[hkes_show_google_ad] If it were up to ROCCAT Head Coach Fabian “Grabbz” Lohmann, players would jump when the coach says “jump,” and they’d be less apathetic about what is ultimately their job. Grabbz joined The Nexus Podcast, where he talked about after his team’s ascent from an 0-7 start to just barely missing the EU LCS Spring Split Playoffs. Talking to hosts Lisa, Gabe and Josh about player attitudes, he was very frustrated by the slow progress on professionalizing players. “The thing is, [some] players are a bit more relaxed, so the attitude is, ‘Ah it’s only a scrim, who cares, I can troll a bit.’ I can ‘test my limits,’ as they say. And in their mind it’s fine but they don’t seem to realize that scrims are really important,” he said. “The players aren’t professionals, they’re just kids trying to play the game and they don’t care, they don’t see it as a job. When I came last split I told them, ‘I want you to be here at 2,’ and they came five [minutes] after 2, and they were surprised that I was angry at them … Your job says you start at 2, you should come five before 2, usually.” It’s not just tardiness, but the way European teams actually play and practice in-game that are impacted by this behavior, Grabzz said. “Also, teams just flat out troll in scrims as well,” he said. “I would guess the average scrim time [in EU] is 15 minutes. Most games are over at ten minutes because teams FF, but that’s because the player doesn’t care, he dies a few times, and then there’s just no point for either team because that’s not a situation you’d encounter on stage. It’s very rare that a scrim gets played out correctly. “With the lack of sister teams, like Fnatic or Misfits have some, so they have an advantage. Let’s say you’re ahead, and the enemy team pauses and you’re like, ‘Hey can we play out please, we want to learn how to play out,’ you can’t force them because the players are gonna be like, ‘No we don’t really want to, we’re gonna troll,’ and they run it down mid until you accept their remake.” With sister teams, Grabbz suggested, you can practice situations in controlled environments. Otherwise, teams have no incentive to play it out for you, and often won’t. [hkes_show_google_ad]