Eugene “Pobelter” Park has been a pro in League of Legends for 8 years, but now his career has hit a low point. He plays for the bottom team in the LCS, Counter Logic Gaming. The team is currently falling apart under pressure. The midlaner admits he broke down crying in front of his coach. The situation in his team is desperate, the pressure too high.
This is Pobelter:
- The American Pobelter (24) is a well-known and experienced midlaner in LoL. He has been playing professionally in League of Legends for 8 years, and in the early days of LoL, he was one of the youngest pros ever.
- Throughout his long pro career, Pobelter has had several successful stints. He collected 2 championship titles in the LCS, 2015 with Counter Logic Gaming, 2018 with Team Liquid. In 2016, he won the regular season with Immortals but finished only third in the playoffs.
- Actually, Pobelter was already cut in 2019. After his time with Team Liquid, he couldn’t find a new team and complained: There was a youth craze in LoL. However, in the end, he continued his career: in 2020, he rejoined Counter Logic Gaming, his old team. However, things are not going well there. Counter Logic Gaming is currently last in the LCS with 10-29.
“Pressure was super-super high”
This is what Pobelter says now: In a tweet, the midlaner explained (via twitter):
“In the morning before the last match I played for CLG, I broke down crying in front of my coach because I felt the increasing misery of the last weeks. I felt like nothing was going right anymore. I have never felt like this in the more than 7 years as an LCS pro.
It hurt to see that. I’m sure the players from CLG are much better than this. But the environment around the team became too negative and desperate. The pressure was super-super high, and I don’t think anyone can be successful in this environment.”
Pobelter
Team increases pressure on players through video of crisis meeting
This is the background: Pobelter played his last game for CLG on July 11. In the next game, on July 16, Tanner Damonte played midlane.
The CLG team created additional public pressure when they released a video of an internal team meeting on Twitter.
In the team meeting, the manager of CLG informed the players that things were going too poorly, and changes needed to be made to the team’s roster. The video ran as a “Sponsored Video” by a beer brand.
The players of the team, including Pobelter, looked downcast and dejected in the video and endured the manager’s speech with their heads hanging.
This decision had further increased the pressure on the players, but it seems the situation was already bleak beforehand.
As can now be seen from the results, the video, which was meant to show an “authentic moment”, had a negative effect on the players: CLG has lost the last 5 games.
The video, which had such a negative impact on morale, can be seen here:
LoL: Pro team makes catastrophic marketing mistake – “Wrong to show that”
