With the next split of the European Challenger Series kicking off in less than 3 weeks, more and more rosters are being unveiled. One of the most discussed has to be Inspire Esports. The team took some of the best former Denial players and reclaimed their spot with new and promising faces being added. One of these new stars is the up and coming  jungler Maxlore who we exchanged a few words with:

Hello Maxlore, before we start talking about your current team I would like to take a step back and ask about your past career and some general topics. Since a few readers might not follow the EU Challenger Series, could you introduce yourself quickly before we start?

Sure. My name is Nubar “Maxlore” Sarafian and I currently play jungle for Inspire Esports. I’m 19 years old and from the United Kingdom.

Let’s talk about your former teammate Barney "Alphari" Morris to start off with, he is getting massive recognition from the community and has been highly praised by players. As someone who has played with him on multiple teams could you shed some light on him as a player and teammate, and do you think we will see him in LCS once he is old enough?

Great player as well as team mate. Doesn’t have ego problems or emotional issues and he doesn’t tilt. It’s a shame he's too young for LCS but I’m sure we will see him in LCS eventually.

As one of the most successful players from the United Kingdom and someone who has played in a few regional tournaments there, are there any UK players besides you and Alphari that might make the jump to the european scene soon?

No. There are players with potential however they either have mentality issues or aren’t very motivated. But this is a general issue with players from all over the world, not just the players from the UK. 

Now let’s shift focus to your new team Inspire and the upcoming CS split. Are there any junglers in the current CS or Open Qualifiers teams that you are looking forward to facing in the next split?

Not really but I know I’ll learn something new from playing against each of the junglers in CS. The jungler I am most excited to play against is Taikki because of his weird jungling style, as well as his picks, but unfortunately he didn’t qualify yet.

How confident are you in the new team and your ability to win the entire CS? Which teams look to be the hardest competition?

I’m confident that my team has a shot at winning the whole CS as long as we keep focused and keep improving. As of now, MIL looks like the hardest competition. They have some good players as well as some champs they are really good on and their team play looks good.

With Riot making a lot of changes to the game recently, do you think the role of jungler will be much different to last season? Do you think it will affect you as a player?

I think role of the jungler is similar. Early-game junglers are a little stronger due to how easily the game can snowball as well as some new junglers coming in like Mundo. I’ll be able to adapt to whatever the jungle meta will be.

There has been a question raised about EULCS/EUCS players earning too little money compared to North American players, do you think the situation is improving? Would you yourself ever consider going overseas?

Compared to last split the earnings of both European and North American players have increased phenomenally however NA LCS/CS players are still earning a lot more than EU LCS/CS players. About going overseas, as I am not familiar with the players in NA I wouldn’t risk going to NA for a CS team but for an LCS team maybe.

That will be all for today, thanks for your time and good luck in the next split!

Thanks Dan. Wouldn’t be here without the support of my friends and viewers so thank you all!  

Image courtesy of LoLesports and ESL

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