"It's been two seasons now and we're not progressing" — Skeanz reflects on SK Gaming's Spring Split

After SK Gaming's loss to Vitality closed a frustrating Spring Split, Skeanz spoke to RFT.GG about two seasons without visible progress, his place within a veteran-heavy roster, the Cologne base, the team's off-meta experiments, the failed EWC qualifier run, and the self-assessment he carries into Summer.

You just lost to Vitality tonight. How are you feeling right now?

Gutted, honestly. It's frustrating — I'm gutted about what we've shown this split, again.

It's been two splits now where we don't play well, where I feel we're not progressing.

You play alongside a lot of veterans — Wunder, Mikyx especially. Looking back on this Spring, would you say you've managed to take your place in the team?

First split, I struggled a bit, I think — because I was listening a lot to what they were saying. Second split, I took more space, I was more comfortable. I'd say I played okay on the second split, I was more at ease.

It's pretty unusual that you're based in Cologne and travel up to Berlin every weekend for matches. Do you think that put you at a disadvantage compared to teams permanently in Berlin?

I think it depends on the player. For me personally, I enjoyed it, honestly — the trip doesn't bother me at all, and I really like our facility in Cologne, I think it's great. So it wasn't a disadvantage; on the contrary, it was an advantage, because I felt really good there. For the others, I don't really know — we haven't really talked about it. But I can understand: six hours of bus twice a week can be annoying, and it costs us a scrim day too. That said, we have wi-fi on the bus and we each have our own laptop, so we can pass the time — review, watch shows, whatever. Overall, for me, it's been pretty positive.

This season, we've seen you try off-meta picks. But I had the feeling that you didn't go all the way with it. Looking back, should you have committed harder to that off-meta SK identity?

I think we tried pretty much everything in mid, honestly. Of course there are picks we didn't bring to officials that we played in scrims, but we covered a lot of ground in mid. At support, I think there were more champions we could have shown, because Mikyx is really good on them, his champion pool is huge. But no, I don't really have regrets there. Honestly, neither approach was working — playing normal or playing exotic.

In the current meta, is it just impossible to bring exotic comps, or are there still openings to bring them out?

There are always cracks, honestly. In mid, it's a bit harder given the current meta, but at support I think you can be more exotic — especially when you have a support like Mikyx.

You changed mid laner for the EWC qualifiers, with SlowQ. His playstyle is completely different from Leader's. How do you adapt in such a short time?

It's not that complicated, actually. SlowQ is more of a classic mid laner, like most other mids, much more mage-oriented, less wild, let's say. I was very used to that. So no, the adjustment wasn't a big deal.

Coming back to your EWC qualifier run — losing to Galions can't have been easy to digest. Did it dent your confidence, or did you move on quickly?

No, I moved on very fast, honestly — because we already knew we weren't good. We didn't really enjoy ourselves there. The tournament was really just an opportunity to play a bit with SlowQ. In our series against Galions, losing the first game did tilt me a bit, because for me you can't lose like that — but it happens, those things happen, even if they shouldn't. But in the end the match itself didn't tilt me more than that, not on a tournament like that.

From the way you said it, it feels like the team wasn't focused on EWC at all. Were you already thinking of Summer Split ? Did you give up on it?

I don't really know exactly what we were focused on, honestly. It's complicated — you play a tournament, the EWC qualifier, and

I don't really know how to say this politely, but we didn't really care.

It wasn't a big priority. At the same time, we were already eliminated from the LEC playoffs, and we were playing with a different mid — so it was pretty hard to find a real goal or a motivation for that tournament.

Do you feel that Jopa, as a rookie, is more affected by this kind of bad result? Do you, as more experienced players, help him out ?

Personally, I'm trying to be always behind Jopa, I make sure he's doing well. Today for example, after the second game, the two of us were a bit tilted — the matchup made us feel it. So I went to talk to Jopa too. He's not more sensitive than we are, I think — he's very mature for a rookie, all things considered. But yeah, it might affect him a bit more.

The debate continues on the gap between LEC teams and top ERL teams — we've seen Gallions and Solary beat LEC teams. How do you see it?

Honestly, I've always thought the same thing. I think top LFL teams can beat bottom-table LEC teams. But there's also a really big gap within the LEC itself, between the big teams and the others.

For example, I don't see an ERL team — even a top ERL — beating KC, G2, even KOI, that kind of level.

On a Bo3, on a bad day, sure, they could beat KOI — but I think there's really a big gap between LEC top teams and ERL top teams.

Looking back on your Spring Split, what's the positive you take from it, and what do you want to improve for Summer?

On the positive side, I was more comfortable in my gameplay — I was showing more of what I wanted, I felt more at ease. On the negative side, I think I need to take more responsibility in certain moments.