We got to talk to Kevin "Zentinel" Pires, former jungler for Phoenix1 of the NA LCS, to discuss the differences between solo queue and competitive jungling, his start in League Of Legends and his thoughts on the Phoenix1 organization.

When did you start playing League of Legends?

Zentinel: I've been playing since the Leona patch, which I think was towards the end of Season 2.





Why did you decide to choose the jungle as your main role?

Zentinel: I played all the roles beforehand when I climbed to D1 for the first time, and I just enjoyed jungle way more than the other roles since I could play Vi and Hecarim, which were my favorite champions at the time. A lot of the high elo junglers were bad then too.





When did you decide that you wanted to foray into competitive League of Legends? Were there any pro players or streamers that inspired you or helped you improve your jungling?

Zentinel: I only decided to try competitive recently, before hand I subbed for a bunch of challenger teams to gain experience and see if I enjoyed it and if it was worth it to me. I think Meteos and OddOne were a big part to me wanting to go competitive. Meteos was always fun to watch and had a unique style that I think i relate to, and oddones stream really helped me macro wise back in season.





How were you able to land a spot on Phoenix1 with very little competitive experience?

Zentinel: I was just a soloq player at the time (around rank 30) and Agent (who's helped me a lot) put me into contact with P1's manager since P1 needed a sub jungler for week 1. I think most junglers in the challenger scene were already signed onto a team and I was the best soloq jungler at the time.

Due to Inori’s visa issues, the team decided to bring you on to start for the first three weeks of LCS which resulted in you and Inori splitting scrim time until Inori’s visa issues were resolved. Did the team perform better in scrims with one jungler or were the results fairly equal?

Zentinel:Scrims were pretty equally split between be and Inori for Week 1, I got to the P1 house 3~ days before the first game and got some practice in then, My first few set of scrims vs other LCS teams were pretty good actually, I don't think I dropped a single scrim vs an LCS team untill Week 3. Once week 2 and 3 came around, it was mostly just Inori playing and me watching. I don't think there was too much difference in our play and how the team played in scrims. I think the main difference between us is the confidence he had in his calls, since he has way more experience than me.



How did you enjoy the LCS lifestyle? Was it a lot more fun being around a group of people that have the same passion as you? Zentinel: It was a pretty amazing experience, playing on stage is an amazing feeling. Waking up everyday to play League was super exciting for me, and having everyone else around me sharing the same passion was nice. I had a lot of fun doing fan stuff specifically, mostly because they really do pick you up after a loss. I remember after the TL set, I was sitting outside the arena looking down, and this really young kid walked up to me, tapped my shoulder and said "Good job man, you played well" and shook my hand. It doesn't seem like much, but that really helped me out.



Do you enjoy the bo3 format in NA or do you kind of wish that NA was following the path that EU is taking with bo2’s?

Zentinel: the bo3 format is super good for the LCS. I think sometimes a team that isn't on the same level as the other team can "cheese" a win and make it a tie in EU, but here they would have to do it twice to count as a win.





What are some of the differences between soloque jungling and competitive jungling?

Zentinel:The way I see it is in soloqueue I'm the main character and I go on solo missions the entire game, making plays to get myself ahead by doing really greedy things. In competitive play, you have to consider your entire team, how you can pressure the map to get others ahead and how you can set the enemy behind. Rotations, trading objectives etc. The most I needed to know in soloq was how fed do I need to be to carry this game.





What are things you feel that you have improved on because of the experience you got with Phoenix1?

Zentinel:I think my macro play got a lot better since I joined Phoenix1. I learned to communicate a lot more as well, I try to never stop talking in game now. I'm confident I can be a really good shotcaller now. I remember the first day i got to the P1 house Charlie sat next to me and had me duo with some teammates and have me nonstop talk, sometimes even when I'm soloqueuing.



