Joe « Joe » Brophy is the brand new League of Legends Manager for the LCS team Millenium. Today he is answering some questions about the new season, the past tournaments, his vision of the team and his role in it.
Hi Joe and thanks for the interview ! Could you introduce yourself for our viewers, and tell us about your career ?Joe : Hello I am Joe Brophy. I'm 22 years old and I was born in England and studied History at Liverpool John Moores University. I am the League of Legends Manager of the LCS team Millenium and I also run tournaments for Kaostv Challenger Series.
What is your role in the team ? What is your day to day schedule ?Joe : My role in the team is the Manager of the team which means I am in charge of the team in terms of organization and security. So I have a lot of tasks which is basically everything that needs to be organized for the team and ensuring the welfare and security of the team, so in short that is my job description.
So for example, every day I am scheduling scrim practice times two days in advance with other teams and I have to be around pretty much all of the time since a lot of teams have canceled scrims last minute due to real life stuff, so I must always have backups ready in case that happens and keep constant vigilance on the situation.
The other tasks I take care of is basically everything to do with organizing travel, communicating with the sponsors, communicating with Millenium on behalf of the team, making sure the team is organized and most importantly making sure that all the players have to do is just play and focus on their performance while I take care of everything outside of the game.
You recently joined the Line-up just before the Battle of The Atlantic, how was your arrival greeted? How do you think the future will work out with this team ?Joe : I joined one month before the Battle of Atlantic. Before this I had been running my own organization and I had managed quite a few top amateur teams because of this. My arrival was a pleasant one and all of the team are a pleasure to work with. The future is looking bright, we look stronger then the majority of the EU LCS teams so I am looking forward to the season and I think as a team we can do well.
Since you manage the team and are organizing scrims, what are your thoughts about the current preseason 4 patch?Joe : I think things have changed a lot in this patch. For example it is quite difficult sometimes for ad carrys since a lot of champions have a lot of mobility right now. For example, the new champion Yasuo is very mobile and can eat the enemy ad carry pretty easily. Supports are quite different also, allowing them to have more of an impact on the game. Overall, though it matters most about the solo lanes, which is fine for us since Kerp and Kev1n are experienced and great solo laners. So the new changes haven't affected our team really and we have adapted well to them.
I assume you stay informed about what happens abroad, and especially in Asia. Do you consider the Asian teams as a possible source of inspiration for picks and strategy, or do you stick to your own ideas (from soloQ and comfort picks) regardless of what is being picked in Asia ?Joe : Yes I of course watch the OGN and I think Montecristo is great at shoutcasting the OGN and I find it very useful to watch him analyzing it. As a team the majority of us watch the OGN and we will be referring to the asian team for strategy and picks there is no doubt about that. We do of course pick our comfort champions but we change and adapt a lot of the time so this means if there is a strategy working in OGN very well, we will change and adapt to that very fast.
Compared to season 3, the team changed Forellenlord with Kev1n and they switched Kerp to midlane, welcoming Kev1n as new toplaner. What do you feel about this role change and do you think that players correctly adapted to it ?Joe : I personally think Kerp is one of the best mid laners in EU already even though he isn't that experienced in professional play yet in the mid lane. I judge him to already be on the same level as Froggen for example in the mid lane and he holds his own vs Froggen very well in lane. In the battle of Atlantic a couple of weeks ago Kerp annihilated the experienced mid laner Link which goes to show that Kerp is going to perform well for the upcoming EU LCS season. Having an experienced top laner such as Kev1n is great since he has a big champion pool and vast experience. Kev1n has fit in well with the team and he is already synergized with us, we feel this will work us for us quite nicely.
Thank you for answering my questions ! Do you have something to add to this interview?
Joe : I would like to add that I also assist Kaostv in running their tournaments. Kaostv Challenger Series will be running alongside Coke Zero and it will be a weekly event which has the majority of the Coke Zero teams participating. Kaostv is a good company to work for and I think it will continue to progress well alongside Coke Zero.
I will be starting a weekly blog talking about my team's results in the LCS every week which will most likely be a vlog. I think this is a good idea so that all the fans interested in Millenium can get weekly and up to date news on how the team is getting on with the games and how the team is coping with everything. I will be releasing more news on the format on this over the next few days on my Twitter which is @JoeBrophy5.
Thank you for the interview today and don't forget our first match in the EU LCS will be at 22:00 on January 14th vs SK Gaming.
