Thread by @Thorin

It's wild to me that Doublelift still ascribes to "ahead" and "behind" thinking about LoL.

If LoL has shown us anything it's that every patch is a slightly different game and macro concepts can be learned by totally fresh line-ups within weeks and months.

Preparation and practice is about removing the impediments which hold you back and aligning the strengths of the meta with your personal strengths.

How is CoreJJ so good still if NA is behind? Is he using left over magic from 2017? Of course not.

How has Jensen performed internationally despite playing his entire competitive career in LCS?

NA loses the mental battle before the match is even over. There's the most glaringly obvious issue. Blaber isn't either the monster you see in LCS or the shitter who flashes for a scuttle. That's the spectrum of how he performs based on his mental framing.

Zven has a resume better than most non-Asians to ever play LoL yet is infamous for getting caught out or having a mini-meltdown in some big games.

His hands didn't suddenly get half as fast and precise. His brain couldn't harness them the same way.

My pal NaNiwa said when he felt extreme pressure he used to feel like electricity was pulsing through his arms and his hands couldn't go as fast as they otherwise could.

All we worked on was mental framing when behind, as an underdog and facing pressure.

By accepting there would be moments of intense pressure and preparing to not be overwhelmed by them, as opposed to simply wishing they would never happen and hoping to front run as hard as possible, he became a player who performed regardless of circumstances.

A great warrior accepts death before he enters the field of battle and thus is never inhibited by fear of it from giving his all. This is the path to victory and quite frankly even some very good Korean players have not shown they understand this premise.

The game changer for LCS would have been Youngbuck coaching one of their best rosters. Shame TSM were too stupid to listen to me post-S9.

Go look at the rosters he is getting to the brink of play-offs every split in LEC and then look at the rosters of the last placed teams in some of those splits (Vitality, Origen) and you'll see talent isn't the defining factor.