Getting to Know DIG ADC Player Spawn During the Off-Season
Getting to know Spawn and his history with League of Legends, his impressions on the Season, and his plans for World and the Offseason!
With the Offseason in full effect and eyes turning towards Worlds, we took some time to visit with Dignitas’ starting ADC, Trevor “Spawn” Kerr-Taylor, and touched on his history with the game, from Amateur to the Pros, and what his thoughts and impressions are on everything from the Worlds meta to the ending of DIG’s split.
Before we get into any impressions of your time ending out the split, I want to get a glimpse of your personal background and history with the game! To fill everyone in, how long have you been playing League and what’s been your history with the game as far as climbing from Solo Queue to the Pro Scene?
Spawn: I’ve been playing League since about my Senior year of high-school back in Season 2. I didn’t watch too much pro play back then, but when I was playing Solo Queue, I kept climbing and ranking up which got me like, ‘I’m okay at this game.’ But I really fell in love with the competitive aspect of Solo Queue, and everything evolved from there.
I eventually got into a big Discord server called ‘House Party’ where people acted like it was an Amateur Scene of sorts. And eventually I’d get asked to be a part of teams there. And again, I fell in love with the competitive aspect of things on that level.
What motivated you to become a pro League player? Are there any particular moments in the pro scene history that make you say, “I want to do that!”?
Spawn: I can’t really point to anything in particular other than my love for Solo Queue. Like I said, the Solo Queue environment and the Amateur stuff really just made me fall in love with the competitive aspect of the game and I just wanted to keep trying to get better within that aspect.
Did you try your hand at any other competitive titles like DOTA or CSGO?
Spawn: I don’t have any experience with other games besides Counter-Strike, really. And that comes from me having just played it a lot during high school. I didn’t really think about going pro there though since I didn’t think that the pro scene was ‘real’... but I did participate in some amateur tournaments with friends.
Have you always been an ADC player? Or have you tried your hand at other roles? What made the ADC role click for you and why did you stick with it?
Spawn: When I used to play exclusively ranked, I would play every role and just play whatever I felt like. But I eventually kept winning on ADC and was like, ‘okay there’s something here,’ and since I like being a carry and having the game in your hand, I really gravitated towards it since once you get your items, you can just carry the game. It’s on you at some point, and I just like that aspect.
Transitioning to our more LCS focused questions, what was the experience like for you to be elevated up to the LCS roster? What were your emotions like then?
Spawn: It was kind of a shock in a way. There were some roster moves and I got moved up first. So, I was like, “Alright. I gotta play LCS now!” so I was a bit excited but also it was nerve-wracking at first. My first week, I didn’t play on stage, since I had played all my Academy games from the office. Then the next week it was just getting used to playing on stage, which I thought was really fun. But the first couple games were just getting used to it all, ya know?
What have you noticed about the difference between LCS and Academy ADCs and Supports? What have you had to improve about your game at the LCS level?
Spawn: I would say a lot of it is small things. You make one little mistake and it can be snowballed at the LCS level. In Academy, you sometimes won’t be punished for it. Or it wouldn’t be as extreme. So, you have to be on point and make the least amount of mistakes as you can. It’s very stressful at first because you get to that level, but now you have to perform. Which means you have to fix up all your weaknesses to be able to play.
I would say improvements for me have been the laning phase. When I moved up, most of the Bot Lanes had been playing together for a while. So right off the bat they have synergy. So, I had to quickly mesh well with Biofrost, Vincent, and really learn the early part of the lane and wave management at the LCS level.
What’s it like to be able to pick the brain of Biofrost, one of the LCS’ most successful Support players? What has he helped you learn since jumping up to the starting roster?
Spawn: Bio’s taught me a lot about the game as far as what steps you need to take. It’s not like, ‘Oh, you’re just going to roll over your opponent every lane.’ Because in Academy, I would just play aggressive on whatever timer, without so much playing towards the wave because I knew I could just punish them from just skill alone. But, Bio’s really taught me to slow down a bit and really be aggressive on certain timers.
Overall though, I think Vincent’s really nice. After a while he opened up a bit more and we’ve gotten to talk about the game a lot because of that and it’s really helped me improve and us mesh.
Thinking about the meta now, what’s been your take on how the pro meta looks right now from the ADC/Support roles? Got any hot takes on any under-the-radar Champions, duo lanes, or thoughts on some of the game’s biggest ADC picks? Or do you think the meta has been pretty stably figured out going into Worlds?
Spawn: With us shifting towards Worlds and Zeri and Sivir being nerfed after just being the best Champions you could play… which was very boring since you’d just start with Cull and farm for two items for teamfights. But, I think with Kai’sa coming back that means a lot of stuff like Tristana and Samira could, those more lane fighting Champs. Which, I think makes for a more exciting Worlds, personally.
Speaking of Worlds, since NA is hosting, what are your thoughts heading into the tournament? Who looks to be the strongest team to you going in and who are you personally rooting for/looking forward to watching?
Spawn: For me, I’ll be taking a break after the Season. But I am going to go watch Worlds in New York with my parents, which will be a lot of fun. But, as far as any strong teams... hmm… Well, I will say Gen.G. I like Ruler a lot so that’s who I’m rooting for.
Taking a look forward to the next split, eXyu said you guys could’ve clutched out hard had you all had the full split of time together. Do you share that sentiment and what are your expectations for the next time you get to play on the LCS stage?
Spawn: I agree. I think with three of us being moved up, and us having to quickly find a way to mesh with Blue and Biofrost, it presented a challenge. But I agree with the time thing since we almost made the playoffs. And things came down to the last game. With most of our opponents having played together for so long, especially Golden Guardians, we found those spots where we were a bit not on the same page during those series. It’s just those small things. And I think that if we had the same time those teams had, we could’ve found a way. With all that though, I really look forward to what we could do with more time.
Closing Out
A big thanks to Spawn for sitting down with me and chatting! If you’d like to follow Spawn, you can follow him at these social links:
