Teams in League of Legends are currently looking for new players for the next season. LoL player Eugene “Pobelter” Parks is a 3-time champion of the US LCS, but he can’t find a team for 2020. He just can’t cope with it, as he still sees himself as one of the best players.
Who is that? Eugene Park has been playing LoL for ages. He is a mid laner and was part of 2 teams that won the championship in the LCS:
- In summer 2015 with Counter Logic Gaming alongside Doublelift (ADC) and Xmithie (Jungle)
- In spring and summer 2018 with Team Liquid again with Doublelift and Xmithie
Pobelter was still part of the championship team of the LCS a year ago.
Last year, however, Pobelter played for FlyQuest, a team from the second tier.
Pobelter addresses the league
This is the current situation: Pobelter says he simply cannot find a spot on a team this year. He has spoken with many LoL organizations and was also willing to take less money and work his way into a team, but now everyone is ignoring him.
He says he can’t believe that teams are hiring players who are clearly worse than him:
- arbitrarily imported players
- mercenaries who only play for money and do not strive
- washed-up professionals past their prime
The league underestimates veterans and overestimates newcomers
Pobelter believes the league is making a mistake. Veterans like him are already “well-known figures” and are therefore underestimated – while newcomers have “unlimited potential.”
The 23-year-old explains that he is still fully motivated every day and believes he can still develop too well. He cites examples of other veterans who have made a big leap even after years.
Pobelter says he probably has the image of being “good enough for North America, but too bad for the international stage.” He then explains exactly under what circumstances he performed poorly at international tournaments and how it came about.
The US championship team 2018 was probably hell
This is still noteworthy: In his statement, Pobelter repeatedly mentions how toxic the atmosphere at Team Liquid was supposed to be. Although they dominated the US league in 2018, they were eliminated in the group stage at Worlds 2018. At MSI 2018, they only reached a disappointing 5th place.
- at one point during MSI 2018, they had to substitute support Olleh because he was “mentally broken”
- the atmosphere was said to be “stressful and negative”
- Pobelter himself was also totally “tilt” during MSI 2018
- during Worlds 2018, they wanted to address the issues in a discussion. However, this felt like they had just flamed each other until 3 or 4 in the morning.
This is how the professional struggles with his situation: Pobelter analyzes possible reasons why he is perceived as “too bad for a spot” when he considers himself “one of the best players” in LoL. This seems to trouble him a lot:
- he believes he has played on teams with a terrible atmosphere that dragged everyone down – during an international tournament, he was just “totally tilt”.
- he sacrificed himself as a team player and let other players take the strong picks – he ended up looking bad
- or he tried to make something happen in hopeless situations with risky plays, which made him look like a bad player
Pobelter does not want to give up, though. He is ready to take any opportunity that comes his way to continue playing LoL.
Another LoL professional was once considered a failure but managed to achieve great success again in 2019: He also plays in the mid lane: Doinb, the world champion.
