could only see game day?
Akaadian: On game day they didn't really take the same risks. Best way to describe practice against them was clown fiesta for the most part. Maybe there is wisdom in practicing the way they did given their results though.
How was your time playing under Team Liquid Academy compared to Dream Team?
Akaadian: I think Team Liquid had a much better environment set up with strong coach and infrastructure set up. I'd say I had a more enjoyable time playing on Dream Team just because I was a much more complete player and was much better in summer by that point. I was also really close with all of my teammates so it was fun just bonding and spending time over there.
So Dream Team as an organization itself has had a lot of issues with infrastructure and player salaries. Is the flack they are receiving deserved?
Akaadian: Yes I think it's pretty unorganized over there.
In terms of organization, what was Team Liquid able to do that Dream Team was not?
Akaadian: Keep a constant coaching staff, keep the house cleaned, be really professional etc.. another big thing was I was regularly able to watch spring split Liquid play scrims which I think can help a player improve insane amounts. I think overall from my experience at Liquid and dream team liquid was sort of the no bs, we're here to win and be good at the game and we will not put up with any crap. It just had that vibe, you know, like everyone was expected to work really hard and there would be no slacking. Whereas Dream Team was basically just the players living in the house playing and we had coaches coming in and out. It just lacked structure of authority I think I'm not sure.
After playing on a number of different challenger teams, Would you say that Dream Team is an accurate representation of what the NACS is?
Akaadian: More or less yes thats probably an average challenger team for you.
If teams adopt the mentality that Team Liquid enforced on their players, where could you see the NACS at by the end of Season 7?
Akaadian: I think more players would really have a chance of playing in the LCS if that happened. Nothing really gets you LCS ready better than seeing how an LCS team works and how they think. I just think right now there's maybe two teams, about two players in each role that could be on a team that has a chance to make LCS. After that, talent grows pretty thin and you start to work with either proven mediocre players or players with no experience at all, neither of which is fun. I think challenger teams with infrastructure have an innate advantage over those that don't value it and do not give support to their teams like they should.
Do you think an NACS with all LCS B squads could ever happen? Can the NACS become an actual farm system like baseball with their minor league system?
Akaadian: Absolutely, I just think that's in the future if franchising actually happens. That could be pretty cool. I think the Koreans had a good idea doing sister teams and B Teams.
It is definitely something that we should look to achieve. North America has the money and infrastructure to build towards it. But until then you still have about 4 months what are your plans?
Akaadian: The practicing for challenger teams in NACS usually starts no later than December first or so. As of right now, I'm just looking at which teams I'm interested in joining and will likely make a decision in November some time. For right now I'm sort of just chilling out and playing low amounts of solo queue and working out making sure I'm ready for next season.
That is all for the interview! Again, thank you Akaadian for your insight on the NACS. It was truly a pleasure talking to you about an important part of competitive League of Legends.