One of the most valuable things you can bring as a professional in any field is consistency. You don’t have to be the best, nor do you have to win on the biggest stage. You just have to show up. A brief quote from esports legend Sean “Day9” Plott sums this up nicely: “I’m not smarter than you, I’m not a more articulate speaker than you. I have exactly one trick. Are you ready? ...i just show up. Always. That’s my trick.”. That same consistency has built Day9 an empire within multiple titles spanning from Starcraft to Hearthstone, and now moving into Dota 2.

One of the most consistent personalities in the League of Legend’s sphere is David “Cop” Roberson. Back and forth between professional player and coach, Cop has always seemed to stay relevant within League of Legends.

In the face of community criticism he has shown consistent determination, consistent play and consistent ways to reinvent himself. Cop isn’t the person to carry you in a final or really shake the boat in a coaching role. He stands quiet, adds input when needed and supports and nurtures the players around him.

This is Cop’s story of silent immortality.

Cadet School

After playing for team’s like “Oh God Bears” and “The Lone Ranger’s”, David “Cop” Roberson’s career in League of Legend’s mainly starts with Team Curse in the end of 2011. Known for his safe and passive play, his pocket picks would included Miss Fortune and Corki, subsequently these would be staple bans for the early days of Curse Gaming. Cop rounded out a roster that housed Saintvicious, Elementz, Nyjacky, and Voyboy.  With an ominous 4th place finish, Cop was shamed for being a very passive laner in a time where laning was everything. The problem with the critics is that he was rarely a problem, was he going to hard carry your game? No, but he was a serviceable AD carry that performed on average with his peers.

To help alleviate their passive bot lane, Elementz was benched for rising upstart; Rhux. This would signal a start to a tumultuous “curse” that would plague Cop throughout his career. Overall Rhux never seemed to break out of his shell and Elementz was brought back on the starting roster for the remainder of the season. Late in 2013 Curse approached Edward after leaving his world renowned team; Gambit Gaming, as a potential candidate to join the starting roster. Many note this as the start of Cop really coming into his own and embracing the “clean-up” AD carry role, which to my knowledge he pioneered. With Edward at his back, this bot duo did worse than people expected, but you have to remember: Edward was a new acquisition.

Cop had more of a passive lane focused style where Edward had more of a “roaming mercenary” style.  Curse ended the season 13-15, finishing the summer split at 4th. They would then play Dignitas and CLG in the playoffs, in where the latter of the two teams would beat them sending them to relegations to fight for a Season 4 spot.

Curse was forever swapping players in and out, struggling to find a solution to an unsolvable problem. Core members of Curse would always be role players, but they seemed to have an incessant need for “star power” and would always make roster moves every season. These players would include Pobelter and Aphromoo just to name a couple . After the unpleasant summer split, Edward leaves to rejoin his comrades as Gambit Gaming reformed; he would be replaced by rookie; Zekent.

Cop would then be moved to Curse Academy, which at the time was called Team LoL Pro. Immediately he was brought back to the starting roster after Curse failed to find a suitable replacement for him. Their Season 4 promotion match was met with a new top laner as well , Quas was scouted from solo queue as a rising star. They would find rebirth back into the LCS, after beating COGnitive gaming 3-0, but this would not be the end of the roster madness that was Curse Gaming.

Cursed

Season 4 was a watershed year for Curse Gaming; not only would Cop start to really blossom, but this would mark the start of another ominous year. The 2014 spring roster would be home to the likes of Quas, IWDominate, Voyboy, Cop, and Zekent. The starting support position would then find its way back to the tennis court, where it would continue to be volleyed back and forth, from player to player, as Cop’s partner seemingly changed every split. Zekent would be benched for the return of Saintvicious on support.

As odd as it sounded, the Cop-Vicious bot lane was actually quite solid. This would only be temporary as the team would then move Saint to Curse Academy and move rookie Bunny FuFuu to the starting roster. This iteration of Curse would finish the Spring Split again in 4th place right behind Team Dignitas. Cop would end the spring split with an average KDA of 5.69, and found surprising success on Draven, going 3-1.

