Misfits Gaming has been the surprise of the 2022 LEC Spring Split. After the team finished in fifth place last summer and lost star jungler Iván "Razork" Martín to Fnatic in the offseason. Misfits went for a big reset. They brought in two rookies with Lucjan "Shlatan" Ahmad and Mertai "Mersa" Sari, and took over Matúš "Neon" Jakubčík from Schalke 04. 

Some warmup time was expected with the revamped, but no: they came out of the gate swinging. Led by an outstanding performance from mid laner Vincent "Vetheo" Berrié, the squad contested for the top of the standings and now heads into the playoffs in the upper bracket.

Misfits’ Director of Gaming Europe and former EU LCS caster Martin “Deficio” Lynge spoke to Inven Global during the final weekend of the 2022 LEC Spring Split’s best-of-1 stage. He discussed the process of rebuilding the Misfits roster and what expectations the team had internally. Deficio also discussed the outstanding performance from Vetheo and what Misfits’ plan are with the young Frenchman.

Congrats on what already has been a pretty successful split for Misfits, Deficio. Although you obviously have high hopes when you're building a team, I have to imagine that this performance exceeded your expectations, right?

I think that it's fair to say that we have exceeded expectations. We actually entered this Spring Split with a very clear goal of obviously being a playoffs team. We knew we should be there and it would be a disappointment if we didn't. But we didn't put any specific number on it, right? Not like "You have to end top four, top three" or whatever. But I think, once we hit the halfway point in the split, it became very clear to us that we should be looking at top four as our goal.

It was a realistic goal, judging from the different teams in the league, but also from the way we played as a team. I believe we were 5-4 then. We knew that we would grow every week because we have two rookies with Shlatan and Mersa. They only get better and better. So, halfway through we adjusted and said that playoffs wasn't the only goal. Now, top four would be it.

I'm very, very happy that we lock it. Even in some of the games before, I was very proud of the players and the staff for an amazing split. I'm so happy that we're able to continue our very positive trend from last year.

"You don't need to be the best team in the world in the Spring Split. You are allowed to go for these risks."

That end to last year is actually what I wanted to talk about next. Misfits headed into the offseason seeing a bit of growth in the team. The then-rookies HiRit and Vetheo had grown, and Razork was one of the best junglers in the LEC in the Summer Split. So, what were your goals in the offseason?

When we ended the Summer [Split], we sat down and were heartbroken because we famously were one Viego teamfight away from making Worlds. We played a great five-game series against Fnatic shortly after, lost that one in game five again, and then saw them go all the way to the finals. We then said "Oh man, this was actually really close to being something fantastic." It was already a great summer and we had great development from spring into summer, when we kept the roster together, which was very important.

We then went into the offseason and obviously we had a couple of players who expired, Razork being the hottest name in the free agency period. Especially because he was the only free agency jungler that had a big name. We knew early on, also from having very good and honest conversations with him, that keeping him would be very difficult. He wanted to go out and explore his options. We knew that there would be some big, big offers coming his way. He obviously ended up at Fnatic.

We knew from the get-go that we wanted to promote Shlatan from our academy team, so that was the first change. We knew that we wanted to extend HiRit after his great first year with us. He's a really lovely guy to work with as well, so we got that sorted.

You also got a new bot lane.

Yes, so, we had to figure out what to do with the bot lane as well. We were looking at both roles because both Vander and Kobbe had contracts that expired and they were allowed to go out and explore their options. We wanted to change it up slightly, in the sense that we wanted a very vocal AD carry who we believed we could pair with a lot of different supports as well. That's why Neon was our first choice. He also, very early on, made it clear to us that we would be his preferred choice. So that was kind of a quick match made in heaven.

It gave us the flexibility in the support role to extend Vander, but also sign Mersa on a long deal and have the two guys come in and make it very clear that there's a chance that they'll play in the LEC, and there's a chance that they'll play in the LFL. It was not decided beforehand. We knew that, pairing them with Neon, we would get a lot of good feedback. In the end, during the preseason, Mersa surprised us positively in a lot of ways. Also, in the preseason, people were playing like 15 different support champions or whatever, and he was able to very quickly master all of them. That obviously gave him quite an edge as well.

We always have the mindset here and this has been my mindset since I joined Misfits: In the Spring Split, we are allowed to explore. We are allowed to take some gambles. You don't need to be the best team in the world in the Spring Split. You are allowed to go for these risks. At the end of the day, we all play towards a great Summer Split that can lead us to Worlds. It feels a lot less risky for me that, when I speak to my staff and they have high hopes for Mersa, we go with him then and we give him that chance, knowing we have an amazing guy right behind him in Vander, who can step straight in if necessary.

Misfits had a very clear plan. Or, at least, you figured out how to pilot the offseason as the weeks went by.

