Nukeduck interviewed: the changes in the mid meta from S3 to S4, comparisons with Bjergsen, facing Faker at Worlds

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Erlend 'Nukeduck' Våtevik Holm is the mid lane player for Ninjas in Pyjamas. Standing out as the star of Lemondogs, nukeduck excelled on the assassin meta of the S3 LCS EU Summer split, helping Lemondogs to a first place finish in the regular season and a runner-up finish in the playoffs.

Lemondogs were unable to progress from the group stage at the World Championships and broke up their line-up in the pre-season for Season 4, with nukeduck and two team-mates going to NiP. In NiP there have been numerous problems to overcome, as the team fell 0:3 in their LCS Promotion series against KMT (now ROCCAT) and have been resigned to competing in the Coke Challenger series.

In this interview nukeduck spoke about the change in the mid lane meta, how he sees some of the top mid lane players from the World Championship and right now in Europe and where he must head to return to LCS.

Where is nukeduck right now and where is he headed?

Right now we're playing in the Coke Challenger series with NiP, we are in the semi-finals now. We are planning on sticking together and getting into the LCS next split, and then trying to get to Worlds, but that is very long term.

Where do you see yourself amongst the EU mids right now?

I'm not sure, since I can't compete right now, but xPeke and froggen are playing really well as always and overpow is also playing really well. I would say they are top 2. I can't include myself in the top mids right now, as I am not in LCS. I will have to see, if I rejoin.

Froggen has been criticised heavily in the early part of Alliance's LCS campaign. How well do you think he has played so far this split?

I think froggen has been playing well. Mostly the reason Alliance lost the games was bad teamplay and their botlane being really nervous or something, cause they underperformed heavily. Also, Wickd's builds made them lose team-fights by default, but as I said, Froggen is doing really well.

If you had to bet all your money now on Alliance finishing top 3 at the end of the split or not, which would you go with?

I would bet they that they will finish top 3.

If casual fans look at the names in the other teams of the Coke league they aren't going to see familiar ones at mid lane. Should this tournament be easy for you in the mid lane? Are there some names to take note of?

I think some of the players in the Coke league are easily on an LCS level. Exileh (SK Gaming Prime) and Febiven (Cloud 9 Eclipse) are both very skilled. Yeah, I don't think the match-ups are easy. Some of them are, but these two are the match-ups to really look out for. Exileh has been offered a spot on an LCS team, but he is too young to play. Febiven is mid for c9 EU now and they are, along with us, I would say, the top contender for winning the Coke league.

There has been a lot of interest in Cloud 9 Eclipse, their European team. How would you describe them and how do you think they, hypothetically, would do in this split of LCS?

I think they wouldn't do that well in LCS, probably like top 5 or something. Their style is like win every lane then snowball and win the game, cause they have really good individual players. Especially k0u, the jungler, he is from norway like me. But if they train a lot until next split, I can see them being a top team.

On his stream Dexter commented that he made you look good in Lemondogs, that the reason you became known as a good assassin player was him camping your lane. Is he right?

I played assassins where I knew we would win the game if I got ahead, so I told him when to come mid or not. So I don't think he made me look good at all, he just did everything I told him to do, and this is what won us most of the games. I saw the clip and Dexter also explained that, but the title was like "I made nukeduck look good", so people just wanted drama, I think.

Did you think of yourself as the best European mid during the time Lemondogs were at the top of LCS?

Yes, I did, as I was the one setting the meta and I was the best on Fizz, Zed and Ahri, and my team knew how to play with it. Or Bjergsen was a better Zed then me, but I was better on Fizz and Ahri.

What do you mean when you say "setting the meta"?

I was the first one playing Fizz and one of the first Zed players in the Summer split. Like I didn't set the meta, but I was the first one doing it. Like my team thought Orianna and Karthus etc. were good, but in week 3 I told them "From now I only play assassins".

What made the assassins the best then?

Because they put pressure on the Support, and in S3 you could by an oracle and have it for 5 minutes, so if they are scared of going places, because they can get one-shotted, it gives you way better vision control.

At the World Championship Orianna and Gragas saw a lot of play. Did the meta change for that tournament from how it was in the regular split?

Orinna was played quite a bit, but it wasn't to great success, and gragas was just discovered around the time of Worlds. Gragas was alway really strong, but no one played him. But in those games Zed and Ahri were banned every time, and Fizz in a lot of games as well. So that is more or less the reason Orianna and Gragas saw so much play.

Did that cause you any problems?

