Felix ”Betsy” Edling greeting a fan, something he’ll have to get used to in the future. Photo: Riot / Flickr

He came into the LCS as a solo queue player with no more experience to show than his ELO rating.

But after a stellar Ahri performance against Fnatic and four straight wins, Felix ”Betsy” Edling earned a permanent spot in Gambit Gaming and is now one of the hottest players in the league.

– I have a great confidence now so that makes it much easier to play, the 17-year-old Swede tells Aftonbladet Esport.

The latest rising star on the Swedish eSports heaven took a timeout from his second year of high-school to aim for the LCS. Originally, Felix ”Betsy” Edling was supposed to play for H2K, but then they recruited Ryu ”Ryu” Sang-wook as their starting mid laner.

Instead, he got a call from the competition.

– A friend of mine was contacted by Leviathan (Jordan Thwaites, Gambit coach) and gave him my contact info. Then he just told me ”niQ is sick at the moment, do you want to try out”. So I told him ”sure” and now I’m here, he tells Aftonbladet Esport.

”Had to figure out a lot of stuff”

So Betsy packed his bags, moved out of his childhood home for the first time in his life, and went to Berlin.

– I was kinda nervous at first. I didn’t really have any contact with any of the other players before but the first scrims went good and they gave me some positive feedback.

– Everyone is really nice to me, but I’ve had to figure a lot of stuff out myself too.

Like what?

– Like where some of the stores are and what else is in the house where we live.

Despite everything happening at once, with the sudden move and getting accustomed to a new country and new people, Betsy’s debut where he went 1-2-6 on Ezreal against MeetYourMakers was a solid enough performance.

But in the second game of week five he showed the community that there might be a new Swedish superstar on the rise.

– Betsy, he was 10-0-13. His team had 33 kills and he was involved in 23. He did on Ahri what niQ was unable to do throughout the course of their previous games. That was a phenomenal performance, Trevor ”Quickshot” Henry said after the game between Gambit and Fnatic, and he was far from the only one noticing the new guy in the mid lane.

Betsy even got his own chant from a bunch of Irish fans.

”A lot of people wrote to me on Facebook”

But when talking about his breakout performance in the LCS, Betsy remains humble, and humbled by the response.

– I didn’t play all too well compared to other games. Fnatic made a lot of mistakes and we profited from them. It was more of a team effort than individual plays from me. All our games are usually won in team fights.

– But the response was extremely exciting. A lot of people wrote to me on Twitter and Facebook for example. Plus, it was against one of the best teams in the LCS.

That performance alone wasn’t enough for Gambit to secure Betsy’s services, but when he followed it up with two more wins and a 8-6-11 KDA on Zed he had claimed his spot in the starting lineup.

– It’s hard to say if I expected it. They didn’t talk to me about staying, but I guess they talked to each other. It feels great. I thought I was going to play in the Coke League and other smaller tournaments before making it to the LCS.

”I get a lot of help from teammates”

Do you feel like you’ve evolved as a player even during this short time with the team?

– Since I haven’t scrimmed that much before, I’m not quite sure. Solo queue is a totally different thing because you play more passively to not get ganked. But I get a lot of help from my teammates, like in knowing where the jungler is and stuff like that so it helps me. And I have a great confidence now so that makes it much easier to play.

Is there still areas where you feel like you’re lacking compared to the more experienced LCS players?

– Not really. I don’t really feel like I’m lacking the experience since I play the same way as I do at home up on stage. I’m a bit nervous before I walk up there but not when I’m playing, then I don’t feel anything.

What will you guys do to maintain this insane momentum you have now?

– We’re going to keep practicing so we can deliver. I hope we can keep playing the same way, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to. The other teams are pretty easy to read, but if they change up their play styles or start banning our champs, then…

”Diamondprox will deliver during IEM”

In what way are they easy to read?

– Against Fnatic we had a plan ready because we had seen they picked Zed first, so we got two strong picks and a solid mid lane and forced them to play a full AD composition. Before that game, me, Diamondprox and Cabochard sat the night before and figured out how they usually pick. That made it easy to read them. And they always play all-in comps, so if we have a good teamfight comp we’re gonna win when they engage. Plus, we banned their jungler and toplaner who are their best players.

With Katowice right around the corner, do you think you’ll be as unphased when you walk up on that stage?

– We’ll see how I’ll feel over there. I’ll probably be nervous before the games but it’ll pass. It will be a tough tournament but Gambit is usually good at IEM, it’s almost like playing at home.

And as a final prediction, Betsy thinks that one of his teammates, who recently talked to Aftonbladet Esport about how Gambit turned around their losing streak, will be a standout player in Katowice.

– I think Diamondprox will deliver during IEM, he’s really, really good right now.