The Twitch streamer, caster, and analyst, Nick “LS” De Cesare (27), has made it into the League of Legends with an Easter egg. When he sees this, tears come to his eyes. He can hardly grasp the honor of now being a part of LoL forever. Because Riot doesn’t usually do that anymore.
Who is that? The 27-year-old American was never a professional LoL player but comes from the card game and strategy corner. He started with Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, and eventually landed in Starcraft.
When LS got his first job in League of Legends in 2014, he started as a coach and analyst. So, he made a name for himself in LoL with his intellect and analyses, not with his skills on mouse and keyboard. He became known because he was the commentator for the excellent Korean LoL in the English-speaking world. His path to LoL is unusual: most coaches were former players themselves.
The American currently lives in South Korea and has made it there as a streamer for the top team T1. At one point, there was even talk of him becoming a coach for T1, but this apparently failed due to the resistance of the Korean fans, who did not believe that a relatively unknown American could train their beloved LoL team around Faker.
LS is known for his analyses and ideas that exist outside of “what everyone knows.” His opinion is highly respected by many professional players. And with one analysis, he has now even made it into LoL.
This is the Easter egg: If you type “Last Shadow” in the LoL shop, two items appear: Morellonomicon and Liandry’s Anguish.
When LS sees this for the first time in a livestream on Twitch, tears gradually come to his eyes. It overwhelms him emotionally.
LS was against an item in LoL 3 years ago – That made him famous
What is special about these items? Three years ago, in Season 8 of LoL, the item “Morellonomicon” was a standard item in builds for AP users. However, LS argued back then that Liandry’s Torment was the clearly better alternative. And he did not stop mentioning this opinion at every opportunity – for years.
LS went so far in the English broadcast of the LCK to call the item Morellonomicon, which he despised, the “forbidden book.” He felt that since the rework in LoL Patch 8.4, the item was simply no longer good enough, and it was useless to save up for it, as it only provided an advantage against a few champions. According to him, it was sufficient to use the much cheaper item “Oblivion Orb,” as that was enough to obtain the main effect of the much more expensive book.
He argued that “Liandry’s Torment” was the clearly better item, which even earned him the reputation of being “the Salesman” for this item.
On Twitter, he once explained to a defender of the “forbidden book”: That had nothing to do with opinion. It was simply mathematics. Anyone who believes in the Morellonomicon might as well claim that the Earth is flat.
“Riot saved my life”
This is what he says now: In an interview with Inven, LS is excited that Riot has dedicated this Easter egg to him. Some would say it is the first time that Riot Games has honored a content creator in LoL, since the late Total Biscuit.
Normally, Riot doesn’t do things like this anymore. Actually, you can only get into the game if you win the Worlds and receive your own skin.
LS says he has gone through tough phases in his life. He was unemployed, had problems, had no place to go. He even once gave up League of Legends and wanted to switch to Heroes of the Storm, but ultimately LoL and Riot Games saved him. He says, “Riot saved my life with the game.”
If he ever questions whether he means anything to LoL and the community in the future, he now knows the answer: “I am no longer just some random.”
The grand saga surrounding LS took place in 2020 when it seemed for a few weeks that LS would become the coach for T1, probably the most important LoL team in the world:
LoL: Coach set to train the most important team in the world – Wave of hate washes him away