Not really, just like one game. I was forced to play a non-assassin when I played Swain against SKT. We trained it a bit but it was kinda spontaneous, since Kassadin; Fizz; Zed and Ahri were picked and banned, so I was forced to play something else.

When people look at that Swain vs. Ahri game you had against faker they are either going to think "Faker is just so good" or that you tried to counterpick him but got something you weren't comfortable/good enough on.

Faker played a better Ahri then I had ever played against and their Lee Sin only camped mid, so I couldn't play aggressively. Faker did really good roams and picked up an early DFG, and when Ahri gets DFG she beats Swain, but before she gets it Swain wins.

Was there anything specific about Faker's style that was different?

It wasn't the style, it was just how well he moved and aimed skill-shots. He was just better at the game than anyone I had played against.

Since your team lost the first game against TSM, there are people who look at the game and say "Why did nukeduck let Reginald play Zed? He must have been cocky/overconfident, thinking he would beat Reginald". What was the reasoning behind not banning Zed?

That game I wanted to play Fizz against Reginald, since Fizz counters Zed later in the game, if you manage to do well in lane. But they banned Fizz and when I died the first time, to the Vi gank, I got really nervous and was kinda put on tilt. But we were also overconfident and after the game we learned that you couldn't give Zed to any player, as he was really OP.

What did you think of OMG's Cool?

I think he was pretty good, but I think he was kinda over-rated as well. Some people say he was as good as Faker and stuff like that, but I don't think so, as he played some champions that are really strong in lane, like Syndra and Cassiopeia, and won lane with them. Like he killed Faker 1v1, Ahri against Syndra, but Syndra beat Ahri in lane.

What did you think of Wh1t3zZ vs. xPeke in the semi-final? Could xPeke have done something differently?

Well I can't remember the match-ups he played, but we scrimmed only fnatic before Worlds and he never played Fizz. Yet he picked it vs. Orianna, which is a really bad match-up, and lost it really badly too. Then he played like Ahri vs. Vlad I think. It was just that Wh1t3zZ had his counter-picks to everything xPeke played, where on the flip-side I don't think xPeke knew what Wh1t3zZ would play.

Was it inevitable that the Lemondogs line-up would change after Worlds? Even if you hadn't gone to NiP, would players have been changed do you think?

Probably, we were kinda split on how we wanted to train and stuff.

In the KMT Promotion series, there were a lot of comments about hyrqBot not being aggressive enough early on Amumu. What do you think of that? Had he practiced Amumu and used it the same way?

We trained Amumu a lot, but I think the nerves got to him a bit. It worked great in practise.

How do you evaluate your own play vs. KMT?

I think I did fairly well. It was really hard to do much with Orianna, since the champion can only follow up, usually. I won lane both games with Orianna and lost the riven game, but Overpow had a higher game impact than me, since he did more later in the game with his Kayle.

Did you know how to play against Overpow as a specific opponent? What are his strengths and weaknesses?

His strengths are his picks, late-game and how he plays with the team, for sure. But it's hard to tell his weaknesses, when we lost every game. But his laning and mechanics are not as good as his strengths, but not bad either.

Did you consider retiring after not making it into LCS?

I never doubted that I would keep going.

Do you ever look back and think that you could still be in LCS if you were on lemondogs still?

Yeah, I do, but it was a chance and I don't regret taking it.

Is nukeduck weaker in this mid lane meta?

Yes, but I am working hard to adjust and it's going better and better. But I don't have the edge that my favorite champions are the best champions now.

What's the most important champion for you to become good on right now?

Yasuo, he is my style of hero and also really strong. I also think LeBlanc and Zed are really good, and I need to be good on them too.

What do you think of the Zed changes riot made?

They were good. He has more room for plays and is not that OP.

What is your opinion on Bjergsen's play in tsm in LCS NA so far?

He is playing really well, as he also did in EU LCS. He seems to train hard and it shows.

How would you compare yourself to him?

When Bjergsen played in EU I always had a fun time playing against him. I think we were about equally good. However, I think he has an edge on me now, with the new champions.

Do you consider Bjergsen a rival? Is there a mid who fills that role for you?

I don't think I have any mids as rivals, to be honest, but he did break through before me, he did it back at Dreamhack.

The final words belong to you.

I would like to thank everyone that keeps supporting me, even though I got set back a lot, and my sponsors in NIP: Telia, SteelSeries, Benq, Thor and Ckras.

Photo credits: readmore, NiP Gaming, Riot