From outcasts to standouts, the rebels of Team Heretics are quickly climbing the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) Spring Season standings, now sitting at 4-3 after a crucial victory against SK Gaming. With only a few matches left and a playoff spot on the line, the young squad continues to impress. In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, 19-year-old midlaner Kamil "Kamiloo" Haudegond opens up about his path to improvement, his first potential playoffs appearance, confidence, and learning from others.

How are you feeling after this win against SK? It must feel good, right?

Kamil "Kamiloo" Haudegond: "Yeah, I’m feeling good. It’s an important win, especially because it puts us in a very good position for playoffs, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Still, it definitely feels good to win this one.

You're now 4–3 with two matches left, against Fnatic and GIANTX. How are you feeling going into the end of the split? Especially after a rough Winter Split, where you finished 8th. You must really be hungry to make playoffs, right?

Kamiloo: Yeah, definitely. We want to put up a much better showing than we did in Winter. And looking further ahead, especially for Summer, our goal is to be able to compete with the top teams. So what we’re doing now is part of that process.

Victor "Flakked" Lirola wasn't too happy after today's match. It's clear you all are aiming higher. Do you think you're close to the level of the league's top teams?

Kamiloo: There are moments where we play really well, where our potential is high, but our problem is consistency. Even if we won 2–0 today, it clearly wasn’t our best performance. It wasn’t our cleanest level of play. It happens to have off days, but we need to work on that and be able to play at our 100% every time.

Would you say there was a bit more pressure today, given how much was on the line for playoffs?

Kamiloo: Actually, I think the problem was that we came into this match with no pressure at all. We came in a bit too relaxed, lacking energy. That’s something we’ll need to talk about as a team. The game was a bit weird... but in the end, we won.

You mentioned a lack of energy today, and actually, Flakked told me back in week 2 — after the losses to G2 and MKOI — that there had been a real lack of seriousness in scrims. Do you feel like things have been better since then, or is there still work to do? And what do you think needs to happen to avoid that kind of drop in intensity again?

Kamiloo: We’re on the right track. We’re improving on that, but there are still some scrims where we’re lacking energy, or some weeks that just aren’t good enough. It’s something each player has to work on individually, because it can come from a lot of different things: sleep, nutrition, or personal issues. Everyone needs to make that effort — myself included — because even if it starts as something individual, it ends up affecting the whole team. We’re making progress, but we have to keep going in that direction.

Flakked and Sheo have more experience, while you just came up from the LFL Division 2. Do you feel like your voice carries just as much weight on the team? Do you take the lead sometimes, or are you mostly focused on improving and adapting to the LEC level for now?

Kamiloo: It depends on the game. There are champions I’m really comfortable on, and in those cases I communicate a lot. But on others, like Azir for example, I’m still working on improving my individual play first. It’s a champion that requires a lot of control, a slower playstyle, whereas I feel more comfortable on faster-paced picks like Taliyah or Ahri, where I can really help lead the game.

So yeah, my ability to take the lead depends on the situation. But in any case, my voice is heard within the team. Maybe even a bit more than others sometimes, precisely because I’m a rookie. It’s important for the others to know how I feel on certain champions. If I say I’m not comfortable or don’t want to play a pick, they take it into account. It’s a really good environment — we all listen to each other.

What do you think is the most important thing to work on in order to become a midlaner who can compete with players like Marek "Humanoid" Brázda or Rasmus "Caps" Winther? Is it more about solo queue, scrims, reviews, or interacting with coaches and experienced players?

Kamiloo: It’s really a bit of everything. Like you said, communicating well with the staff and other players is important, grinding solo queue seriously, doing 1v1s, and reviewing games on your own. What’s for sure is that when I arrived, I was really behind everyone else, which is normal. There’s no magic solution. You just have to do the work, do it well, and do a lot of it. That’s the recipe. It’s nothing special, but you have to commit to it every day.

Would you say there’s one person in particular you’ve learned the most from since joining the LEC?

Kamiloo: Among my teammates, I’d say Sheo. Among our staff, I’d say Nayas (Victor Quevrin), who I’ve been working with for a year and a half. He’s my positional coach, and now he’s also coaching the full team. But Sheo has really helped me progress on a macro level, and Nayas has really strengthened me individually.

Since the start of the year, some people criticized your promotion to the LEC. Today you showed good things, but there are still moments where your level seems to fluctuate. How do you feel about your current level, especially compared to where you were in January? Do you think you belong in the LEC?

Kamiloo: Yeah, I definitely think I belong and have a place in the LEC. I still need a bit more time to challenge the best though, I still need at least until Summer for that. This split is more about consolidating my fundamentals. The goal is to reinforce what I started during Winter Split. Summer will be about going beyond that. That’s why sometimes there are mistakes or things that look a bit off in my gameplay, but it’s getting better little by little — it’s a process.

Now that you’ve got almost two splits of experience in the LEC, has the league been what you expected? Were there any surprises? And is your confidence still the same as when you accepted the offer back in December?

Kamiloo: I’d say I still have the same confidence, but for different reasons. When I accepted the offer, I thought I was stronger, especially individually. But I’m happy with how I’ve grown and what I’ve achieved so far, so my confidence is still there. That said, there was a big gap, especially in lane. I expected some players to be a lot weaker — especially in the laning phase — which had been one of my strengths in LFL Division 2. I had to adapt to this new level and everything else. It’s a big jump, but things are going well and I’m happy with my progress.

You’re in a good spot for playoffs. That would mean your first BO5 in Fearless Draft, and your first BO5 in the LEC. Have you had time to think about that yet?

Kamiloo: For now, I’m not really focused on that. I prefer to take things one step at a time. If I start thinking too far ahead — even if it’s not useless — it could slow down my progress. My focus is on securing the next two games. If we win those, we’ll be in a really good position. So that’s the main goal for now.

Any final words for your fans or the people supporting you?

Kamiloo: I want to thank the people who support us. It really means a lot, especially during the tough times. For example, after our losses to G2 and MKOI — where I really underperformed — getting kind messages was really uplifting. So thank you to everyone who’s been supporting us."