Reflections upon my split with Aurora in TCL and looking forward

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After travelling back to Denmark and taking a break for a couple of weeks, I think it is about time to reflect upon my Summer split with Aurora in TCL, to share my thoughts with you, and to let you know what my plans are moving forward.



*Intro/ pre-split*
My split with Aurora in TCL was my first split as a professional player. The timing of me joining Aurora was perfect, since I was striving to play League professionally after finishing high school. I joined Aurora at the end of May, and I graduated from high school the 12th of June. In Denmark it is a very big milestone in life to graduate from high school, and there are a lot of parties and celebrations following the graduation. I knew that I couldn’t have both the parties, celebrations and compete as a professional in TCL at the same time, so I chose to focus on my career, which meant going to Turkey already a couple of days after graduating. I was excited to go, since I had been dreaming of playing League professionally for many years.



*TCL split*
The first week of TCL I played from my home in Denmark, because I couldn’t go to Turkey before graduating school. These games were my first professional games in front of a huge audience on Twitch and YouTube. I was playing with 80-90 ping, because we played the matches on the Turkish server. This meant I would rather play safe and not drag my team down, and I would rather not play highly mechanical champions. We lost both of our games in the first week. It was a bit hard to start out like this, but we were playing against decent teams and I knew it would get better once I would get to Turkey and play with 10-12 ping.

The 2nd week the team wanted to play with a Turkish midlaner, to not have to deal with my lag issues, which was also fine with me because I had to focus on my last exams the days before, and I didn’t have too much time to scrim.

The 3rd week of TCL, I arrived at the gaming house Wednesday evening. We had games in the Academy League Thursday and Friday, and TCL matches Saturday and Sunday. This week we went 1-1 in TCL and I was happy and excited to get my first win in TCL, even though it was against Royal Youth.

After the 3rd TCL week, I had only been in the gaming house for 4 full days. I got told that the team would play with a Turkish midlaner for the next week in both scrims, academy games and TCL. I was baffled and didn’t know what was happening. This meant that I was just sitting in the house the whole week, playing soloq and watching the other guys play their scrims and matches. It felt really bad to be put on the sideline after taking a flight all the way to Turkey and after only 4 days in the gaming house.

After the 4th TCL week, I was back on the team, but now with a completely different roster from when I joined Aurora back in May. 3 new players joined the team, and we didn’t have time to practice. The following weeks, more roster swaps happened. A lot of different people came into- and left the gaming house, and some players were not even in the gaming house. It was a very chaotic and unstable environment to be in, and it was hard to make social bonding due to the roster swaps. The time passed and we lost most of our games and the times were very hard in the gaming house and in the team. We barely got any practice and we had no structure, it felt like the team had just fallen more and more apart from the 5th week, when most of the players got swapped out. I was keeping my head up though, even though times were tough. I was going for runs and walks with my friend Urban, who joined us in the gaming house July. I have known Urban for quite some time, so it was nice to get a good friend to join me in the house. He would help me keep my head up and stay positive, and we could talk about everything.

Despite all the difficulties in the team, I still tried my best in every single game. Even though we lost most of our games, I still kept my head up, kept communicating as well as I could and did my best to win my lane and farm myself up to be a potential carry in the mid/late game. We were only an inch away from taking down Fenerbahce in week 6, which would have been a huge upset, sadly we couldn’t end it though. In week 7 we secured our victory against Royal Youth, which meant we ended the split 9th place and not 10th place.



*Improvements / What I can learn and take with me from this split*
There are many more things to tell and talk about, but I would rather focus on the positive things and what I can take with me from this experience with Aurora.
I believe that this experience in TCL with Aurora has made me a stronger person, both in game and out of game. I feel like I have strengthened my gameplay by playing in the TCL. The level there is higher than the previous leagues I have played in, so it was a good experience for sure. I have strengthened myself out of game and gotten better at communicating with other people. This was also my first gaming house experience, which means I’ve gotten knowledge about what to do and about what not to do when living in a gaming house, and now I feel more confident about moving to a gaming house in the future. I have also learned that there are other important things than just grinding and playing when in a gaming house. The social part plays a big role, while it is also very important to go outside for runs or walks and get good and healthy food.



*Teşekkürler (thank you!)*
Before moving on, I want to say a huge thanks to all the people I have met in Turkey. All the people I have met has been super friendly and kind.
I want to thank the fans and the community in Turkey as well, you have all been very nice to me and all your kind messages and support has made it a lot easier to keep my head up. The Turkish League community and fans are awesome, and I appreciate all the support I have gotten, it really means a lot to me.



*Looking forward*
Looking forward, I am looking to keep competing as a professional player. I am currently a free agent and I am looking to compete in any competition in the offseason/winter. I will be looking to play Spring 2021 split as well, and I am currently open for offers from anywhere. I am open to play in TCL again, since I believe I can achieve a lot more than what I did with Aurora, given the right circumstances.
For now, I will be looking to start grinding soloq again, and hopefully reach Grandmaster/Challenger within a reasonable time period.
I will be starting to stream a lot again; I will make a stream schedule and do my streams in English. The stream schedule will be posted on my Twitter soon, but I will most likely stream 5/6 days a week.
While spending a lot of time on streaming, I also have plans on doing individual coaching in the offseason, and I will be focusing on staying healthy as well by going for runs and eating healthy.




Thank you for reading and thanks to everyone sticking with me and supporting me through the years. I hope to be able to keep improving and keep competing at a high level, and I am confident that everything will only get better from now on.



*TL;DR*
The split with Aurora was filled with roster changes, and nothing really worked out. I still kept my head high and fought as hard as I could. I believe I learned a lot from my experience with Aurora, both ingame and out of game, and I feel more confident about moving to a gaming house and playing professionally in the future.
I am very grateful for everyone supporting me and all the positive comments and messages.
I have had a break for a couple of weeks, but now I will start to climb in soloq and stream regularly 5-6 days a week in English. I will probably do some individual coaching as well in the offseason, and I will be looking for a team to play in winter split/offseason and the next split Spring 2021. I am currently a free agent and looking for offers from anywhere.

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