SK Gaming welcome FORG1VEN and Fox

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

SK Gaming is one of the first European teams to finalize their 2015 roster. Today, the organization announced who will be filling the vacated spots of AD Carry and mid laner. The mantle of marksman will be taken by Konstantinos 'FORG1VEN' Tzortziou. Formerly of Copenhagen Wolves, the Greek player declined offers from Turkey and Brazil to once again enter the LCS and continue his dominating streak.

Hampus 'Fox' Myhre is the second addition to the team. Formerly known as 'watdafox', Hampus was previously the mid laner of the most successful inception of SK Gaming Prime. Reaching the Promotion/Relegation matches in L.A., Fox was unsuccessful in obtaining an LCS spot after Gambit defeated the Prime line-up 3-1.

The new roster of SK Gaming is as follows:

• Simon 'Fredy122' Payne - Top lane
• Dennis 'Svenskeren' Johnson - Jungler
• Hampus 'Fox' Myhre - Mid lane
• Konstantinos 'FORG1VEN' Tzortziou - AD Carry
• Christoph 'nRated' Seitz - Support

Last, but not least, Joe 'InnerFlame' Elouassi will be joining the team as their new manager for the 2015 Season.

Both Fox and FORG1VEN were kind enough to give us an exclusive interview on their move to the SK roster which you can find below.

SK.Fox interview

Greetings Hampus! Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about your background?

Hi my name is Hampus Myhre, I'm 19 years old from Karlskoga, Sweden. When I was growing up my main hobby was football until I started playing League when I was around 15.

I've been competitive with what I've been doing so it was easy for me to transition from competitive football to esports. I was looking for a tag since I was using a random compilation of letters prior to "watdefox" and my team was trolling with the song by Ylvis, since the video was popular at the time. I just went with it, but now it's Fox only since it's a bit more appropriate for younger audiences.

How did you get into competitive gaming and was League of Legends your first eSports title?

League of Legends is my first competitive esport. I have played for a while now, however, I mostly played solo queue with limited premade experience only playing in amateur teams. I was always high up in the solo queue ladder with random names, and in early season 4, Gilius approached me to make a team with him which later got picked up and developed further with SK.

For anyone following the EU Challenger scene, you were pretty unknown up to the point where you joined SK Gaming Prime. Do you mind telling us how you climbed up the Challenger ranks and joined SKP?

Like I said before I was always high ELO. However due to my regularly changing ID, I was never really noticed under 1 name so I kind of stalled my own competitive career. When I decided to play with Gilius, I kept one name and decided to focus on becoming the best competitive player I could be and it kind of snowballed from there.

The pinnacle of your career at this point was playing in the Promotion/Relegation matches. Despite the valiant effort, SK Prime lost to Gambit. How would you assess your performance when tasked with facing an LCS mid laner?

I didn't fear niQ, however I felt that Diamondprox could manipulate the way the game went and he made the games really hard as you saw. When I was given space to do what I wanted in the lane, I wasn't having any issues gaining an advantage in the laning phase.

How did Fox made the jump from SK Prime to SK Main?

As you know, InnerFlame who was managing me in Prime is now managing the main roster. He recommended me for a trial in the main team and I proved myself to be worthy of the spot. It all happened pretty quickly and I'm happy to be given such a big opportunity.

Can you describe your style as a mid laner?

I would say I am more of a mechanical player, however I like to use my mechanical ability for the benefit of the team as well as my own. My style is aggressive and I like to try and get an advantage in lane, I won't settle for going equal or just stalling and farming to late game unless the champion match-up is terrible for me. I would consider myself to have a diverse champion pool and I like to keep it that way so I can provide options for my team in champion select. I couldn't really associate myself with certain champions since my champion pool changes with the meta.

With the addition of you and Forg1ven, is it safe to assume that SK Gaming may move to a more lane-dominant style rather than the strategic SK Gaming we had so far?

I agree, but I don't think we'll entirely rely on lane dominance since the core of the team is still there. I think the combination of both will prove to work out well for us, we just need to practice and work out each others strengths to find the balance.

What changes to mid lane do you expect post patch 4.20?

I don't want to say too much about it since I have some stuff in mind, however, changes like the buff to abyssal scepter and the nerf to Athenes look interesting to say the least.

The unwritten rule in League of Legends states that mid is a 2v2 lane. With the ludicrous amount of jungle changes, how do you think the mid lane - jungle symbiosis will be affected within the game?

I haven't played enough on the new patch to make an accurate judgement. In the past, mid has always been heavily influenced by junglers so I'm not sure if that's going to change.

How will your style as a player synergise with Svenskeren? Have you practiced together up until now? How did that go?

As reddit noticed we've duo queued a lot recently and the 65-5 Master Tier was done by both of us. I really enjoy playing with Sven since he matches my aggression and does what I want from a jungler.

What are your expectations of the new SK line-up that will be heading into the 2015 Season of the LCS?

I believe that we will finish in the top 3 at least with a strong possibility of winning.

Currently, the LCS is set to have only 4 Swedish players with you being the only mid laner. Is there a lack of mid lane talent in Sweden?

I know there are some Swedish mid players who are challenger level, but there are no other top level mids from Sweden other than myself currently. I will represent Sweden the best I can.

Have you set any personal or team goals for the 2015 Season of the European LCS?

We all share the goal of wanting to win LCS and we do not believe that is an unrealistic target.

Thank you very much for the interview, Fox. The last words are yours.

I hope you guys support me in the coming split. I'd like to thank SK, Riot and the sponsors for giving me this opportunity. Jag hoppas jag kan göra er stolta*!

*I will make you proud!

Images courtesy of esportsheaven, dailydot and SK Gaming