05.04.2023 – A League of Legends Story

Note: The questions in this interview have been edited for length and clarity.

In the wee hours of a Friday night, when most of their peers were out socializing on Frat Row or the nearest house party, some USC students can be found spending their nights in a very different manner. Fingers flying over keyboards, eyes darting through screens, these students can be found playing League of Legends, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) video game that has taken the world of eSports, or video game-based sports, by storm.

The full team, consisting of Yao “USC Fenrir” Tan, Samuel “*Dęamon*” Moralejo, Matthew “*BirdofSand*“ Howard, Daimyan “*USC Inferno*” Angulo, Yifu “*wo ai zu guo*” *Liu*, *and Coach Joe Jacko.* *Names organized left to right.*

At USC, they are a central part of the burgeoning USC eSports, often providing Trojans who care about video games, League of Legends, and eSports competition with quality games and easy-to-root-for teams. Through this, the Varsity team at USC has exploded onto the PAC-12 scene, making a very quick name for themselves within the past few years and forcing the entire division to notice its inclusion (and to consider it as a serious threat).

“It’s amazing. I mean, I think it stands as a testament to the players and their work ethic, their drive. We make an effort to put the player first, and their own successes often stem from their own innate ability to pick up things. I mean, I never have to repeat myself about in-game tactics! I think that their ability to absorb information is just really inspiring to me, and I think that this group of players has been super unique and interesting to watch,”
Joe Jacko, Head Coach of USC Trojan eSports League of Legends stated during an online interview conducted shortly after their weekly team scrimmage.

*PHOTO of Joe Jacko, Coach. Jacko watches over his team with a protective air, making sure that each player gets the proper chance to shine and showcase their talents.*

To give context: League of Legends first came out in 2009, and in the past 13 years, has evolved from a scrappy mod of Warcraft 3 (right down to its characters, many of whom look like World of Warcraft non-playable characters) into the largest eSport in the world, one watched by millions.The in-person aspect of the League of Legends Worlds Finals, which was held at Chase Center in San Francisco, California, boasted a sold-out attendance and performances by popstars Lil Nas X (who performed his recent collaboration with League of Legends) and Jackson Wang. Clearly, League of Legends and its elite echelon of players is a big deal.

Of course, not every League of Legends player is hoisting up the Summoner’s Cup (the name for the slick, Tiffany and Co-created trophy granted to winners of Worlds tournaments) in front of a viewership of millions. In fact, most players don’t go pro; the League Championship Series, an eSports league run by Riot Games and based in North America, is only made up with fifty starting positions, with several more spots utilizing substitutes as necessary. Even fewer players are involved in the collegiate tournaments, one of the stronger methods for up-and-coming players to be noticed by Riot and League teams for their strong skills.

It’s here that USC’s eSports team, or USC eSports, lives and breathes in its quest to achieve dominance; similar to their regular sporting teams, USC eSports competes within their Pac-12 division. In League of Legends, the Pac-12 Conference is instead titled the Pac-U Gaming Conference, with each of the Pac-12 Conference universities having their own respective eSports team to take their place as the representative of that school.

The rules are simple; games are played in a single elimination, best-of-three format. During the playoffs, which are best-of-five, the top team from each region advances to the Collegiate Championship, a national tournament featuring the winners of each division. Last year, USC’s team swept the regular season, destroying the other teams to lead themselves to a 7-0 series, clinching their place in the playoffs. From there, USC initially experienced relative ease in how they pushed through playoffs, with an auto-win over the University of Arizona, who neglected to field a roster and was forced to forfeit their match. During semifinals, they smashed University of Oregon eSports in a 3-0, before losing to CU Boulder in a heartbreaking 3-0 loss. (CU Boulder, the sole survivor of the PAC-U Gaming Conference, lost in Round 2 of the Collegiate Championships). Now, after a year of preparation, the team, helmed by longtime USC associate Joe Jacko, is ready to make a splash once again during the 2023 PAC-U Gaming Conference Split.

