Interview with dignitas/Brokenshard on the new EU squad and their goals moving forward

We had a short talk with Ram 'Brokenshard' Djemal, the jungler for our new EU Challenger team. We discussed how the squad came to join our organization, how they work together and their goals moving forward!

Welcome to the EU Team Dignitas squad!

Brokenshard: Thank you. We will be representing Team Dignitas in the EU Challenger Series. We beat Team Sparta 2-1 to enter the Challenger Series and we’ll be playing alongside Origen, Team Nevo, LowLandLions, Reason Gaming and n!faculty. It’s a six man league round robin style and our first match is on the 17th of February.

 

Could you give a small timeline for yourself? You’ve played in North America with CompLexity, went to Copenhagen Wolves, then to a coach as H2k and now you’re back as a player.

Brokenshard: I’ve kind of been all over the place. After I was replaced on CW I lost a lot of motivation to play League of Legends so I decided to be a coach. I coached Gamers2 and then issues within that caused me to leave the team. H2k and I were talking and I offered to help them during the Expansion Tournament, and it would just only be during the Expansion Tournament, so I did help them and they got into the LCS. We’ve since parted ways, and then I was thinking of what I wanted to do and I thought that I would take a break for a while and just relax, not actively pursue anything.

Then Sencux from SKP [SK Prime] at the time, approached and said that there were some issues with the roster and that the jungler that they wanted would be going to another team and they needed a jungler for the Challenger Series. He was thinking a lot about different junglers and he couldn’t really think of one that could suit a shotcalling role, which is what he felt they needed, so he came to ask me. At this point I wasn’t really playing so my initial thoughts were that I would help them, because I didn’t feel like I could be a player again. I didn’t think I had the motivation or have it in me.

We did some scrims and I felt that it could be done, it was definitely possible for me to come back, and throughout more days I got more and more motivated to play. The team just decided to stick together since we did beat Sparta in the Challenger Series.

 

What’s the dynamic been like?

Brokenshard: Since the old top laner and the jungler left we picked up Wunderwear and myself obviously. It’s just been going good, from the beginning we understood how the team worked and what champions worked for us and how we wanted to play the game. We picked up a coach, Rnglol, and we’ve been trialing some analysts to figure out who’s our best pick just so we would have the proper preparation for the Challenger Series so we can get the best results that we can get.

 

Why and how did Team Dignitas come to be?

Brokenshard: It’s actually really interesting, I’d been speaking to ODEE on and off for a couple months now, just randomly talking. We were Skyping, watching the NA LCS, and we [the team] had been looking for representation from an organization and I brought up that I was playing on a Challenger team that wasn’t contracted to anybody and it just kind of came to be. We started talking about specifics and the next thing you know contracts were written up, and we signed.

It’s not every day that a big organization like Team Dignitas comes to offer you a spot, especially in the EU Challenger Series. It’s very difficult to find organizations to put money and resources to invest in a Challenger team. We felt that with the offer we were getting and the support from the organization we would be able to go very far with the resources and the support that we get. It’s everything that we need to take it to the next step.

 

You guys are gunning for the best you can do during the spring Challenger and then hopefully the LCS Summer Split yes?

Brokenshard: Yeah we want to get into the LCS, but we understand that it might not be possible because we’re playing with two people who are underage, Sencux and Wunderwear. So unless we get first place in the Challenger split we’ll have to play the relegations with two different substitutes. We want to see as far as we can get. If we can get first and get auto LCS that’d be really cool, otherwise we’ll just play as long as we keep doing well.

 

I hope you guys do well and hopefully we’ll see a Dignitas not only in North America but in Europe.

Brokenshard: Yeah, we’re really happy to be representing Dignitas in the EU split, so hopefully it goes well for everybody.