Coaches play a pivotal role in all levels of sports and increasingly so in esports. Whether it's Kim 'kkOma' Jeong-gyun in League of Legends (LoL) or Danny 'zonic' Sørensen in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) they, while not portrayed in glistening lights like the players, are included in any serious discussion about the reason for their team's success.
We talked to Jack 'Portare' Fenton, esports executive and LoL coach, as well as Allan 'Lynxx' Hender, CS:GO coach, both of University of Warwick's esports society 'Warwick Esports'. The society has been a dominant force in university esports competition placing in the top 4 (and often top 2) almost without fail. We asked what made them want to be coaches and what advice they have for aspiring ones
Q: Could you tell us a little about your esports backgrounds?
Portare: When coaching esports, League of Legends was my game of choice because I have played it for several years. I found that my coaching background from traditional sport gave me really good people skills and a quick grasp of strategy and team cohesion. I got the opportunity to work closely with Philip 'princephilip' Leung and Kallon 'Kerber0s' Ram for the University Esports Masters (UEM) qualifiers and they found it made a big difference. Over the following Summer I coached them as they travelled to Portugal and Italy to compete. During that time I was also elected 'esports executive' for our esports society which meant I was in charge of the logistics for every team competing in all games in all tournaments at the time. The coaching and managing stemmed from there, going on to running try-outs, bootcamps, and expanding to an academy team.
Lynxx: I have been in and around esports for about six years with the first three of those leading a team and community in a smaller title. Narrowing down to Counter-Strike I have been watching professional level play since the release of Global Offensive in 2012 and in mid to late 2015 I started writing and taking more interest on an analytical level. Coming into this year I took up writing again and my passion for the competitive scene was back at an all time high. I currently shape the vast majority of how the team plays alongside calling for Warwick in online games. In terms of the wider scene I decided to take my journalism much more seriously over this summer and as of this moment I am essentially full time doing something involving Counter-Strike whether that be coaching, writing, interviewing, recording podcasts etc.
Jack 'Portare' Fenton at our announcement event in May. Image courtesy of Storybox Squared
Q: What do you feel were your greatest accomplishments and why?
Portare: I'd say my greatest accomplishment was making a difference to the mindsets of the people I was coaching. I built a really good relationship with the whole team. In particular I was proud of the growth that Kallon 'Kerber0s' Ram, Tom 'Send' Li, and Ehan 'Bluebell1' Bae showed and that's what makes me happiest to see as a coach. We had less success this academic year, our best achievement was reaching the finals of King of the North (KOTN) but nonetheless I was proud of the how the team and I developed.
Lynxx: Undoubtedly winning NUEL’s Spring season of this year was our greatest accomplishment as a team, it felt like the culmination of many hours of practice and prolonged periods of hard work from all the players, and for myself it was in a sense a little vindication that I do know what I am talking about when it comes to Counter-Strike. Although with that said, in terms of pure elation in the moment I would personally put winning KOTN 2018 above since the second and final map of the series went really close and it’s in those clutch moments that CS:GO as a spectacle becomes it’s most exciting.
Q: Any low points?
Portare: There were definitely low points. Drafting (picking the champions your team bans and plays) can leave you devastated as you feel you have disadvantaged your team. Fortunately that happened early while I was also coaching Team Singularity in the UK, Polish, and Danish leagues. Bad drafts meant I could learn so much, to the point that I now see several moves ahead and often have a really good read on the meta. Another low point was crashing out of both Autumn and Spring splits when we had so much more potential, especially when you look at how far we went in KOTN. But the lows really just highlight the progress the team and I were making and you have to see these things as a learning process.
Lynxx: Firstly just considering in game aspects, likely due to my personality I put a sizeable chunk if not the majority of the blame for all of our loses on myself. I have a lot of confidence in the ability if my players relative to the surrounding competition and subsequently will question whether they are being utilised correctly when we are not succeeding. However, in terms of a low point outside of the server it was certainly removing long time player Gibby from our starting lineup. It was largely my own decision that I made due to purely competitive reasons and with regards to his personality Gibby could hardly be a nicer person. Since we are very much a community inside and out of the server the largest difficulty in making the move was knowing that I would be disrupting those friendships for Gibby and the other players, not to mention that we had just come off the back of two offline titles . Looking at the positives, now that our new fifth in Josh is integrating well into the team we look firmly on track to show considerable improvement coming into and across the next academic year.
Allan 'Lynxx' Hender (second from right) with Warwick Esports' CS:GO team. Image courtesy of Storybox Squared
Q: The success of Warwick Esports is well established, having won more university competitions than any other society in the country. Do you think that’s down to the coaching structure you have in place?
