This week in Sheep Esports we have had the pleasure to talk to Tomás "Melzhet" Campelos Fernández, current Head Coach of MAD Lions KOI and finalist of the LEC Winter Split. After a first split with a result that has defied all expectations generated by the team, Melzhet will tell us a little bit about his feelings, his adaptation to the LEC, surprises and disappointments, and a little bit about his way of working.
First of all, Melzhet, thanks for giving us some of your vacation time for the interview.
"It’s nothing, to you, thanks for the proposal."
So without further ado, let's get down to business. First split in the LEC and second place, was this in your plans for the development of the team during the year?
"In my development plans I didn't have any expectations from the first split in terms of results, but I would rather like them to play a solid early game. But that changed over the course of the split as I realized we were missing other things, but hey, I'm more or less happy with the base we've created to work upon. But there is still a lot of work to do."
Let's first handle one of the most recent topics, which was the final. What do you think was missing to be a better team than G2?
"I think it's a set of factors, but I would say being more efficient on a day-to-day basis and having had better training. I think it was complicated, having to adapt to many new things, to be as efficient as I would have liked to be, although now that I know more or less how everything is, I think I will be able to gradually improve the processes and that will give us that little bit that we lacked in the final."
Do you think it has been more the adaptation to Berlin or the adaptation to the LEC as such?
"It is not so much the adaptation to the LEC, it is more that it is a new team that I enter with many new things that are not similar to those of Movistar Riders. It is not because of the LEC itself, but there are many new things. You have to go to the studio, you have to be 2 hours before the game… There are a number of processes that you have to do, therefore you have to adapt the pre-match routines to find the sweet point."
"Previously, in the Superliga, I was in the MEC, nobody required me for anything *laughs* and we could do the pre-game routines with much more freedom, let's say."
Elyoya mentioned to Ibai after the series against G2, that you had not worked well, what do you think you should have worked better?
"The efficiency that I told you about, but being a new team, I know that people think that having a block and having worked together before is easier, but Elyoya and Myrwn came from two teams quite different from us and I have a group of five people with very strong ideas in terms of the game, it is a little more complicated than people think."
Then we'll talk a little bit more in detail about the block. A while ago I asked you, Melzhet, about your words after the EMEA final and it's something that really struck me and I wanted to ask you a little bit now the same with last week's final.
"I didn't talk to the team itself right after, because there were people individually touched and I talked to them more individually. Then, as a team when I came back and broke it all down a bit. I told them that I was happy with the basis, but that we lost because we did not do things right, learn from all this and that the next split this will not happen again."
Of all the games you have played, which one would you say that has given you the most satisfaction to win and why?
"Satisfaction I would say Karmine Corp, because we had lost against them in the EMEA. But really competitive satisfaction, I would say the series against Fnatic, as it was a close series, it helped us grow a lot and it was the best one for me."
There is always a lot of discussion around the jump from LEC to ERL. How have you personally experienced it as a coach and do you notice big changes in dynamics compared to ERLs, or not?
"Let's see, all LEC teams are late to scrims and all LEC teams take a long time to do reviews *laughs*, that's the dynamic that has changed the most. In terms of level I think there is a jump. I think the jump is not that big between the top teams in ERL and the LEC. Obviously if you take a mid-table team and compare it to a top ERL team, versus G2, there is a big change. I think teams should be less afraid to bring up prepared guys from the ERL."
Speaking a little bit about promotion to the LEC, another of your players who has made the jump this year is Isma, how did you see him in his first split in the LEC?
"I think he started very well, I don't know if it was because of the dynamic or the pressure of the playoffs but I didn’t see him as sharp lately, but he has done a very good split and he has shut the mouth of anyone who doubted him, so I am very happy for him. He deserves it and I think he is going to be one of the best junglers as time goes by, if he keeps doing things well."
One of the biggest unknowns from the international scene was the pressure that the team was under, since it is Ibai's project, the "friends of Elyoya" etc., how has this affected you personally, Melzhet, and have you worked this pressure issue in any way with the players?
"I personally don't care and so do the players, because our goal is much bigger than the goal that the haters are going to set for you, so I haven't felt much pressure."
"Working in Ibai's team means that you have a lot of people behind you supporting you, and many times the narratives get out of control, both for good and bad. I have tried to control it a little, but in terms of pressure I would not say that it is pressure as such, since we already put it on ourselves or at least I put enough pressure on them so that it is important or not."
Continuous project, more than 3 years with the main block, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages as a coach when it comes to having a group that you have been working with for so long?
"I would say that the advantages are many, like having a process behind and being able to invest more in the long term, you can build a very good base with them. I think it also has the advantage, that you know what possible threats you can have during the year, that is, if a player crashes you know why he is going to crash, when is it possible that it will happen, etc."
"The disadvantages I would say, that sometimes it is a bit repetitive and you can get even more frustrated, for example if you have a player who always makes the same mistake, but I think having a long-term project is the best thing in esports nowadays."
This offseason we have seen two changes in coaches and a curious thing that Fresskowy mentions in his interview is the fact of failing and to keep trying. How much time do you think is the minimum that should be given to a coach to prove if a project fails or not?
"Mmmmm, I think one year for both players and coaches. But it also depends. Maybe in a split I realize that a player doesn't make it or won't make it, and for a coach it's the same thing."
"If the person in charge of signing sees something that doesn't fit, he decides to fire him. But this is something that also happens in traditional sports. Sometimes a coach is given a whole season and sometimes after a series of defeats he gets kicked. I think you should have a real reason to fire someone and the problem is that you can't know it because this industry is still too secretive about these things."
