Counter Logic Gaming’s Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes has been through it all. He first joined the League of Legends organization as a substitute back in June of 2015. Nearly a year later, the bot laner won the 2016 North American Spring title in his first ever LCS split.
Still a part of CLG in 2020, Stixxay and his teammates finished dead last in the Spring Split, four games behind ninth-place Team Liquid. However, the team has gotten off to a 3-1 start in summer, already matching their win total from spring.
“I’ve been on the top, I’ve been on the bottom, I’ve been in the middle. The main thing I’ve learned in my journey, I guess, is just to not doubt myself and not to lose confidence in myself.”
Stixxay spoke to TheGamer about his past with Counter Logic Gaming, and how the team is dealing with their current struggles in 2020.
Entering his tenth split with CLG, Stixxay has had the opportunity to play with a wide variety of teammates. From being the young rookie playing next to the veteran Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black, Stixxay has since transformed into the old-timer himself. Now at the age of 23, he’s able to share his wisdom with the team’s newcomers.
Stixxay talked about some of what he learned from his past bot lane partners. Speaking of aphromoo, who was his first-ever support in the LCS, Stixxay praised him for being a “personable” leader. “If I was in distress or I felt like I didn’t know what was going on with the team, he was always the guy that I’d message late at night and be like, ‘Yo, can you help me work through this because I just don’t know what’s going on.'
“He would always be like, ‘What you’re feeling is completely normal,’ and stuff like that. He would just make me feel like a sane person when I was playing with the team.”
Stixxay also spoke of his former teammate and current Team SoloMid support, Vincent “Biofrost” Wang, saying, “I think it took a while for me and Bio to be good, or close as a bot lane… He kinda has the brain of an AD carry player, I feel like and not so much as a support. So, he’s really good at mechanical things or small things that other supports don’t do.”
Ahead of the 2020 Spring Split, Counter Logic Gaming acquired former world champion Lee “Crown” Min-ho. After a 1-7 start, Crown was benched for veteran Eugene “Pobelter” Park. “When [Pobelter] first joined, the team was kinda off the rails in a way,” Stixxay said while laughing. “We forgot about a lot of the fundamentals and basics of the game cause we’d just been losing so much.”
Stixxay described the veteran’s impact on the team, “When he came in, he would just point out very basic things like, ‘Guys we knew their jungler is right here, why are you dying?’ Stuff like that. Where nowadays, that’s obviously very straightforward.”
After the offseason, the CLG bot laner feels as though his team has gone through a fundamental reset. Now, with the team off to a 3-1 start, Stixxay feels confident in his teammates to perform better than they did last split.
Although it may feel as though CLG has been at the bottom for ages, it was only two splits ago when the team made a playoff push and finished third in the 2019 Summer Split.
Stixxay is aware of the negative sentiment surrounding his team, even if he’s not in agreement with it. “I just don’t think it’s true,” Stixxay said of the public’s view. “I don’t think we’re a 10th place team, so last split was really disappointing for us. It just put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth… I think we had a really bad split and we worked a lot in the offseason to fix a lot of those things.”
Talking about some of what the Counter Logic Gaming management provides for the players, “It’s really helpful… we have two, maybe more, people that come in and help us with physical training,” explained Stixxay.
He also mentioned the difficulties of it all due to the quarantine. “We typically have an online session, usually thirty minutes a day, where we’re getting up and stretching and all that before scrims. That’s been really helpful and I think it helps put a fresh spin on the day. We kind of treat everything like it’s new.
“I think something as simple as stretching and doing something that’s not waking up, sitting in your chair, and going straight into scrims is really helpful. It just helps your mindset a lot,” added Stixxay.
“The expectations we have internally among the players and coaches is obviously we don’t want to get 10th again,” said CLG’s bot laner, talking about his team’s goals.
“I think our goal, luckily due to the bracket changes that Riot made last split, will be to make Worlds this Summer Split. I think we’re capable of it, I think we have a lot of experienced players that know what it takes to compete at a high level.”
Riot recently made changes to the Summer Split format. Instead of six teams making it to playoffs, eight out of the ten total teams will vie for the summer title.
“I think it’s just a matter of making sure our practice is efficient and everything kind of gels together as a team to make that happen.”
If anyone in North America has the experience to help their team gel together, Stixxay is definitely one of them. “I’ve been on the top, I’ve been on the bottom, I’ve been in the middle. The main thing I’ve learned in my journey, I guess, is just to not doubt myself and not to lose confidence in myself,” Stixxay said when asked what he’s learned from his experience.
“I think when you lose a lot, you second guess things and wonder if you’re doing the right things… That can make you play worse, or it can make you make really questionable decisions.”
The AD carry also explained how he’s learned to follow his instincts while playing, and how those instinctual decisions are usually the correct ones. “I think if you’re really confident in yourself, you tend to make more of the correct decisions or do what naturally feels right, or follow your instincts.”
Despite the rocky start to 2020, the Counter Logic Gaming roster believes in themselves to turn it around this summer. And even if fans of the LCS may be doubting their ability to, Stixxay is certainly not.
