Former LCS Mid laner Zachary "Mandatorycloud" Hoschar made a big name for himself as the mid laner for Team Vulcan (later XDG). Many considered Mancloud be the best mid laner in NA season 3. Mancloud's accomplishments include a Worlds appearance in Season 3, and he holds the record for having most kills in a single split of the LCS with 167 (a feat he shares with Rekkles), which he achieved in NA LCS Summer Split 2013. We caught up with Mancloud to get his thoughts on the mid lane meta this season, as well as his thoughts on the professional scene heading into Season 7.

Photo Courtesy of Lolesports

Hello Mancloud! What have you been up to since leaving the competitive scene?

Mancloud: Hey! Mostly I've just been climbing the ladder, streaming occasionally and trying to get back onto a team. My most recent endeavor was to try to qualify for the NACS with team Sky, but we fell short in round 3 of the open qualifiers.

How do you think the mid lane meta will shape for this season? Will we see another control mage meta?

Mancloud: I think a couple of the changes Riot has made lately weaken the control mages role a bit (predominately the Rylai's change), but unless the top tier mids get nerfed, the mid lane meta isn't going to change too much anytime soon. Right now Syndra, Ryze and Leblanc are S tier and they honestly never even needed Rylai's to do their job effectively.

What are your thoughts on the assassin reworks? Do any of them stand out to you?

Mancloud: The main rework that stood out to me in particular was Zed's. I've always been a fan of the champ, but the rework just didn't make much sense to me. He was already considered weak in the competitive scene because of how difficult it is to snowball and teamfight with him, but everything about the change was a straight up nerf. He can no longer E twice with a shadow in lane, his ult gives less AD than old W passive except in extreme cases (like killing a late game Jhin), and unless you overkill with the pop of Death Mark, you don't even actually get the AD bonus at all. The whole change just seemed super gimmicky to me.

I think in general the assassin reworks were pretty cool, though. Some of the champs ended up a bit more underwhelming than others, but at least they're getting unique gameplay mechanics instead of just jump in, kill adc, rinse repeat.

Speaking of Zed, there were major changes this offseason for armor pen, How do you feel the change to Lethality affects the mid lane? Will we see less AD mid lane champions like him being used?

Mancloud: I don't think lethality really affected that much overall, especially in mid. Armor pen is just as strong if not stronger than before in the mid game. The only real AD champs you saw mid were Varus, Zed and Jayce. Varus and Zed aren't really affected except for maw now giving CDR (which I think actually helps Varus) and Jayce is arguably stronger top lane anyways.

We have seen a lot of roster changes this offseason for the NA LCS, which teams stand out to you?

Mancloud: Honestly, I'm not too excited about any of the NA LCS teams. The team I'm most looking forward to watching is KT. Pawn and Mata are some of my favorite players and now they're back in Korea to form a super team, should be hype.

You were well known for your dominance in Season 3, regarded by many as the best mid laner in NA at the time. How do you feel about the Mid laners currently in the LCS?

Mancloud: I think the LCS mid lane pool is pretty solid right now honestly. Looking forward to seeing how well the NA mids do in particular (Pobelter, Goldenglue).

Do you feel like you can still compete with the mid lane players in the LCS?

Mancloud: Definitely. Right now, I don't think I'd perform any better than middle of the pack, but I wouldn't keep playing this game if I didn't think I could play in the LCS and improve.

What are your thoughts on all of the imported players currently in the LCS? Do you feel this hurts the growth of NA players hoping to play competitively? Or is there a lack of talent in NA?

Mancloud: I do think that when it comes to talent pool, there's no question that NA is one of the weaker regions for various reasons. However, it seems to me that all the big LCS orgs see what NA mid laners we DO have as a risk to their investment, which I think is just wrong. A lot of NACS teams and even an LCS team this split are giving some of these players chances, however, so I hope they do well and make orgs realize that importing mid lane is an option, not a necessity.

What is your favorite moment of your career?

Mancloud: I'd say our match vs Fnatic at S3 worlds. We (Vulcun) showed up on the first day and just demolished Fnatic. It was such a great start to the tournament. Unfortunately we couldn't keep up our momentum, but it felt great nonetheless.

Do you still keep in touch with your old teammates on Vulcan/XDG?

Mancloud: Occasionally.

I am sure it must be nice to see your old friend Xmithie succeeding on CLG, winning a few LCS titles. But here is the real question, can he and Huhi ever match that godlike synergy that the two of you had?

Mancloud: The game has changed quite a bit since then honestly. Our playstyle was basically to always look for fights or plays on the mid or enemy jungle, but you just can't do that every game anymore. Teams have improved. The jungler needs to pressure the entire map or cracks will start to show that the enemy jungler can exploit. Synergy just between mid and jungle is outdated now; to win, you need synergy from the entire team.

We all remember you first blooding Dade at worlds season 3. Since that season the Koreans have really dominated the scene, taking home every World Championship. Do you think the gap really is closing, or are we still far behind the Korean scene?

Mancloud: A part of me wants to say "Yeah, we're not that far behind the Koreans; a couple more years at this rate and we'll be in the finals of Worlds for sure," but I think it's just too optimistic. Even if western teams are improving, Korean teams can also improve at the same rate, not to mention the prevalence of importing. There's an inherent weakness in importing that Korean teams just don't ever have to deal with and I think it really holds a lot of teams back. Imports often have imperfect communication, have to deal with cultural issues and maybe even homesickness, all of which affect team environment, performance, morale etc. I think as long as we need to import players to keep up with international teams, NA will never win a world championship.

We appreciate you taking the time to catch up with us Mancloud, is there anything you would like to say to your fans?

Mancloud: Special thanks to the people that follow what I'm doing and still support me to this day! It means a lot.

Check out Mandatorycloud's Twitter