During LFL Days, Garih, Assistant coach at BDS Academy, told us about his return to LFL alongside Team BDS, the position of assistant coach fitting him the best, the prospects on his team and his vision of the European landscape to come on League of Legends.
Hello Garih! Firstly, congrats on your win against Team GO, how do you feel after winning over a former team of yours?
"Yes, of course, it's nice to win against them, but unfortunately, their current team is no longer made up of the people I've worked with in the past, so it's a slightly different taste. My aim is still to win against the people I've previously worked with in my career, but a win is still a win."
How does it feel to be back in LFL? Do you find some changes since the last time you were here ?
"Changed, yes and no, it's still the strongest league in the region, but I still have the feeling that I'm taking part in something much bigger, something much better prepared, with a much higher level than before. It's evolving, at its own pace, and you can't necessarily see that from the outside, but everything's good, and there's a lot more available to the teams."
Last year you were recruited by Barça eSports, is there any particular reason for your coming back to LFL with BDS?
"My primary objective is to reach the LEC and then win the LEC. And to do that, I think I'm more likely to do it with the BDS. Firstly, because there's an academic team. Secondly, because the players are simply better. Thirdly, BDS offers everything I need to achieve my goal, namely an environment conducive to top performance, learning, and evolving via the LEC team, and finally the possibility of being promoted to the top league without changing structure."
"I'd like to add that playing in the best league is necessary if you want to succeed, and being top 1 in the LFL gives you the best chance of playing in the LEC."
You said earlier that you work a lot with the LEC BDS team who’s performing well, can you tell us a bit more about the collaboration and how it works?
"Every two days at least I try to ask them questions and ask for an opinion on some of our training or our results. But in the other direction too, I watch their matches and allow myself to ask them about some of their decisions or certain actions and strategies put in place. It’s an exercise they also do, watch our games, to share their opinions and questions if they have any."
"I find this way of doing things very positive, for example, two years ago the team that played in LFL surpassed the roaster present in LEC when BDS was last. Last year it was the opposite, the LEC team beat BDS Academy quite widely. I think both teams are good and learn from each other in a very healthy way."
You share your wish to progress in LEC, do you want to do this as an assistant coach, in your current position?
"Yeah, I think that my skill set is better for an assistant coach, I like to let someone make the decision, and I come to add my opinion, help to find the more effective approach, methods to optimize, give the better conditions, also improve laning phases of players, give tips on draft. I don’t like to be the main guide, more to help others follow"
Yesterday you won over KC who was before that, first in the league, do you see yourself as the strongest team in LFL and who’s your biggest opponent?
"To be honest, I think we were already the best before facing KC, we had a really tough game last week, in real life, in drafts, we were not standing as top 1 but I still think we are the best. I will say that KC got some wins on LFL that they didn’t deserve, they are a strong team sure I will not put them below the top 3, but I will not say either that they are the strongest team. I think BK ROGUE is underrated so far, I expect Gentle Mates to be better, but yeah I put BK ROGUE in the competition for the TOP 1/2."
You punctually share your opinion about players where you find good potential. Many players of the current KC roaster are seen as strong talents/prospects, do you agree with that?
"Without a doubt, some of the KC players are the future of the league. I will surely put Caliste as one of the best carries in his role, the way he played this week, and currently, not even the Top 4 in LEC can do that, I have high considerations for him."
"All the others are for sure granted, with the potential to be good in LEC, not as talented as Caliste, but they are really good.I like Maynter for example, I think he doesn’t play the best champions so far, but I expect him to play way more aggressive champ’s. But he will be a really good player to put into the LEC list."
About you’re an actual team in BDS Academy, do you see them competing in LEC in the future? And do you think they will be contesting for the LEC roaster?
"Some of our players got really good proof here like JNX already got the level to play 3 years ago. I believe in our jungle support, I think they are the best jungle/support in the league, especially Parus who is good. He is still young, and over his qualities and his gameplay, in my opinion, he has the potential to be the best support in LEC / Europe in two years. And when he gets there he will only become better, I’m pretty curious about how it will work, but I’m sure he will be there, Parus has everything to do that."
"I think Skewmond is pretty talented too, he still has one or two things to fix here and there but he will play in LEC. Keduii already had the LEC level for years now, he just needs to get one chance so, we will see how that develops."
Talking about Keduii, we also share the opinion that he already has the level to play in LEC, why do you think he needs to get there, is it only a lack of chance to prove himself?
"If I had to point out some things, he needs to fix some habits, I’m here to help him, that’s one of my jobs to fix these habits. He also had to be a little more consistent, if he tries to be more efficient in those things, he will be in LEC that’s for sure."
Talking about habits, do you think BDS as a team has some bad habits? If you can share it with us of course.
"We're not aggressive enough as a team, and there are areas where it's important to get going, to assert a position, intending to win. We're not used to committing ourselves enough, which closes windows that could enable us to win earlier, like today. I want to see more initiative and efficiency in fighting in the jungle, especially in our part of the world, which isn't known for being strong in this area, ourselves included. If you want to win, you need to be aggressive, that's how it is."
Last question but not least, will you win LFL?
"We will win the LFL, I promised this some years ago, but I haven’t done it yet. It never quite worked out the way I'd hoped, but this time I'm convinced things will turn out differently."