“Our willingness to put in a lot of consistent work got us so far. If you ever log onto League, you will always see at least two to three of us constantly online, constantly playing games and grinding out solo queue, constantly reviewing VODs in order to ensure our success. When we’re not in-game, we’re constantly chatting over our Discord chats, going over different compositions for the teams, different ideas that we have based off of champions that we believe are good and not good. So yea, I attribute a lot of our success to our constant working, ” Daimyan “Inferno” Angulo, AD Carry of the team, stated. “Joe is also a big part of that; if we ever want to chat one on one, or one of our personal skills is falling behind in-game, we can always come chat with Joe and talk to him about our situation.”

This sentiment, that Jacko is just as essential to the success of the team as the members are themselves, is carried not just by Angulo, but by the rest of the team, with the other members showering their coach with praises.

“Joe’s been super helpful, not just in-game, but with everything that involves the team. He helps with scrimmage management, anything we might need, setting up events such as Conquest, where I know he’s historically played a huge role, and generally any eSports events that we might have. Being able to work with Joe has been a complete pleasure,” Samuel “Dęamon” Moralejo, Varsity jungler, stated.

“Going over the VODs and going over the biggest mistakes with Jacko, it takes up a lot of time, and he’s been helpful,” Matthew “BirdofSand” Howard, the Varsity mid laner, stated. “Going over individual mistakes takes a while, and we can save entire sessions for going over very minute details. Most of the time, however, we’re going over the major mistakes and trying to see what went wrong and what went right.”

*Matthew “BirdofSand” Howard*, *the team’s midlaner. Although Howard and I spoke the least, he came in with easily the funniest attitude, including a miniature debate with Jacko on the merits of a certain champion within the game.*

For his part, Jacko credits a strong player-focused coaching style that allows his players to be better than their competitors.

“We have this unique starting point at USC where we’re similar to any startup company; we find a core group of players interested in League of Legends, we bring them to USC, and we create the team and program around them. It’s great because it really allows me to teach the game in its base core concepts, and to then expand these concepts in how we want to move forward,” Jacko stated.

“Through this, my Communications major helps me to actually do that, to activate players who are sometimes quieter. Players who have played on sports teams, players who haven’t before. It inspires me to work so much harder because of all the different levels where they’re able to come in.”

One of these aforementioned quieter players is Yifu “wo ai zu guo” Liu, the team’s Support. During the interviews, he was relatively quiet and spoke softly, but his words radiated with a sense of pride in his coach.

“Joe’s been really great, not just in helping me, but in helping the whole team. Even after the games, Joe works to lead events and discussions to help the team as a whole get better at communication. He’s helped me not just during the game, but afterwards as well, and that means a lot to me,” Liu stated.

*Yifu “wo ai zu guo*” *Liu, the Support for the team. A rookie to the team’s lineup, Liu finds himself paired with Daimyan, the eldest of the team players, in game.*

For Liu, his relationship with Joe and the rest of the team has a noticeably different tone than the rest of the team has with each other; most of the team had known each other for the past two to three years, while Liu, as a newcomer to the team, had only experienced a few months with the rest of his teammates. According to Liu, the team, particularly Angulo, whose role on the team dictates a necessity of synergy with Liu (AD Carries and Supports play the game as a duo) has done a great job incorporating him, as a younger member of the team.

“I feel like the team has a really good spirit. Everyone here is friendly and willing to help me and teach me how to play the game properly. I’m the lowest elo, and [Angulo] has been really willing to help me through the process,” Liu stated.

