Incarnati0n: "If I could pick my players and was given time to practice, I think I could be a top contender"

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

Nicolaj 'Incarnati0n' Jensen, formerly known by names like Veigodx and Wizikx, is purported to be one of the best individual talents European League of Legends has produced, despite never having competed in an LCS game or played in a significant competitive team. The reason his skills have not been tested in the competitive realm, is due to his being indefinitely banned, by Riot Games, in January of 2013. Now, more than 16 months later, the Danish Mid laner looks towards a future in which he may potentially be able to begin a career as a professional player.

In this interview, Incarnati0n discusses his individual skillset, shadowboxes a potential match-up with Froggen, talks about the role of the Mid laner over the seasons of LoL and addresses his coaching of SK Gaming.

When did you start playing LoL and how long have you been ranked high in solo queue?

I've been playing LoL since the end of Season 1, hit level 30 as the season ended. As soon as Season 2 started, I almost instantly got high ELO and ever since I've always been ranked quite high. In Season 3 I got rank one for the first time and since then, I've gotten to the top quite a few times and I've been rank one for a while now, hopefully for a while longer!

During S1 and S2, did you make attempts to play at the high end of the competitive scene?

During Season 1, I was mostly levelling up my account so didn't really get the chance competitively. In Season 2, my attitude was really poor in solo queue and I misbehaved a lot, people didn't want to play with me in competitive play because of that. At the end of Season 2, we were eligible to attend the qualifiers for the 2013 Spring Split due to online play-ins, however, at that point I received my suspension and was no longer able to attend. That was my first and thus far only attempt at becoming a professional player.

How would you describe your style of Mid and your strengths and weaknesses?

I prefer calculated agression. Knowing when your champion has an advantage over the enemy, when you can and cannot trade damage and trying to maintain a high level of mechanical skill is crucial for me. I will always try to min-max my runes, masteries and item builds to come as close to my champion's maximum potential as possible. I don't think I have any notable weaknesses, if anything it's just that I tend to be too greedy in solo queue which leads to the occasional lucrative suicide.

Which champions right now best allow you to feel in your element and play your style in the game? Evaluate yourself on them

Fizz & Twisted Fate, they're what I feel most confident on right now in a solo queue scenario. Both of them have a kit that grants you the potential of carrying the whole map rather than just beating your enemy laner, high mobility and great ganks for when you roam. The key to both of them is to know how to lane properly against the popular picks, if you fall behind early (especially on Fizz), it'll be hard to catch up. Laning is vital on these champions and if you can make it out of the lane even or ahead, you've got a great chance of doing well later on in the game.

I'd say right now I don't really have a clear flaw in my gameplay with these champions, but that's because I play them a lot and when I start playing a champion, I try to analyze what I do wrong when things go sour so that I don't make that or a similar mistake again in the future. After a good amount of games, you'll make many fewer mistakes, until someone shows up with a new champion or a new strategy, at that point it's rinse and repeat!

There have often been discussions on reddit and social media about how you do in solo queue against the LCS EU mids. Diamondprox said, back in late March of this year, that you were better than Froggen, in solo queue, and ls, analyst/coach of SHC, has said you are possibly the best non-Korean player. How do you see your own level in solo queue?

It's hard to match myself against other top players because you never know how seriously they are taking the game, there are often also influences from outside of your own lane (junglers) that cause big momentum shifts in the 1vs1 phase of the game. I'd say that based on my experiences in the past months, my level of play is as high as that of Froggen, whether I think that perhaps I'm a little better than him in solo queue because my champion pool is more lenient to succeed in solo queue than his. Our playstyles differ as well, he tends to focus more on farming and playing safely where I'll play more agressive and try to get an early advantage in lane. That doesn't make me a better player though as in the end, the only thing that matters is performance on stage in the LCS or other tournaments.

Spectating the LCS EU landscape, is there a mid laner who stands out above the others for you right now?

I think all of the mid players in the EU LCS are mostly on the same level, Froggen being ahead of the pack by a small margin.

As someone who has played against Froggen in solo queue, watched him in LCS for some time and observed the Korean level in OGN competitions, how would you evaluate Froggen against the top Korean Mid laners?

He'd most likely do fine in general, like I said before he tends to play safely and farm, taking less risks means it'll be harder for your enemy to find the weak spots in your armor. On the other hand, it's unlikely that he'll win lane against any of them and have a notable impact without ganks, this is just the standard trade-off you make by playing safe, you don't die and you don't kill.

How have you seen the evolution of the Mid lane position? As someone with experience playing going back to Season 1, can you give a brief history of the position and what it has demanded in each era?

It has changed pretty radically over the years. It started off with champions which basically encouraged you to simply farm up a storm for 40 minutes, which was rather boring to play and fairly unrewarding to not follow the trend of, at that point. After that came the assassins, definitely the most fun time I've had playing the game thus far, but I can imagine it wasn't as fun for the other lanes. It was fairly easy to snowball a gigantic lead by outplaying your enemy 1v1 and then just carry the game alone by roaming and more or less two-shotting enemy supports, junglers and marksmen.

Now it's a bit of a mix between all of them. Some champions promote farming, with some you can still roam and carry, but it's a lot harder than it was before because you don't get as much gold from early kills and other lanes have become notably stronger, meaning it takes more to kill them from you and less to kill you from them than it used to. I'd say aside from a few champions that are too good and scale too well (Kayle), the game's in a pretty good spot.

