A team might succeed for various sorts of reasons. Some might claim it is the collective talent, the right mix of personalities, good strategic compositions or just raw talent mixed with some luck. Through all sports, we’ve seen single players be able to carry their teams to championships or the collective effort pay off to lift the trophy. One thing all championship winning teams normally have in common is that there is someone showing the way. Someone keeping the group together and leading them to the mutual goal.

In this year’s Roccat lineup, there is a new leader in the making, a talented player that took the challenge to join a team lacking real playing experience, but also to lead them.

Jonas “ Memento” Elmarghichi, the jungler that made his LCS debut subbing in for Roccat during the summer split of 2016 rejoined the Roccat roster for this season to take a new challenge for his career. He decided to rejoin Roccat and risk it with their new roster. Memento values the players with the highest potential growth and with the least amount of ego the most. As he also stated in an interview to the Shotcaller he feared that if he stayed in Schalke they would have a good run at the start but wouldn’t be able to grow as much in the long run. Which resulted in him joining Roccat and take the leadership role for this raw and fresh talents. Despite being fairly young with 22 years of age, he isn’t a rookie anymore. Having his debut as a pro player in 2016 with team Empire in the LCL in Russia. Marking his first paid job and real experience of an offline event. After being fairly successful he got noticed by challenger series team Nerv where he ended up competing for the 2016 summer split of the EU Challenger series until he got a call, a call from Berlin. A call that would change his life forever. It was Roccat’s staff asking for him to sub in as a jungler in the coming LCS week, which started the next day.

The young player surprised the stage with a fresh air of aggressivity and most of all creativity. Despite the initial problems the Roccat roster had at that time and the normal issues adapting to the stage, Memento showed potential. He showed he had the skills and most of all the mindset to be a top level player if given the time to get some stage experience.

Throughout 2017 he got that chances while he couldn’t keep Giants in the LCS, he definitely came close to it. He mastered the early game. He learned to read the enemies movements and start abusing it through smart pathing and aggressive plays. However, while he was a good and smart player, he was still not experienced enough to make the needed decisions to bring those almost “won” games home. Mostly falling to bad calls towards baron or taking fights the team shouldn’t have taken. Which lead to his run with Schalke in the challenger series and his come back to the EU LCS this year.

His mindset is what kept him improving. Despite being a hard worker, the player is very professional and focused. Although he is not the fastest at adapting he makes up for it in the long run. Genuinely a calm and nice person with only one thing in mind, improving.

Memento maintained his creativity in picks and his aggressive style with the use of picks as Jax, Camille or Evelyn jungle keeping his versatile and unpredictable. While being still very good in the early game with precisive movements to exploit the enemies pathing, he adapted one thing from previous seasons. His creative take on using his team’s windows of opportunity. He is not the player anymore that will only get his team in a favorable position during the early game, he is the one looking for opportunities during their power spike time frames. Still, one thing he changed was the variety of engaging tools he keeps using. While still playing aggressive champions like Kha Zix, Jarvan 4 or even Camille jungle, it is his use of Zac and Sejuani that were the most remarkable during this split. He evolved into a player that looks for opportunities to win the game just as improving as a person.

As he himself told in Roccat’s own podcast is that he is focusing on becoming a better person and with that a better leader. He also has been looking up to his dad for advice and focused on maintaining a positive and constant mindset towards wins and losses to guide the newer players towards the right direction. Even if Memento proved he has been improving and has played a major role in the improvement of his team, his biggest task is still in front of him. As we play out week 8 Roccat will face Fnatic and Vitality while tied for sixth place with Unicorns of Love and Giants Gaming, the seasonal standings are still very open and could lead to several tiebreakers in the last week of the season.

If he was willing to prove how good of a leader he becomes towards this split the next two weeks shall be his stage. And if after two years of investment into his pro playing career has paid off he shall succeed. May his love for the game and his will to make his parents proud keep motivating him through his biggest test to date.

(Photo Credit : lolesports Flickr)

Disclaimer: The following article was written freely based on the author's opinion, and it may not necessarily represent Inven Global's editorial stance. 

About the Author: 
Hello guys, Alexandre Weber also known under the ID: DrPuppet. I'm a Brazilian professional Coach and content creator since 2015, mostly focused on League of Legends. I worked with many teams throughout the years in major and minor regions, but my most known work was with Kaos Latin Gamers from Chile in 2015, where we played the International Wildcard Finals against Pain Gaming. Since then I have been studying Cinema in Hamburg and creating content on youtube and twitch, besides writing for respected sites in Esports. You can find me on the social networks under @drpuppetlp and on Twitch under DrPuppet.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DrPuppetlp
Youtube Eng/Ger : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNK5KJkn4_fuh89s_rqsoWA
Twitch : https://www.twitch.tv/drpuppet
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/drpuppetlp/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/drpuppetlp
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/DrPuppetlp