LoL: Who is sOAZ?

As of 19th November this year Paul “sOAZ” Boyer became a free agent.  Many new fans coming into the LEC may not know just how much of a legendary player that sOAZ is, one of the most experienced and most successful Western players. His position of Top-Lane is not one that often has the most followers, most are drawn the “star” positions of ADC and Mid Lane. Much like in the NFL, many fans are watching the Quarterback, but not many are watching the Guard, the guy protecting the Quarterback’s back and facilitating their success. That analogy falls down somewhat when you consider that sOAZ has actually been a top-tier carry for his team on many occasions, once regarded as the best Elise player in the world. He is known for his huge talent pool, aggressive play style and adaptability, allowing his longevity. Paul was the first player to reach 200 EU LCS wins and the first top-laner to reach 1000 assists in the west.

It was YellOwStaR who introduced sOAZ to the game that would cement his name in history. Before that he was a CS 1.6 and DotA player. In Season 1 he was picked by Against All Authority (aAa), one of the oldest esports organisations in France. In 2011 they took part in Riot’s inaugural Season 1 World Championship where they placed second, having defeated TSM and falling to Fnatic. In 2012 sOAZ would go on to place 4th at IEM World Championships Season VI with aAa before they would disband in May of that year. Fortunately the strong top-laner and shown enough skill to be picked up by his Season 1 rivals; Fnatic.

Fnatic would not do well at their first tournament with this new-look roster placing 6th at 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Spring only being able to win two individual games in their three defeats. They secured a stronger 4th place finish, the following week, at Dreamhack Summer 2012. Unfortunately Fnatic would not qualify for the Season 2 World Championship. They needed to finish in the top three in the European Regional Finals but fell to Moscow 5 and Froggen’s CLG EU. They did however manage to take a convincing win over Moscow 5, with sOAZ having a huge game on Rumble. Fnatic would end 2012 in a stronger position winning Dreamhack Winter 2012 and placing second at IGN Proleague Season 5 featuring two huge wins over World Champions Taipei Assassins.

LCS Era

By being an overwhelming presence top lane, sOAZ helped Fnatic to a dominating 22-6 record in the first EU LCS Spring Split, and dominating Evil Geniuses and Gambit Gaming in the playoffs to finish 1st place. SOAZ and his team come second in the Summer league and defeat Lemondogs to finish 1st again, automatically qualifying for the Season 3 World Championship. At that tournament Fnatic would finish first in group B 7-1 over Gambit, Samsung Ozone, Team Vulcan and Mineski. In the game versus Ozone, sOAZ again showed his world class by securing a quadra-kill at the end of the game finishing 6/1/10 and 50 cs above his counterpart. The quarter final was versus NA LCS powerhouse Cloud 9, which Fnatic would go on to win 2-1. In that series sOAZ was a monster with a combined score of 14/3/40. Fnatic fell to Royal Club in the semi-final, ending the World Championship in 4th place.

Between the EU LCS and Worlds sOAZ competed for the Europe LCS All Star team. He beat Wickd with AP Nunu and also won a public vote to compete at All Star Shanghai 2013. Even though the European Team would lose to Korea and to North America, sOAZ won the top-lane 1v1 competition.

The first half of 2014 was great for sOAZ and Fnatic. They came second in IEM Season VII losing to the KT Bullets, came first in LCS spring and came second in the All-Star Paris event losing to SKT. The latter half of 2014 however was shaky. Fnatic came second in the LCS and would not progress beyond groups in the World Championship.

Origen

In mid-January 2015. sOAZ would follow Rekkles, xPeke and Cyanide in leaving Fnatic and joining xPeke’s new team Origen. Then would come one of the best zero to hero stories in European League of legends in my opinion. Origen qualified to the EUCS by winning the challenger ladder. They would dominate that league dropping only a single game, and qualify for the plauoffs. They defeated Copenhagen Wolves Academy to qualify for the EU LCS. With undefeated performances on Rumble and Lulu, Origen would fight all the way ip the LCS to the final of the summer split versus their old team Fnatic. This best of five was fantastic with Origen pushing the stalwart Fnatic the whole way, but ultimately coming up short. Origen went on to the World’s qualifier tournament and smashed UOL 3-0 to qualify for the 2015 World Championship. The organisation that in January was competing in the challenger ladder was now representing Europe on the grandest stage the sport has. At World’s Origen became the first western team to win a best-of-5 at World’s by defeating Flash Wolves. It was in this series that sOAZ unleashed a Darius Pentakill. Origen would be knocked out of the tournament in the semi-finals by SKT. Let’s just go over that again, this team went from the challenger ladder, won that, to the EUCS, won that, to the EU LCS, very nearly won that, to the qualification tournament, won that and ended up a 2015 World Championship semi-finalist. Amazing.

In the 2016 season Origen competed at IEM San Jose, winning the tournament without losing a single game to either TSM or CLG. The EU LCS Summer split was a disaster for the organisation and sOAZ left Origen to rejoin Fnatic. In his own words sOAZ described his desire to find an organisation that fit him, hinting at the infrastructure behind the team.

In 2017 sOAZ, back on Fnatic would struggle in the spring and summer split. They would qualify for both playoffs but finish in third place. At the World Championships they would make it to quarter-finals before losing to RNG.

This all takes us to 2018, where Fnatic would write their most impressive chapter in their League of Legends story. They won both spring and summer splits in the EU LCS. They would finish third in the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational and win 2018 Rift Rivals. They would then go on to reach the final of the 2018 World Championships, where they would fall to Invictus Gaming. For sOAZ individually however 2018 was a frustrating year. The veteran player, so used to competing and winning was resigned to the bench. At MSI sOAZ would say in an interview that he is happy his was winning but for him it was worthless. At Worlds sOAZ only played four games, with game three of what would be their 0-3 loss to IG being one of them. It must have been hard for sOAZ to watch his team lose, but it would probably have been harder to watch his team win without him. Lots of players would feel part of the team that wins, though sOAZ needs to play and needs to be a part of the winning team to really get that sense of achievement.

In 2019 sOAZ will be playing for Misfits. In him they have a player who has played since Season 1, the only western player to play in two World Championship finals, a fierce competitor in the top lane and one with a huge champion pool. His endurance and longevity in League of Legends is amazing considering the idea that esports is a “young man’s” game. I really hope Misfits does well in the rebranded LEC and sOAZ can maybe get a chance to get back to the international stage and perhaps add that elusive World’s title to his impressive list of accolades and achievements.