When Felix "Abbedagge" Braun made his debut in a 100 Thieves loss to Immortals to open the 2021 League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split, the draft was criticized for giving Abbedagge Karma instead of a pick with more individual agency and/or carry potential. Undeterred, Abbedagge proved his versatility by locking in Karma the very next day against Cloud9 in what ended up being a slaughter of the reigning North American champion by 100 Thieves. 

After defeating Cloud9, Abbedagge spoke to Inven Global about why he joined 100 Thieves, his growth throughout the past calendar year as the FC Schalke 04 Esports' mid laner, and his thoughts on the recent roleswaps to jungle in the League of Legends European Championship. 

Welcome to the LCS, Abbedagge. What are your first impressions of your new domestic league?

I didn't really know what to expect, but things are pretty different. I'm not exactly sure yet.

Now that you're here with 100 Thieves, I wanted to ask if you've ever considered playing in North America during past parts of your career?

I was considering it at some times, but I never really got the opportunity before to make the big jump. I wanted it to be a really good offer.

Did playing on stage in the LEC Spring Playoffs earlier this season helped you adjust to your new environment?

I think it gives me a little bit of an advantage, but I only played three days on stage in the LEC this season. I think it will take others a bit longer than me to get used to the stage again, but I wouldn't say it's a big thing.

It was mentioned on the LCS broadcast that you are personally close with your jungler Can “Closer” Çelik. Was reuniting with him after your time together on Royal Bandits in the 2018 Turkish Championship League a factor in you joining 100 Thieves?

Yeah, definitely. When 100 Thieves first approached me, I was definitely interested in playing with this roster. Because I previously played with Closer, I know that he's a player who has very high potential. I was looking forward to signing up with them and seeing how we had both changed over the years. I think that we make a good combo.

You were a big part of FC Schalke 04 Esports' success in the past calendar year. How do you feel you individually grew as a player during that time?

I think I became more of a player that my teammates could rely on. I focused on becoming a more reliable player by learning to play different styles of mid lane — roaming mids, melee mids, supports, control mages — I just became a more solid, flexible player.

Speaking of flexibility, we're seeing the mid lane meta open up into a plethora of picks and styles. What do you think has caused this meta shift?

I just think that Riot made a lot of stuff viable. There's a lot of unbalanced stuff, but at the same time, it seems like they've balanced the game in a way that there's a lot of styles and variations that are playable. I feel like a lot of items are very viable now, whereas before builds were a lot more one-dimensional. I also think there's more flex picks because of the items, which makes drafting better because you can flex your mid and top picks.

We've seen some recent roleswaps to the jungle position in the LEC ahead of the Summer Split. Do you have any thoughts on these roleswaps?

I don't really know much about them, it just seems a bit weird. It doesn't feel like these changes are well thought out; it feels like they were forced to make these changes because of internal problems and not because they thought that they could be really good changes. If they had, they would have made them at the start of the year so they had more time to prepare for swapping roles.

I'm interested to see how it will work out for them and if they can adapt. In a way, I think jungle is pretty one-dimensional with a lot of full clears, but it's very rewarding if you can play more than just the 'full clear' junglers. That may not be easy, so I'm interested to see how it turns out for them.

Thanks for the interview, Abbedagge. As the newest face of the squad, is there anything you want to say to the 100 Thieves fans?

Just believe in us and keep supporting us. It's going to take some time for us to grow into the form we want to be in, but until we're there, support us.