The story of the “League of Legends” pro Eugene “Pobelter” Park (23) continues. After not being hired for the 2020 season in LoL, he is now expected to help the weakest team in the LCS to victory: Counter Logic Gaming has signed him in dire straits.
Who is involved? Pobelter is one of the most successful players in the LCS, the US league of League of Legends. He is one of the few pros who have achieved over 1000 kills.
However, many teams apparently considered Pobelter too old before the season, as he is already 23. The American pro has already been a champion three times, but has not been able to find a team for the current season.
This has annoyed the mid-laner considerably, and he complained that teams place too much value on young talent and neglect experienced veterans.
Nevertheless, he has not given up. At the beginning of 2020, Team Liquid hired Pobelter as a coach. He was supposed to help the team regain its stature. For a short time, it was even speculated whether he might step in as a jungle substitute for Broxah.
However, it is now clear that neither is the case. Pobelter now plays firmly on the mid-lane for Counter Logic Gaming (CLG). The team announced this in a tweet:
Pobelter is to help CLG out of trouble
What is the status of CLG? In the current standings of the LCS North America, Counter Logic Gaming is in tenth place and thus in last place (via LoLEsports). The team has only achieved one victory against eight losses.
This places the team far behind its usual performance. In the LCS Summer 2019, CLG still secured third place and took home $25,000 (via liquipedia).
At the moment, it doesn’t look like the team will catch up to third place or even reach first place. That is currently held by Cloud9 with 9 to 0,after it parted ways with its bot laner Sneaky.
How can Pobelter help? Pobelter has been a champion in the LCS three times since 2015 and has also consistently secured second and third places. He even won his first championship in 2015 together with CLG. Subsequently, he played for Immortals, Team Liquid, and most recently for FlyQuest.
His strength lies in the mid-lane, where he now plays as a substitute for Lee “Crown” Min-ho at CLG, who has performed quite poorly lately (KDA of 1.7 with 21/26/23 and a consistent deficit in gold and XP according to oracleselixir.com)
Pobelter himself sees great potential in himself:
I still think I’m one of the best players. […] I don’t think I have reached my limit yet. I think you only gradually get worse when motivation and drive fall off, and I am still as motivated as on the first day of the LCS.
Pobelter via TwitLonger (translated)
Whether Pobelter’s deployment on the mid-lane pays off remains to be seen. In any case, LoL fans will be able to see him more often now.