“Being able to work with [Liu], who is our new Support this year, has been pretty fascinating. He’s been playing every game, every scrimmage, every match, so the continuous practice is certainly helping. I think in game, at first our synergy was a little rough. He was pretty aggressive compared to my playstyle, where I’m playing a little more slowly, taking the game step by step,” Angulo stated. “But Charlie, he’s got the hands, he’s got the mechanics, he knows when to go in and when not to. I’ve learned to trust him and go along with what he wants to do in lane. If not, I’ll call out some ideas, and we work together on bouncing off of one another’s ideas. Out of game, we’ve got a similar relationship – we’re constantly bouncing off of one another, talking about school, work, games, anything that hits our mind!”

This synergy is more important than ever now, as they look to best their previous record. Their dominance has been relevant since November of 2022, where they destroyed UCLA eSports through Conquest. Ever since then, as the beginning of the year and the season have both officially begun, Varsity League of Legends has been on a roll, having defeated Oregon State University eSports 2-1 on January 28, then winning against CU Boulder (the only team they had previously lost to) 2-1, and dominating Stanford in a 2-0 series.

As of February 27, USC has maintained its now 5-0 record, having defeated the University of Utah in a 2-1 series and Washington State University eSports in a quick 2-0 match. In doing so, the Trojans have cemented their place as the only undefeated team in the Pac-U, a repeat performance of excellence during the regular season as last year.

“During the League of Legends Varsity Tryouts at USC, we were looking to recruit players across all roles,” Jacko said. “We implemented a “rolling tryout” process for any players that may have missed the initial tryout, or were cut short of this iteration of the roster.” This year, Jacko seems to have used his own advice to create a malleable team that would be easily accessible in coaching.

“At a core level, I try to bring the players up from their starting point. My core focus is ultimately to make them the best individual players that they can be, and once they’ve all been brought to a similar level of game, that’s where we’re working really hard to meld their communication and to focus on different players and different aspects of communication,” Jacko stated. “In essence, we really do try and make them have the best individual experiences.”

*Although Yao “USC Fenrir*” *Tan was unavailable for an interview, Tan is an extremely important part of the team, providing a much-needed rock in the team.*

USC’s dominance in their league is made all the more surprising when considering the fact that their program operates at a different level than most organizations of a similar scope. USC eSports works as an offshoot of the game design program, meaning that the team, while not enjoying resources from the athletic department, instead gets its funding, staffing, and faculty relationships from the games department itself. Currently, Jim Huntley, Gordon Bellamy, and Collin Kelly serve as the three Faculty Advisors for the Games program, with Jacko serving as the liaison between the team and the faculty staff. According to Jacko, this provides the team with a lot of benefits, ranging from access to faculty to the ability to integrate with the larger USC Games program.

“In being so closely tied to the number 1 games design school in the US, we ultimately get to see a core side of game development that we wouldn’t normally see. I myself have been able to sit in on tabletop classes and DND courses, and I really do try to get my players involved!” Jacko stated. “Faculty members have been guiding role models for me, and I hope that I can only be the same for our players. I think the time spent working alongside the school is just so unique in our program, and it’s something that makes us stand out as unique, in a good way! It’s in a way that I hope will develop the future of competitive gaming here.”

✴︎ PART 2:

THE

PLAYOFF

RUN

As the team continued throughout the regular season, it was clear, at least in terms of the regular season, that their journey was headed towards a similar route as the past season. The team made quick work of the University of Washington and the University of Oregon, with both being 2-1 matches, before advancing into the playoffs.

It’s through this vein that the League of Legends team exists so perfectly; on one hand, the team is Trojan eSports’ most well-known team, receiving top billing in events such as Conquest, USC’s annual rivalry-based competition with UCLA. During Conquest, while other in-person events are occurring, such as school rallies, the eSports teams are hard at work playing against their Bruin counterparts.

On the other hand, the League of Legends team also exists in strength on the circuit; this year, as the season wound up and the players went into playoffs, USC found themselves once again on top of the regular season bunch, boasting an undefeated season on their path towards USC. According to Angulo, a lot of their success on the rift came down to proper communication between him and the team.

