BERLIN -- With teams such as G2 Esports tearing through the League of Legends European Championship, the successes of the rest of the league have gone largely unnoticed. Splyce and their AD carry, Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup, are used to it by now.
Splyce's 2-0 performance this week flew under the radar, thanks to a G2 victory over struggling rival Fnatic. But as the season has gone on, Splyce have proven themselves time and time again, including in a victory over Misfits Gaming that moved Splyce to 5-3 and fourth in the LEC standings.
Kobbe has played in the premier European league since 2016, and he is the sole remaining member of Splyce from that year. He has experienced almost everything the LEC could offer, from missing the split playoffs to losses in the final. However, he has yet to win a title in six attempts.
"On paper, it looks harder and harder to get that title, but I still have it in my mission: Every split I play, I want to go further," Kobbe said. "I'm not really satisfied with just making it to the playoffs and going out. That's the worst. I'd rather not play at all. Losing in quarterfinals and semifinals is the worst thing ever."
Of all the times he reached the playoffs, the 2016 summer split finals and the 2018 spring split third-place game stand out as fond memories. In 2016, the team had gone from near-relegation to the finals and qualified to the League of Legends World Championship.
Two years later, the Denmark native played for third in front of a home crowd in Copenhagen. However, satisfaction eluded him, as he has been unable to grasp at title contention outside of those two splits.
"It's kind of sad in a way, but I'm just going to keep going until [I] eventually reach that," he said.
Since Kobbe's arrival, Splyce have made a habit of punching above their weight class, and that has been an ever-present theme of 2019 as well. The hype around Splyce was relatively low this offseason compared to that of Misfits and G2, which both made high-profile signings and were expected to be among the best in the LEC. Splyce's performance this weekend, however, proved that the team can contend despite a perceived lack of star power behind the leadership of Kobbe and jungler Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir.
"I think we have a really good core with me and Xerxe and a good coaching staff," Kobbe said. "We made some great additions onto that. I can honestly say, when you look at this roster on paper, you're not like G2 hyped. But we're good players, and with the right coaching, why wouldn't we be able to be just as good?"
Good doesn't draw eyes, though, for both teams and individuals. Kobbe said he thinks he has never been considered a top-three AD carry in the league because he isn't a flashy star and doesn't have a championship to his name.
"In a way, it's fine for me, but in a way, I feel I've been around for long, and I'm a lot better than many of these players," he said. "I read the quote somewhere: I can't really be the best before actually winning the title. I don't want to say that, even though I think I am."
To get to the top this spring or summer, Kobbe will have to rely on a fresh batch of teammates. The off-screen chemistry is still a work in progress -- Kobbe and new bot lane partner Tore "Norskeren" Hoel Eilertsen botched a fist-bump during the weekend matches -- but they are on the same wavelength on Summoner's Rift.
"Right now, we're playing super well together already," Kobbe said.
The same applies to the team's other additions: Marek "Humanoid" Brazda has seamlessly adapted to the LEC stage, and former Unicorns of Love and Schalke 04 top laner Tamás "Vizicsacsi" Kiss acts as a vocal leader.
Another former Unicorns of Love player, Xerxe, is to credit for the smooth transition. The 19-year-old jungler joined Splyce in 2018 and is suddenly one of the team's longest-tenured members.
"He's definitely grown a lot if I look back at when I first started playing with him, when he was coming from the Unicorns," Kobbe said. "There were a lot of flaws in his knowledge. He was obviously still a really good player, but he's much more complete now."
Kobbe is confident that Splyce will make a mark in the LEC despite three of his former teammates leaving. The team is the only premier organization that he has known, for good reason, and being the centerpiece of an underdog roster is familiar to the bot laner.
"I feel like my coaching staff, and everyone, trusts me," Kobbe said. "It feels nice to have that kind of respect, but it's not something I want to take for granted. I want to earn it as well. That's why I work the hardest every single day to prove that it's not for nothing."