It was all quite overwhelming in the beginning, I’d never had that kind of support from the community before. Before the EU Masters, I had around 800 followers on Twitter, now my phone is blowing up after every game I play.

I can’t deny that I’ve been enjoying the extra attention and exposure that I’ve been receiving, but I haven’t let myself get carried away and become too hotheaded, I’m still focused on what lies ahead.

When scrims start, I close it all out and I’m only focussed on my gameplay. How you handle the exposure is really important, if you let it go to your head, it’s going to show the next time you load onto Summoners Rift. Instead. I think it should serve as a source of confidence and motivation and right now, I’m waking up every day excited to play.

I’m just trying not to let it all go to my head. I’ve looked forward to every game we’ve played so far in this tournament and I just hope I can continue to prove myself and maintain my consistency in the remaining games to come.

With 43% of the votes, @GO_TynX stole away the #EUMasters Group Stage MVP! His carry jungle playstyle is making @GamersOrigin a dominant force and heavy favourites to win it all! pic.twitter.com/rQKysKcI10 — ESL LoL (@ESLLoL) April 19, 2018

As a player competing in the French League of Legends scene, consistency is everything. The league setup is quite different to what I’d experienced in Spain and Germany. The Open Tour France 2018 is made up of multiple LAN events, where you have to perform well on the day to build up enough tournament points to stand a chance at competing for the top spot and qualification to the EU Masters.

If you make one mistake at a French LAN, it’s all over and you need to wait two months until you can try and prove yourself at the next tournament. If you’re a strong team, it’s not easy, but it’s possible to rise to the top; a superior team will be consistent more often than their weaker rivals.

At the beginning of the Spring Split, we were struggling to gel together as a team. Over time our synergy gradually improved and everything started to come together; it took maybe a month for us to establish that connection and individually, every player on the roster really stepped up. From that point onwards, I think we really showed our dominance in the region.

We played against LDLC in the final of Gamers Assembly 2018 – the final LAN of the Open Tour France 2018 Spring Split – and they couldn’t even take a game off us, we just 3-0’d them, for me it was eye-opening. We took the confidence from that victory straight into the EU Masters.

The EU Masters is extremely important. When all the top national teams clash on a tournament stage, it becomes very important for us to show the strength of the French scene. The hype and the viewership that exists around the tournament means that GamersOrigin can position their brand differently and build up the reputation of the French scene. For me personally, it’s the best competition to play in outside of the EU LCS.

I don’t want to taint the tournament by suggesting every player is using the EU Masters as a platform to prove themselves, but obviously, it’s in the back of our minds. The EU Masters is far better than the Challenger Series ever was in terms of being a competition for players to showcase themselves as potential LCS competitors, even though CS was originally designed for that exact purpose.

At the EU Masters, you genuinely have all the top players on show, there are no national leagues being played on the side also showcasing LCS calibre talent; all the best players are competing for glory at the same event.

To see that Riot’s casters and analysts have taken interest in the event is really positive. The other day, I was surprised to see that Drakos had described me as ‘the ideal jungler’ and it made me really happy… even though I’m not sure I agree with him, he might have gone a little too far!

TynX is the ideal jungler. — Daniel Drakos (@DanielDrakos) April 16, 2018

What I will say is that my playstyle allows me to show my skill difference compared to other players. The tank meta in the EU LCS, for example, makes it a lot more difficult to judge the skill gap between the junglers.

The way that I play, it’s really easy to show your quality in that sense, if I was playing Zac rather than carry junglers, for instance, even though I was a better jungler than my opponent, I wouldn’t be able to punish weaker opponents as dramatically.

I have a good understanding of my role. The thing about the carry junglers I enjoy playing is that if you make one mistake, the game is most likely going to be lost. My biggest strength is that I know where my enemy counterpart is going to be at nearly every point in the game. It’s more of a feeling for me now; after paying attention to the finer details, I started seeing the game differently.

From the very first day I arrived at GamersOrigin, it was apparent that the organization knew how to reach the top. The previous League of Legends roster had performed really well, so for me, I didn’t want to be the guy who joins and suddenly the organization is a bottom tier team.

I hadn’t ever really been on a team that was regionally dominant. I have previously played for teams like KIYF eSports Club in Spain who had always finished towards the bottom of the table historically. I wanted to join a team that had strength behind its name and had expectations to win, in order to motivate and push myself.

I was originally a part of the Giants Only The Brave roster that later went on to enjoy great success in Spain and was then picked up by Team Vitality to compete in the EU LCS. It was an emotional time for me, as I stepped down due to factors in my personal life. I was sick a lot and had a lot of health issues at the time so my departure from the organisation didn’t feel good at all; it didn’t feel good to say goodbye.

I really liked being a part of that team, so I was happy for all my old teammates when it was announced that they would compete in the EU LCS for Vitality, they definitely deserved to be there.

The EU LCS is definitely my ambition too and I want to get there as a fast as possible. I think I’m getting closer and closer, especially since the Spanish and French leagues are growing to fill the void left by the Challenger Series. If I can continue to improve my own play and compete at this level with GamersOrigin, sooner or later, I’ll be there too.

Image Credit: Timo Verdeil for Open Tour France LoL