Golden Guardians may be entering the second half of the League of Legends Championship Series 2021 Lock In tournament with a 1-2 record, but Ethan “Iconic” Wilkinson has emerged as a ray of hope for the underdog squad. The ex-Maryville University jungler impressed with his Graves and Taliyah play, and even had the highest KDA in the league for his first two days of LCS play.
After an impressive debut weekend, rookie jungler Iconic gives the credit to his teammates. (Photo courtesy Golden Guardians)
Following GG’s day three loss against Team Liquid, Iconic sat down with us to collect his thoughts on his debut.
Hotspawn: Congrats on completing your first LCS weekend! What are your thoughts after such a milestone?
Iconic: Hmm… I’m feeling alright. It was fun to play. I think we played pretty well, disregarding this last game we played. People had really low expectations, so I think we’re just going to keep on improving with practice and see how much further we can go in this tournament.
Hotspawn: How’s it been adjusting to playing and prepping with an LCS team?
Iconic: I came from collegiate where I’d say things are somewhat similar. We’d practice every day basically and we’d have a couple off days a month. I think scrims are run similarly other than we play a couple more games of scrims; we do five games whereas in collegiate we did three. We can just commit our entire day to playing the game, and in collegiate you had to split your focus a bit. I’d say it’s pretty similar.
If we play at our best, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing
Hotspawn: Your last game was against Team Liquid, probably the strongest opponent you’ve played so far. What was the prep like going into the game?
Iconic: I’d say we didn’t focus too much on the opponent other than draft-wise. We went in with a plan in draft, but I’d say we worry more about how we play and less about who our opponent is. I think if we play at our best, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. So we didn’t care too much about how they played or stuff like that.
Hotspawn: On the topic of your play, specifically, you kind of had a break out weekend. How are you feeling about how you’ve played so far? It seems like the current meta favors the looser style of play you’d see in amateur.
Iconic: Yeah, and I’d say I also like playing the champions that are strong right now. I don’t think I’m playing like crazy good or anything, I just think we work kind of well as a team when we’re on. In our first couple of days I think we just played better as a team than the other people, so it kind of makes my stats look better when people are helping me out and I’m helping people out. I don’t think I’m better than any of the particular players I’m playing against or anything; I think we’re working well together in the games.
Hotspawn: I spoke to your teammate Aiden “Niles” Tidewell about his playstyle earlier, and since you’ve played together in the past, I’m curious how you’d describe your own playstyle and how the two of you work together.
Iconic: Honestly, I’m not sure about my playstyle. I don’t know how to describe it, but I just do what I feel is right and I don’t think I’d put that into a specific category of aggressive or passive. I just try to make decisions; I don’t think I have a “playstyle”. Niles knows when he can kill people and when he needs to call for his team to punish the top laner. He can find an individual advantage and he knows to call resources to snowball it.
Hotspawn: What about your other teammates? You said you’ve been getting along pretty well. How’s it been interacting outside of the game and getting used to the new team environment?
Iconic: We all play in the office that Golden Guardians has, so we spend half the day together basically. We get here, scrim, then guys go their separate ways sometimes, but everyone is super chill and the coaching staff is really easy to work with. I think the team environment is just really nice. No tension or anything; that’s just gonna help everyone improve faster.
Hotspawn: That’s great to hear! Before we wrap, did you have anything you wanted to say to those who’ve been supporting you especially for your debut weekend?
Iconic: I appreciate everyone supporting me. We’re just going to keep working hard and trying to get better to make them proud.
Golden Guardians play their next match Friday, January 22nd at 4 p.m. PDT against 100 Thieves.
