Home > Articles > DSG Sajed: “Top three in summer is very achievable, and I think we will make it happen.”

Sajed “Sajed” Ziade is one of the best young AD carries in NA. In 2024, he debuted in the NACL, winning the Spring Championship and being named Rookie of the Split. He continued his strong performance in 2025, returning to the finals in Split 1 and winning league MVP in Split 2. After signing with DSG ahead of 2026, he’s looking to translate his Tier 2 dominance into success against the best bot lanes in the region. The ProDiff team sat down with Sajed to discuss his path to LCS and what lies ahead for him and DSG in 2026.

Let’s start with a general introduction to how you got into gaming in the first place. Was League the first competitive game you played?

Sajed: I grew up with my two older brothers. They're a lot older than me, and I grew up playing any video games they played. So, I started with StarCraft I and II, and then I got into Dota. Once I started getting to middle, high school, none of my friends played any Dota or StarCraft. Those are kind of games meant for older people. The only game that I played that other people played was League of Legends. So, I kind of just got into it. But the first game I grinded really high in was Rocket League.

How was the initial climb to high elo in League? When you were playing Starcraft and Dota, did you play those games to grind ranked, or was Rocket League the first game where you did that?

Sajed: I hit the highest rank you could in Rocket League, which was Grand Champ, which would probably be the equivalent of maybe high Master in League. In the other games, Starcraft, I don't remember. I was really young. I was probably pretty bad. And I did play some ranked, but I was probably getting pub stomped a lot for Dota. I think I hit probably the equivalent of low Diamond in League terms. My first season playing League, I hit Platinum V, then next season I hit Diamond V, and after that I hit Challenger.

Was hitting Challenger when the thoughts of “I could go pro” came up, or was that something in your mind when you were in Diamond or earlier?

Sajed: Honestly, it never really came up for a long time. I think COVID hit; that's when I started playing a lot more video games, a lot more League of Legends. I hit Challenger somewhere in the first year of COVID. During that time, I was getting recruited by college teams, but I didn't really think I'd go down that path. It was more of something I did as a hobby. I played a year of Open Qualifiers and I kept telling myself “I'll play competitive for one more year and see if I can get to the next level.” And each time I got to a new level, I’d give myself another year. I got to NACL and won the split. And then last year I was giving myself one more year at NACL, and then I got into LCS this year.

Did you have any pros that you saw as role models along the way that influenced your approach to the game?

Sajed: I wouldn't say a pro, but I watched a lot of Gosu when I did not even play League of Legends. I had no idea what the game was, but I still watched him. I remember around the time I was in middle school, I'd go out with my mom to the mall, and I didn't have my own phone. I’d just watch Gosu's new videos every day on her phone while she's in the mall. I think that’s what made me end up maining ADC and playing a lot of Vayne when I first started playing the game.

So we have our Gosu inspiration, but you played some jungle early in your amateur career. How did you make your decision on your role going forward?

Sajed: I played in a Riot-affiliated high school league, and a lot of our good players graduated. So, I just played jungle for the team. I was around Diamond or Master at the time, right before I hit Challenger. I was just having fun. Then, on my first ever amateur team I got contract jailed. My options were either not play at all or just play jungle for this team. My jungle was pretty bad, but I'd rather play jungle than not play, right? So, I played two months of jungle.

Contract jailed in amateur? How did that happen?

Sajed: It was my first ever team. I didn't understand anything about the scene. I just trusted the guy recruiting me because I knew him for a while. And yeah, it was just a contract. I got $100 a month, but only they had the power to terminate the contract, I guess, because when I asked to get it removed I was told my only option was to just sit on the bench and not play. I said “Okay, sure,” it was my first ever contract, so I didn’t know any better.

Sounds like you didn’t have the best amateur experience, but going into Tier 2 with FlyQuest and Darkzero, it looks like that path went really well. How would you describe your journey in Tier 2?

Sajed: The story for FlyQuest was really too good to be true. Everything was just so lucky and lined up.

It started when I was talking to my brother and he asked me, "What actually makes someone good at League? You don't just click faster. Anyone could be good; you're not just born with clicking skills.” He motivated me a bit, and at the time EG was running a solo queue competition where the top four non-pro players on the ladder in each role get chosen for this combine. I told myself, "All right, I'll just try this. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. It is what it is.” Fast forward to 10 minutes before the deadline, the guy who was right above me fell one LP below me, so I ended up in fourth place. I got the last slot into the combine by one LP. They picked one person to fly out, and I got picked.

From that combine, I got scouted to FlyQuest Challengers tryouts. My competition in those tryouts wasn't that great, to be honest, so I got the spot kind of easily. That’s when they told me the roster is so good that they could get a monkey on ADC and still win, so they'd rather just develop someone.

Moving on to joining DarkZero Dragonsteel, was that a college crossover? What was that transition like?

Sajed: Honestly, Tier 2 was looking pretty dire. You didn't even know three of the teams going in, and Maryville [DarkZero] was a pretty good team. The environment and the concept of getting out of my comfort zone and moving to a new place just sounded nice to me. [DarkZero coach] Niles really wanted to recruit me, and I made it very clear to him that at the start I would only come for one semester; I'll finish the school year for them, I'll play one year of NACL with them and then I'd go back to my college. If I get any LCS opportunities, that's great, that's the goal, but, if not, I'll just finish my degree. Everything was really clear. I went to Maryville, did one semester with them. After the year was over, I went home.

