Victorious at the LFL days against Karmine Corp, Arvindir, the current head coach of team BDS academy, exchanges with Sheep Esports on the management of his squad, but also returns to his discovery of the French league, after 2 years spent in Spain and 4 in Germany.
| Hello Arvindir, congrats on your win today. It's your first time coaching in the LFL. Do you feel there is a difference between other ERLs such as LVP or prime League?
Arvindir: "Yes, that's something that comes up a lot, but in other European competitions like the prime league in Germany, there's a really big difference between the bottom and the top teams."
"When you're in a dominant team, there are 2 or 3 really exciting matches and the rest are matches that aren't hard to win, and you find the same thing in Spain."
"Here I feel like almost everyone can lose to everyone. Like we just went from losing to Solary to winning against KCorp. I don’t know how the standings are now, but before today, there were like 8 teams at 3-3 or something like this. So, yeah, I think there are just ten good teams. So it's very exciting and every game is hard."
| Does playing in a championship of this stature change your habits? Is there a big difference in the way you prepare throughout the season?
Arvindir: "Yeah, for sure. I mean, in other leagues, for example, in Prime League, you can prepare a draft because, you know, you play SK in two weeks, because this is THE most important game."
"While here, with the way the Meta is involved this split, it's a bit different. But also, you don't want to hide stuff because you can't afford to drop a game just because you hid something. So every game matters, every game is super important."
| You have coached Keduii for example in the past, is it something you wanted? Evolve alongside players you had already collaborated with?
Arvindir: "I mean, I think it's always hard to say, it's not like I specifically want to coach players that I coached before. In this squad, I coached Keduii and Reeker in 2021, but also JNX a long time ago, something like 2018, all at BIG (Berlin International Gaming)."
"However, even if we don’t play together we all stay in touch, that’s why I know how Steven (Reeker) works, and how Keduii and JNX work. So when I think about it, I think it’s a good thing for a new team, that a coach comes in and knows how some players feel about the game, it allows you to start working much better."
| In your team, you have two very different types of profiles, very experienced players and rookies, how do you manage to advance them together?
Arvindir: "I think this is also why I joined this roster, why I made this roster. I think we have players, especially Reeker, Parus as well but parus is a bit more surprising because I didn't know him, but I know that we have players who like to teach others, so we have natural leaders."
"It's not like I need to explain SkewMond new things, because we do them in scrims. If there are areas of shadows, and misunderstandings at any time we exchange and learn with each other, it has become natural."
| We know that teams in ERL start to play Nightblocks. Is it something that you want to do with your team or you prefer a normal schedule?
Arvindir: "We did nightblocks back then when there was no solo queue life, like when solo queue was still on postseason patch. We had like these crazy days where you play six game scrims, break, three games Nightblock. Now, we just play SoloQ. I think SoloQ does the same job as Nightblocks because Nightblock quality was not the best."
"Also, it was always hard to find a team. Do we play someone? Do we not play anyone? So I'm just very happy with playing six games. It's already an improvement because last time I was on ERL it was always only like four to five games. The LEC schedule got adapted, so I'm happy to play six games and then everyone is free to play solo queue. Plus, solo Q is something they naturally do on their own, so I don’t need to force them to practice unusually."
| About training, how are scrims going for you right now?
Arvindir: "The start of the split was kind of hard because our scrims were so good. This week we experimented a bit more. We change pace, so scrim got worse. But I think we will get a better team through this."
"We definitely don't have a problem with scrim quality or scrim performance, but maybe we get a bad read on meta because we win too much, as weird as the sounds, but that's kind of been our problem."
| How do you prepare for offline matches, which are not played in the same conditions as usual? How do you apprehend the audience and all the unusual elements?
Arvindir: "This is something I talked about with the team a few days ago, even though some players have played on stage in the past like JNX in LEC, playing on a stage like this, facing a crowd of this scale, especially against Karmine fans, It’s not something you can be prepared for but you also don't want to prepare for. You just want to enjoy the moment. That was also something I told them yesterday, that no matter what, I wanted to have fun on stage."
"For us, it's a bit more complicated because during all these days of fan meet, shuttle to arena and so on, we're missing a player. So staying in contact with him has been a bit hard. Today we had like a 20 minutes time frame where we could have done a draft meeting as all five."
"It was kind of chill and everybody loves playing on stage and I think we played well."
| You are the academy of a LEC team. Do you share things with the LEC team to help you improve?
Arvindir: "Yes, we exchange regularly, we have common discussion groups, so we are in contact with the LEC staff. Both teams have access to their scrims and so on."
"But since schedules are so different, it's a bit hard to scrim each other or share stuff about knowledge. Like, they went onto this patch earlier, now they're already in playoffs while we're not even halfway done."
"Also, we play on Wednesday, Thursday, they play Saturday, Sunday, Monday, so there's never really a day where it's really worth it. But I used to be on a team with Labrov as well, so when we have questions about botlane, I just ask him or ask the coaching staff. And same goes vice versa."
| Many tier-lists placed you 3rd before the start of the season, what do you think and what is your feeling at the end of the mid-season?
Arvindir: "It’s hard to say, but from what I’ve seen, the tier lists are not particularly far from reality, and my predictions may not be the best, in fact, I don’t know much about French players, I don’t know who’s been here for long, or who’s not."
"I think our team looks strong on paper, a lot of people know each other, so our investment in predictions is justified, just as it is for GentleMates who have often been placed at the top."
"As I said earlier, I have the impression that everyone can go for the playoffs, and there are at least five or six teams that can potentially win, I consider that we are in this group, and that makes things very exciting."
| Do you have something to say for BDS fans?
Arvindir: "Oh yes of course!"
"Already, I didn’t know what to expect from the LFL public, I’ve seen some pretty crazy pictures from KCorp fans, but seeing each team has its own group of ultras, makes everything more fun."
"Of course, some are bigger, others smaller, but having the opportunity to chat a little earlier with a fan as well who took a train to go to Geneva, then flew here. Especially because in Germany the scene is so much smaller, it's so fun to play in this league (the LFL). And yeah, thanks for everyone who came, it makes so much more enjoyment."
Photo Credit : Elliot Le Corre
