TH Hidon: "We have the roster we want, both short-term and long-term"

The LEC Spring Split has kicked off, with some teams that the public hasn’t seen for several weeks now finally showing the results of their long hours of practice behind the scenes. are one of those teams, and they opened their first best-of-three with a win over (2-1).

It was a hard-fought victory, as head coach Jonas “Hidon” Vraa explains in this exclusive interview for Sheep Esports. He also discusses the many questions the team raised during the offseason, and shares his thoughts on the arrival of their new support, Han “Way” Gil, as well as Fabian “FEBIVEN” Diepstraten.

Jonas "Hidon" Vraa: “To be honest, I’m not too happy because the way scrims have been going, we are throwing a lot when we have big leads. We manage to get big leads pretty much every game, but we are always throwing them. So I’m not too happy regarding the win because I feel like we had a big lead again in all three games, but we’re not managing to close out cleanly and be clean on the map. But it’s a work in progress. So I would rather win and have to improve than lose and have to improve.

Hidon: Regardless of winning and losing, we are on the right track. We could have lost today, but it feels like we were by far the better team in general. But again, you can lose on any given day. I don’t think winning or losing this match changes that. We’re working a lot on midgame, objective setup, and team fights this split. And it is improving, slowly. Obviously, I would like it to be a bit faster.

Hidon: We have a lot of set plays that the players can use, which allows them to say less and do more. I’ve basically spent the whole offseason just learning as much as I can about midgame, and I’ve had to change my philosophy a little bit about how I think about League of Legends. I think we’re struggling, but we’re not struggling that much. We’re just overcomplicating it and making things too hard, trying to do too much.

We have a huge lead in this third game, and it sounds like we’re in a nightclub and people are screaming because they can’t hear each other. It’s just very simple how we need to play, and I will try to address that already tomorrow. Show them the comps and see how they respond, because we are making things very harsh and we are panicking over very simple things. But I’m not too worried.

I would rather that than the last split, where we had an unsolvable problem, which was draft. There was just nothing we could do, and it showed in the best-of-three we played in playoffs. Whereas I feel like in this best-of-three already, we can do much more and we have a lot more flexibility. So it’s nicer to have a problem that you can solve than to have an unsolvable problem.

Hidon: I think it’s a connecting-the-dots kind of thing. Coming into this team, there were things that we could not control in terms of roster building, but there were also a lot of things we could control. And we had an issue, which is that no one was leading and driving the game forward. And I’ve been pushing Sheo (Théo Borile) a lot on leadership and taking control over the game, pushing it forward and being accountable for our gameplay. And he’s doing really well.

But next to that, you also have to push the others into creating that atmosphere that if a play is called, you are involved in that play. And the involvement can look in many ways. Let’s say you’re calling for a dive bot. Midlaner doesn’t have to be in the play to be involved, but he might have to trade hard or push and farm. You involve yourself in whatever way, but you follow the call. You follow the call no matter what, in your own contextual way.

So it’s better because we’re giving him that agency, and he’s also growing into the role. And he’s responding well to the way that he’s being pushed by the coaching staff.

Hidon: Our vision is long-term, but a long-term vision does not mean being delusional about what you have. So we had a problem which we felt was unsolvable. And if you’re in an unsolvable problem and you have the chance to make a move, you have to make that move. I have to admit it feels like the move that was made from us as an organization is betraying my own values a little bit. But at the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about the team and it’s about the vision. And that requires us to make harsh decisions sometimes, but learn from them, hopefully not make those mistakes again.

Hidon: There are things you can’t control. So if you get things right the very first time coming into a full new team, that would be hitting the jackpot, full lottery. And that’s just not reality. No matter what, when you make a roster from scratch with no information, which was literally what we did, you cannot hit it right the first time. But I do think with the move that we made this offseason, we have the roster we want, both short-term and long-term. I think it’s a very good move that we made, obviously. Else we wouldn’t make it.

