BERLIN -- Splyce's qualification to the quarterfinals was cause for celebration for the team and for European League of Legends fans. It was also Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup's highest career achievement, after reaching the League of Legends World Championship group stage in 2016 and last year.

Even then, amid a whirlwind of emotions, his top laner Kiss "Vizicsacsi" Tamas came to mind. Vizicsacsi hadn't reached the world championship until this year, and for them to move to the quarterfinals together was special.

"I'm really happy for him," Kobbe said about Vizicsacsi. "When you look at your teammates and you see this guy has been playing for so many years, I'm just also really happy for him, and obviously all the other like players as well. We share this victory together."

Much like Vizicsacsi, Kobbe has been through the ringer. Although he qualified to the world championship three years ago in his rookie season, he has tasted setback after setback since. Although they were on separate teams, both missed worlds over and over -- Vizicsacsi since 2015, Kobbe since 2017.

In 2017, Kobbe and Vizicsacsi both stumbled against H2K Gaming in the gauntlet, Kobbe on Splyce, Vizicsacsi on Unicorns of Love. After their setbacks, Vizicsacsi departed the Unicorns of Love for a chance at a world championship qualification with Schalke 04, and Kobbe was the sole remaining member of the 2016 worlds Splyce squad. The next year wasn't much better, as the same happened again -- this time with G2 Esports knocking Kobbe's Splyce and Vizicsacsi's Schalke 04 out.

Losses take their toll, especially given the time and energy invested in a season. Countless hours of scrims, reviews, stage games, and fine tuning through highs and lows can be gone in an instant when a team's chances at world championship run evaporate. Although Kobbe and Vizicsacsi were on different teams back then, Kobbe could relate.

"I struggled a lot with it earlier in my career," Kobbe said. "[In] 2017, and some parts [of] 2018, I was really in some tough situations, and I can count the amount of times that I wanted to give up."

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But neither gave up, leading to their qualification to the worlds quarterfinals last weekend. But for them -- and any player that has experienced setbacks -- to keep going, it takes a special kind of determination.

"I feel like I've lost so much that I know what it takes to always get back up," Kobbe said. "You just get to a point where [there's] no question in your mind: you keep going. No matter what hits you, you get back up."

When Vizicsacsi and Kobbe joined forces in Splyce, they had a shot at breaking the cycle of losses together. Joined by reliable Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir, mechanically proficient Tore Hoel "Norskeren" Eilertsen, and rookie Marek "Humanoid" Brázda, they surprised fans in the spring split and for a significant part of the summer split.

However, Splyce's crash in the final regular season game against Fnatic, then in the quarterfinals against Rogue, affected them enough to cause a slump. But Kobbe has been there, and he has managed those episodes in the past. Unlike the 2019 G2 Esports' fun and winning ways, his career is full of slumps and rebounds.

"I feel like the more losses you take, the more you can learn," Kobbe said. "At this point, I just know that you should just never give up if you know you have a chance to do something great."

When the time came for Splyce to bounce back, they did. In the LEC regional gauntlet, after losing their first game against Origen, they dug deep and overcame them, paving the way for their world championship qualification. Against the Unicorns of Love in their play-in knockout match, following a shaky first four games, they took care of business in the final one and qualified to Group B.

Then, the unthinkable happened as Splyce qualified to the worlds playoffs as Group B's second seed with a 4-2 record after falling 1-2 during the first week.

"I feel like some of us believed in that all the time that we have what it takes," Kobbe said. "So yeah, just never lose hope.

"It still didn't really occur to me that we just made it out of groups at worlds, because it's been going on a roll since the gauntlet, where I'm just like so determined to just keep going further that I don't want to feel to satisfied after one win," he added.

Although Splyce find themselves in even more unfavorable odds than they have previously experienced, they have been there before. SK Telecom T1 was not the opponent Kobbe wished for -- calling them the strongest team -- but it is the one they received.

Even then, should they fall, Kobbe's tireless work this year would not have been for naught, although he is focused on what comes next. Celebrations beyond surges of emotions can wait.

"After we won three in a row, it was hard for me to stay focused because I could just feel the emotion already," Kobbe said. "I was so happy of what we did. After this year, hopefully I can look back and be even more happy about what we accomplished so far."