Lucas “Santorin” Larsen has had a turbulent career, from crushing the competition on TSM and claiming both an NA and IEM title to losing five separate relegations and getting kicked off of the worst team in Europe.





Plagued by his own internal pressure of quitting, Santorin had to fight to keep his mental health strong and push forward in an attempt to make his career something worthwhile.Fast forward a few years, and Santorin finally found an upswing, claiming third in the 2018 Summer LCS All Pro Team, making it to the semifinals, and continuing the conversation as a top-three jungler this Spring.





The road was arduous, however, and near the end of this split, Santorin spoke with Upcomer to relive the emotional tax of his obstacles and look forward to the hopeful climb before him.





Photo via Riot Games





Why did you choose to claim NA residency, and what is your plan now that you're back here?





When I first claimed my NA residency in 2014 or 15 when I was in Coast, I didn't think much of it. Like, "Do you want to be EU or NA?" "Well I guess I'll just be NA." It's because EU didn't import that much back then, and I feel like if I was to go back to EU, almost no roster has two imports. So no matter what, I'd be safe on both sides. And that was kind of my whole process of what was going through my brain. Like, "sweet, I can be both kind of," even though I'm only an NA resident. I just think that gave me more opportunities.





Photo via Team Coast





And obviously back then, I didn't really know what this could do for me, and now when there are so many imports everywhere, especially in NA, it's obviously helping me a lot being an NA resident. Whereas that was obviously not my thought process back then, I was just like, "Sweet, I can be both places." It's kind of lucky because that was the one split I was in NA that I could get grandfathered in. So I was really, really lucky the way everything went down. So yeah I am really happy I decided to be an NA resident just because it has for sure helped me throughout my career.





So how would you define your career then, since you’ve been hopping back and forth between various leagues in NA and EU?





I mean right now my career is pretty meh. High highs and very low lows. On TSM when I first joined, I got rookie of the split. We won IEM Katowice, which is the first international tournament NA wins, and I also met my girlfriend there. Then I win NA spring split as well. And then after that is many low lows. So I even take second place that next summer as a low low for TSM because back then we were really dominant. I was pretty good individually, but as a team player and jungler for a team I was definitely lacking in a lot of aspects.





Photo via Riot Games





So after TSM when I failed miserably at Worlds, I've always just wanted to get back to Worlds and redeem myself. I haven't had that yet because I've been on a lot of challenger series teams and a lot of low tier LCS teams where I got relegated. So I think I've now lost five relegations and won zero relegations, which means I have to go on a lot of different teams as well. So my path has been really, really rocky.





I've definitely had thoughts in my head throughout my career like, should I quit, should I go study, should I try to go into another esport? But in the end, I always stick around because I think this is what I'm good at and this is what I love doing. I love competing. So it's still a rocky climb right now. Even if you look at our standings we're really up and down. Sometimes 2-0, sometimes 0-4, losing two weeks in a row! But I really enjoy playing for FlyQuest and they've been really nice to me.





Photo via Riot Games





So you got 3rd All Pro last summer, so even though you got 6th and didn't advance in the playoffs, you were highly recognized. What do you think your perception is, and do you feel it that's deserved? People in the industry know you're really good. But what is your perception of yourself?





On TSM in spring [2015], I had a lot of confidence. I thought I was really good. I mean, we won everything so it's hard not to feel confident right? Then summer, that's when...people tryhard even harder. And I came to a realization late in the Summer Split, and at Worlds I got absolutely destroyed. And I quickly realized I have so much to work on. So many flaws. Immature even, like not really good at taking criticism. Just so many issues I had to work on.





Basically all those Challenger Series teams I played for, every one of them I'd fix one of my issues and get much better at one part of what I already do. So I think throughout my career I've always gotten better, and better, and better. And I never get recognition because if you look at my win record, I lost five relegations, zero wins. I’ve only barely been in the LCS/LEC. Every time I was in the LCS after TSM we got relegated, so it's really hard to think highly of a player who always loses.





Photo via Riot Games





So for example, [Jake “Xmithie” Puchero], he always wins and he's good. So obviously he gets a lot of recognition. But for me, it's been a lot of losing. And a lot of organizations have a hard time picking me up, because they'll think, "He always loses and I don't even know what he does for the team." That kind of thing. But I've always thought, since TSM, that I've been a really good player, and I think I have almost never underperformed throughout a split. And even when I was on the lower teams, I was one of the main carries but just as a team we were not good enough.





I think I'm just getting better and better, and I do think I'm for sure top three, maybe higher. If you just look at only jungling and what the jungler role does, I think I'm doing a lot better than some of the others at the top. but just as a whole, for example Xmithie, he's so good as a team. He's a good jungler and he's good as a teammate and a shotcaller, whatever he might do as a team. I think I may be lacking in some of those aspects compared to him, but I do think I play jungle to his standard or better sometimes.





Photo via Riot Games

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What would be a career goal? I know redeeming your Worlds performance, but what does that mean?

