After hitting Rank 1 EUW, Viper on the regional gap: “Solo queue in EU was much more competitive than it is in NA…Nobody gives up in EU; it’s so motivating.”

Home > Articles > After hitting Rank 1 EUW, Viper on the regional gap: “Solo queue in EU was much more competitive than it is in NA…Nobody gives up in EU; it’s so motivating.”

One of the best solo queue players in League of Legends, Viper has consistently held multiple accounts at the top of NA Challenger. Most recently, he crossed the Atlantic, where he reached Rank 1 in the EUW server. We sat down with Viper to talk with him about solo queue, his signature Riven gameplay, and his journey from streaming to pro play and back again.

What was your introduction to gaming? Was League the first competitive game you played?

Viper: I started off with Warcraft 2, and I played lots of older games like Red Alert, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life. That's what got me into gaming. I really enjoyed those specific types of games – nothing competitive that I got into as much as I did for League. Then I started playing Call of Duty and Combat Arms. I played almost 20 different genres of games, which led to me starting my League journey. League is the game that I never stopped playing. Out of all those other games, I always stopped at some point, but with League I couldn't find a way to stop.

How was your initial climb to high elo and when did you first start grinding on Riven specifically?

Viper: I first played League in Season 2. I didn't really play that much because I was playing a lot of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Then, I slowly transitioned into League because I liked it more and more. I began playing the game about 5 to 10 hours a day and was even skipping school to play the game. I was watching streams on the side constantly, trying to study the game and understand it as a whole. Every game I played, I wanted to get very good at. I didn't want to waste time. I wanted to be the top player of whatever I did. For League, that's what I did. Starting from Season 3, I started putting all my time into League. I gave it my all and slowly started getting better and better the more I watched and learned from people such as TheOddOne and Saintvicious. I also watched a lot of junglers to understand their perspective of the game as a whole while also maining top lane. I watched a lot of BestRivenNA and BoxBox and learned from them as well.

How long did it take you to get to a point where you felt that you were really good at the game?

Viper: In Season 3, I went from Bronze all the way to Diamond in the span of maybe seven to nine months. Once you reached Diamond back then, you started playing against actual Challenger players: there was no Master or Grandmaster. You reached Diamond I and then you were right on the edge of Challenger, which was only top 50 that season. It was a very quick process of improvement.

At what point did you become a Riven one-trick?

Viper: It was during that time when I did that massive jump from Bronze to Diamond. It was two months in. I used to main Brand mid, then I got tired of it. I switched to top lane. I was inspired by people like BestRivenNA and from there on my Diamond climb began.

How did you choose the name Viper? And do you prefer Viper with the “1” or the letter “i” as the second character?

Viper: I prefer Viper with the “i”, either is fine, but I prefer it that way because that's my Twitch name. I've had that name since 2014. I was one of the first Vipers on Twitch. I asked for the name and they gave it to me right away because there was no one wanting the name, because that was when Twitch was new. So, I thought that was cool.

The Viper name was kind of random. I used to play a game called Combat Arms and someone had Viper in their name and I'm like, "Wait, that guy's name is kind of cool. I'm taking it." So, when I started playing League, I stole it.

How did you decide to first start streaming?

Viper: A lot of my streaming inspiration was from other streamers themselves. I was watching TSM when they were live streaming their gaming house perspectives. Not just TSM, a lot of gaming houses in general that just permanently streamed their POVs and were uploading a lot of YouTube videos and content as a whole. That inspired me to want to do it myself.

At first, I didn't have a proper working PC to stream with, but as I was getting better at the game and people started seeing the potential that I have, people reached out. I was playing with Scarra, and I think I carried the game very hard. We were on the same team, and he added me after. He was like, "Hey, man. Why don't you stream? You're really good." That was when nobody knew of me. I told him, "My PC sucks. It doesn't work. It doesn't handle streaming." He said, "What's your PayPal? Let me give you money so you can buy a PC and start streaming.” That's where I started streaming. Shout out Scarra. He's the one who basically started most things for me in terms of League. He gave me this huge jump to make this a living.

When did you decide that League was something that you wanted to do as a career?

