Name: Joe “Voyboy” Esfahani
Team: Dignitas
Position: Top Lane
Recent Accomplishments: 1
st player to reach 2k ELO Season 2, 3
rd Place IntelEM Kiev
Favorite Champions: Akali, Renekton, Ezreal
Introduction:
Voyboy is the youngest player among the Dignitas five. As a result he has the additional challenge of balancing his education with his burgeoning professional gaming career. He has been with the group since they formed under the “Rock Solid” moniker during season one. He recently graced us with an interview.
You can follow Voyboy on Twitter at: @dignitasVoyboy or on
Facebook.
Riot: So in your own words, how did you end up on team Dignitas?
Voyboy: I started playing League for fun after Mordekaiser came out so I am relatively new to the scene. However once season one started I quickly climbed quite high in the ladder and became friends with other players at that level.
During winter of last year, so about a year ago, Scarra/Naryt approached me about joining "Rock Solid" for the Newegg Wanfest tournament. I was really honored by their offer and accepted. We ended up doing really well, I think we got 3rd overall.
I received a nice 200 dollar hard drive for our accomplishment, which completely blew my mind at the time. Receiving free stuff to play video games!? It was like a dream come true, haha. We decided to stick together as a team because of how well we did for our first tournament and because we actually managed to beat CLG, which if you recall was kind of the unbeatable team at that time, which made us feel very confident in our abilities for the future. We ended up continuing to do very well, but unfortunately we barely missed out on qualifying for the Season One Championships in Sweden, losing two very close best of three's against CLG and EG. However, we once again learned from our mistakes, kept together through thick and thin and are about to attend our 4th event as a team, so I'm really ecstatic with the way things have turned out.
Riot: I have often times seen top lane characterized as the emotional anchor of the team. However you are on a team with players that are several years your senior. Do you feel like your teammates look out for you due to your age?
Voyboy: I think that they look out for me to a certain extent, but really we have developed a lot of respect for each other to where they trust me enough to make my own decisions. I know they want to take me to Chuck E Cheese if we win the Season Two Championships, so there's still amazing benefits to being the "kid" of the group. =D
Riot: With the recent loss of long term team mate Jatt and the acquisition of I Will Dominate, do you think the team is bonding together or will the shift in players adversely affect Digitas’ performance at IEM Kiev?
Voyboy: I think that we certainly would have liked to dedicate more time to scrims to work towards achieving a desirable level of team cohesion, but school got in the way of that. We're actually working pretty well together in our recent matches for just picking up a new player but obviously with practice it could be improved upon greatly. I'm happy with the way things are going and I think we'll do well at Kiev.
Riot: Have you been dabbling in any other positions lately with Jatt gone and I Will Dominate filling in the roster?
Voyboy: Nope, I used to go mid occasionally for certain champs that Scarra didn't play yet but now that he's picked up Gragas and Kass I've been 100% top lane for all our matches.
Riot: Do you have any goals for season 2?
Voyboy: Personally, I'm going to do all I can to improve as a top lane player and hold up my weight in the team. I know as the scene heats up it's going to require more practice and playtime than before to stay at the highest competitive level, so I'll try my best to do that while still balancing my education.
As a team, I just want us to do our very best. I want to go to events, have fun, and play our games out with confidence, sportsmanship, and teamwork. If we end up winning Season Two, I'll be incredibly proud of my team. However, it's a little early to be dreaming of things like that so up until then we're going to practice as hard as we can and see where the wind takes us.
Riot: What do you love about playing Top Lane?
Voyboy: To me, top lane feels like its own little microcosm of warfare. For the most part when I play top lane, I'm playing a champion that I love against a relatively even matchup, and it devolves into a duel between the other player. With good ward coverage, jungler presence is generally minimal in top compared to the other lanes, so playing out toplane sort of becomes a live action game of chess in my head versus my opponent. I'll think about many factors at once, such as how far do I push the lane? Should I freeze it here? Should I ward the lane brush or the triangle brush? Do I take the tower or leave it to deny the other champion? All of which, when answered to the best of my ability work towards helping me win the lane, which is ultimately the ideal goal of every League of Legends player. When I can successfully put all these factors together and turn a lane into MY lane, leaving the enemy top-laner behind in farm or kills is what makes me feel like I am doing everything I can to help my team win and just makes League of Legends a blast to play.
Riot: On the flip side of the coin, what is the worst feeling you personally experience top lane?
Voyboy: If I die in a lane, I'll be able to isolate my mistake, learn from it and better prepare myself mentally so that it does not happen, hence being humbled by other players is in my opinion a very rewarding experience. However, forgetting to call missing or mistiming an enemy teleport cool down, resulting in the death of my team mates has to be the worst feeling for me. Basically, I'll know that my teammates had to suffer directly in their play due to a mistake that I made, essentially throwing off the whole flow of their lanes and by extension the game.
Riot: You mentioned that your favorite 3 favorite champions were Akali, Renekton, and Ezreal. Why those three and how does Ezreal fit in to that line up (considering you fill the top lane role)?
Voyboy: That decision was really tough. I love quite a few champions dearly. I love champions with blinks and jumps, and champs that have really strong kill potential in lane. Akali and Renekton are my favorite two champions to play top lane just because of how fun it is to dash around the map and blow people up. They both also turn into one man armies at level six, which I find incredibly entertaining to capitalize on midgame.
Ezreal is a throwback to when I started playing the game seriously, pretty much exclusively played Ezreal and started the wriggle's trend when it still gave back godly amounts of health on procs. I dropped most AD carries when I joined Team Dignitas but he's still one of the most fluid and dynamic champions in the game and playing him is always a blast, even if it’s not at the competitive level.
Riot: Thank you for your time, particularly with your busy schedule!
Voyboy: Thank you for the interview.
