After having been away from the LCS for almost a year, you’ve finally returned. What does 2015 Nukeduck feel looking back at his 2014?

2014 was a really nice year for me even though a lot of people will be thinking the ban and everything is there. The NiP lineup was really fun to be with, and living in Sweden was amazing. Also I got to learn a lot about myself and the ban actually thought me about self control and such.

Your 2014 was marred by the fact that you and your former support Mithy were banned from playing competitively for the majority of the year. How did you go about the process of finding your way back to the LCS?

I got a lot of time to think about my mindset and behavior. I had to make the hard decision to continue playing or not, but after careful consideration I decided that playing is what I want to do so I focussed on soloQ until I see what option I have for the future - if I will get LCS team offers or I would have to start from the very beginning in Challenger.

During this time in solo-queue, you maintained a high level on the EU-W server throughout, did you ever take time off the game to reflect on whether or not it would’ve been worth it for you to continue playing after these six months?

I had the thought of retiring, but it was only for a really short time. Quite quickly after I returned home I decided that I wanted to continue playing, and just started tryharding and working on my behavior and mindset.

When you remained banned, did you receive many offers from teams despite you being a "risk", due to not knowing whether or not you actually would be unbanned at the beginning of the year?

ROCCAT was the first team to approach me with interest, but after that i got 3 more EU LCS interested parties, but I decided to go with ROCCAT. I made my decision based on the lineup firstly, and also ROCCAT is a company not a gaming organization which gives you some certain benefits.

Looking at the position you’ve taken on the team, what’s the feeling of having Overpow play in the top lane, and what are you able to offer in mid that he wasn’t able to? Also, what's it like playing with Jankos?

I think he is adapting way faster than anyone expected for a player tha changes position and I think he will become quite a good top laner. I think i give more pressure in mid lane. With Jankos, it is not actually the aggression but the pure mechanics of both of us. I think we are just good players that can work together.

What’s your take on the current assassin-favored meta. This was the style you were known for during your previous competitive peak in Lemondogs, so do you feel confident in being able to make a big impact on your return to the LCS?

I am really comfortable with the current meta, but I also learnt a lot of new mage champions during my “time off".

With most of the previous top EU teams looking very different from when you played, who are the teams you are seeing as the biggest threats currently and who are you looking forward to playing the most?

The strongest team in my opinion right now, in no particular order, are - Gambit, MYM, SK, Elements and fnatic. The teams I am looking forward to facing are fnatic and MYM because I want to face Febiven and SELFIE.

Any final words or shoutouts?

I want to thank the ROCCAT team for picking me up and all the people that kept supporting me!