Fnatic’s League of Legends ADC player Martin “Rekkles” Larssen has spoken about what it takes to improve at the top level – and offered advice to aspiring pros.
Speaking to eSports News UK at the launch of Fnatic’s new Gear accessories, he said: “I’ve always had this competitive spirit coming from my youth with sports, I couldn’t just play for fun.
“Even though I found playing a lot of fun, it wasn’t the main goal of mine when I was playing the game. I think that’s why League of Legends started so much in the beginning and why I got the chance to play as a professional as early as I did, even though I was young. I would say that’s the main thing that people need to think of when they want to go pro.”
“If you’re willing to give 110% of your time and focus, you can get anywhere. It’s not just League of Legends related either, it’s anything in life.”
On his top three tips to improving and going pro, he said: “I think climbing the ladder shouldn’t be a goal, it should be something that just happens with the other goals. Playing the game a lot and putting 110% into every game is the first thing of ever becoming something.
“I would say the second thing is to be really open minded. I would even say that playing one champion or a few set of champions is the way to go, which kind of goes against being open minded.
“But even when you’re playing a certain champion you can’t tell yourself you’re doing the best you can possibly do, you need to always look outside of the box and try to find new ways of playing the game. I think that’s how you grow the fastest, even though you might only be playing a few champions.
“As for the third thing, I would say something that always struck my mind at least, is patience. It can be used in your favour inside the game, because there are many moments where it’s really tense, like if four people died on each team and it’s one on one. If you don’t have that patience, you’re going to lose that last duel which you wouldn’t have otherwise.
“This can also apply outside of the game. It’s going to take you time to get somewhere. Even for myself, I played the game for almost two years and I was gold-ish before I started climbing lots. I’m sure if I didn’t have this patience, I would’ve given up earlier or I would’ve allowed myself to not give 110%.”
We also asked Rekkles some questions sent in by players from the UK League of Legends scene, including this one below:
@Dom_Sacco @RekklesLoL how to become best adc uk scene
— Innaxe the God (@innaxe80) November 1, 2016
“The UK isn’t any different from other regions,” Rekkles said.
“If you’re willing to give 110% of your time and focus, you can get anywhere. It’s not just League of Legends related either, it’s anything in life. So you really need that drive – that’s the main thing you need to be looking for. You can actually force yourself to have that drive, I don’t think it’s something you can be born with, it’s something that you almost teach yourself through life.
“In the beginning it was hard for me to control this, but I think these days I’m so disciplined with myself, that I can actually choose where my emotions go, what I choose to focus on and what I don’t.
“I consider myself strong mentally – I’m 20 and I feel stronger than ever.”
Check out the full video interview with Rekkles later this week.
eSports News UK was speaking to Rekkles at the launch of the new Fnatic Gear accessories: the Clutch mouse, Duel headset and mouse mat.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
