SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Near the beaches of the Pacific Ocean, in the press box above the LCS Arena overlooking the crowd below, Eugene "Pobelter" Park is his usual self: calm and polite, a courteous smile on his face.
Last season is a distant memory at this point, the worst of his lengthy career. His team, Immortals, limped to a club-worst seventh place at the end of last year, failing to make the playoffs for the first time in the team's history, after finishing third in the two previous splits.
Then, in the 2017 spring split, every time Immortals took one step forward, it would take two back, ultimately missing the playoffs once again.
Now, Immortals is resurgent after the third week of league play, tied for the No. 1 spot in the standings at 5-1. Reunited with former Counter Logic Gaming teammate and jungler Jake "Xmithie" Puchero, a tandem that won the league title in the summer of 2014, Pobelter is cautiously optimistic about how his team stacks up against the top competition in the North American League Championship Series.
"We haven't scrimmed a lot of the teams in the league yet. I think CLG is strong, TSM is strong, C9's strong, and judging by our record, we are too," Pobelter says.
Immortals, a team once fueled through the free-flowing nature of star player Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon, has buckled down with the signings of Xmithie and head coach Kim "SSONG" Sang-soo. SSONG, a former South Korea league champion as both a player (NaJin Sword) and coach (ROX Tigers), has brought out a sharper Immortals from what the viewers saw in the spring. Along with Xmithie's shotcalling and selfless jungle work, SSONG has improved Immortal's overall macro, with the team already earning convincing wins over both TSM and Cloud9, something Immortals even had trouble doing back in the Huni days.
A mid laner himself back when he was a pro, SSONG has a connection with Pobelter that could unlock the next stage in his play.
"[SSONG] is really smart about the game," Pobelter said. "He's good at getting his point across. I've learned a lot listening to him and following what he says. I'm really happy he decided to join our team."
One of the last remaining North American-born mid laners in the league, Pobelter, 21, might be young in age but is one of the more experienced players in the league. Over the past few years since he gained eligibility to play in the NA LCS, he has gone from the doldrums of the league with Evil Geniuses and Winterfox to winning the league with CLG before joining Immortals in the spring of 2016. Last season, while hard to admit, was a step back for Pobelter -- one in which, after being on an elite domestic team for three splits in a row, the bad outweighed the good.
For Immortals, a team with four mechanically gifted players but no real brain behind the madness, it got what it needed with Xmithie and SSONG, bringing a method to the team's overall way of attacking. Over the first three weeks of the season, the change in structure is something you need to be told about -- you can see it.
In contrast, another storied LCS franchise and league rival, Team Liquid, made few changes to its roster heading into the summer split even after needing Team SoloMid to loan them veteran marksman Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng to avoid total ruin and relegation from the league. Liquid is currently where it finished last season -- ninth, and with no Doublelift coming through those doors anytime soon, as the multi-time All-Star is back in the starting lineup for TSM.
"It just seems like they're not playing as a team that much," Pobelter said about Liquid's continued woes. "And who knows why that is. Maybe they don't trust each other or something like that. But from the outside looking in, all I can see is that they're not doing well. Also, something weird actually -- just as like a side note -- yesterday [Team Liquid] was at E3 instead of scrimming. They were all E3, so I thought that was kinda weird if you have a team that's struggling in the league. I'm sure it's complicated -- probably was planned out in advance, sponsorships. It's just weird."
Immortals was not at E3 the Thursday before its match against Team Liquid. Immortals won that match, a decisive 2-0.
While it remains to be seen if Immortals can keep up its pace and snag a first-round bye, the team has changed for the better. And Pobelter is back to his old self: the rock in the mid lane, where he can open up the rest of the map for his teammates.
When asked if he could back in time and change anything about the previous split -- the one that tested him more than maybe any other in his career -- he shook his head.
"It was just something I had to go through myself," he says. "Even if I had some all-knowing omniscient god talking down to me -- it wasn't anything like that. I think I just had to get through it."
Sometimes the worst seasons are the ones that teach you the most.