My Scouting Grounds Experience

Disclaimer: This is not going to be a short post and it doesn't have a tl;dr.



If I were to summarize my experience in one word, it'd be bittersweet. Coming into Scouting Grounds, I wasn't expecting much from the event, given the quality of some of the players going. The fact that we'd be able to meet organizations and pros and be able to interact and work with them was by far the most highlighting factor for me. There were so many highs and so many lows, but the event was much more than I could ask for, so I'm happy that I was given the opportunity to go in the end. But I'll start off by trying to explain how it was for me in chronological order as best I can:



So arriving at the event was already pretty cool to start off. I checked into my hotel room to find a duffel bag with my name on it given to us by Riot, which had all sorts of goodies in it like a shirt, a mouse pad, and some other stuff. More than half of the players had already arrived by the time I got there and we just all crashed in fallenbandit's hotel room to hang out until the welcome dinner at 6:00 PM. Shortly after the dinner, we were issued into four unofficial teams/groups along with assigned player schedules for the duration of the week (everyone's was pretty much the same). We had the option of going to Riot to practice for the remainder of the night which everyone obviously agreed to. Afterwards, we just went back to the hotel and slept for day one.



Every morning of the event started off with a breakfast at the hotel (which was totally kick ass btw cause free food). The first day started off with a tour of Riot HQ, which was super dope, and that was followed by playing two exhibition matches for the organizations to examine and spectate the players. After the games, we had interviews with all four organizations attending Scouting Grounds and a photo shoot followed shortly after. The rest of the day was just filled with more exhibition matches, and most of the players swapped around teams to just sample the competition while the organizations travelled from room to room to see how the players meshed or interacted with each other.



The second day started off with a media presentation from Riot's Communications team to just help out the players in any interview they get, which was followed by a super nerve-wracking team announcement. The team announcement was essentially the four organizations drafting players to create the teams for the rest of the week and every team/organization was named after an elemental dragon (Team Liquid - Ocean, CLG - Cloud, Immortals - Mountain, and Echo Fox - Infernal). I was drafted onto Team Mountain and the team seemed pretty okay at first - not too bad and not super fantastic either. The roster was Bobjenkins, BmxSpecks, Tuesday, me, and Winter. I initially wanted CLG or TL at first, but I soon came to really appreciate everything that Immortals did for not only my team, but for me as well, and after all of it, I'm super glad I got Immortals as a supporting organization. They were the only organization to take us back to their gaming house, which was honestly probably the coolest thing to happen in the entire event. We got to play and scrim on their computers and go through replays and VOD reviews in their replay room and really feel first-person what it was like to be a pro gamer, which was something unique that only Immortals did. We essentially spent the whole day scrimming and reviewing gameplay with breaks in between. This was probably my favorite day of the event since it was we had spent all day playing, and I felt that I had learned so much and grew so much as a player and teammate in such a short time. As the day wrapped up, I felt pretty confident in myself and my team since we had amazing scrim results, and we felt that we could at least make finals and play on stage based on those results. We had yet to play, what looked like, the best team on paper (Team Cloud/CLG), but we were going to scrim them first thing tomorrow which seemed like it was going to be a true test of our improvement or strength as a team.



Day three started off with a contract presentation from Riot, followed by lunch, and then immediately heading back to the Immortals house to scrim Team Cloud before our first official bo3 against Team Infernal later on the day. The way the tournament circuit ran for NASG was a round-robin group stage, where all teams played a bo3 against every team, and the top two teams would qualify to play on the LCS stage for the finals. After scrimming Team Cloud and going 2-0 with really definitive cohesion and macro, this was probably the happiest I was or the best I felt throughout the whole week. I was the team shot caller and made pretty much every call relating to macro - I even micromanaged some of the players on the team post-laning phase. I think every player on the team could attest to the fact that I was essentially 90% of our comms. It felt ridiculously good knowing that I was able to shot call and lead a team after one day of playing together - there's such a prideful sense of achievement and empowerment to that. With that being said, I don't mean to discredit my teammates by any means. Most of the players on the team played really well throughout our scrims and I just took it upon myself to handle the macro portion of the game. After our set, we all felt accomplished knowing that our hard work and learning was paying off. It also helped that we had two amazing coaches to be patient and teach us through it all. We felt that we could win the whole tournament based off these scrim results, and shortly after, we went back to Riot to prepare for our matches against Team Infernal. No offense to anyone on Infernal, I think mostly all of them are great guys, but they looked like the weakest team on paper and we had the most success against them in scrims. Naturally, we wanted to 2-0 them, but we got quickly 2-0'd ourselves. They pulled out a Nasus pick we didn't expect and didn't know how to properly deal with it in the series. The loss sucked since we knew that we had to win at least two bo3s, especially since it was the first set and it was against a team we wholeheartedly expected to beat. Despite the loss, we chalked it up to the fact that it was mostly just because we didn't know how to deal with the Nasus surprise pick and that we could still beat any of the teams playing standard meta picks. At the end of the day, we were still confident we could win both bo3s tomorrow.



Day four was the most upset I've been over League. Most, or at least some, of you reading this already know the end result of my team score, which was 0-3 in bo3s and 0-6 in total. Words can't express how upset I was after losing the second set 2-0 again. Although there was still a very slim chance that we would qualify for finals if we won the third set, that wasn't good enough for me. I would've wanted to play on stage knowing that we played well in our matches and deserved playing on stage and going 1-2 in bo3s didn't cut it for me. I wanted to be able to play on the LCS stage more than anything, not even mentioning winning the whole tournament itself. Although there was no tangible prize, the pride of winning and bragging rights was good enough for me. Our expectations, or at least mine, after scrims were sky high, aiming for a 6-0, or even a 6-1 or 6-2. It's one of the shittiest feelings in the world when you expect something and it turns out you receive the exact opposite of what you wanted and expected. Losing the third set to Team Cloud didn't hurt as bad as losing the second set to Team Ocean. By the time our third set came around, I just viewed it as a learning experience instead of playing to win like I did in the other sets. Ultimately, I felt like some of my teammates didn't necessarily show up and perform the way they performed in scrims, but with that being said, I'm not putting the blame on them. I definitely could've played better on an individual level as well as making better calls, but it's easy to say that in hindsight as well. The very first thing Hermes said to us when we settled into the Immortals house for the first time was that we should look and treat this as a learning experience and that it's not about winning, although winning is nice. As long as we learned, we accomplished something, and I know I definitely learned much more than I expected to. At the end of the day, shit happens and things don't always go your way, even if you put in the work for it.



By the time the final day came around, I felt better after sleeping on it. We went back to the Immortals house one last time, got shirts (thank you Robert!), played one last scrim to help Team Cloud warm up for their final, and went back to the LCS studio to watch the finals as a team. Right after that was followed up by a meet and greet for the players and orgs and the event was concluded. All in all, it was a super great event for aspiring pro players. Since this was the first ever NASG, there are always things that could be improved on, but I wanted to give a big thanks to Riot for hosting this awesome combine and giving more exposure to players that are looking to break out onto the scene. Y'all kicked ass.



As for Robert and David, if you read this, I also wanted to give a humongous personal thank you to both and the Immortals organization as a whole for really making this trip worth it for me. Although we only worked for a couple of days together, I feel as if I've really grown as a player, teammate, and most importantly, a leader under your coaching. The experience you both have given me is invaluable and I will definitely do my best to retain that information and apply it in the future. Thanks for going above and beyond and being the only organization to let us experience first-hand what it's like to stay, play, and work in a pro gaming house and for also taking the time to sit me down and give me personal critique. You both have my utmost gratitude. I look forward to hearing from you soon. :)

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