Former League of Legends professional player Marc “Caedrel” Lamont is taking on the independent lifestyle for the year 2021. Hinting at a future in the content route after announcing his retirement, Lamont has most recently opened an online course to teach you what he’s the best at: playing LoL.

The personal course is done through the independent content sharing platform Patreon, where any player can apply to become the Jungler’s tutee, and hopefully, climb up the solo queue ladder. In a conversation with Inven Global, Caedrel shared more about the experience, and what aspiring players can get out of his time.

Tell me about this project. How did it go from thought to paper, and from paper to Patreon?

I have seen people in the scene do one-on-one coaching or helping people climb in solo queue. As a player, I have had so much success climbing in the past two years, and in a team environment, I always participated a lot in reviews, getting as much information that I could out of the game. It’s in my blood to find solutions, and maybe I’ll look into coaching in the future.

This is the best I can offer right now. I see people charging over a hundred Euros an hour for a coaching session, and that blows my mind. I thought I would do something more affordable, a VOD review for 20 Euros. This sort of area of esports is a little bit overpriced for the amount of value you get out of it. 

So I thought this would be a good way of using my free time now that I am not a professional player, and have these one-on-one with people, in a very personal way, getting to know them more and continue to communicate with them. This is a good way to see their progress instead of just giving them instructions and be “GLHF, bye!”.

If you’re looking for a longer-term tracking of their progress, do you think there is a minimum time that players should commit to a project like this?

It all comes down to the results you see. If you’ve done one or two coaching sessions and you realize you found out a lot about yourself, and now you’re unleashed climbing a lot, then you probably don’t need it too long. But if you’re really struggling and you’re not able to adapt to things you have been told to improve on, you’d probably need more coaching. It depends on how well you can take criticism and apply it.

Are you coaching basically anyone? So my hard stuck Bronze self could potentially buy your time… [laughs] 

[laughs] I could definitely help you out. Obviously, the things I would say to you are different to what I’d say to a Silver, or Platinum player. Each elo needs to have different aspects focused on in order for you to climb.

Maybe I’ll be one of your supporters. 

Oh, lovely. [laughs]

What have been the biggest takeaways?

It’s a pretty straightforward, simple, project. When I look at other coaching sessions online, I see a lot of gray areas. Perhaps it is your role that isn’t being taught properly, or they don’t have enough experience or the prices are sky-rocketed. I took all of these, shaved off all the gray areas, and made it simple.

Back in the old days, players had to figure out so much on their own, and now there is so much more information accessible to them. That [laughs] “egirl.gg” platform that became a huge meme even changed to become more coaching focused now… I’m curious as to what this will do to the player base, is the ceiling going to get higher and higher?

It’s an industry that will grow a lot, especially with the number of resources available to improve. When I started as a pro player, we just had guides on Mobafire, with no other information, or people telling me what to do.

It might sound a little bit controversial, but I am of the opinion that if you are not a former pro player, or at least been in the top 50 in the solo queue ladder, you really have no idea how solo queue even works, or you’ve never climbed all the way up from Bronze. There are very few people that have done that, and as time goes on, more people who retired and have been pro players will actually reach these heights, getting into this kind of industry. These are the people you should look out for to help you. Team coaches and lower-tier players might help a little bit, but the former pros have lived the climb.