The European region has seemingly built a tradition in League of Legends. Its representatives have reached the bracket stages of the World Championship since its creation, only missing the knockout rounds once (2014). However, the region's mid-split showings have been tenuous in 2017. During the spring split, G2 Esports and the Unicorns of Love stumbled on the Flash Wolves at the Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice, Poland. In the summer, they both collided with North America's finest spring split squads at Rift Rivals.
Of the three European representatives in the Rift Rivals tournament, the Unicorns of Love had the better showing. However, the team also uncovered that it has the biggest evolution to undergo. That much became clear on the wake of its defeat against North America's Team SoloMid (3-0).
That finding was not unexpected, as the squad's head coach, Fabian "Sheepy" Mallant revealed looking back at the squad's focus during its preparation for the event. "Our preparation mostly focused on us, on what we wanted to improve, but there has not been an extra push to us this tournament to fix certain issues; [fixing issues] is constant work," he said. "If this is Worlds or if it was the playoffs, we know we would have just gone out."
UoL headed into the tournament headlining Group B with a 5-1 EU LCS record and was seemingly unstoppable in Europe. In its bid to prevent missing the World Championship for the third year in a row, the competition allowed it to spot its flaws, many of which have become apparent during Week 7 of the EU LCS.
One matter that UoL has made great strides in fixing has been its warding in the early-game, particularly regarding the opposite team's jungler; a matter which would in theory allow the squad to do the equivalent of playing poker while knowing the opponent's hand. In turn, the Unicorns are preventing heavy losses, or opening the way for more assertive moves. The squad has also tended to its knack for skirmishes in the early game, even when the team drafts scaling champions.
"Going into Rift Rivals we learned afterwards that our early game [...] is not the strongest, mostly because we pick scaling champions," said Sheepy. "Then the mid game usually, even if we were 4k [gold] behind, we are usually winning every team fight and playing really strong."
Another point of emphasis in UoL's bid to perform down the stretch is the growth of its jungler, Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir, who earned Rookie of the Split honors in the 2017 spring season. Through the implementation of macro-related goals at the position, the team wants to turn him into a proactive jungler, bolstering his ability to identify opportunities to create and/or snowball leads.
"The most important one is: having an oversight of exactly what to do on the map. That can be warding out, that can be wave-pushing or resetting," explains Sheepy, before adding: "People really rely on him, but he relies on [them.] If this connection becomes stronger, I think he will be able to assert way more pressure on the map. I think he will start skipping special camps and trade it off for a lane advantage or vision, and that will help us enormously."
Bolstering Xerxe's macro is one thing. However, new patches change the way the game is played (and the importance of its positions). Previously obscure picks such as Cho'Gath and Sejuani are becoming prevalent, and team compositions shift towards more teamfight centricity.
Beyond improving the players' ability to monitor minute resources at the disposal of their opponents (such as mana, health, and cooldowns), the squad strives to strike while the iron is hot - neither too early, nor too late. Especially not too late.
"Sometimes, we get a bit impatient [in team fights], but I also think that sometimes we're greeding for one more camp or one more wave, then everything delays so much that we have a window of 10 seconds for fighting, when it could have been 20, 30 seconds pressuring the map," admits Sheepy.
Such evolutions would be impossible to perform without proper communication. For the Unicorns of Love, communication has been a pain point at times. During the spring split, Kiss "Vizicsacsi" Tamas had highlighted the squad's need to relay information before a team fight initiation, rather than tunneling on helping a teammate while missing a potentially lethal flank. At times hectic (during team fights), and at times calm (during pre-planned objective takedowns), the intensity goes up and down, depending on the events of the game.
As it turns out, UoL's communication regarding macro-oriented endeavors which involve minion wave management, vision management or objective control has sometimes lacked in timeliness. "People are getting in situations where they're not really sure what to do, and they're asking for stuff that needs to be asked for 30 seconds before, a minute before, so that we can set them up. Far sight and calm are extremely important," he said on the matter, before comparing it to preparing for an exam the day before, versus preparation in advance.
In the end, what may take the Unicorns of Love to the World Championship is its ability to implement the notions that it has set out to implement - fast enough that it would be in a favorable position come playoff time, and methodically enough that the team would endure on the way to a potential World Championship berth.
"If we practice hard, we can be one of the strongest teams. I have a lot of faith in the strength that we can have, and that's what I will work for. People really need to step up - me [as well]. We need to find a way, and I'm sure we can," said Sheepy, before concluding: "I want to field the strength that I know we can have."