Challenger Spotlight: Deftly

This is the fourth installment of Challenger Spotlight, a series dedicated to telling the stories of the rising talents of Challenger making their first steps into competitive. Today we have Matthew “Deftly” Chen, an 18 year old AD Carry hailing from Plano, Texas. He was a big contributor on his last team, Avalanche, and is trying to make the leap to the NACS level.

Talk about your history with League. Why and when did you start playing, what got you hooked on the game, and how did you hit high elo? Was it a struggle or did it come kind of naturally to you?

I started playing league of legends during season 2, initially my friends dragged me into the game since it was the “new thing” at the time. As i started to play with my friends i started to realize that there was a huge skill gap between my friends and I. I had previous experience with RTS games since i watched my brothers play DOTA all throughout my childhood. That skill gap led me to generally stop playing with them so i could experience the thrill of the game. Solo queue eventually became really easy when i focused and actually took the game seriously, however it was also a struggle to develop good habits and not go for silly plays.

Your most recent team was, of course, Avalanche, and you narrowly fell to Maryville in the quarterfinals 2-1. As a team, did you feel like you could have gone a lot farther? What was the were the main factors in your loss? How much of a role did Damonte’s sudden departure play?

Honestly, i went into the game expecting a 2-0 victory, i felt that our team was a lot better than Maryville’s player to player. The scheduling of the game was really hard on me, i had to fit in the set within an hour and a half in order to make it to prom on time. The main factors for the loss were purely on me, i wasn’t able to play up to my own standards due to being rushed. To be honest, if the games weren’t scheduled so poorly, i’m almost positive that we would have made it much farther. Damonte’s sudden departure was a really big surprise to the entire team (Allorim ;)), but i felt that we as a team adapted to Easy (the new midlaner) fairly well.

In game 2 of the Maryville series, you completely went off on Ezreal. Describe how you felt as you were taking over that game. What was going through your head?

In game 2, it really hit me that hey, we can actually lose this set. I thought to myself to just have a clean game and play smart instead of overly aggressive, because having 2 clean 20 minute games would save me a lot more time than having 2 more 40 minute blood baths that could go either way. Focusing on winning the lane while not getting ganked/TP’ed on was my main priority, and that’s where i made the change from the first game. In the first game, i played to dominate lane and even though i gained a huge cs lead, i was punished through the enemy top laner’s constant use of TP. After getting through the lane phase the way i did i knew the game was over, and played how i usually play.

I’d heard that the Maryville match was rescheduled to be earlier so that you could make your prom. So how was the prom? I hope you were still able to have a good time after the result.

Prom was great! It would have been even better if we won the match though! But what happens happens.

Patch 6.9 is about to come out, and there were practically no direct changes to marksmen or their itemization, besides perhaps Quicksilver Sash. Nonetheless, how do you feel the patch will impact ADCs in competitive play?

In my opinion, i really don’t like the changes from patch 6.9. The change of QSS takes away less outplay options from the game, such as using QSS and flashing while getting knocked back. I also feel like the buffs to mages is huge, since it makes the game more mid centric leading to a more supportive style of ADC play.

Why should a team pick you up? What about your play or your personality do you think make you a good player and/or teammate?

Im able to play around the team, and can hard carry games if given the resources. As for my personality, i’m very friendly and create a strong positive team atmosphere through cracking jokes, however when the time comes i’m also able to step up to be a leader as well.

How would you describe your playstyle, and what aspects of your play do you think you need to work on?

Lane-centric, i generally like to create leads out of lane and convert them to mid/late game advantages. I think i need to work on communicating with the team, since i find it hard to talk and play in crucial situations.

Name one player in NA you’d really like to play with (could be LCS, CS, or outside) and why.

Deft, as you can tell from my name, i’m a really big fan of his :). I’d really like to watch him play since there’s always so much to learn from him. The way he plays has always intrigued me and i feel that he is definitely one of the best ad carries in the world.

How about an NA player though?

An NA player that i’ve always wanted to play with or learn from would be either Doublelift or Altec, both play the AD carry role very proficiently, so i’d love to take some notes.

What motivates you to play competitive?

Ever since i was little, i loved competitive sports, however i generally wasn’t very good at them, nor was i very good at academics. League for me is an area where i truly excel at and i wish to pursue it to my fullest.

Any final words or shoutouts?

Shoutout to my boy Brandon “Easy” Doyle, he came in last minute to play mid for us and did a really impressive job. I wish him the best of luck wherever he goes after this.

Thanks for your time, Deftly, and best of luck in the future. You can see more of Deftly on Twitter @deftlylol.