“Rod of Ages is kind of a bulls— item”: Jensen talks LCS

Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen is a staple of the LCS, having played in North America since 2015. In our interview, he takes the time to chat about settling in at Dignitas and what makes the 2023 season feel different.

Jensen has been a mainstay of the LCS for a long time, often considered alongside Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg for North America’s greatest veteran mid lane talents. 2023 seems him stepping away yet again from Cloud9 and onto a newly reinvigorated Dignitas. After the team’s first game, a loss to Counter Logic Gaming, Jensen speaks on the ongoing process of competing in the LCS, the new season, and his competition.

WIN.gg: It’s a new year, with a new team, in a new split of the LCS for you. What’s the process of orienting yourself to a new organization and a new roster like for a veteran such as yourself?

Jensen: Integrating into the org has been pretty simple, and pretty good so far. Integrating myself into a whole new roster is a bit more, I guess, of a process in itself because we’re kind of starting from the beginning. It’s been a lot of learning for us to do as a team. So far it’s been a bit tougher than expected, we definitely have a lot of work to do.

Obviously you don’t have the full roster together just yet, with Biofrost subbing in for Ignar, but how do you set goals for yourself and your team coming into a new split?

I always have high expectations for myself, and so the teams come with that. I want to be a top team, of course, I think everyone does. I just want to win the whole thing, again, basically. As for goals that’s about it, I want to be the best and do everything I can. I’m kind of just taking everything one step at a time.

How do you feel the preseason has affected the game and mid lane, specifically? Has it been a positive or negative shift in gameplay since 2022?

For mid lane there haven’t really been too many changes, which is a bit disappointing. The only big change for mid lane has been Rod of Ages. I think Rod of Ages is kind of a bulls— item, because it removes the fun variables in laning phase. Everybody just becomes too tanky. Outside of that, there haven’t really been too many changes, so it’s kind of whatever, I guess. I’m not happy with the changes, but I’m kind of just going with the flow. I’d like to see more changes to items so you could have a bit more variety in the stuff you’re building. Yeah, I’d like to see more changes, but at the same time, it is what it is.

Many organizations have stepped up their rosters this year heading into 2023. As a veteran of the league, how do you feel looking at your competition this year, and how does it stack up to previous years?

I think it’s exciting because a lot of teams look more evenly matched on paper, I guess. In the past you’d think like “Oh there are three or four good teams.” I think now there are a lot of teams that have the potential to be good. I guess we’ll have to see, because having good players itself isn’t going to magically a team really good. It’s a lot about how you synergize with the team. A lot of teams have players that could, on paper, make teams into top teams. But it comes down to how players really synergize with each other and throwing five-star players together doesn’t automatically make a team good. You have to be able to play weak side and all that kind of stuff. It’s exciting because there are a lot of good teams, but we’ll have to see what happens. There are a lot of teams that could be really good, and I think that makes the league very interesting. I’m sure in a few weeks we’ll have an idea of who’s good and who’s not, but right now it’s hard to see who’s going to be a really good team.