Norik

profils

Player

Strat caller

Leader

ambitions

As cliché as it is, I've always dreamt of playing professionally. It's obviously unlikely, but I just love the competitive scene so much and any taste of that I can get, I take. That's what drove me to the US Army Esports program. They were giving us the opportunity to compete against other established teams and work as an actual squad. I would love that more than anything.

In terms of personal growth and goals, I started at Bronze 4, and have gotten as high as Gold 1 this season. My current goal is Platinum, but I refuse to be stuck in Plat 4. I don't want to feel like I'm just taking the rank and sitting on it. I want to feel like I've earned it. I never set a limit to what I am trying to achieve, only minimums. The way I climbed was just step by step. When I started in bronze 4, my goal was bronze 3, then bronze 2, then bronze 1, and so on. I kept that going, and will continue that strat, until the last day of ranked.

While I focused on using the new Fiddlesticks to climb, I never stopped practicing other champs to ensure I was competitive during tryouts. A priority of mine was making sure I had a wide enough pool to feel comfortable adapting to different playstyles and matchups.

My main reason for searching for a team to join is to gain more experience with the structured competitive level. SoloQ can only do so much in terms of growing in this field. If I want any chance of playing at even the lowest level of competitive play, I need to start working with others consistently.

description

Greetings, I am Norik from California. I am 21 and currently living in Maryland serving active duty for the US Army. My main role is Jungle, but I have some experience in Top and Mid. Bottom or Support are definitely my weakest positions.

My love for competition has been prevalent most my life, but my league journey really started in 2016. I never really played any ranked as I always had too much on my plate to stress about climbing. My friends and I would still give effort towards the game, but it was pretty much all draft mode. I would do my placement games and then just leave it at that. The first time I got a real taste for competitive league was in 2017. My friends and I participated in a local fundraiser competition. Considering none of us had done anything like that at the time, we did rather well. We ended up beating the UC Merced pro ULoL team in a best of 3.

Towards the end of 2017, I enlisted in the Army and was shipped off for training. For obvious reasons, I left the league scene for over a year. Towards the end of 2019, I started playing again after I heard about the Army putting together an Epsorts program. This inspired me to start practicing again and really put in the effort. Studying and practicing new roles, champions, and builds; Learning matchups and the impact of macro decisions. All these things I never really cared about before that are obviously crucial for any player and team to stand a chance in the competitive scene.

Tryouts began in March of this year and ran every Saturday and Sunday for about 5 months. They were structured to be a best of 3 where each team had a similar rank. the staff would sometimes move people up/down to get a better gauge of that player. I had the privilege of competing with/against players as high as Diamond. Because I was playing with a different team every day, I started to learn how to play with all types of players. Adapting to different personalities and styles is crucial for keeping an effective team working cohesively. It was a great opportunity to be able to experience the tournament style play. I definitely attest my quick growth in the game to rubbing shoulders with these players and feeling the drive to grow as a player. I was also able to grow relationships with the USAE team and coach staff. They have helped me out a ton coaching me as I climb through SoloQ.

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