“In game, we alter who’s talking based off of what’s needed, but if we’re going off of what’s specifically needed in order to make decisions, then that comes between Sam and I. I come up with the early game plan, at least on the bottom side of the map, and from there I communicate with Sam. As we get into the rest of the game, especially during teamfights, I get a little bit less vocal and begin to talk more about how we want to approach the fight. There are a couple of win conditions – “Protect Me”, “Stay on Matt” – that have ot be met, and I’m constantly communicating on how we’re going to be playing out the game,” Angulo stated. “I’m a big fan of playing the map, so when it comes to trading objectives or understanding when to make plays, I’d say that responsibility falls upon me.”

Other players on the team, such as Moralejo, also mention the connections within the team as being a core component of their victories.

“It’s really nice that most of the team has been around for 2 years. For me and [Angulo], we’ve been around for 3. It’s been nice being able to foster that relationship and really have an environment where everyone feels comfortable,” Moralejo stated. “Sometimes, it does lead to us being a little too comfortable in serious moments, such as games, which can lead to us temporarily losing our focus. But we also are strong as a group, and can pull through together; overall, I’m a big fan.”

Samuel “*Dęamon*” Moralejo, the team’s jungler, has been playing alongside Daimyan for three years, forming a core within the group. On his own, *Dęamon* *is equally a monster on the rift.*

It’s this connection as a group that, according to Jacko, makes this team so special.

“Any time one of our players hits a personal high, or achieves a new rank, or brings something new to the table, it inspires the other players, as well as myself, to try and hit new heights,” Jacko stated.

The first team USC would have to face was Oregon State University, a team they had previously played several months earlier, in January, where they had bested them 2-1 in a series of 3 games. And this match started in a completely similar fashion; USC lost their first game to OSU, placing them 1-0 down. There wasn’t one particular player who had performed particularly poorly on USC’s team during the first game, but Oregon State’s mid-laner, ‘Huntervault’, and jungler, ‘Kawasomething’, led the team through some pretty decisive teamfights, leading to a 30 minute loss for USC’s team. After that initial loss, however, USC came back with a vengeance. For the next three games, USC would quickly and decisively dismantle Oregon State’s defenses, ending the series with a 3-1 victory.

One week later, and it was time for USC to play against Utah in the championship game; for reference, they had lost the last championship in a heartbreaking 3-0 stomp from CU Boulder. This year, however, USC ultimately fell short in a 3-1 loss to Utah, cementing their place as the runner-up from the PAC-12 Conference for a second year in a row, and robbing their chances from going to the Collegiate Championships.

For the first two games of the finals, USC seemed set to repeat their performance against Oregon State; after losing the first game, they clawed back to set the scoreline at 1-1 by winning the second game, an intense 40 minute match that saw Angulo “carrying” his team (League of Legends slang for when one player performs well enough to “carry” their struggling teammates to a victory). In the next two games, however, USC began to fall apart; Utah was just simply made up of a stronger group of players, and the level difference ultimately showed, with USC failing to make any meaningful moves in Game 3 and getting stomped in Game 4.

In a pivotal moment in Game 2 of the finals, Angulo gains a ‘Triple Kill’, having successfully kiled three of Utah’s players. This moment in the match was enough to tip the scales of the match, giving USC the advantage and allowing them to take Game 2 for the win. Despite the Game 2 win, Utah would eventually win the series 3-1.

And just like that; the season was over. Gone were the hopes to make it to the Collegiate Championships, gone was the chance to, as this collective roster, make history and cap off an undefeated season. When I spoke to Angulo a week later, he had some ideas on why the team lost, continually circling back to the preparation that was done for the game.