Portare: I've spoken to people who have described Warwick as the 'Loughborough of esports' and honestly I'd say it's down to a really good culture and an especially healthy approach to esports. When Sam 'Montagne' Hine, David Chan and I sat down to rebrand the society, we wanted to be 'Warwick Esports' not 'Warwick League' because we were passionate about engaging all esports players. At the centre of what we do is give people the support to succeed in their talents, just like any sport-based organisation does. This, I think, is what brought about our coaching structure. As every team in all games have either a figurehead captain, who manages and coaches, or a legitimate coaching figure. I have to give every bit of credit to Allan who embodied this idea for the Stretchyboiz this season and clapped everyone on behalf of the society. The way he approached CS strategy helped reinforce our reputation as the most strategic and tactical society. The coaching structure was definitely born from a healthy mindset. Basically, a great approach leads to great results.
Lynxx: Just speaking to Warwick’s Counter-Strike team, I will leave it to my players to talk publicly on quantifying my impact towards the team’s success, yet I acknowledge that the countless hours of going back through games into making changes that I have put into the team would have helped to some degree. I think a potential reason that having a hands on coach in university esports would be particularly valuable is that everyone in this scene has to balance their studies around practicing and competing, having someone working with the players that can take the burden of reviewing overall play, suggesting improvements, as well as some managerial aspects allows the players to more efficiently make use of the limited free time that they can commit to the game.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring esports coach what would it be?
Portare: Trust your gut. There's a lot of times as a coach where you may have to bench someone, tell someone to stop playing a certain way, or straight-up pick a certain person during tryouts. These situations are hard and a lot of people get caught up on damage stats and other numerical factors. What matters as a coach is to focus on growth and long term progress, especially early in the season. So trust your gut on the big decisions and stand by your values. Don't worry because a high elo guy is getting rowdy, understand that teamwork and cohesion takes precedence. Then, even more importantly, I'd say to value your team as people and to promote real growth outside of the game, as well as inside. A healthy mindset and attitude from you and your players can let you grow together and that's ultimately what professional teams are going to want to see from you if you're wanting to go pro. Not only that, but if you keep growing, you'll keep winning. Obviously results count, but have a strong ethos and trust the process.
Lynxx: The best advice I could give to anyone looking coach within the university scene is simply to know your stuff. It sounds like an obvious requirement, but an issue I have seen in other sides is players not being fully on board with the vision of the coach, through possessing a great knowledge of the game on a team level alongside the ability to articulate your thoughts coherently these qualities will go a long way towards making the team more receptive to coaching. One thing I do respect though is that likely very few universities have the luxury of someone such as myself who has already watched comfortably thousands of hours of professional level play in their respective games, so for those wanting to coach but lacking in experience or perhaps newer to competitive play in general I would recommend watching some analytical content made by people in the wider scene, for Counter-Strike there are quite a few former pro’s and analysts creating great content that anyone with beyond a basic knowledge of the game will be able to learn from.
Q: And a fun end to the interview, if you could build a super team of players from the professional scene who would they be and why?
Portare: In a perfect world, for me, it would be: Top: Khan, Jungle: Ambition, Mid: Bdd, Marksman: Rekkles, Support: Aphromoo and as coach: Kkoma. My botlane would be a real veteran western lane that shows off insane mechanics but more importantly showcases leadership and an ability to work with others. I know that Aphromoo is a genius and paired with Ambition you'd have the best support/jungle leadership combo. This would allow Rekkles to only talk the bare minimum, and after Fnatic's bad seasons where he had to shotcall, he'd be able to simply be the ADC god that he is, fully unlocked. Bdd has to go in because he's the first mid to even make casters take a second look at Faker. He's been messing up the LCK and for the same reason I picked Khan. They are mechanical monsters and with a leadership team like that, you've got a situation where they can be fully utilised and pop off 24/7. Then Kkoma would bring the discipline and strategy that bags you three world champs so that one is a no brainer.
Lynxx: The best place to start is always choosing an In Game Leader, so for that I will select gla1ve, he would be the obvious choice for many due to Astralis’ recent success, but the main reason I would want to coach gla1ve is that it appears that his philosophy on the most effective way to play the game is very closely aligned with that of myself. Secondly I’ll take GuardiaN, though I believe there are aspects to device’s game that he could learn from I think a lot of that stems from Astralis’ system and fundamentally I think GuardiaN is the better AWPer. Next up I’ll have Twistzz, as a player he has already been coached extremely well at the hands of zews and I firmly believe that he will blossom into one of if not the best role player in the world, alongside Liquid already playing a somewhat similar style to what I would want for this team. As my fourth player I will take rain, very versatile player whilst being able to play a role within the larger system. Finally I will have coldzera, for my money the best player in CS:GO history alongside boasting the best fundamentals of anyone, and role wise he fits in perfectly with my other players.
Warwick Esports at our announcement event in May. Image courtesy of Storybox Squared
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