The debut of Team BDS in the League of Legends European Championship came with a stuttery performance. The team pushed a star-studded Fnatic to its limits, but ultimately was only able to win against Excel Esports. BDS top laner Adam “Adam” Maanane was disappointed with the results, but had high hopes for his future and that of his team.
With the experience of Worlds 2021 under his belt, Adam wants to become a vocal leader on Team BDS. (Image courtesy of Team BDS)
At the end of the LEC’s opening weekend, Adam spoke with us about his targets for 2022. He spoke about joining BDS and what it meant to him to be reunited with friends from his Karmine Corp days. The young Frenchman also walked through the early issues BDS is facing, and what his role can be in solving them.
Hotspawn: Welcome, Adam! Unfortunately for you and BDS, you end the first week with one win and two losses. I saw on Twitter that you expressed your disappointment with the overall result—can you expand a bit on that?
Adam: I think that I didn’t expect us to win against Fnatic, to be honest. We’re still a new team and Fnatic is a really strong team, honestly talking. They have very strong players. Since we’re a new team and we are still discovering our synergy, I thought we would lose that game.
For our expectations for the weekend as a team, I think that we’re all on the same page that having a 2-1 score, by winning against Excel and Misfits, would be great. I think we should have won the game against Misfits. Everyone was winning. Bot was winning, mid was winning, top was winning. So, it’s pretty frustrating to lose because we just threw the game. We didn’t really know what to do, we were kind of lost. There was a lot of miscommunication, which resulted in a frustrating game in the end. This was only week one, there are still fifteen matches left. I’m not that worried.
Hotspawn: You have a lot of young, inexperienced players on your roster. You only debuted in the LEC last Summer Split yourself. The only player with proper LEC experience is LIMIT. Is the inexperience on the roster what caused the hiccups?
Adam: I would say so, probably. I don’t think there is a captain right now in the comms, who is leading everyone. Eventually, there will be a captain that comes up—maybe it’s me, maybe it’s LIMIT, who knows. [Laughs] We’re a team that is scaling. This was only week one, there are still fifteen matches left. I’m not that worried. I’m pretty sure that we will be a strong team. Maybe not now, but maybe in summer. Who knows? I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s coming.
Hotspawn: You have quite some former KCorp players on your lineup. Do you feel an extra connection with the team because of that?
Adam: BDS, first of all, wanted to have a healthy environment in the team. That’s how they wanted to build it. Nothing that’s close to toxic. They made sure that each player wanted to play with each other. There is not a single player that didn’t want to play with me or with anyone else. The team was also built for the long term. The plan is not to go to Worlds this year. Of course, this would be amazing, but realistically talking, this is not the main goal. The main goal is to scale, as a team.
Of course, as you mentioned, there is a lot of KCorp on the team. I’m reunited with Cinkrof, xMatty, and NUCLEARINT. LIMIT is the only one I didn’t play with before. Basically, everyone in the team knew each other before building the team. It creates a healthy environment. When you look at the team atmosphere, it is really enjoyable to be in this team.
Hotspawn: When I spoke to GrabbZ in December about building the team, he mentioned a healthy environment as well. He said you’re a pleasure to work with, by the way! Still, on Twitter you have a boisterous personality, you like to poke the bear. Is that just a social media personality?
Adam: I think that I have always been confident in myself and in the team I am in. Even now, as a player on BDS, I can actually do much better than what I’ve been doing in the first three games. I am also really confident that we can do way more as a team.
On social media, yes, it’s reflective of my personality a bit. If I can taunt, I will taunt, you know? [Laughs] If I put some spice out there before the game, it can only be a benefit for the league, for the environment. I really like it. I’ve gained a lot of experience in Fnatic. I’ve been to Worlds and I’ve learned a lot there.
Hotspawn: We have some good trash-talkers in the LEC already, such as Wunder and Selfmade.
Adam: Yea, there are some personalities who are really good at it. Wunder and Selfmade are on a higher level of taunt. [Laughs] For the moment, I am still a bit reserved. But yea, it’s super good to have these players that are strong personalities on social media. It entertains the public a bit. It’s really funny to read.
Hotspawn: To round up: You’ve said that your team is ‘scaling’ and that you expect to grow a lot as a team. But for you, personally, what are the goals this year?
Adam: We have GrabbZ, and he is teaching us a lot. I think that a team like BDS is actually the perfect team for GrabbZ. It’s in those types of teams that he will show his full potential as a coach. We, the players, really know what he can do. This is not something that I had in KCorp or Fnatic. In KCorp we had a lot of experienced players, so they were the ones basically teaching me the game. The same goes for Fnatic. I had a lot of experienced players. In BDS, it is the contrary. Apart from LIMIT, we’re still pretty young. We still need to learn a lot. This is where GrabbZ is able to teach us a lot.
Regarding my personal goals: I want to grow as a player. I want to prove people wrong that tell me that I’m just an average top laner. I will need time to improve my laning. I extended my champion pool a lot, but you can’t always play them on stage. In Fnatic, I was pretty limited, but now I can play way more champions in BDS. In time people will stop saying that my champion pool is a problem.
I think that I will need to improve on my communication. I mentioned that there was not a leader in the voice comms. I want to be that leader. I’ve gained a lot of experience in Fnatic. I’ve been to Worlds and I’ve learned a lot there. Right now, I cannot really express them in BDS. I’m pretty sure that, if I’m focusing on it, I can be a really good captain for this team. This is my main goal.
Team BDS plays its next LEC match on Friday, January 21st, at 9 PM CET against Team Vitality. You can watch the game live on the official LoL Esports site.