“Going into the game itself, we definitely had a lot of prep done; I think that we were ready for the series. I think after game one, we were definitely taken aback by their topside (a term that refers to the collective trio of the top laner, the jungler, and the mid laner), as the last time we had played against them, our own top side destroyed them. And so after this, the biggest question going into thes matches became understanding how to draft our team compositions based around what the other team was doing. It’s here where I think we began to fall apart; we started playing things that we hadn’t practiced before, like Blitzcrank support, because we felt that it would be, at least theoretically, a good answer to their gameplay,” Angulo stated. “That certainly came from panic. I think we got stuck on it for several games before we managed to realize by Game 3 that we should all just be playing our comfortable picks. Sam on Kindred, Matt on Swain, me on Jinx, Charlie on Thresh, these are all champions that we were close at. And ultimately, that Game did become our closest hope to a second win. I think overall, we were just not as cohesive as we were in the past, and that really worked against us.”

Joe offered a more positive look at the situation, one that placed USC and Utah on much more equal footings than the final result would have them out to be.

“For me, this series started with our previous match against them. In the regular season, we beat them 2-1. So overall, that puts our scoreline at 3 wins for USC, 4 wins for Utah. That’s almost even! In terms of the raw score, they obviously eked out on extra game, but I think when we looked back at the previous series, it set us up really well for what we believed they were going to play. So our prep was decent. I agree with [Angulo] though, I think we faltered in our self identity,” Jacko stated.

And so, what was the end of the year like, at least for Angulo? Context: Angulo is graduating, and is leaving his team behind, who will now have to find a new in-game leader. For Angulo, he credits his teammates with gelling well together, and is confident in the team for the future split.

“Having played with most of the team for at least 2 years, and with Sam for three, I think this team has built a strong sense of synergy. When I entered the program, it was just completely different to what it is now. Joe and I especially have worked many long hours to get the team to a place where it’s an actual program, and I think that it’s where it can be to succeed,” Angulo stated. “I’m grateful for this team. Normally, I’m a very introverted person, but when it comes to playing games and being an in-game leader, I’ve become a lot more vocal. The past three years have just been so influential in my life. These days, I’m feeling a bit of a tossup; should I go pursue civil engineering even further for a master’s, or do I want to give this League thing a shot? And it’s a decision that I wouldn’t even have considered in the past… I’m excited for this team to see where this goes, and I’m excited to be a part of that.”

“These days, I’m feeling a bit of a tossup; should I go pursue civil engineering even further for a master’s, or do I want to give this League thing a shot? And it’s a decision that I wouldn’t even have considered in the past… I’m excited for this team to see where this goes, and I’m excited to be a part of that.”
Daimyan “USC Inferno” Angulo

*Daimyan “USC Inferno*” *Angulo, the only graduating senior of the team, and the one who has been playing (alongside Dęamon* *and Jacko) for the longest period of time.*

According to Jacko, he believes the same, lifting up Daimyan as the core of the team, and stressing that the team would have to go through some tough self-examinations once Daimyan graduated.

“Losing [Angulo] is, no doubt, a huge loss for us as a team. I mean, Daimyan’s been on the team for three years now. Watching him go is very tough. Daimyan has not only been a great player, but a fantastic leader, and I can’t speak enough to how amazing it’s been to coach Daimyan,” Jacko admitted. “And as for our final results, I think it was ultimately a huge success for us to even get to the finals in the first place. We lost great players over the years, we had players who had to return to Korea, we had players who wanted to focus on their careers and take a step away from academia. And so when I look at the start of the year, and I see the five players, I know that watching them grow over the course of this year was a huge success story. And honestly, I think that we’ve set ourselves up nicely over these past few years to be a top contender amongst West Coast colleges. I’m hopeful that next year, we’ll finally be able to get it done and take first place.”

When I took headshots of the team, a week or so later, spirits were high and smiles were aplenty. If the team looked mad or disappointed about the results of their splits or the trials that lay ahead of them, none of it was showing. Instead, I saw six brothers who were united in their goal, one of success and domination, one determined by the characteristic to win it all. And I have no doubt that this team will some day do just that.

After all, there’s always next year.