Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez currently plays support for European LCS team G2 Esports. However, he has been around for some time before playing on G2 Esports. He’s been in the professional circuit for some time now and reached the World Championship three times. His first time was with the team Lemondogs after finishing second in Summer playoffs for season three.

After going to Worlds, Mithy did face a suspension for his behavior while playing solo queue. Since then, we have seen him come back into the professional scene having grown both as a player and person. The return of Mithy to the LCS started with Origen in the challenger series in the Spring of 2015 and by the end of Summer they were on their way to Worlds.

Mithy stayed with Origen through the Spring Split of 2016 and then made the move to G2 Esports before the start of Summer Split with his AD Carry Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen. At the time, the move was controversial and was not without its difficulties. However, once again Mithy was on a team that qualified for Worlds.

We had a chance to talk with Mithy about his experiences in the community and thoughts about the future.

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What originally got you into playing video games and then League of Legends?

 [...]What got me into playing video games was one of my friends -- either one of my friends or my father, that's where it started with playing video games. It was mostly a friend of mine that was playing. He was playing some game, like a big strategy game, and it was very interesting. That is kind of what got me into playing video games.

What got me into League of Legends, well, that was a while back already and I'd been playing for a long time and I knew that I was really good at games. Going into League, basically, the game I was playing was dying and I just decided I needed to swap games. I just picked the game with the largest following and I just decide League it was.

What is your motivation and drive to keep playing League of Legends at the highest competitive level?

My motivation that keeps me wanting to play at the highest level is that I can and have the opportunity to do something that most people can't and that I just want to be the best. It's like my life view. It's what makes me want to try to become better. It makes me want to work harder on myself. That is what I kind of like about League in general -- maybe not just about League but competition of playing at the highest level or just anything at the highest level, and that's what I enjoy. So that's what keeps me playing.

You've been in the competitive scene for a while. What has been the hardest challenge for you since entering competitive gaming?

I guess the hardest challenge for me was when I got banned. I had to start from scratch and also fix myself a little bit. But, part of being suspended, it was a pretty good thing for me. It made me a better player as well as person. So, I guess, that was the biggest challenge I had -- was when I got the suspension. The most down moment I had was also the moment where I grew the most.

Photo - Lolesports Flickr

Do you have a moment currently the highlight of your career thus far?

Well, I think that season... the whole season with Origen was probably the highlight of my career. It was when I was at the highest levels compared to other people. Obviously, better now since everyone keeps improving but when I compare myself to other players, in Origen, I was up there with a lot of Korean supports even. I think I was very, very high up the ladder of support players.

When you think of yourself as a teammate, what is the best thing you bring to your team both inside and outside of the game?

I think I bring a lot of knowledge and strategy. And I try to talk to anyone about things that we should change and how we should be playing the game. So, I bring a lot of that strategic mind into both the outside and inside of the game. That is probably my best aspect.

Do you you have a current favorite or least favorite champion?

I don't have a least favorite, I kind of play what I have to play. I don't mind it so much. I think I have a special feeling for Alistar before he got reworked. So now I'm out of champions here.

What do you think of the major game changes that have started happening going into season 7?

I guess it's really going to change more but I guess just the colossus mastery and the assassin's reworks, the plants thing is pretty big too. That's it pretty much. I guess the jungle is a bit changed but I don't think it changed the outcome about junglers' play and OP junglers. Mostly the plants is the biggest thing.

Do you think those jungle changes impact how you, as a support, think about your pathing and warding?

Yeah. A little bit but not so much. Honestly, I haven't had a chance yet to start scrimming against the top tier junglers and so on. But, at the end of the day, it's more of the same if you know where he starts, where you can get to level three and then you have to kind of be aware already and so on. There's really not much that's changing. Only like the golems thing, where they could  [level off of] 2:40 or 2:20 or something and they changed that and now they have to do a small wraith or something before getting a gank off. Which is still possible but, yeah, it's fine.

Do you have any thoughts on the new support items, Redemption and Knight's Vow?

In all honesty, I have no idea if they're good or they're bad. I haven't really done the math, or cared that much to do the math because... I just felt like, at some point, someone is going to figure it out anyway since it’s the start of the season, so, I don't really care that much. I just want to know everything for the players not really for the start of the season anyway. So, I don't really care so much.

It feels like the Redemption item is pretty good if you can hit it, but then again, you have to hit it right, and sometimes your teammates just can't be on the circle because of certain situations. So, maybe you put the circle in the wrong place. So, it's hard for me to know when to use the Redemption item, so I end up just using it all the time just so I can get used to it, so I don't know if it's good or bad.

And for Knight's Vow, I think I've bought it once or twice, probably. The Knight's Vow is really expensive and the build path is pretty shit.

We were able to watch you on the desk at the International Wildcard All-Stars. How was that experience? How did you like participating in League of Legends in that way?

