Recently, I got the opportunity to sit down with Charles “Chookies” Thornburgh, the support for Revival’s League of Legends team, to talk about his history, the pressure of competing, and his expectations for the last Proving Grounds Tournament.
Ashley: When did you start playing League of Legends?
Chookies: “It was in season 1. I was 10 years old, I’m at my cousin’s house and he’s just playing this game. He’s like ‘Dude you have to check out this game, its called League of Legends”. So I say okay and I check it out. I’m playing this armadillo champion for the first time and I’m thinking ‘this game is ****, this champion is ****, I don’t wanna play this game anymore’. So I didn’t play League for about a year or two ’cause I thought it was bad but then I started to get into it slowly but surely and the rest is history.”
A: When did you start to get into the competitive scene?
C: “I was a junior in High School and I was kind of bored. I was invited to PAX West in Seattle and I played Overwatch on stage. I didn’t really like Overwatch but my friends wanted to play…and I played Overwatch on stage and was like ‘Wow this was actually super fun, I wonder if I could play like this but at a game I’m not too bad at’.
So on the same day I went to reddit, and there was like a league teams subreddit, the first thing I find says ‘Azio Esports looking for a support player, diamond 1+’. And at the time I had just hit diamond 1 and I apply; Chrono tries me out for like 3 weeks ’cause I’m just a random. No one knew who I was but Hasu took me under his wing and taught me how to play the game. “
A: Since joining Grand View University and now Revival, how have you developed as a player?
C: “I think my role from Grand View to Revival hasn’t changed that much. For the first 2 semesters of Grand View, I had a big shot calling role and leadership role. The current semester I have eased up a bit on the shot calling role, it’s now more of a collective team, whereas Revival was actually looking for shot calling and leadership after they lost their previous bot lane. On Revival I take a co-shot caller role. Suddzi, when he talks, we all kind of just go, but sometimes he doesn’t talk as much and that’s where I come in and fill in the blanks.
A: Your entry into Revival was a bit awkward to say the least given the surrounding drama, was there added pressure coming in because of that?
C: “I’ve been on high-stake teams and played in high-stake games before, so the pressure definitely came fast and we had to perform fast. And we didn’t perform as well as we maybe could have…we definitely needed more time to gel with the team and it definitely showed a lot in the Giant Slayer Tournament. We had just not had enough games; we had one or two scrims going into the actual thing and we performed quite well in the scrims but it wasn’t enough practice to take down EG Prodigies. And then against Wildcard we just underperformed. I think in scrims we had played a lot better as a team, so I think if we play either of those teams again the stories a bit different.”
A: How is Revival different from other Organizations you’ve been a part of, if at all?
C: ” I’ve had similar teams as far as the amount of staff, but never have I had teams with just the amount of useful staff. A lot of times you might have a head coach, a manager, and an analyst and they help some right, but the analyst for this team is quite good, I always have a lot to work on for any of my games. Also the head and secondary coach majorly contribute. I think what is really nice about this team is even the players and the staff always call each other out; which sometimes leads to arguments and leads to some heat, but also leads to the most possible improvement.”
A: I spoke with Sybr at the beginning of Proving Grounds and he said he thought Revival would be a top 3 team, do you feel as though you have had enough time now to gel and get to that level?
C: “I think we can definitely be a top three team in the Last Chance Qualifier(LCQ) for sure. I think if we get through the LCQ we’ll actually be quite good in proving grounds, I think our team has just needed more time. Every scrim, every comp game, we get a little bit better than the one beforehand. I think our team has a lot of talent, I think Sybr is quite good, Suddzi has been good for quite a long time as well as Concept. When we get team synergy down and make sure we are going for the plays we want, we are quite a force to be reckoned with and maybe top 3 is accurate.
A: How do you feel you stack up against other supports in Proving Grounds?
C: “I think I can definitely stack up against lots of the supports. I think there are some that are quite good and it’ll be a lot of fun to play against them and see how I do stack up against them. But I think I can give a lot of supports more than they are expecting.”
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