Execration's Coach Arthur On Joining The Team, Loda, and EWC

21 Jun

Otomo

In an exclusive interview with Execration's coach Leon "Arthur" Lee, Strafe Esports was able to hear all about his journey with the team. From unexpected beginnings, to painful lessons, and finally qualifying to the Esports World Cup.

Execration is one of the two teams, along with Talon Esports, that will represent South East Asia in the biggest esports event of the year.

Arthur: "I learned so much more about what being a leader from Loda"

Loda Team Alliance 2024 Wallachia

Arthur was the former coach for Alliance for three years. It was a fruitful adventure for him but eventually other opportunities came knocking, at a rather odd timing.

"It was on valentine's Day actually, so that made it a lot more memorable. I was watching a movie in the cinema and my phone is vibrating. And I'm like "who is going to be texting me right now?" It turns out to be Shanks. So he asked me if I am interested in coaching them and that's he's going to be rebuilding the roster. And suddenly I'm on a one or two week trial and the rest is history. "

Going from Europe to SEA is a big adjustment. While Arthur is originally from the region, playing and coaching are two different beasts entirely.

Luckily for Leon, he had a lot of guidance from one of the best in the business, Jonathan "Loda" Berg. When asked what his biggest takeaway from Alliance, Arthur told us it was how to transition from game-to-game in a series.

Alliance with their coach Arthur. (Credit: Alliance).

""Biggest Lesson I learned from Loda was when we finally got to LAN, it was PGL Wallachia Season 2 and also Relog LAN in Serbia. I learned so much more about what being a leader means. I think de-briefing is such an important thing. The conversation you have after a game. When we win, Loda would be boosting everyone up. And he wouldn't talk too much about the game details itself. And if we lose, he tells us "guys, let's just forget about this game". We will approach next game differently and now that we taste what enemy can bring, we can adjust next game."

Arthur has done a lot in the Dota 2 scene. He was a caster for several notable events, such as the DPC and ESL One Malaysia 2022. We were curious on how working as a coach compares to casting financially and for Leon, it's going pretty well.

"When I compare myself now to when I was casting, I feel like the money now is a little bit more solid. Because it's a secure thing, we know how it is about casting money, you can spend months waiting to be pai. Also in the competitive scene, the universal currency is Dollar, and you have to look at how competitive your region is. If you're looking for a reference point, it depends on tiers. If you're like tier-2 or tier-3, you could be somewhere around minimum mage, or normal working middle class."

Arthur: "It's a super surreal experience, like a dream come true to be honest."

A huge moment for the team, a milestone for the coach. (Credit: Execration).

Going back to Execration, Arthur talked about the day his team qualified. Despite being arguably the biggest moment in his career so far, Leon took his victory in stride.

"I personally felt pretty calm. But the entire day, right from the morning, building up to us getting through the lower bracket final into grand final against Boom, the closer we are to victory, the further we are from getting eliminated, the more surreal it becomes. I remember my feeling when we were playing loser bracket final, so the game before grand final, and then we are up 1-0 so I'm like "holy" we are actually not facing elimination and we are closer to grand final."

"That sort of feeling is something that I have never felt before. Obviously when we are doing this we have immense amount of self-belief. I believe that I have the potential to go all the way but do I really see how it's going to turn out because I don't have the experience before. So feeling it panning out when you are going through the entire progress I just feel like it's like a super surreal experience and it's also like a dream come true to be honest."

That's part one of our Interview with Arthur, please click here to check out Part two! And check out the video below for the full interview, with more details.