A 5-2 record and a top seed after just three weeks — Team Bliss has paved a promising road for themselves throughout their debut split in the LCO.
Despite their name being heard around the Oceanic esports scene, this is their first split fielding a League of Legends roster.
The team’s support Ben “Benvi” Moore shared some thoughts with Snowball Esports on the squad’s outstanding performance so far in Split 1 and how they’ve come together.
“We definitely wouldn’t have started off as strong if we didn’t have the Brisbane boot camp before the split started,” Benvi said.
The team was able to bond over things such as interviews and the official photography session ahead of their official announcement in January. They also had the opportunity to scrim whilst playing together in person.
“[Season 13] of solo queue came out so we all grinded that day to see who could get Rank 1 the fastest.”
The in-person experience led to a debate of ‘lights on’ vs ‘lights off’ within Bliss HQ, much to Benvi’s annoyance. Despite being a lights-on advocate himself, “Whynot and Daystar wanted lights off really badly so… we have to keep the team happy, I guess,” Benvi said.
“A big experience has been acclimating [Whynot] to pro play as a starter which has been good. I’m really impressed but there are some growing pains going from purely solo queue to competitive.
In response to mimicking the jungler’s victory tradition of a cheeky dance, Benvi stated: “Not a chance.”
His experience with the remainder of the roster carries over from the previous split, Lived and Leemas having both playing alongside him on Kanga.
“Lived was working alongside playing last year so he didn’t have much time to practice. Now that he’s playing League fulltime, he’s had more time and it’s showing so I’m really impressed.”
“I already thought Leemas was good last year, and we already had synergy. It’s only gotten better. We’ll send each other VODs. We’re on the same page about becoming the best bot lane.”
“I think [the boot camp] was really needed, especially since we had a Korean import… Daystar has adapted quite well.”
Ben “Benvi” Moore, Team Bliss
“Individually, I’ve improved a lot,” he reflected on his own success in scrims. “Although I’ve had some rough stage games, I’m pretty happy with how I’ve performed.”
“I’m feeling good about the team’s results. I was pretty disappointed after week one,” he elaborated on the team’s overall performance.
Following a tough winless first week against The Chiefs and Dire Wolves, the team quickly landed on their feet, picking up four points against their remaining opponents.
An additional fifth point had been acquired from Peace’s forfeiture prior to their removal from the league.
“I thought Peace were our toughest scrim opponents,” he admitted. “They were the only team that we had a close to negative scrim rate against. The players seem really hungry so it sucks. It would’ve been interesting to see how they matched against PGG and Dire Wolves. It’s pretty unfortunate for the players [on Peace].”
The impressive 5-2 score line left the newcomers as second behind only the Dire Wolves as they were sorted into Group B. Their present competition includes The Chiefs, Kanga and their fellow Split 1 debutants in Ground Zero.
“We definitely brought it back and it feels good to go on a [four] game win streak and are ready for group stage,” Benvi said.
“We feel quite confident. Kanga and Ground Zero are definitely a step below the Chiefs and us.”
However, this claim wasn’t undoubted. “We have to be a little worried about Kanga. Fighto can always carry — he’s crazy. I think if Fighto can’t carry, Kanga will be easy.”
“The Chiefs feel like our main opponents and that should be a good game. We’ll definitely be fighting to come out of groups as first seed.”
With the group stage beginning tonight, Benvi, Leemas and Lived face their former team in Kanga. “I think I have a good read on what that team wants and how they play. Prep-wise I feel good. Skill level wise, we’re just a bit more experienced.”
“I have a lot of friends on that team that I want to see do well, so it kinda sucks that we have to beat them but we gotta do what we gotta do. Hopefully they’ll come back Split Two!”
The fighting words are in place. Team Bliss are looking to prove each and every one of them.
As the first game of the evening, Benvi and the rest of Team Bliss plays catch-up with Kanga Esports over a best-of-three series. Catch the LCO—streamed live—tonight from 5pm AEDT.
The Snowball Esports LCO coverage hub is here to catch the rest of the action.
Follow Benvi on Twitter.