Both Supa and Fress mention in their interviews that you care a lot about them and that you treat each one of them in a special way. How does a coach detect the needs of his team and who would you say is the most special in your team?
"Let's see, I think they are all special... *laughs* and the way you get to know these things is by getting to know them, you push them day by day. Some react in some way or another, and little by little you adjust to their ways and their needs, and you see what works for each one, and what doesn't, even in daily things except the common things."
"For example, the timetable is the same for everyone, but you adapt to it. Without going any further, in Movistar, Fress was quite burned out in the sense that he had been working for a long time, a lot of pressure, etc., and you know that Fress is not doing badly because he is not working, on the contrary, but maybe he is tunnel visioning in some particular thing. And what I did that year, was to tell him to take the mornings off more, to go to the gym more, to disconnect a little bit more and then come to the office."
From the time you started at G2 Arctic until today, what is something you would say you have learned over the years that you consider to have been fundamental in your development?
"There are many things but the most important is learning how to influence the players more and more so that things depend more and more on me. Basically it's making things simple, sometimes you overcomplicate things too much."
"Let's say a lot of times you aspire to a League of Legends that you can't achieve. That leads to frustration with your expectations, then adapting it to make it simpler for the players to get the results I want, or what to do in order to make what I want to happen, understand the process a little bit more and not be so frustrated."
"Once you know more about psychology, the game and you become a better coach, you see more and more things that you could have done differently and that would have had a different impact on the team."
Now that you mention a bit the way you play and so on, there is a lot of discussion regarding the "Melzhet DNA", something I discussed with Supa and that he defines as playing good LoL and playing as a team, how would you define your "playing good LoL"?
"Coordinated and playing as fast as you can play at that given time, which depends a lot on your team but above all on coordination, so that there are plays as a team rather than individual actions. But if you tell me just oriented to LoL, if for example for Barca it's passes, for us it would be tempo, positioning and terrain."
Something you comment a lot and you let it show, is that you inform yourself about other coaches, historical characters and so on, and you always look for ways to keep improving as a coach. Who would you say has marked you the most and how do you implement that to LoL?
"Many coaches, but I would say the first one was Guardiola, the theme of the importance of style, your identity, the way you talk to your players and so on."
"Then I've also read books, like Popovich's book which is very good, or Phil Jackson's Eleven Rings. So let's say there are like many inspirations, but sometimes it doesn't come from coaches, sometimes it comes from chess, from reading about Bobby Fisher and how he beat the Russians and how he talked about how you couldn't beat the Russians by playing slow, you had to be fast and let's say strangle them. It's a bit of a mix of inspirations but if I had to say the first one, it would be Guardiola."
Something that made me curious about what you mentioned is having your own style, is it something that characterizes your plan to win Worlds or how do you approach that?
"I would say that to win Worlds you have to beat the Asians obviously and I think it's impossible to beat the Asians having the practice that we have right now in Europe, because the Asian style is to play around objectives, fights, play in two lines, understand very well when to get together and when not to, play around objectives and so on."
"There are not enough teams in Europe that do this for you to be able to practice this. If I were to start coaching this, it would probably end up being very easy to be the best in Europe with G2 because the rest of the teams are not at the same level and even G2 at the international level, so I see it as very difficult."
"What other options do you have? Within those options, of which there are many, I have one that I think would work for me, but everyone has to have the one that they think will work for them. If you want to beat the Asians in their own game when the quality of practice is not good, I see it as very...very complicated."
I would like to talk to you about one of your new players, Myrwn is a very peculiar player. How was your first contact with him and what is it like to have a player with more than 2000 Arams who plays any champion on the toplane?
"Well, he's a lot of fun and I'm very happy with him. It's like going back to that time where you give your top anything and he makes it work and goes and plays it *laughs*, that's good on the one hand."
"On the other hand there are things that are hard for him to get out, that are much more normal but it's hard. This year, for example, I've given him a hard time with the Aatrox that didn't come out in the end. So it has its pros and cons, but I think Myrwn is going to be crazy."
Before we move on to the split awards, I want to ask you a question that is now routine in interviews. If you could give one piece of advice to the Melzhet of 3 years ago, what would it be? Machuki said to read more and Fress to take more care of your mental health.
"Kick Supa out... *laughs*, no, let's see, now seriously I would say to be more relaxed and see things with more perspective when there are problems, instead of overthinking that much."
Finishing almost the interview, let's go to the split awards, Tomás, obviously the Rookie of the Split is going to be won by one of your guys. If it was up to you, which one would it be? I warn you that it is very divided between Alvaro and Myrwn.
"*laughs* To Fresskowy, *laughs*. I think he's the one who has improved the most out of them, and the one who has worked the hardest and I think people underestimate him a lot and he deserves recognition. In the series against Fnatic we won because of him."
And the MVP?
"Clearly Caps."
You can’t choose Caps.
"Mmmmm Razork, he's going crazy, he's been going crazy for a long time. We can stop the joke, he's on the enemy team *laughs*, let him cool down a little bit."
Finally before we go Melzhet, your top 3 players that have surprised you the most this split and the ones that have disappointed you the most.
"Okay, let's see… Jackies surprised me, he came from ERL, but not from a major league and I had not studied him that much and he has a lot of potential, he has made that jump and individually for me he has done well. I think he deserves that recognition."
"Jun also, I didn't have a lot of info and I think he plays well individually, but I think he's also gone a little bit under with time, and I would say that... I don't want to say any of my team... I can't think of anyone else."
"And who disappointed me Markoon, because I expected more from him, Zoelys too and then I would say maybe... Exakick, I expected a little bit more from him too."
