MoreLegends Interviews: Denis “Ultimatum” Merkulov
Greetings, friends! Battle dust didn’t even have time to settle down after the first week of LCL. Our slogan isn’t just empty words and thus, it’s quite obvious that we interview the best. Right after the victorious week, MoreLegends “agents” rushed to the bootcamp of Elements Pro Gaming team and had a talk with the Head Coach, Denis “Ultimatum” Merkulov.
MoreLegends: Hi, Dan!
Dan: Hi everybody!
MoreLegends: Congratulations to you and your team on a successful start in the Continental League! 3–0 in the first week, with important victories over Gambit and M19. What do you feel about that?
Dan: Emotions, of course, are only positive. It only will get better from now!
MoreLegends: Glad to hear that. We’d like to ask some questions about the team itself. How was the current roster formed?
Dan: Well, much has been done. Archie and I were delicately selecting players with numerous tryouts. It took us more than 3 weeks, and as a result, a cohesive and well-coordinated team came out, in which players got a breath of fresh air they all needed.
MoreLegends: How much time did you have to prepare for the LCL Open Cup?
Dan: We started training on the 13th of December, preparing base strategies in a relaxed environment. January appeared to be more tensed as we were focused on determining our playstyle and improvement of communication. Since February 1, we are working to our full potential and are all gathered at our bootcamp.
MoreLegends: With whom did you already scrim, if not a secret?
Dan: We mainly scrim with the strongest Turkish and Wildcard teams.
MoreLegends: What did you lack on the Open Cup and what has changed since the start of the LCL? How did you manage to achieve such an impressive result in such short terms?
Dan: Frankly, I was “rofling” with drafts. We just tested things we have barely played before. Smoke and mirrors prior to the big games, I’d say.
MoreLegends: Were you training Sylas?
Dan: Sylas is an individual performance champion. We’ve played him while scrimming to figure out his weaknesses and strengths but didn’t spam it.
MoreLegends: Well, your Sylas came in handy. We’ve seen him failing in Europe and Korea while built ap. However, you chose a tank build. Was it something exclusive for the particular setup or tank Sylas is better in general nowadays?
Dan: In my understanding, tank Sylas is better but it highly depends on the enemy’s draft since its potential is not fully disclosed yet
MoreLegends: And the final question. Guess you already know about the upcoming Conqueror changes in patch 9.4 How will it affect professional meta?
Dan: Of course I do. I think it might fit well certain mages. (akali\fizz comeback?)
MoreLegends: Thanks for the interview, Dan! Best of luck on the next week, hope you can secure success.
Dan: Thanks, everyone. Come and cheer for us on the broadcast of LCL at 14 CET this Saturday. See you and bye!
In case you’d like to know more and have no troubles understanding Russian, you can check out Denis’s page in social media and the page of EPG
