Last seen playing AD Carry for Team 8, Zach 'Nientonsoh" Malhas left the competitive scene after season 5, following Team 8's acquisition and rebranding to current LCS Team Immortals. Nien is currently a sub for Team EnVyUs. We caught up with Nien to see what he has been up to, and this thoughts on the current state of the game.

Nien with Lemonnation in Summer split Season 4, image courtesy of Nientonsoh's Twitter

Hello Nien! You left the competitive scene for season 6, what have you been focusing on since you left?

Nien: Since T8 I've just been hanging out with family and friends as well as practicing! I took a break for around 6 weeks about 3 months ago because of some real life stuff that I don't want to delve into, but yeah overall I've been relaxing and getting ready for the future.

What are your thoughts on the state of the game as it is now in pre-season?

Nien: I think Riot does an excellent job of constantly spicing the game up, I really like the plants and think they are a great addition to the game. Overall the reworks were kinda meh in terms of strength (besides Leblanc, Kha'Zix) but they are all really fun to play.

What do you think about the assassin reworks in particular?

Nien: Overall they are awesome updates, I was scared because I really liked the old LeBlanc, but they did a really good job with her. I have only really played LeBlanc and Kha'Zix a good amount of the reworked champs but they both seem like good reworks, the other champs all seem fun as well. Besides Katarina/LeBlanc/Kha'Zix though, they all feel kinda meh.

Recently you stated on stream that you are switching to Mid lane from ADC, Why is that?

Nien: ADC as a role is super stale, not only are there usually only 3-4 champs that are played over and over and over, but also the playstyle is really static and can be very monotonous. Every single game you try to farm as much as possible early game, and after that you just follow your team around and do nothing but that the rest of the game. You can't make any plays by yourself, at least nowhere near as much as the other roles can. I think I'm much more suited to a 1v1 lane as well rather than a 2v2 lane, I've never really had great synergy with any support that I've played with. Not to mention last LCS split there were 9 imported midlaners, whereas for ADC there were only 2 imports, meaning mid is much higher demand in NA.

So you are trying to help Pobelter not be the only NA mid laner right? (Make NA mids great again!)

Nien: Kinda sorta haha. Back in the day around season 2, I swapped to Mid lane for 3 months as well. I would've been really beast if I stuck with it, but I was thinking more short term and knew I could find a team easier as an ADC at that point in time, but I actually did quite well as a mid laner. My biggest flaw by far was trying to have too big of a champion pool/being an innovator. I played really random stuff like Gangplank mid (before the rework when he was really meh) and Caitlyn/Corki etc, but still had decent success on them. After one month of playing mid lane at MLG Austin I out cs'd Froggen by 80 at 20 minutes, and I also solo killed Ambition, both who were considered the best in their role in their respective regions at the time. We still got 0-2'd both times but I was really proud of that and had a lot of fun playing vs them.

After the changes of armor pen to lethality, are there any champions that you feel have fallen out of the meta and are no longer viable?

Nien: I think the champ that got hit the hardest would have to be Lucian. The armor pen build is still ok on Jhin but Lucian fell off hard because of the changes to Youmuus Ghostblade, he needed the Attack Speed a lot whereas Jhin doesn't really.

As a player who has played multiple roles professionally, how do you think this meta is shaping up to be? For example, will we see a tank top lane or a meta in which top lane is full of splitpushers/duelists? For jungle, will we see less tanks due to the removal of Strength of the Ages?

Nien: I think the meta will stay similar to how it was, but I expect the jungle pool to change a bit. For example, Graves and Nidalee are both weaker because of the removal of SOTA, but a lot of champs can benefit a lot from CoC. I expect a lot of tanky/utility junglers like Zac as well as early game burst junglers like Elise and Lee Sin to be super popular.

Speaking of the removal of Strength of the Ages, what do you think about the Current keystone masteries, specifically Courage of the Colossus?

Nien: I think they are all in a pretty good spot, all of the masteries are commonly used except for Bond of Stone. Compared to the other keystones you don't really 'feel' the effect of it and it doesn't feel as strong as any of the other option.

What are your thoughts on the new support items changes? What kind of support champs will we see more of? Will it be like the end of last season where damage oriented supports like Zyra, Brand and even Miss Fortune saw play?

Nien: I think there will be a lot more utility based supports like Karma, Janna, Nami etc now. A ton of items were added to increase healing and shield power, and most of them are really good so I think there will be a huge influx of champs with heals/shields in the support role. Though I think Zyra and Brand can definitely still work in the botlane.

There have been a lot of roster changes in the offseason. What are your thoughts about the NA LCS this year?

Nien: It looks really hype, every single season the NA LCS is getting stronger and stronger players. Once our coaching staffs can catch up to the Koreans I think that we will be able to match them, or at least be a lot more competitive with our Korean overlords. I think the coaching staffs/how much the players respect the coaching staff is honestly the biggest difference between KR and NA team.

Are there any teams that stand out to you?

Nien: It's hard to really single any roster out, all of the rosters seem really promising. Only time will tell who will stand at the top. People really overvalue individual skill in league. While it is important, teamwork is by far the most important thing. It's the reason why KR teams have been so dominant for so long.

Thank you for your time Nien, is there anything you would like to say to your fans?

Nien: No problem! I'd just like to say thank you to all my fans, from the past, the present, or for the future fans. I really do appreciate your guys support and it helps me out a lot, i'm sorry for not updating you guys about myself much recently but I've been dealing with some real life stuff and trying to better myself as a player/person at the moment. I stream everyday as well if you guys would like to check that out!

Check out Nientonsoh's Twitter.