For me right now in the position I've been in for many years, I think the goal is more to win NA than winning Worlds just because it's too far of a leap to win Worlds out of nowhere. Obviously I want to win Worlds, it's my number one goal, but I also don't want to set an unrealistic goal with what I have right now. So I think winning NA would be huge for me because it would just feel really good getting another title under my belt. And just kind of knowing it was the right decision to stay in League of Legends and working on it, but also just... Even if we don't win NA and Worlds, I just want to perform well and do well as a team.





I just don't want to feel really miserable about how we performed and how I performed. I just want to feel good at what we do at Worlds, even if we don't win, I just want to feel good and then maybe the year after that, then the goal of winning Worlds would be more in my mind. But right now, it's just too far away from me with five relegation losses and no NA titles for so long. So I'm just trying to be real with myself.





Is there anything you look back on that's an actual regret?





Yeah, so when I joined TSM, looking at it from the outside perspective, I wasn't ready. I hadn't been in a team environment for long enough, I was still 17. I had no experience, no knowledge. I just feel like I wasn't ready for TSM when I got on the team which I feel like hurt my career long term. But also I'm still happy I joined TSM because they taught me a lot. I learned a lot faster, got a lot of experience, got a lot of exposure. So it's kind of like a double edge sword where like... It was good for me, but I also feel like maybe it could've been better if I didn't join.





Photo via Riot Games





I was becoming a really strong player just through the Challenger Series, playing on Coast and stuff like that. And I feel like just through my mentality and the way I thought about things and how bad I was at taking criticism and all that kind of stuff built up to me not improving as fast as I could've if I took it a little slower before joining, back then, the best team in NA and also the most recognized team. Just everything about TSM was so big back then. And when I got the offer, it was surreal to me. Like, "They want me? I'm on Challenger Series and just lost relegation!" So obviously I took it, but that's because I was just looking at the offer I had.





But maybe if I had continued playing on Challenger Series teams and then maybe on a low tier LCS team, then maybe my career would build up instead of being just high highs and low lows. I got high highs from joining TSM but it really exposed what I had to work on and issues and stuff like that. So after it, obviously there are going to be low lows because that's so many issues, right? So I think it turned out to be okay, but it's been a really bumpy ride for me because I think I was just not ready for TSM.





Photo via Riot Games





It seems like a similar trend as what happened with Mike Yeung as well, he came on and was very confident and then has struggled and had issues exposed that were otherwise unknown before joining the team.





Yeah it definitely depends on junglers perspective and personality and how mature they are, how good you are at taking criticism. For me it's that I'm playing with four legends - in my eyes they were legends - and I'm just this guy that just lost relegations in Challenger Series. I have no experience, no knowledge, I'm just there. And it's really hard for me to take criticism because I was so afraid of showing how much less I know about the game than they do.





So for me that's why I didn't feel like I was ready, because it's really hard to stand up for myself and actually take the criticism properly and be the teammate that they need. I just feel like TSM needs a jungler that has more experience, knowledge, and awareness to make decisions he feels like are best for the team, whereas I just couldn't do that when I was with them.





Photo via Riot Games





You mention it was too soon, but because of that, you got exposed and knew what you needed to work on. But what would have happened if you never joined them and didn’t get that experience?





Yeah, I mean maybe I would never be as good as I am right now. That's why it's really hard to judge the effect on my career. I never knew each split what was going to happen. There were times where there were no offers, no opportunities for me. So that's why it's always been hard for me to look back on TSM and say whether it was worth it or not. There were times when I was scared of not being able to play anymore.





Like for example, after H2k I was like, "Does anyone want me now?" I've lost five relegations, I got kicked off the worst team in EU. Even though it was a relief for me I didn't have to play for H2K anymore, it still put thoughts in my mind like, "Am I even going to play anymore?" That kind of stemmed off of me not being ready for TSM. But also because I joined TSM I got to work on all my issues and I feel like I am a lot stronger because I was on TSM back then.





And you got your name out as well.





Yeah I mean, maybe I'd be just a nobody if I didn't join TSM. That's why I can't really say I regret anything. The way it went, if I was a different personality and just more mature and everything, I think my career would've been a lot better just from joining TSM. I think it's my own fault that it turned this way, but I just stuck in there and tried my hardest to work on it.





Photo via Riot Games





How did you make that mentality shift? There are a lot of players who have talked about needing to change their mentality and maturity, but many haven't been able to. How did you go from that to now where you are introspective and able to take criticism, etc?





I think it just depends on how much you value winning and how much you want it. For me, I'm so goddamn competitive and I'm a really sore loser. I hate losing. I'll do anything to stop that losing thing. Obviously I want to compete, and I think League is where I'm the best at competing, so I'm going to stick to this.





As far as changing my mind and stuff, it really helped playing on less good teams, like challenger teams. They were kind of looking up to me as the leader, the one who should be carrying the games, the shot caller. And that just helped me a lot growing as a person, and even taking criticism for the other players to make them feel better and that kind of stuff. So I think playing on a lot of different teams and being exposed to a lot of worse players than myself really helped me become a smarter person, more mature, etc. It just all connected throughout my path.