response

Thought I should type up a response to Link's big farewell, because it would be disingenuous not to.



I'll address only the points about myself and try not to point fingers at anyone else.



-Loss of trust with Dexter/Nien/Seraph - True, and I'm sorry for it. I could write pages giving context, but it's still wrong of me.



-I'm a "shotcaller due to aggressive and loud voice" - First, I can't control my voice. Second, I don't agree that I'm a shotcaller. I think this idea is brought on by the fact that we have never had strong in-game leadership or shotcalling, and therefore my flow of information or suggestions are taken as orders. I would love to follow and take orders from a strong leader that we've never had (and allow me to focus only on mechanical play, which is a dream come true).



-That I only care about lane - This is a good point but exaggerated. I do care about winning lane, but not to this extent. This idea was likely brought on by the fact that we have always had problems winning games WITHOUT an early lead (think the most recent Spring Split), and in some reasoning it came to Link that I only care about gaining an advantage. If we were a team capable of winning games while I was even or behind in farm, there would be no reason for me to emphasize this portion of the game.



-I make too many calls to gank bottom - Only relative to the calls that our other lanes make. This is just something you would have to take my word for, but 99% of the time I just say "you can gank bot" or "bot is gankable" and because the solo lane communication is less consistent, our junglers go for the play bot. Aphro is the followup with "yea it's warded here and here, go this way + go on (X champion) and I'll flash flay etc etc" (Aphro is the micro play-oriented leader and is very specific in his comms). In my thousands of hours of streaming, how often do you see me annoyed that I don't get a gank? I would MUCH rather play out a 2v2 than a 3v3, and the idea that we only gank bot stems from the fact that our top/jg and mid/jg communication was never as clear and well-planned as the way Aphro and I communicate the option bottom. Solo lanes wanted ganks but never wanted to communicate them, they just expected the perfect coordination instantly.



-Would force us into 2v1: Let me lay out how we approach 2v1 - both top and bot give input on our lane matchups and our shotcallers decide whether lane swapping or mirroring lanes is favorable for us. Almost never do I flat out say "we should lane swap", so to put this macro decision with which we have failed at playoffs consistently onto me is simply untrue.



-Objective response time, teamfighting, and item builds: Agreed, I am working on these things. My build in that hype TSM game this split was horrible, and my teamfighting needs improvement.



-That I hold back Aphro because I won't let him roam: Never been told by Aphro that he wants to roam more, just to make sure I'm going to talk to him about it tomorrow. Give me some credit... I don't cry at Aphro when he leaves lane and then blame him when I die 1v2... the idea is just hilarious. Link also goes on an unrelated tangent to further his point by pointing out Lustboy's 2v1 roam on him lvl 1 and make him lose lane. How am I limiting Aphro's ability to do this.... IT'S FUCKING 2v1 ROFL I'm freezing the lane at lvl 1 IN AN EMPTY LANE. The whole idea is just ridiculous and came out of nowhere with a completely unrelated example.



-Ego too big and refuse to improve: Yes I have an ego, more at 11. That I refuse to improve? Holy shit, in the NEXT PAGE of this document, Link says that he gave up on me. In fact... in this entire thing all the words used about our shotcallers/in-game leaders are: lazy, quiet, unconfident, jaded. Go ctrl+f this if you don't believe me. He then goes on to say Monte was not effective as a coach.... but neither was Scarra because "Scarra didn’t want to change anything because he felt like the team was working itself out". How am I expected to vastly improve my play with little to no help? It's a fucking miracle that I'm still a top player with no help from the people WHO ARE IN CHARGE OF HELPING ME.



I need to go to sleep now so I'm just going to tl;dr:



I will not discredit Link, I think some of his points are legit + valid



Having problems as a player with teamfighting, grouping, builds, etc I agree with completely. Every player has their weak spots and these are currently mine. I also lost trust in my former teammates which is something I should never have done. I apologize to everyone that I didn't fully believe in



All his points about me being overbearing, loud, calling for ganks, forcing us into unfavorable lanes for my benefit - fucking hilarious. Maybe relative to the 2 mute solo laners I played with for 3 years (minus Darshan who is very vocal god bless him) I am loud. Maybe I'm lane focused because in context of our team, both our other lanes have been absolutely shit in lane vs top teams and it's incredibly hard to win a game with 3 losing lanes. Maybe the way to justify the fact that Rush Hour is lane dominant is to say that we take up more resources, but the reality is that we are lane dominant BY NECESSITY. In fact, ever since Zion joined the team we take less risks and are less lane-focused - if you watch our TL playoffs games our 2v1 swap was focused entirely on getting TOP LANE AHEAD. Zion had a huge advantage over Quas in all 3 games. If you think in the current state of the team I'm a lane-only player you're delusional.



A lot of the criticism lacks context, which isn't something you can easily digest and circlejerk about. If I was the aggressive cancer on the team who didn't trust anyone, I would have kicked one of our incompetent leaders out and taken charge myself. We would have run protect the AD more than 1 game this entire split or as an EMERGENCY RELEGATION TACTIC vs Curse Academy where we almost got 3-0'ed??? Fact is, I did trust them and that's why I know my place as a follower. I stepped up as much as I could to keep us relevant as a team. Anyone, please point out Dexter/Seraph/Link era which one of our lanes could consistently get ahead vs the top teams like C9/TSM/LMQ? It's like the idea of this was to announce that I was the reason 2/3 of our lanes couldn't consistently have high game impact. It's the other way around - 2/3 of our lanes were either mute or getting shit on solo, so I had to step up and do something about it.



Anyways, to quote the essay: "he flamed the entire team and blame deflected after playoffs ended. To me that’s the biggest backstab anyone can do"



the fuck is this other than a blame deflection



I did a lot of things I'm not proud of, and I apologized for it. You want me to be a team player when 2/3 of our lanes with mics muted were getting asspounded by TSM/C9/Crs? We must be playing 2 different versions of League. We needed leadership on the team who can effectively solve problems and NOT put all that burden on Link, or blame me for the fact that we suck at playing together



quick shoutouts to:

Monte: great guy, my biggest regret is that I didn't back him up when shit hit the fan on social media for him. Helped me learn how to be ok with losing lane

Scarra: also great guy, lots of charisma and passion, just not right for us. sorry I blamed him publicly when I was having a moment on stream, it was wrong of me.

Darshan: a top laner who can speak up and I can really work with, godsend

Xmithie: selfless player, no ego + sick mechanics

Link: the work you put in and the hate you put up with

Aphro: best support I could ask for

Pob: so far so good :^)

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