Rising from his chair, he tilts his head to the side a bit. His dark bangs fall flat and his backpack dips slightly on his right shoulder.

“Wait, does he have a Cinderhulk?”

He points to a nearby screen where last-place Team EnVyUs are beating his former team, the organization on which he made an international name for himself, Cloud9. Even after four weeks, seeing William “Meteos” Hartman in the orange and black of Phoenix1 looks off after so many years in white and baby blue. On screen, jungler Nam “LirA” Taeyoo is playing AD jungle Nidalee. He stares for a moment, steps forward and squints, before shaking his head and chuckling.

Meteos has been playing League of Legends since Season 1. A staple of the North American competitive scene since Season 3, he has seen a myriad of champions and builds through the years. Once retired and twice having exited the professional stage, Meteos returned as an emergency substitute for Phoenix1 after their starting jungler, Rami “Inori” Charagh, flew home to Vancouver for personal reasons, leaving the team looking for a temporary fix.

Meteos’ mid-season appearance was unplanned, and still somewhat confusing to the jungler himself.

Approached by Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne regarding P1’s request, Meteos initially refused the offer.

“I don’t even remember what my response was. It’s not the first offer I’ve had,” he says. “Quite a few teams have approached me when I haven’t been playing about wanting me to play. At first I was like, ‘Nah, I’m good.’”

Yet P1 — and by extension Jack, who presumably saw this as a good opportunity for his former jungler — were insistent.

“I’m not even playing League, I don’t know why they want me in the first place,” Meteos says he told Jack on his second request. “There’s got to be better options, but if they really need someone to play I can step in for a few games.”

Since Meteos had been streaming at the time, he regarded the P1 offer as a potential stream boost.

“I haven’t been the most consistent on streaming, I’ve been going through a phase in my life — the end of last year/beginning of this year, some depression stuff, just trying to clear my head,” he admits. “I was just in a state of mind where I was trying to focus on feeling better and it seemed like I could help them out so I started playing. And it’s been going well and I’ve been enjoying my time with them as long as things work well, I’m down to help them until they get a more permanent replacement.”

View photos William “Meteos” Hartman helping former team Cloud9 at the 2016 NA LCS (Jeremy Wacker) More

Since stepping back onto the North American League Championship Series stage, Meteos has been unable to slough off his history with Cloud9 and escape the unwanted attention surrounding his return. Meteos has long struggled to find his own happiness amidst the pressure of top-tier performance. Back in Season 1, he opted to play normals with friends, avoiding pressure until queue times grew too long due to their ever-increasing hidden MMR. At the 2016 World Championship, he actively struggled with community criticism following Cloud9’s performance in the group stages.

“It doesn’t fully feel like we deserve to be here,” he said after qualifying for the quarterfinals. “I don’t feel like we played better than TSM did — if they had been in our group, they probably would have done better so I don’t know. I don’t take [the last hope of NA stuff] too seriously, that’s more something for the fans to like.”

While Meteos made his name on Cloud9, the pressure that accompanied their success was difficult to process. Cloud9 was consistently called NA’s last hope or, at previous World Championships, NA’s only hope.

A hybrid roster with an up-and-coming jungler in Inori and the best AD carry in NA, Noh “Arrow” Donghyeon, P1 is a breath of fresh air for the veteran jungler. Meteos is sheepish but optimistic about his time on the team, praising the staff and players for the relaxed atmosphere.

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