SK Swiffer: "We lost sight of what we're good at."

Narrowly qualifying for playoffs, Swiffer and his team are now working towards showing a good form next Saturday. In this exclusive interview, the team's head coach details what went wrong in the last few weeks and more.

🇬🇧English

Simon "Swiffer" Papamarkos, Head Coach of SK Gaming, competing in the 2024 LEC Spring Season.

"If you give up in scrims, you are giving up on stage."

Once a star of the Oceanic Pro League (OPL), Swiffer now leads the charge as the head coach of SK Gaming. With over two years under his belt with the team, the coach hopes to make a splash in the LEC 2024 Spring Split. In this exclusive interview, Swiffer delves into the growing pains of SK Gaming and details what went wrong during the last few weeks.

| SK Gaming was fooled once, but not twice, as they just took down Rogue in a tiebreaker match for the last spot in playoffs. Swiffer, how are you feeling after today?

Swiffer: "I always knew deep down that we could actually play League of Legends. It's nice to see that I was correct. So... Yeah, I'm pretty happy. I had a big heart attack at the beginning of the match but, my players stayed calm and stuck to our game plan."

| Rogue getting that first blood must have been scary.

Swiffer: "Yeah, botching the dive and then Smolder getting, I think, like four plates or something was a bit much, but it is what it is."

| The last two weeks have been rough for SK Gaming. How are you feeling regarding your other recent matches?

Swiffer: "I think I said something similar when I was getting interviewed on the stage, but I think it's important to remember the context of the games, especially during the second week."

"Our matches are a reflection of scrims, right? If we don't take it seriously and we don't put in the amount of effort that we should, then yeah, of course, we're gonna play horribly."

"I think that really bit us in the ass in week 2 because we were in pretty good positions in all three games despite ending with only one victory out of three. We almost threw our third game against KCorp as well."

"In the first game against BDS, we were up like 6 or 7K gold with double inhibitors, and then we just lost focus at critical points in the game. I think that if you give up during scrims, then you are giving up on stage. Obviously, we still tried during the games but, you can tell when a team loses its fire. It was really a reflection of how we practiced."

| Through SK's Rift Knights documentary, we heard that the team seemed plagued with several problems, notably miscommunication and confidence issues. What would you say has been the biggest factor in your recent struggles aside from scrims?

Swiffer: "I think there's a couple of things, right? When you start losing, your judgment on what is a good or bad play deteriorates. As soon as you doubt yourself, then whatever you'll do will become a poor play, right? It's an accumulative process."

"You don't just go from being really confident to not being really confident. It's a symptom of losing a lot of games and feeling like you or your team aren't improving. I genuinely think that, while we say that we are confident sometimes, I don't believe that we were playing confidently in our own abilities and teammates."

"This confidence is really difficult to try and rebuild in the middle of a split. Getting a momentum shift when you have three Bo1s in a row and then three days of scrims... It's just so difficult to try and hit the reset button when you start struggling."

| Yeah, this format is very cutthroat.

Swiffer, disappointed by errors made during a match in the 2024 LEC.

| You used to be one of the OPL's GOATs as a mid-laner back in the day. As an ex-pro player, have you ever felt a desire to play again? We saw your frustrated reactions on coach cams; do you sometimes wish you could be on stage to prevent those errors in execution or mistakes?

Swiffer: "No, I think as soon as I became a coach, back on BT Excel, I already knew that I was doing it because my desire to play the game had completely faded."

"I didn't have the drive to play anymore. It was really challenging for me to get through the grind. And as soon as that transition happened, I never really felt the desire to play competitively again. It's not for me. I feel like I'd just crack under the pressure now."

"So now I'm just happy to facilitate things for my players. I can read my players pretty well and I know when they are playing well or not. I can tell when they aren't giving everything they've got because, I sometimes used to do that while saying that I was, and I know it's bullshit."

| You've been coaching SK Gaming for more than 2 years now. After going through ups and downs with the team, would you say that this lineup could be the one that elevates your organization back to the top of the EMEA region?

Swiffer: "Yeah, this is it. I think that the foundation is there for a very solid team, and I believe that we have five very talented players. You don't necessarily need the five best players in every single position to work well together; super teams don't always work out. What's crucial is for everyone to understand their role in the game."

"I think that's actually a big reason why we struggled a bit. We lost sight of what people were really good at or what their strengths were. However, I genuinely think that this is something we were reminded of today, right before this last game we played. If we keep that focus, narrow it down, know who we are, I don't see a reason why we can't succeed."

| We were just told that you will be facing Vitality in your first match of the playoffs. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Swiffer: "I mean, they stomped us the last time we played them... They stomped us in the last playoffs. I think they prepared a really, really good strategy against us. So, we're not going to take that lightly again. It was actually quite unexpected. I didn't think that they would do what they did.

"I believe they're a very strong team, and they're quite creative. I have much respect for their coaching staff as well as their players. So, yeah, it's a tough one, but we have to beat them to win. We have to beat everyone to win, so it starts here."

| In a few words, what would you say to non-believers in order to convince them to trust in SK Gaming?

Swiffer: "We'll fix our mid-game, we'll stop throwing games, we'll play to our strengths."

Swiffer, frustrated after a mistake in execution during the 2024 LEC.