Origen's Mitchell 'Destiny' Shaw wants fans to recognise the strength of LEC supports and is excited to prove himself as a top-three support player after OG locked in the playoffs this weekend.
Europe has traditionally been lacking when it comes to support talent in competitive League of Legends but Destiny believes there are a lot of gifted players in the support role this year.
He said: "I feel like the support role is stronger than what people think. A lot of people think European supports are bad but even outside of the top three teams, you have some strong players. We have the likes of denyk and Kaiser, both of whom I think are really good.
"I actually think European support talent isn't as bad as what people think. The average strength of the role is pretty high - I like to think I'm a top-three support but obviously, you can only judge that when it comes to the best of fives."
Destiny qualified for his first LEC playoffs in his inaugural season after Origen beat Team Vitality. The Australian player, however, says he's not surprised at all that his team managed to lock in the playoffs in week eight.
He said: "It feels good to secure playoffs in my first split, it's a good start. I won't lie though when I first joined Origen I expected us to make it this far. If you look at my team-mates, they're arguably some of the best in their roles so I'm not surprised at all."
One of Destiny's team-mates, Barney 'Alphari' Morris, who had a rocky season last year, was awarded this split's mid-split MVP. Destiny believes that the new roster and chance of the environment have contributed to Alphari's success this year.
He said: "Last year was kind of a disaster for Origen so I feel like coming into this year, we had a better vibe. We're a funny bunch of guys, we're all from different countries so we all bring something different. We like to joke around but we also just let each other get on with it.
"I feel like it's good for Alphari to be in that kind of environment because we all support him and give him the resources to do what he needs to do. He's probably glad he doesn't have to do anything extra and just concentrate on playing."
All of the LEC teams have put in strict measures to ensure their players' safety amid the Coronavirus pandemic. With the Finals in less than a month, most of the players in the competition, who are from Europe, will have a chance to be reunited with their families. However, out of all the players in the tournament, Destiny, who's from Australia, is the furthest from home and the 22-year-old is understandably worried about his situation.
He said: "It hasn't been easy, I was definitely a bit worried in terms of not being able to go back to Australia. To be honest, I probably won't go home at the end of the split and just stay in Europe and play solo queue here to make the best out of a bad situation.
"I'm planning to go back at the end of the year but all of this is out of my control at the moment which kind of sucks. I'm lucky that we're playing in the LEC because if we weren't or didn't have playoffs then I'd be insanely bored.
"Origen have done a really good job to make sure we're all mentally in a good space and that we're going through this as a team as opposed to feeling like we're dealing with it alone. We've all been hanging out a lot and playing Super Smash Bros so we've been able to keep our energy levels high which is good!"