Hidon: Yes, it’s something we anticipated. And just to dial back on the Hype and Ice situation, our call is not finalized. I want to make that clear. We will see what happens. But at the end of the day, there is military service, which we don’t have control over, and we had to make a move that would secure our future. And Hype is just that.

But regardless, the move was very simple. Ice is an extremely good player and he fits our culture, and the culture is built in a way that facilitates someone like Way. Way is a very funny guy with very little English and he fits our culture perfectly. Considering that, it’s a bit of a gamble, but we knew that he would fit the culture and the English will come with time. At the end of the day, League is a universal language, and saying these basic things is also why we have the set plays we have. It just makes the game easy and makes it more of a flow instead of just talking as much bullshit as you can.

Hidon: I want to make it very clear that I believe in investing in coaching staff. I don’t believe in investing in getting the biggest names and players you can get. I believe in building them.

What that means is, as a head coach, you have to have a bit of a leader-follower relationship. So for example, in draft, Arkhe (Amre Akpınarlı) is the leader and I’m the follower. Whereas with the culture and the people, I’m the leader and he’s the follower. When it comes to the other coaches we have, they have each specific roles, which I have built up to cover as much ground as you can cover, because it would be very delusional to say that one or two people can cover more ground than five people.

As long as you are very good at managing the people and managing the state in which you are working, you will always cover more. So our goal is very simple: we want more positional coaches who can challenge. I am one person. I can do certain things. Arkhe is one person. He can do certain things. But if we are five people, we cover more ground as long as they fit the environment, as long as they fit the culture.

So we have Mithy (Alfonso Aguirre Rodríguez), he’s remote. We have Febiven, who is remote. Last split we had Odoamne (Andrei Pascu), who was remote. And we’re looking to replace Odo with someone else, who will stay hidden for now. My philosophy is to have more people to cover more ground, to learn faster. And that requires you to be willing to give up agency, but I am not bigger than the vision. I’m not bigger than the people. Therefore, it was simple. And with Fabian, we just signed him four days ago or so.

So he hasn’t been working a lot with Serin (Tolga Ölmez) yet, but his role is very specific as well as the toplane positional coach that we’re going to get. And he works with Serin, to challenge him and improve him based on the goals that we have for him. On top of that, Febiven brings a fresh point of view if Serin has some team-related topics to discuss. Someone who’s not emotionally attached to the project or emotionally attached to the everyday life can give you a new perspective. And that helps a lot to make the right decisions when it comes to the direction of the team and where you have to put your resources.

It’s just been four days, but we had him on a trial and we believe that there’s nobody better than him for the position and the specialist role that he’s acquired for.

Hidon: It’s a very simple thing. I want everybody to have somebody who can challenge them as much as possible. So for example, Sheo is working with me whenever I have free time with him. But I’m not working with him on the game-related part that much. I’m working with him on leadership and becoming that leader and taking that agency. Whereas toplane is going to be working with somebody else, midlane with Fabian, botlane with Mithy.

Everybody should have somebody who can challenge them on their decisions, their thought processes, and hopefully level them up faster, because at the end of the day, that is the goal, right? To level up faster so that you can compete for something more meaningful than middle of the pack.

Hidon: No, it’s no secret, it sucks obviously. We would love to play in a stadium and change the environment. I think it would be very cool. But at the end of the day, it’s not something I have impact on, so I focus on what I can control. It sucks, I would really have loved to go.

Hidon: I think Vitality is a significantly stronger team than SK. I think SK didn’t do much today. I think we would have lost by losing to ourselves. But Vitality, they’re a very proactive team. They draft in a way that facilitates aggression and chaos. I’m looking forward to the match. I think it can go either way. We can draft in a way that shuts down their playstyle a bit and hopefully we can improve from day to day on our objective setups and team fighting. And I think that will be the difference maker.

Hidon: Not necessarily. Pad (Patrick Suckow-Breum) is Danish and I’m Danish, so I want to beat Pad. But other than that, I’m just looking forward to the match.”