Shifters lost their opening match of the split to SK Gaming, widely considered one of the bottom teams in the league. RFT.GG caught up with nuc right after.
On paper, facing SK on opening day looked like a favourable draw but it ended in a clean 0-2 this Saturday. RFT.GG spoke with Nuc shortly after — still stunt, the midlaner delivered a rare moment of honesty, covering the drafts, the team's process, the Korea bootcamp, his offseason and more.
I think we had a very poor preparation for both matches. We were just very badly prepared in terms of what we wanted to play and how we saw the current meta. For the first game, it created their point of strength — they had champions that could come mid and I couldn't touch the wave. And if they came at me, on repeat. We couldn't respond in terms of champions. It was either I get poked out forever, or I try to play on timers and flip a bit. For the second game, same thing — in terms of composition, there wasn't much sense to it together. And apart from that, it's just the snowball effect. We got snowballed in the first, and in the second too, even though I think we could have won it because we had the tools to come back. But even in pure head to head, there was nothing optimal.
I don't really know, to be honest.
I think the problems have been there since the start of the year. I don't know if we have what it takes to move forward — in the sense of whether we have the right process.
We've tried to change things, we'll see how it goes. But it's just a question of what we offer in practice. Our game is very random globally — we control very few variables. We don't manipulate the variables to work in our favour, to play on our strengths. It's a bit freestyle, and if the variables land on the positive side, great, we can snowball it. But if the variables go the other way, we're just not optimal. I think that's what happened today.
The bootcamp was much more individually oriented — people getting to know themselves better, rather than team-oriented. It was just the three European players with Striker and Jujutwo going to Korea. Rooster and Paduck were already there but not with us in the same setup. We didn't scrim any team.
It was solo queue only. The idea was that working on individual skills would be enough to improve things. But I think it's a team game. Understanding how to play the map, how to play positions — those are things you don't learn in solo queue. It's something the players develop together.
No idea. That whole concept of ceiling, potential — I think it's a lot of bullshit, because it's all just states of the moment, states of form, states of preparation.
The only real metric we have outside of official matches is practice. And in practice, we get walked over a bit.
So I have no idea.
There were a lot of internal issues. 2025 was a total mess. There was a fracture between me and the organisation in general. On my side, I had a mindset where I told myself the problem is that when you've been in the same place for a long time, with the same people, the same environment — it's very hard to renew yourself and keep expanding. It's a habit thing, people have their routines and you're not shaken out of yours.
What happened is I spoke with the people involved, we came to conclusions, we shook hands. Either way there was still a one-year contract. But I came into this split with a different mindset on my part. Because since 2025 I'd been very team-oriented — new role, new players, play well, don't make mistakes. That kind of thing.
Yes. When you change your habits, for example my mid game becomes much more uncertain because we have no routine together. It's very random — the team can perform really well one day because the variables are there, and another day it can't. Very random.
Even today, winning my lane individually, I had the tempo — but it only takes them coming once on a no-flash timing, repeating it five times in a row, and I can't play the game anymore. I get locked everywhere. Those are things we need to fix, one way or another.
The further it goes, the more uncertain it feels.
There's no stability, no clear responsibilities in-game. Which means there are moments where the variables that allow me to express myself are there — this matchup, this condition in the game, this way of playing the map. And in other conditions where we don't control them, everything falls apart and nobody knows why.
This year, since it's the end of my contract, I changed my approach. Much more focused on manipulating the variables I can control, making sure I'm in a good spot individually. And then if the team gets results, great. But I can't see myself continuing in these conditions at some point. It's been like this since 2025, and it's not funny. I just want to do well, but it's complicated. We'll see how the split goes.
France is much more competitive in League of Legends, obviously. Morocco is stronger on other games like EAFC, that kind of thing, they're very strong there. But for LoL competition, it's France. We're here for the competition, not for anything else. So clearly France.
D'accord nuc, mais t'es titulaire au moins ?