Coming into the summer split, TSM would stun the community by removing Xpecial from the starting line-up. Curse saw the North American all-star and could not pass up the chance to have him play for their organization. Yet again, Cop was sat off to the side and was forced to play with another new support. You are seeing a trend, right?

Xpecial was the 5th support to play for Curse in six months.

Cop was never allowed to grow with his duo partner. His supports would come, and go, and come again, then immediately get benched. Cop was never tied to support. A majority of the time, bot lane is almost its own identity; you can’t have “Rush Hour” without both Doublelift and Aphromoo, just like you can’t have the “Hundred Acre Bot Lane” without Piglet and Pooh. After Edward, his individual play really started to show through, but it was an empty home toward the bottom side of the map. Cop never had a partner. They would continuously come and go like the wind. There was always something that stopped him from really seeing his full potential come to fruition. The Xpecial - Cop bot lane was good, but they never were able to really be great.

Curse would end the summer split both in the regular season in fourth place, this would be the third time that Curse Gaming, in its many iterations, placed just short of the bronze medal. Cop would end the summer split finding success with Corki and Lucian, which he piloted to a very high average KDA of 5.80. Now we tackle summer playoffs of 2014. Make sure your harnessed into your seats, it's about to be messy.

They start with a convincing win over CLG 3-0. Curse then moves on the play heavy favorites Cloud 9, where in which they get pummeled. Their last match was against the Chinese roster of LMQ where they would take a demanding 2-0 lead. Curse would take this lead and gently toss it away, like a boomerang that would never return. LMQ would shock everyone, reverse-sweeping Curse 3-2. This, for many, marked the “forever 4th” curse on this roster. This would mark their fourth time getting fourth. Cop would then be sent down to the Challenger Scene, to assist in leading a group of misfits & daydreamers into the big leagues.

Leave of Absence

Cop would always be the community scapegoat; his “clean-up” AD carry style never really took off within popular opinion. Cop was always the consistent one; he would always be there when you needed him. He always showed up, no matter win or lose -- he was there. And he consistently would be benched. In hindsight, there was more to Cop then what many people would realize. It wasn't always his performance that was driving him to step down. While in the challenger scene, Cop and Curse Academy, which fostered such talent such as Hauntzer and Keane, took the amateur scene by storm.

Taking wins from Complexity White and Team Fusion would qualify them for the Spring Split of 2015. However, due to Riot’s “one team per organization ruling”, Curse had to sell the team. They rebranded under the Gravity Gaming banner. This would be the first time Cop was away from him bread-and-butter team; he was no longer “Curse Cop”.

Don’t Call it a Comeback

This was Cop’s chance to shine -- a new roster. Some familiar faces, but it was a start.

And a strong fresh start they would have.

Gravity Gaming’s Cop would explode, having the split of his life. His week 2 performance would be so good, that he was crowned “Week 2 OP”. Having an astounding performance on Corki and Kalista, racking up a 10.5 KDA, it seemed like things were finally going right for Cop. He and support Bunny FuFuu were synergizing well together and it showed in their play. They would float around the middle of the pack, holding first for a week or so, then dropping to 4th. Cop would have another breakout performance come week 8, where he would only drop one death and had 11 kills and 15 assists, where again he was crowned MVP.

Looking back at season 4, on average, his KDA for the Spring Split would be 5.7 and in the summer it would hover around 5.8. While 2015 didn’t see much change, his individual performance seemed to hit an all-time peak. Gravity would go 10-8 during the spring split, granting them 10 Championship Points.

Overall, his averages toward the end of season 5’s spring split would put him between 3rd and 4th amongst his peers in everything from KDA to Kills per Minute. Coming from a passive, farm focused laner to 3rd most Kills per Minute? You would swear that this was a completely different AD carry. For once, everything was going in Cop’s favor, until once again, everything seemed to start to drift away. This time, Cop seemed to accept it.

