It has been quite the year for Origen top laner Paul "sOAZ" Boyer, from joining a new team to making it to the semifinals of the 2015 World Championship.

However, the road hasn't always been smooth - following Origen's appearance at IEM San Jose, sOAZ conducted an Ask Me Anything on reddit to directly address community criticism leveled at his performance, specifically at the World Championship.

Speaking to theScore eSports, sOAZ clarified some of his comments in the AMA, why it's important to respond to criticism, what Tristan "PowerofEvil" Schrage brings to the team, and more.

In preparation for the upcoming LCS season, what is the team working on to improve?

Can't say much about what we are working on, everyone from the team went back home right after IEM so we didn't play any scrim yet. [The] most important thing is probably going to be to work on the new patch to see what is good/works or not.

After IEM, the team took a short vacation. How important is it to you to have that time off?

I think it's really important to have time off especially after playing Worlds, you practiced hard for playoffs, gauntlet, then practiced hard for one month and then played Worlds. It's really exhausting and that's why a break is needed.

Origen is a relatively new team - and you guys made it all the way to the semifinals at Worlds. Do you feel like everyone underestimated the team? If so, why?

Don't really think so, everyone thought that Chinese teams were a lot stronger, so we did and that's probably one of the reasons that we made it this far and we also had a good draw.

After IEM, you announced on Twitter that you wanted to publicly address all the criticism. Which criticisms in particular did you feel were the most unjustified, and that you wanted to address?

I'm not really sure. I felt like since Season 4 Worlds I got a lot of harsh criticism way more than before and it kinda kept being this way. That's why I posted this, and wanted to have a open discussion about that, but I didn't see much of this "type" of questions when I did my AMA. Or maybe the really interesting ones weren't upvoted.

Why do you think criticism of your play is more visible after Worlds?

Well everyone's looking at you during Worlds so if you fail, everyone will put the blame on you and think bad about you, even if you had a good season.

Why do you feel it’s important to respond to these criticisms?

I think it's really important for me to respond to these criticisms because it's often wrong. Not always but often. Obviously, you are free to think or say what ever you feel like but if you do so without thinking it's kind of annoying. I understand why people felt this way but it's very hard for me to explain to them the game in details and it's impossible for them to know what was the communication like at this specific time and lots of other factors comes in. In the end I just wish fans could go easier on the losing teams and praise a bit more the winners, but I guess this is not really possible.

In the AMA, you mentioned how you felt like giving up after Season 4 Worlds. What happened at Season 4 Worlds that made you re-consider playing professionally? What convinced you to stay?

Nothing or no one really convinced me to stay. I felt down prior to Worlds and even more after, but I quit everything to play league and can't really see myself going back to study. My future is unclear and that's the reason I have to do as much as I can right now.

You also said in your AMA that criticism motivated you “during good and ok times” but “during bad times definitely not”. Can you expand on that thought?

It's obvious that when you are winning most of your games but some people are saying that these guys are better than you, you want to prove them wrong. But, when you are just constantly losing, it creates a really bad atmosphere within the team, practice days are terrible and you just feel bad about it. Plus on top of that people talk shit about you, you just start thinking about what if my teammates believe what those people are saying and want to kick me? What am I going to do?

How do you typically handle criticism?

Best way is to ignore it, sometimes it's easy sometimes it's not. But that's pretty much what everyone's doing or trying to do.

Origen has undergone some changes recently, with Tristan "PowerofEvil" Schrage joining and Enrique "xPeke" Cedeno-Martinez focusing more on managing the team. How do you think this will affect the team, positively and negatively?

I believe it's gonna be really positive for the team to have a 6th player that can help us a lot about the game, communicating the right way, see things in our gameplay that we didn't necessarily see in the past and mindgame opponents due to them having different champion pool/playstyle.

If xPeke decides to step back even further, will you miss playing with your longtime teammate?

It would feel a bit weird but if he's still managing the team a bit or staying at the gaming house it's fine. But, I think he is gonna keep playing for a bit still.

There’s been a lot of talk about European players leaving to to play in other regions. What are your reasons for staying in Europe and on Origen?

I wouldn't even mind playing for NA since it's pretty much the same as playing for EU. Joke aside, I didn't really have an offer to make me leave EU.

Looking to the future - what’s your mentality going into the next season?

Since LCS started, my goal had always been to be in the top two and win playoffs, we were really close last season so maybe this year. About Worlds I would first like to qualify and do the best we can there.

Finally, All-Stars 2015 is coming up: will you be watching? How do you feel about not being voted in?

Maybe if it's really good like the first one with 1v1's, 2v2's, etc. I don't feel bad about not getting voted in, Huni is really popular and had a really good season overall so I'm OK with it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Lisa Doan is a Social Media Editor for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.

Nic Doucet is a News Editor for theScore eSports. You can follow him on Twitter.