That's a good question. So, the experience itself... usually in the analyst's desk I was... I just come there and get asked for an opinion and just give it and that's it. But this time, it was a bit different because I was there for rehearsal. I knew what the time for each segment should be and I had a better idea of what... the way Riot does things. is they have kind of a set time for each thing so we won't talk for ten minutes for one point, and then the show gets delayed and so on. I just have a better understanding of how production works and I ended up realizing how hard it is to be a good caster. And sometimes you just are forced to talk about things that you don't really want to talk about and you still have to do a good job of talking about them. That is something I struggled a lot with.

So, it was a very enlightening thing for me to see how production works for Riot and just in general. I'm guessing it's probably the same for other companies. Just like the whole production thing, how hard and exhausting it actually is to be a caster.

That was pretty fun and then it also made me realize how much I want to keep playing. After not playing for four days and watching not really that high level games either... I just have a super huge urge to play again because I didn't have a PC there or anything. That helped me kind of understand where I'm at in terms of if I want to keep playing or if I want to retire, how long do I want to keep play for. I think it was just a super good experience for me in a lot of ways. It was great.

PHOTO - Lolesports

With the All-Stars tournament, did you have any favorite moments in playing there?

I think I loved the tandem mode the most. It was pretty fun. I think the most fun I had was in tandem for sure... Well, you have to add to the fact that we were winning from the get go. Since we were winning from the get go, it was always fun. But yeah, I guess the tandem mode is the most fun because other modes we kind of lost everything. We played against NA and we lost, that was the game we wanted to win.

And then we had to play against the Wildcard team and we had to win. So we were kind of serious going into the game, even though we didn't pick the best champs we were a bit serious going into the game because we really wanted to win and show off from there on. We played against Korea and kind of trolled a bit, so that was fun. The troll-y game was actually pretty fun, ‘cause it actually worked out well. We didn't get stomped from the get go. We were actually winning a little bit and then me 1v1 was total shit, so...

I guess the tandem mode is probably the one I liked the most.

There's been a lot of interesting and shocking roster moves in this off season. Is there one that surprised you the most or that you're interested to see how it works out?

I think it's interesting to see how H2K works out. I think it will be interesting to see how Fnatic does in the long run. I heard they're really, really good right now. So, I would like to see how good they do in the long run. Other than that I heard about Vitality having Hachani; that's pretty good too. But I feel like the roster I want to see how they do the most are probably H2K and Fnatic.

What people have influenced you and helped you the most in becoming a better player?

What helped me a lot was Season 3 when I went to Worlds and kind of got stomped by everyone. I learned so much about how I want to be as a player and what things I need to change to become a better player.

From thereon, it has to be when I joined Origen. That was probably the next step where I became better. I think that the player who helped me the most was Amazing. I think he helped me become a better player the most because he always had arguments with me and we always had discussions on how things should be done and how the game should be played. I think I learned the most from Amazing.

How do you view yourself as a player currently?

I think I'm really good. I think that I can probably be better than anyone if I really put my mind, heart and soul into it. I feel the thing that I lack right now is individual skill -- as in being more confident in taking a fight, or shooting my spell and dodging an enemy spell. Or in lane, where I'm a bit more confident in how I trade but other than that, I think that I don't really see myself as having a flaw other than that one there.

I feel like the other flaws are not really play focused but as a person how I maybe tilt too much -- not really tilt too much but I don't really put 100% focus when things go wrong. Maybe at some points, I say things I shouldn't say to my teammates and drag my team down and so on. Maybe I'm not the best teammate I could be. There's always room for improvement.

I think individual play could be much better. I still don't think that I'm under-performing individually but I do feel like there are some people that are better maybe. I don't know what it is exactly but I was much better before. I don't really know what for sure is going on in that regard. That is probably what I regard myself as a player as.

What are your hopes for this coming year?

First and foremost, I want to go to MSI. It's the event that I have not been to yet. So that's my main goal. It's the only event I haven't gotten the chance to visit. And, if I do go to MSI, there's probably a good chance I end up going to Worlds again. So, my main goal right now is to go to MSI and then from there on, there's the standard goal of doing better than NA as usual. And then there's the kind of the maximum goal which is to beat a Korean team in a best of five. That's probably the ultimate goal.

I don't really care to win [Worlds] or not because I feel that that is more of a dream than a goal, realistically speaking. But I do feel I would love to beat a Korean team in a best of five. That is the goal I want to achieve.

Do you have any messages for your fans?

I want to thank all my fans for the support. Thank you for staying true to me during all the hardships and I hope I'll do even better next year. I hope I perform better next year. I'm going to work hard and I'm super motivated. I'm sure I will not disappoint anyone. I hope so at least.

Follow the author for more interviews and content at @Poetanarchy88.

Cover image courtesy of Lolesports Flickr.