It was an interesting offseason. We got our first choices in top and AD carry instantly. The support role was the only one where there was a battle between the two guys, figuring out who would get the starting spot. I was really happy that the reputation that we—and players like HiRit and Vetheo—built up in the year before made us an attractive location for people. Then we got our pieces.

Well, I gotta say, I was very skeptical about the roster because you have so many young players on it—

Youngest roster in the LEC!

Is it? I thought Vitality had the youngest roster.

Vitality announced that they had the youngest roster, but then we promoted Mersa, so then we had the youngest roster. So suck it, Vitality! [Laughs]

The first thing [Vetheo] said to us was: "I want to go to Korea, please let's set up a bootcamp." (...) He comes back in the preseason and he just dumpsters people.

[Laughs] What has surprised you about this roster in the eight weeks of the competitions? Obviously, many people have been praising Vetheo's performance this split. He's a clear MVP candidate and had many pop-off games. But he has four teammates as well.

I mean, let's not beat around the bush, right? Vetheo plays fantastic. An amazing split from him. Not a surprise, honestly. We saw the trend towards summer and the development he made during summer. The moment we hit the offseason, the first thing he said to us was: "I want to go to Korea, please let's set up a bootcamp. I just wanna go." He comes back in the preseason and he just dumpsters people. So we're like "Alright, this is cool, clearly a lot has happened since we signed him as a mechanically gifted rookie a year ago." We had very high expectations for him in terms of mid lane rankings. He has done tremendously well.

But I think, around the whole team, the team has found a very aggressive identity very quickly, which was a surprise. I thought it would take way longer to build up all of the teamwork and identity and so on. There's a really good atmosphere outside of the game, which is great. A lot of kudos to our staff, to Owen, our performance coach, who is working on that with them every day.

We've had individual players step up in different games outside of Vetheo. We haven't had people do it as consistently as he's doing it, but we have these pop-off games from the bot lane, from top, and so on. I think Carter, Hiiva, and xani, our coaches, have managed to really nail down solid champion pools for each player and how we win games. [Laughs] That's what matters at the end of the day. How do we draft? What do we need to do to win these games? So, I think the coaches have been a big source of our success.

I want to combine something you said earlier with your comments about Vetheo's growth. You now have a star mid laner and, if we look at successful LEC teams, they all have that. Humanoid, caPs, Larssen, Perkz: they are pillars for their teams. Vetheo seems like a prime candidate to be that pillar for Misfits, to keep building around him. But you also had a star player in Razork, and he moved on. Is Misfits gonna make the effort to retain Vetheo?

We will, of course, do everything we can to retain him. We did a lot to try and retain Razork as well initially in the offseason. I'm sure he will say the same, but there are different factors of what players want. We just got outgunned by Fnatic in that regard. We will do everything we can to retain our best players, that's how we work.

We are not a big-budget team. That's not really a huge secret. We are a team that wants to build around our academy, who wants to build around promoting and bringing in players we see from the ERLs who are good enough to compete at the highest level. That is our ultimate goal and that's also something I think we're showing by having one of the best academy teams in Europe. I think, if we look at the last two years, we've probably had the best academy team, if you ask me.

We will continue to have really good players that we can promote, but we will always make it a goal for us that we want to keep our best players. We consider Vetheo as a Misfits boy right now. Of course, we would love to keep it that way.

"If we continue to improve, as we should, I see us competing as one of the top teams for that Worlds spot"

To round up, I'm gonna put you on the spot. You're heading into the playoffs now, already having seen unexpected highs for the team. With a fairly competitive LEC—we have Fnatic, Rogue, G2, you guys, maybe Vitality if they get it together—where do you see this Misfits lineup go?

It's a stacked top, that's for sure. Interestingly enough, this split we were "supposed to have" a really stacked top five. I'm obviously counting ourselves in that, and I guess maybe some people didn't, heading into the split, having us with Excel and MAD as the buffers. We had three teams that, to us, were very obviously at the bottom with BDS, Astralis, and SK. Depending on what changes they make for summer—if they do any—I think we might see a really stacked top five and then again MAD Lions/Excel sitting around trying to break in.

So, it's insanely competitive when it comes to making Worlds. But I think we'll only get better as a team. I think it's a natural growth pattern with the young players we have. I think we have insane coaches when it comes to improving in-game. I think we have a really strong setup outside of the game as well to solve any conflicts and work with people outside of the game. I think, ultimately, if we continue to improve, as we should, I see us competing as one of the top teams for that Worlds spot. It's of course the goal, right now. It has to be, with how good we are and how well we have performed in the Spring Split.

Because it's spring, people will always be like "Well there was that one game where you were really bad" but I'm like: Yes, but other teams lost to Astralis. There are inconsistencies everywhere, it's only natural. But I think we will iron most of them out and become a really, really strong team for the Summer Split.