Team Vitality is fighting an uphill battle in the LEC. Five weeks into the 2022 Spring Split, the organization has raked up a measly 5-6 score, which includes narrow victories against the likes of last-placed team Astralis. In the fifth week of play, Vitality went 0-2, losing against Fnatic and EXCEL Esports. Yet, jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek has no doubt that his team will bounce back.
Selfmade remains confident that Team Vitality will bounce back come Spring Split Playoffs. (Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games)
Selfmade spoke to us after his team’s loss against EXCEL. He reflected on the game and painted a bigger picture of the synergistic issues in Vitality’s gameplay. Selfmade also shared his thoughts on the team dynamics in Vitality, and what he contributes to the discourse.
Hotspawn: Welcome, Selfmade. You personally had a good start to the game against EXCEL, but the game slipped away from your team afterwards. What are your thoughts on the loss?
Selfmade: I don’t even know what just happened, honestly. It was one of those games that you don’t even want to review after a scrim. It was such a big fiesta. I think the biggest issue in this game is that we got kind of outdrafted. We got flexed on by Zeri and then we ended up having Vayne into a team comp with Aphelios and Malphite, so it wasn’t fun to play for Carzzy.
Hotspawn: Still, with two early ganks you had a 2-0 Vayne right at the start of the game, which was promising. Where does it descend into a fiesta then?
Selfmade: I mean, if you get kills in the early game it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna win the game. It’s just 300 gold for the person that gets the kill, right? So, we could basically say that Vayne got two Daggers from that, and that’s pretty much it. But in the end, she had to play against Malphite and Zeri, Aphelios who has 2000 range, same for Lux. We tried to build a team comp around Vayne by picking a ranged support, but they were all banned. So we ended up picking Leona and it was kind of tough to play once we hit the mid-game.
“We don’t hold ourselves from going for risky plays or sometimes even stupid plays. We just lack discipline.”
Hotspawn: Vitality has won a lot of games in the past weeks, but some of them were very scrappy where you stumbled across the finish line. Was EXCEL just good enough to punish the mistakes you made?
Selfmade: I think the reason why our games are looking like they do, is because we play on stage the way we do in practice. We are not stressed out or anything like that, we don’t hold ourselves from going for risky plays or sometimes even stupid plays. We just lack discipline, let’s call it that. That’s something we have to work on right now.
Hotspawn: How is that progress going? Obviously, teams are finding their footing in the spring split, but at the same time we’re closing in on the playoffs.
Selfmade: The biggest thing we should change, I think, is that if we have a game plan, we just follow it. For example, we had a game plan this game that we kind of changed right after we got Aphelios’ Summoner’s Spells down at level 1. Because of that, [Alphari] suffered, even though we had the plan to play for him. I think it would be the first step for us to agree on how we want to progress the game and just follow it.
Hotspawn: Sometimes Vitality gets the criticism that you’re playing like it’s a solo queue game—
Selfmade: Yeah we are, we are! Of course, that’s what I said. We lack discipline and we play like we don’t care, which is bad. We shouldn’t play like this, but we’re gonna get in shape for the playoffs. I can guarantee that.
Hotspawn: What gives you that confidence?
Selfmade: I know that I have very good players and staff in our team. It’s not a team where people point fingers at each other or where people get mad after losing. Of course, people get mad because of the loss itself, but we instantly try to discuss what the issue was and why we lost, what we have to fix for the next game, and stuff like this. I’m confident in our progress, let’s say.
Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games
Hotspawn: In the way Vitality plays, I do see synergy between you and Perkz, and I see synergy between Carzzy and Labrov, who played on the same team together before. But if I look at, for example, you and Labrov, I don’t see a lot happening yet. How is that development going?
Selfmade: I agree with what you said. I think me and Labrov are not playing so well together right now. I’m mostly focusing on playing around the top side of the map, which is with Perkz and Alphari. So, that’s something we clearly have to work on. But it’s gonna take time and we’re gonna have to put it as our goal in our practice. Then we can look at what we can do about it.
Hotspawn: During a PGL segment of the LEC in the second week, Perkz said that he needs the team to play the way he envisions the game in order for it to work. Has there been a big change?
Selfmade: Well, that’s not really how it works, and I didn’t really understand why he said that on PGL. That’s completely not true. [Laughs]
Hotspawn: How do you see it then?
Selfmade: Everybody respects each other’s opinion. We’re a team, right? If somebody has an idea we discuss it together, and we all agree on the same thing as five people. There is never something that, as you said, he wants his teammate to play a game the way he views it. It’s not like Perkz came to our room and said “Yo, play this and that,” that’s completely bullshit. That never actually happened.
He is the leader, he has a big voice. Everybody respects him. He always tries to be the first one to bring solutions and fix things. He also shares his experience with us. But if there is something he thinks is good, we’ll talk about it, and we’ll all come to a conclusion together. It’s not gonna be like “Do this because I said so.” It’s not like that.
“I feel super great with Perkz in the team because he is the one that always starts conversations.”
Hotspawn: What is it that you bring to the team, in that regard?
Selfmade: I don’t know, I guess I just bring myself as a good player and some followers on Twitter. [Laughs] I don’t know, honestly. I’m not the leader type of person, right? I’m just here. I’m talkative, I talk a lot, I’m open-minded, but I’m not the type of person to go to someone and say “Hey, let’s talk about this,” you know? That’s why I feel super great with Perkz in the team because he is the one that always starts conversations.
Hotspawn: There’s balance in the group, it seems.
Selfmade: I’m enjoying myself. [Laughs] We are all trolling a lot, but that’s just a team thing, right? If we lose, it’s most likely because the whole team was doing some weird shit in-game, not because of one person trolling. I think that’s what you can see in our games. Even in the game against Astralis, all of us were playing bad but somehow we managed to win. It doesn’t feel like you can point your finger at anybody in this team. I never feel like you can say “Wow, this guy carried Vitality” or “Wow, this guy inted Vitality”. That’s what I like about our team and that’s what gives me the confidence for the future.
Hotspawn: Well then, lastly, I’m gonna put you on the spot a bit. This team was assembled to win the LEC—how confident are you that this is achievable in the Spring Split?
Selfmade: I am 100% confident that we are gonna do well. I’m not 100% sure that we’re gonna win the Split because anything can happen. But I know that we are a type of team that’s gonna perform much better in best-of-fives than in best-of-ones.
Team Vitality plays its next LEC match on Friday, February 18th, at 8 PM CET against Team BDS. You can watch the game live on the official LoL Esports site.