Runback

Again, there was something more to Cop. The exhaustion from playing countless hours seemed to make apt bedmates with little success coupled with a hectic schedule. Everything compounded in and around Cop until he voluntarily moved to a coaching position. On his Ask.fm he mentioned that he was planning on retiring almost six months prior to Gravity moving Altec to the starting line-up. While he was not on the starting roster, Cop found ways to improve even after ejecting himself from the team.

Gravity Gaming would reach their apex, achieving first in the standings coming to the climax of the summer split. His coaching method’s seemed to be incredibly effective, notably Gravity Gaming owner Davis “Samurai” Vague stated in an interview with Travis Gafford; “After he had been talking about coaching for so long, we got Altec. Ok Cop, coach.” he later would state, “I-I didn’t think he [would] be doing as well as he is doing. It’s incredible!”  Being able to coach and formulate strategy around Gravity’s bizarre champion pools is a testament to his aptitude and knowledge for the game. Cop may not grind the hardest, but he has a bright mind that can bring fresh insight to player’s whose job is to grind.

After a few unsightly losses to Team Dragon Knights and Team Impulse, Cop and Gravity would end the split in 4th with a 12-7 record, granting them berth into the Regional Final’s based on their Championship Points. They would immediately be faced with a daunting challenge.

Cloud 9 had a more than questionable split, but were coming into the Regional Final with a hot hand. Gravity took them to game 3 with a 2-0 lead and were looking to upset North America’s golden boys. Cop and Gravity fall flat, getting reverse swept by Cloud 9 who would go on to trounce the gauntlet granting them a spot into The 2015 World Championships. After not qualifying for Worlds, Gravity Gaming sold their LCS spot to legendary NBA All Star; Rick Fox.

Cop would retain his role as coach over the his new team, Echo Fox. This roster would include Kfo, Hard, Froggen, Baby, and Keith. Plagued this time by visa issues, the roster would be forced to forfeit due to not submitting a proper roster on time. Echo Fox scrambled to find its substitutes, but found salvation with GoldenGlue, Solo and Gringe. While everything spun out of control around him, Cop stood unwavering; he was the eye of the storm. Echo Fox, after a slow burn, finally found success once the roster regrouped, most notably in the form of one of the most electric backdoors in recent memory.

Cop and Echo Fox would finish the spring split with a record of 6-12. He then would amicably part ways with Echo Fox right before the summer split of 2016. This leaves Cop with little options, he can retire or attempt a professional stint once again. The rumor mill churned as Cop went dormant from the League of Legends scene.

Trust the Process

Fast forward to February 17th -- Cop is asked to return to his mantle of Head Coach for Team Dignitas after poor performances had stricken them through this year's spring split. Cop has had a knack for bringing teams together; he focuses heavily on bonding and team “color”. In a press release on Team Dignitas.net [1] Cop’s goals are just that -- he plans on “increasing communication and cohesiveness” within the Dignitas brand. Returning to players whom he has coach or played with before should be a welcome change of pace and should see immediate results.

Dignitas is all-in with Cop; he has shown his work ethic over the ages. Over hundreds of metas, over countless patches, Cop has attacked each metagame like a swiss army knife. It’s never his intention to hit the hardest, or out train the opposition, but merely attempt to fix or solve whatever life throws at him. The albatross around his neck was always that his career seemed to steer itself. Cop rarely ever had the opportunities to showcase his skill for the game, but now he has the chance to foster change. There is a succinct quote I would like to leave you with:

“Be the change you would like to see in the world.” It is this silent immortality which is the defining factor that makes David “Cop” Roberson an easy inductee into a future League of Legend’s Hall of Fame and one of the greatest potential North American AD carries of all time.

The innovator of an entire style of play.

The bravery to challenge himself and

...the consistency to remain.

This is Cop, the Immortal.

Written by: @Volamel

Images courtesy of Leaguepedia.com, Team Dignitas.net, LoL Esports, Riot Games Flickr and Riot Games

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