Aurora 23savage Talks About Playing With Stand-In Lorenof at DreamLeague Season 22

Team Tickles’ Artem "lorenof" Melnick was called in by Aurora as a last minute stand-in for its midlaner Armel "Armel" Tabios, who is unavailable due to personal obligations. Armel has managed to excel so far. Aurora is one of the top performing teams as the first round of the group stage comes to a close, and its carry Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon talked about playing with Lorenof. As 23savage stated, it helped that the stand-in arrived in the midlane, so the side lane dynamics remained the same, but Lorenof has proven to be a calm and composed player who understands how to lead the game as a midlaner and take the required measures to lead the team to victory

23savage discusses Lorenof’s performance at DreamLeague Season 22

After being asked about the dynamics of the team with Lorenof on the roster, during a post-match interview at the event, 23savage said that it was going well and that Lorenof's high skill was helping.

“I think it’s pretty good (the team dynamic with Lorenof). He has his own playstyle and he is really high skilled so it’s really easy for us to adapt to him. I think having a stand-in in the midlane is easiest because you know he just plays his own game and he’s 1v1 so it's up to him in the laning.”

As compared to Armel, 23savage said Lorenof is a relatively calmer player and he understands the way to carry the game from the midlane.

“I think he is more calm. He is more patient on his timing and he knows what he needs to do to win the game, to have a good game for himself. So, he has a direction of the game by himself, really clear.”

On the other hand, it was a surprising choice to pick Lorenof as a stand-in, considering he mainly played in Europe but 23savage said that there were not many players available at the time which led to this decision.

“So, we did not know anything about him but we asked a lot of people, no one was available so he is the only guy who was available.”

Despite the challenges Aurora faced, it has turned out to be a great decision since both the player and the team have shown good progress so far.

Following the strong start, 23savage also mentioned that the team is aiming to win the tournament. Aurora was unable to qualify for ESL One Birmingham, another major tournament on the way to Riyadh Masters 2024, therefore the win is consequential to keep the team in strong contention.

Aurora will face Shopify Rebellion in the first Bo3 series of group stage 2 of DreamLeague Season 22 on 1st March. Eight teams compete in group stage 2, with four advancing to the playoffs.