You said before that you thought Mid was the position with the most potential to impact the game. Once upon a time, for example back in Season 2, the Top and ADC could be the primary carry in the game, as we saw from teams in Korea and China, respectively. Where do you think those two positions are at, relative to Mid, in terms of carry potential right now?

Hard to say, it depends heavily on the team composition and playstyle of each individual player in the teams. As for top lane, first of all in the past they would always be ahead on experience, whereas now they are equal with the duo lanes. You see that a lot of the time now, people are just playing mid lane champions there to great success (Lulu, Kayle), I think that a good top laner can have a large impact on the game but it's simply not possible to carry the entire map. This is because its position on the map just doesn't allow you to roam to the duo lane without trading (potential) kills for certainly lost experience and gold, it's a bit like geometrical position tolerance.

Marksmen have it a bit easier, if you win your lane hard 2v2 and take the tower early, you're usually able to rotate to mid and push your advantage further. However, if you're playing against a mid laner with a lot of wave-clear, that option becomes void and it'll only allow the enemy 2v2 to get back in the game. You can definitely carry games though, FORG1VEN did it for an entire split this year, you just need to be extremely good mechanically and have excellent laning skills.

How did you come to work with SK and how would you describe your position there?

Back in December, I had hopes of having my suspension lifted at that point in time. I practiced 5v5 with a few other players, after ocelote parted ways with SK, to potentially, maybe become the new SK roster. This way I got to talk to the SK management and when my suspension didn't get lifted, I decided to offer them my assistance as coach. Without going into much detail, I mostly help them with drafting and scouting enemy teams.

Due to Jesiz's performance in the previous split and your history in solo queue playing Mid lane, it is assumed by many that you have directly helped him in terms of positional coaching or something along those lines. Is that accurate?

I don't really help him too much. I helped him a bit by playing 1v1 and assisting him with certain match-ups, if it's necessary, but I'd say the credit goes to him, he's a really motivated person and he always strives to improve himself.

How would you analyse SK's performance in the final series against fnatic last playoffs?

Mostly lackluster because we didn't prepare enough, we were thrilled to have finished so high in the LCS split that we overestimated ourselves and didn't properly sit down to discuss what we'd do in the series against Fnatic, a big mistake from our part coming from a stretch of over-confidence. On the upside, we've learned from this experience and it will not happen again. Next time, we'll come prepared.

Last split, Alliance were very strong in the latter part of the split (going 10-2 in their last 12), only to fall to fnatic in the semis and ROCCAT in the third place game. With their team at 12-2 and in a clear lead in the split, what do you think has changed?

I don't think that much has changed really, they were in an upward trend ever since the last half of the split and that trend is steadily holding up. I think it all comes down to practice and strategy, ultimately there's also some individual skill and talent involved, but you can play it down a bit by excelling at teamwork rather than flashy individual plays, which is something Alliance's become rather good at.

They have a really solid duo and mid lane, Wickd seems to have found champions he's comfortable on and Shook's finally shaken off his LAN jitters or gained enough confidence (maybe a bit of both). Froggen is definitely the strongest player in their team and the current meta really fits his playstyle and champion pool.

Players who were high in Challenger in soloq have come into LCS before, examples like ForellenLord and Whiteknight come to mind, but since they haven't established themselves as the best players it has led to a stigma that the top solo queue players perhaps lack something that the pro players possess. Do you have any insights into why there hasn't been more crossover, as has been the case in the Korean scene?

Personally, I don't feel ForellenLord was ever one of the top players, from my point of view he played the matchmaking system just as much as he played the game itself at the time, he was good on certain champions but didn't excel on them. WhiteKnight, however, is really good, especially on jungle. From what I know, he mostly lacks motivation and hardly plays anymore. He's also in school and wants to finish that first, I assume. However, if he came back and tried hard with the right attitude, he could without a doubt be one of the best junglers in Europe.

As far as other examples go, Niq (Gambit) and Selfie (SHC) both come from solo queue, so I'm not sure if that stigma is justified. There will always be more people that fail than succeed, such is the way of the world once you're in the highest echelons of competition in any sport.

How do you think you would perform if you came into competitive play now?

I think I could give everyone in the LCS a run for their money. It's hard to speculate since there are a lot of external factors to take into account when competing in the LCS, there'll be four more players on my team and, more often than not (in this meta), the game is decided long after the 1v1 phase is over. If I could pick my players and was given time to practice, I think I could be a top contender in the competitive scene.

What you would like to see happen at the end of Season 4 in terms of your own situation and being able to potentially enter competitive play?

I hope that in the future I'll be able to compete in the LCS along with the people I play with daily in solo queue. Whether that happens, is entirely at the grace of Riot's staff. I do cherish the hope that they acknowledge that I've changed my personality radically. I hope that my behaviour over the past year and a half, adds a little bit of value to that claim. I would love nothing more than to be able to prove myself to the community and to Riot, to become a valued member of the e-sports society. If that is to happen remains unclear for now. From my understanding, Riot has allowed me to compete on the ladder at this point in time and no more than that, but also no less, for which I am very grateful.

Photo credit: lolesports