Viper: I started thinking that League could become a career the moment I saw money coming in. I saw money coming in mostly from boosting back then. The boosting money was crazy high. Once the income started coming in at a young age, when I was 17, I thought, “Wait, this could be a full-time thing.” My skipping classes was starting to pay off.

How did your time as a streamer ten years ago differ from your experience as a streamer today?

Viper: Back then I was a streamer during the popular times, right? So when you were an insane player in the popular times, you got a lot more known. I'm still known now, but the game isn’t at its peak popularity now. I’d say that the difference is that every League streamer back then was bigger than they are nowadays.

Was there any specific stream clip or moment that you felt was your breakout as a streamer?

Viper: Nothing specific I would say. I didn't really jump into full-time streaming; I was streaming part-time for many years. Initially, I don't know why, but I wasn't fully motivated to stream. I was boosting off stream, which I definitely shouldn't have done. When Scarra gave me that jump, I should have spent it growing my stream. I did, but I got banned very fast afterwards. I ended up getting unbanned due to joining Team Liquid. So, I started from there. Team Liquid also kind of saved me, honestly.

How did that first Team Liquid stint materialize for you?

Viper: Team Liquid was really interested in me. They thought I was an insane player. All the boosters were very well known and considered talented. I was also well known because I was always top 5 on the ladder with multiple accounts up there in the top 50. Everyone sees that. I would say the scouting system was a lot better back then. The moment I got banned, I made a tweet. I was being extremely dramatic about it. Then I got a DM from TL Steve. He's like, "Hey, we know what you did is really bad. We think you're an insane player. We could talk to Riot and see if we could get you unbanned, but you have to make sure you never ever get close to boosting or even interacting with anything of that sort.” He was basically trusting me to never get close to that type of stuff anymore if he was going to ask Riot to unban me, which of course they did. I thought it was cool that if I didn't join them, he was going to try and ask Riot to unban me. It was very nice of him.

How did actually playing pro compare with your expectations of what that experience would be like?

Viper: I played Academy first. That was amazing. It was a dream come true; it was some of the best times of my life. But, the more you do it, the more added stress there is. Once your team starts doing poorly, once your synergy starts falling off, once there are a lot of mistakes happening, that's when it kind of took away the fun for me. I started slowly shifting away from enjoying scrimming in general. I just heavily disliked having to wake up and scrim. I'm a person that's used to having my own schedule and working really well off that. I wanted to just compete and go on stage and play actual stage matches, but I know that you have to scrim to get the results that you want. But the more experience I got, the more I disliked scrimming. That was basically it for me.

It sounds like scrimming was your least favorite part of pro play. What was your favorite part?

Viper: My favorite part is probably playing LCS on stage. Having a crowd watching and cheering just hits so nicely. To this day I would want to do it, just because of that feeling. To have a crowd being there for you, cheering you on or booing, whatever it is, that feeling is so nice. Being on stage is my favorite.

You achieved some strong results during your pro career. You were the Rookie of the Split with FlyQuest in 2019, and you won the LCS Proving Grounds in Spring 2021. What do you think separated the splits where you were highly successful from the one where your team struggled a bit more?

Viper: I think it was the mindset. A lot of being a pro is having the right mindset going into these games. I think during my LCS days, I didn't have the best mindset. I would say I wasn't motivated to wake up and scrim as I was saying. I grew as a person and learned that this is more like a job. I need to treat it like a job. I can't just be saying I don't like this, I don't like that.

I tried to stop overthinking and just have fun with it. Winning Proving Grounds I think was my peak, probably. I thought I was unstoppable. During that time I thought I was much better than I was in LCS. That was the time where I was just playing with a group of friends. No expectations, no stress, nothing. Just playing my game and having a great mindset around it too. Obviously, it helped that I was playing from home where stress wasn't even an option. You're just playing from your own desktop so you're used to everything around you.

How did you decide to take a step back from pro play after the 2022 season and return to streaming?

Viper: I stopped after playing on TSM. That's kind of when the people around me were heavily focused on young talent and a lot of what I want to say was nepotism. I started noticing that in the scene towards the end, and it really kind of took away all my motivation to want to be around that type of environment. I am all for young talent, but I saw a lot of it was unfair.

