Gaming
Nicholas ‘NicoThePico’ Korsgaard, xPeke’s latest hire, talks about taking the team to Worlds again.
Enrique ‘xPeke’ Cedeño may have taken a step back from playing for his team Origen this split in the LCS, but that doesn’t mean he’s been any less busy, wooing talent from across the world for his top League of Legends team. On Thursday night, xPeke announced the signing of Nicholas Korsgaard, better known as NicoThePico, as head analyst for the squad.
“We want to announce the addition to the team of Nicholas Korsgaard – he has been working as an analyst with us for a few weeks now and we have decided he was the right person to fill the position, after seeing his potential to help the team grow in strategy and picks and bans,” he told Red Bull eSports.
Norwegian Nico is a veteran of the eSports scene, having played competitively since the StarCraft era, and will be hoping to be help take the new Origen line-up to the same giddy heights as last year’s Worldssemi-finals – or higher. We caught up with him to find out just how he plans to do that.
Hey Nico, can you introduce yourself for those who don’t know you?
Nico: Hi there, I'm Nicholas Korsgård, more recently known as Nico, I'm 24 years old, from Norway. I just finished my Bachelors degree in economy and leadership, and I've been playing and working within the League of Legends scene since its birth. Now I've moved in with Origen in their gaming house in Berlin, as their head analyst, and I'm very much looking forward to my time here working with such a seasoned team.
What's your background? Do you know xPeke and the team?
In terms of gaming, my interest in eSports started back during StarCraft Brood War, watching the Koreans play on 144p streams. From that point on I knew I wanted to play or work within eSports, and ever since then I've been around several different games trying to reach a pro level, titles like Halo 2 and 3, Guild Wars, StarCraft: Wings of Liberty were all games I've been at high levels at, before moving over to League Of Legends roughly six years ago, after the beta ended.
Since I started playing League, I've been a player in multiple positions for high-level amateur teams, and more recently coached and done analyst work for multiple higher-level teams. Before I started working remotely with Origen, I didn't really have any personal knowledge of any of the staff or players, although I've met all of them within the game. In terms of knowing about them, I've been following the scene intensely since it started, and I've been a big fan of xPeke since his early Fnatic days.
How were you offered the job? Did you take long to decide to accept?
I did a trial phase over a month, where I worked as a sort of assistant coach and analyst for the team, preparing scouting reports and writing analysis of our games in addition to helping with the Pick/Bans and so on. After both xPeke and the players were happy with my work, I was given the chance to move to Berlin and into the gaming house. As this is something I've always wanted to do, I didn't need any time to accept, I pretty much just packed my stuff, sold my car and took the plane.
What do you see as your first task now that you're the head analyst?
Most importantly: identifying how we should be playing and improving our macro-game, in addition to helping the team maintain a positive morale.
What can you bring to the team? What have you learned from your past experiences you can employ here?
As a player, I was always the captain and shotcaller of all my teams, regardless of which position I played. That, in addition to my experience coaching and working for multiple teams has given me a lot of knowledge of what works and what doesn't, how I should approach different issues and how to resolve morale issues within the team. I will be able to help the team understand and play the macro-game more efficiently and help them work better together as teammates and people.
What do you see as Origen's strengths and weaknesses currently?
The strengths would be experience, maturity and skill level. Weaknesses right now would be our macro-game and general synergy between the players.
Origen have suffered a couple of losses in the Spring Split so far. What do you think went wrong, and how do you hope to correct that?
It will take some time until we rebuild the level of synergy we had last split, which is to be expected with new players. And in general our macro-game has been lacking. We will be working actively to improve our macro-game, and I believe I can ease the process of rebuilding our synergy.
How will you be helping the players out in terms of motivation?
By helping the players improve their game, and helping maintain good and productive discussions outside of the game. I feel the players are really motivated and willing to work their asses off to get back to the top.
What do you think about Origen's current mid-lane situation, with xPeke and PowerOfEvil sharing the lane – do you think that can be a unique strength for Origen?
I think once PowerOfEvil and the team builds the same level of synergy as with xPeke, this can definitely be a strength for Origen, as we will be able to use the right player for the right games.
Origen were seen as EU's great hope against Asia in Worlds last year. Do you think you can take them to the same giddy heights this year?
I truly believe we will get back there, I will do everything in my power, and give everything to make sure we do!
Do you think you are or can be serious Worlds contenders and winners?
We can be serious contenders, for sure. It’s hard to say how far we can go before we get closer to the World Championship and see which teams will participate and how the new metas will affect teams.
Who are going to be your toughest rivals, both in EU and Worlds if you make it, though?
It’s impossible to say right now, many teams are looking good. From EU, H2k are looking really solid, and from the rest of the world, KOO Tigers are looking strong.
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