During your time in Tier 2, what did you learn while competing? How did your mentality or your approach to the game change?

Sajed: I think players overestimate how much they're actually working and how much of their work is actually productive. There's so much time wasted by a lot of these players, I had the same issue. That was the biggest shift I saw. When I joined FlyQuest, every day Quad would come up with some clips to show us from some pro play. He's always talking to people. If he ever loses a lane, he would always be talking through it, reviewing it a lot. When I joined FlyQuest, I was more lax. I had no clue what I was doing. But I thought I was working hard because I was playing five games of solo queue after scrims. Once I started actually doing more work that wasn’t as much pure grinding, I actually started to improve a lot more. A lot of people think they're doing a lot, but they’re not really doing what they should be.

Tell me a bit about the most recent off season, how did that go? What were the options you were considering?

Sajed: I was down for a couple academy teams that were looking to do in-person projects. I was getting scouted by three LCS teams, but I think I was only a first option for DSG and the other options fell through. DSG was a pretty good opportunity, to be honest. It was a lot better than I expected, everything considered. So, I didn't really consider the Tier 2 options at all. I had some interest from Europe, but I think it would make no sense to go play Tier 2 in EU.

Your former DarkZero teammate Toasty ended up moving to Tier 2 in EU. It sounds like you aren’t as optimistic about NA Tier 2 players going to play in ERLs.

Sajed: Honestly, I told Toasty I think he shouldn't have done it. I think it's a lot harder to go from EU Tier 2 to a Tier 1 league. Obviously, people look at Yukino's success and they think they can replicate that, but they are missing the fact that he joined the best-structured environment you could ever join in Tier 2. He joined an org with a huge fan base and he has all the tools to succeed. It's different from joining most Tier 2 European organizations. I don't think it would ever be worthwhile to do that. There's so many instances of so many players in Tier 2 Europe in the ERLs, EU Masters that are very good but they never get called up. I think it's a lot easier to do the transition from NACL to LCS.

Now that you’ve made that transition to LCS, how are you adjusting? Are you looking forward to playing on stage?

Sajed: Yeah, honestly I love playing on stage. I only played on stage a couple times in my life, but it just feels kind of surreal. I'm definitely excited to play on it again. We’ve only had three scrim blocks so far. Obviously, the difference in skills is a lot higher. LCS players, they always have an idea what to do every wave, their laning is definitely more clean. But in terms of stuff out of game, the adjustment has been really really well. I think DSG took really good care of me. Everything is just super easy, the transition was super seamless. Everything has been pretty good so far.

On that note, it’s no secret that a lot of players are struggling with visa issues right now, including your jungler KryRa. How has that affected your practice and preparation? How are you feeling about reuniting with your old teammate Kisno while that situation is being resolved?

Sajed: We're still practicing with KryRa. He's just playing scrims with really high ping. He's still been performing insanely well in scrims, so I don't think it's really been affecting him that much. There's a small chance KryRa will still make it for the first game, but we're going to fly in Kisno and he’ll mostly likely be playing that first match without playing any scrims. It's just winter split; it doesn't really matter that much in my opinion. I think this split is good for KryRa and I to get some stage experience and to start playing against these LCS players because we're the rookies on the team. But, just one match without the full roster, I don't think it's going to matter too much.

You touched on it already regarding the winter split, but could you tell us what's the goal for year one with DSG in your first year in the LCS?

Sajed: Honestly, I know people have heard this before, but winter split doesn't matter. Unless you're a top two contender right off the bat, those splits don't really matter. Obviously it’d be nice to win those and go to the international events, but the goal is obviously summer. I think we're going to use those two splits to just grind, and I'm just going to be focusing on myself a lot. Like what everyone else says, they need to get better, improve on themselves. But yeah, that's what the winter and spring splits are. With these rosters, I think anyone can beat anyone by the time summer comes around. Making top three in summer is very achievable, and I think we will make it happen.

So on the team side, you're scaling up for summer, looking for top three. Individually, how would you like to see yourself progress this year? How do you feel you stack up against the other ADCs in the league?

Sajed: Every other AD carry in the league is like a super veteran except Massu and maybe Yeon, but every AD carry is pretty established. It’s hard for me to rank them. I think every ADC has some clear strengths and weaknesses that I can learn from. For me, my biggest strength has always been my team fighting. From playing scrims, I feel like my teamfighting is definitely up there with the best of them. The most important thing I want to work on is laning; the laning in the LCS is just much more crisp, not a lot of wasted clicks.

Pivoting away from League to close it out, could you tell us a bit about some of your interests outside of League? Any other games, physical sports, et cetera?

Sajed: I played a lot of sports growing up. In high school, I played two years of soccer and three years of track. Back home, I have a couple of my high school friends that I still play soccer and basketball with. Every time I go back, I always catch up with them and we just play some soccer, get some Chipotle after. I loved playing sports, it’s one of my bigger interests outside of League.

Any shout outs or people you’d like to thank?

Shout out to my family, my brothers have been really supportive and been there for me. My mom has always been there. And shout out to ProDiff, too.

You can watch Sajed’s LCS debut against Sentinels on Saturday, January 24 at 4:00 PM PST on lolesports.com. If you want to improve your own League of Legends gameplay, you can learn directly from the pros on ProDiff.

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