Chris Lee is a League of Legends coach and he’ll be guiding Australia’s winner of the Red Bull Solo Q tournament as they take on the world.
One Australian League of Legends player will win the opportunity to fast track their esports career and compete internationally in a 1v1 variant of the popular MOBA.
Chris Lee is Head Coach at the Chiefs Esports Club Academy and will mentor and guide the winner in this new format tournament called Red Bull Solo Q which is being run in Australia for the first time this year.
Lee says that playing League of Legends against one single opponent allows for a different type of gameplay not seen in the standard five player team format.
“In a team dynamic when you’re playing 5 on 5 you’re locked on to what you can provide to the team a lot of the time or what other teams are doing globally and very rarely do you get the chance to be creative, to think outside the box,” said Lee
“Especially if you’re competing in a region like Oceania, very rarely do you get the chance to think as to what the answers might be for certain champion match ups and champion match ups are very valuable in one versus one and it’s also valuable in a team environment.”
As a talent scout at the Chiefs Lee searches the competitive leader boards for players ready for further development into professional competition and says the players with ambition to make a career should approach it like any other job.
“It’s all the cliche things, work hard, make connections and talk to people, network it’s like any other job, workplace or industry,” said Lee
“For League of Legends specifically, it would be a combination of their attitude and drive, their individual skill in solo queues and position on the leaderboards and I would say if you’re top thirty, top forty you’re pretty much ready to take that step to becoming a professional.”
Just like in other sports there is an aspect of innate or natural ability however that’s not all Lee looks for when coaching a successful player.
“The first big thing I look for is mechanics, and by that I mean their reaction speed and accuracy with the mouse as well as natural talent and ability.”
“The second is general attitude and how can I mold this player into some that can work in a team environment”
Professional esports is still a male dominated career, but Lee says he’d love to see that change and new players enter the competition.
“I think about putting a priority on gender diversity in terms of encouraging female players that have that natural talent or have the want to go pro.”
“I would love for more females to get involved, I would love to encourage everyone essentially to sign up and showcase their talent but as for the actual selection process it's down to skill, how talented are you at this video game, that is my priority as obviously the Chiefs want to win.”
Red Bull Solo Q is now open for registrations with the matches beginning on 19 June.