As a pro, your job was decided by other people. Obviously, performance is a big part of it, but your job's also decided by a lot of other people’s opinions, and I wasn't the biggest fan of that. I wasn’t playing my best, either. I thought, “This isn't for me.” My motivation was just completely gone. The best way for me to regain the competitive drive was going back home and being close to family to rethink everything and figure out my next steps. That's when I regained my passion for streaming and doing it full-time, and that's where I am today.

Looking at your brief return to competitive with Conviction in NACL 2025 Split 2, the team did better than many people expected. You got 3rd Team All-Pro as a bot laner and you played in the promotion tournament. How did you decide to join that team, and did you expect to do that well?

Viper: It was just a content, for-fun team I wanted to do with friends. The idea was for a content team to see how we do as streamers. It didn't turn out that way. That's why we stopped: our streams weren't growing, which was the goal. Our streams were actually doing worse. A lot of the teams didn't want to scrim us and didn't because they didn’t want it to be on stream, which is fair, but it was surprising to me.

In terms of expectations, if I'm being real with you, I thought I was going to win MVP going into the split. But then I saw some of the AD carries, and I'm like, wait, these guys are actually good, I can't compete. But even though I was playing a different role, not top lane, I was very confident that I would do very well because I played AD carry a lot in solo queue. I’ve played against almost every LCS player. I'm very familiar with the role, just not in a competitive aspect.

I did think I would do better than top three all-pro, honestly. As a team, I expected us to do better, but I think we did very well.

If you were to decide that you wanted to play pro again, how do you think you would stack up against the LCS top laners? Do you still feel like you have what it takes to go against them, because clearly you still have what it takes to get to the top of the solo queue ladder every season.

Viper: Right now I don't think I have what it takes to go against them because I'm really out of touch with the meta. It would take me about three months of completely dropping Riven and not playing it anymore. Three months of just fully practicing meta and I would easily get back to competing against the LCS top laners. Even right now I could do it, but only on specific champions. It would take me three months to be a top player. I would say I'm very confident in myself. My confidence has grown so much over the years.

That said, I really love streaming as a whole. It's much more relaxing because I get to do it whenever I want. It's a blessing to work whenever you're available and have more free time.

You're one of the most accomplished solo queue players of all time. You held rank 1, 2, and 3 at the same time in NA. You recently went to EU and hit rank 1 there. What do you think allows you to consistently dominate the ladder?

Viper: I think that my laning phase is whatever. It's very good, but it's not what makes me special. I think it's more so the way I play the map, the macro aspect, and how well I know the limits of my champion. It helps that Riven is one of the most broken champs in the game for almost every meta. Riven's always good. It's just a very unique champion that has a lot of potential to carry games. It helps that I've mastered almost everything about her. Even if I don't win my lane, I know what to do in terms of how to be useful on the map. That is obviously helped by playing this game for 10+ years, so even if I'm not fed, I'll very likely help my team win.

What keeps your competitive fire going after so many years of solo queue?

Viper: I love the game. Every time I load into a game, I’m not burnt out. I'm thankful to not be burnt out, but a lot of it is because I love this game and I love that I can make a living off of it, too.

Given that you recently came back from EU, and you've hit rank 1 in both regions, what are your thoughts on regional parity for NA versus EU in solo queue specifically?

Viper: We went to EU to boot camp, and two weeks in Riot announced that they will be doing a reset on the ladder. Before the reset, I reached about 700 LP away from rank 1. I am 98% sure I still would have hit rank 1 even if the reset didn't happen. I would say solo queue in EU was much more competitive than it is in NA. Before the reset happened, I was playing against high elo players every game. Nobody gives up in EU; it's so motivating. There are people that are very toxic and such, but they don't give up. They're still playing the game. They're very focused on getting the main goal and that is to win. Even if they tilt, they'll still vote no to FF. It's so interesting. That's why before the reset, I thought they were a lot more competitive.

