JohnGalt · @JohnGalt
5th Jun 2020 from TwitLonger
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
This year has been a long year.
Justice is the 10th team I have coached; and along the way to this moment, there were many friends and many lessons. When I finally made it into the OWL, invited by Dpei into the Gladiators, I don’t think I was an OWL-tier coach. My analysis was simply not fundamentally sound. I would mis-prioritise a portion of a fight and come to the wrong conclusion. Tim from the Gladiators helped me a lot strategically and I am grateful for his patient guidance.
Everyday in the Gladiators, after scrims, I would collect povs of every role from scrims, upload them into my Google Drive to study the game. From multiple top players’ povs, I would try to get more insight and perspectives into different playstyles of the game. As I improved in the strategic aspect of the game, I became a very big part of the strategies and compositions Gladiators used in 2019. I enjoyed my time in the Gladiators and am thankful for the chance to work with both Dpei and Tim.
At the end of the year, when Gladiators were remaking the staff and everyone was released, David and I chatted about the future. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to take the next step as a Head Coach. Justice offered me a contract and I took it up.
Justice started off strong; we did well in scrims and fought a close match against Philly. We also won Boston and Houston convincingly, showing strong fundamentals and teamwork. The team fell sick in Philly, where we lost to Spitfire in a reverse sweep and many ways, that was a bit of a turning point. In a recent interview with Yiska, Chrisfter mentioned how confidence was paramount to Fusion’s 2020 performance, how their first win of the year was pivotal in drawing a team closer and imbuing the team with confidence, how the team after the win was stronger than ever even with no difference in coaching or roster.
Inversely, Justice suffered a huge morale blow from our losses. From then, scrims were not as good and it became a lot harder to be as focused. I think most of the players still worked very hard, and I don’t think it was easy for them.
I also want to thank my coaching staff. I don’t praise people often; circle-jerking happens a lot in our industry. However, as the (ex)Head Coach of Justice, I know for a fact that Bani, Wiz and Supreme worked extremely long hours for the team. There was a week where the coaches never went home before midnight. The more we lost, the more the coaches started to attempt different strategies; we came up with different ways of presenting information and we spent a lot of time working with each player on their weaker heroes. Bani would be in the office at midnight, poring over POVs of the players and identifying the weak players in a particular week. I would have long chats with Supreme over how to re-energise the players and to refocus their effort towards practice. Wiz is our strategic engine and reminds me a lot of Tim from Gladiators. Every few coaches, there are strategically-strong coaches that have an intuitive understanding of the game. I am lucky to have met both of them in the OWL; both have taught me a lot about the game.
I am thankful to Pre and Lynn for trying their best this season. At the end of the day, my vision for the team diverged away from the org’s vision and hence, it makes sense for me to pass the torch. At the same time, I am being offered a great opportunity in a great school so it’s as good a time as any to continue onwards in life.
Our current roster is strong. Jjanu and Stitch are top players and have been gelling really well with our other Korean players. Every scrim that we play with both of them, we improve extremely rapidly. I also know the team is in good hands with Supreme and Wiz. They are some of the fairest and smartest coaches I know and if there are coaches that can turn our team around in the next part of the season, it’s the two of them.
Also grateful to Pre whom I have had long talks with. I am not the easiest guy to work along with since I am always trying to push for change. I don’t hide my emotions well and at times, I am direct in what I want for the team or players. Thank you Pre for being patient all this while.
To Ark and Ttuba, you guys are the hardest workers of the team. I see you guys playing ranked, seeking out coaches and looking through VODs. Make sure to continue working hard!
To Aimgod, I enjoyed all the steak sessions we had together; maybe next time wash the damn dishes after you greased up my apartment.
Also, while Ellivote, you have left, I hope you take a good long break and then head back into the OWL. I think you deserve a shot too, in another team. Good luck!
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What will I do now?
Outside of Akshon, there hasn’t been good OWL analysis-based content and opinion pieces of the games. I used to be very prolific in writing articles in Reddit before I entered the OWL. I will probably do so again while studying. Will also continue to stream analysis-based content of Contenders and OWL on my stream~