Maurice “Amazing” StĂĽckenschneider, the jungler for 100 Thieves, has given his own views on how to make the North American region stronger in League of Legends.
In the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, no team from the LCS managed to qualify out of the group stages of the tournament. This result marks the first time no North American team has progressed to the quarterfinals since 2015, and only the second time it has happened at all.
This result is well below the expectations of a region that is rich in funding and boasts so much talent, and many members of the community have come out with suggestions on how NA can improve. In a twitter thread, Amazing has suggested that there are too many people involved in the LCS team environments, and getting down to basics would be a way to go.
“I’d say that NA overall has a bad case of too many chefs (coaches & analysts) that spoil the broth. Over analyzing and not giving players enough autonomy and thus alienating them from the final product,” Amazing said. “I’ve been observing this trend for years now, and NA’s biggest strength (money) also inherently became its biggest weakness (the more at stake = more top-down control).”
While admitting that his approach is not without risk, Amazing argues that a simpler approach to the game and a greater focus on the game itself, with more direct player involvement in strategy and tactics, would be a way to progress and hopefully improve the international record of the region.
“I think the baseline is that a flatter hierarchy means a lot more connection to the final product, but cutting out middlemen out of existing structures is risky too. Isolating a team from the org and rebuilding from scratch around key pieces is probably the way to go,” Amazing concluded.
Amazing has been involved in professional League of Legends since 2012, being the jungler for Team SoloMid in 2014 then having stints with the LEC’s Fnatic and FC Schalke 04 teams before returning to the LCS with 100 Thieves. He has won several domestic titles as well as IEM Season X San Jose, and achieved a top-four finish at the 2015 World Championship.Â
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