The mindset in NA is just different. A lot of people in NA want to FF a lot more. Even in winnable games, they want to FF and move on and just play the next game. That's the part I don't like that much.

Since the reset happened, I believe that NA and EU are the exact same thing and there's no difference because you're playing against a lot of last season Masters, Grandmasters, Challengers. It's not as competitive because all the elos are mixed up together. You could say that EU is better once matchmaking returns to the way it was before the reset happened. I was always against a pro player in EU. It didn't matter if I was queuing at 1:00 a.m., 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m., I would be against a pro player.

Some people say you should never FF. Some people have that “go next” mentality. What are your thoughts?

Viper: Some games you have to really think about the team composition; a lot of it is comp based. If your comp can play from behind, if you have engage, if you have scaling champions, you should almost never FF. I honestly think unless you have something to do, you shouldn’t FF. I’d put out the FF vote often, but I stopped doing it in North America specifically because people always vote yes. It's important not to throw it out, I would say, unless you're down at least 15,000 gold. Even when a team is not too far behind, I know a lot of FFs happen from one bad team fight. You see that you got demolished in a fight and you just throw out the vote, everyone votes yes at the same time, game's over. It's important to keep composure and just play the game until it ends. It's going to be five or ten more minutes anyways. One good team fight, you're back in the game just like that.

Do you have any solo queue mountains left to climb?

Viper: I'm reaching my peak. I'm still yet to peak because I'm actively playing this game and learning it. I still think there's room to grow despite growing older. I do think I want to hit rank 1 in Korea no matter what one day. That's my main goal now. Korea is the only one left. I do plan on going, hopefully at the end of this year or next year.

Your brothers, Crimson and Sniper, followed in your footsteps and are both competitive top laners. What role did you play in their development as players?

Viper: I actually didn't do much for my brothers. I was busy during that time; I was playing in LCS. I wasn't home when they were improving and getting better. But, they would ask me questions and stuff like that. It was kind of random. I just got a message in the client from my brother. He's like, "Hey, I'm Masters” out of nowhere. A lot of it is them watching me all the way from home and getting inspired by me. They were using my setup, too. I had a really nice setup, and they would play on it whenever I wasn’t there. They would watch every game I played. They loved it, and I was a role model.

Who wins the family 1v1 tournament?

Viper: I'll never lose. I'm number one. I'll beat up both of them.

What's one element of your approach to League, whether it’s mental or in-game, that you think would be most helpful for the average solo queue player?

Viper: I think knowing how to control your emotions is really important, knowing how to move on after a bad play happens and think about what's next. Think about a game plan for yourself going into a game. Close whatever it is that distracts you. Don't look at your second monitor, don't alt-tab, just stay focused in the game; stay locked in and you'll notice changes. That's really what I started doing. I really try not to zone out, and I think it's important too if something bad happens in a game, just move on. It doesn't help if you get emotional. It doesn't help if you don't think about the next play that happens. Actively thinking and using your brain and moving on will help lead to more wins.

Is there anything about the top lane role specifically that you would want to share with lower elo top laners?

Viper: For top lane as a whole, you should probably stick to playing two to three champions. Don't try to play too much. One-tricking is the move and you can go from there. Watch and learn from YouTube or Twitch or coaches.

Outside of League, what are some other topics, activities, or games that interest you now? If you weren't streaming, what would you be doing right now?

Viper: I'm not sure if I would be streaming if it wasn't for League. I probably would, but I don't really play any other games. I don't have much interest in other games, but recently I have been playing Arc Raiders. That was before I went to Europe, but since coming back, I haven't really put my hands on any other games. Outside of League, I'm honestly not sure what I’d do. I'm all in for League.

Any shout-outs or thank-yous?

Viper: Shout out to my family, my brothers, Sniper and Crimson. I'm supporting them. They're the next-ups, I want to see them succeed. I want to see them in LCS. I want to go watch their games. I want to see them on the Worlds stage. That's the goal for me. I hope we can see that from them.

You can watch the GOAT of NA solo queue at twitch.tv/viper. If you’re interested in climbing in solo queue yourself, you can check out coaching from the pros like Viper’s brother Crimson on ProDiff.

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