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Dare to Dream
USA National Team League of Legends Head Coach ‘Inero’
Nick ‘Inero’ Smith’s journey in esports has taken him all over the globe, from Ireland to Korea, enabling him to play with and against some of the strongest competitors that League of Legends has ever produced. Yet, the thing that connects each part of his decade-long career, in his eyes, boils down to one word: perseverance.
“I’ve definitely pushed through adversity in my time. Whether that’s team culture faltering, players leaving, orgs dissolving, even flying halfway across the world to find out there wasn’t a computer waiting for me on the other side. I pride myself on bettering the team environment in spite of it.”
Most recently serving as the Head Coach of Cloud9 in North America’s League Championship Series (LCS), Smith has done it all on the staffing end of team management. Having served as the general manager for the Golden State Warriors’ franchise, the Golden Guardians, as well as the Head Coach for NBA legend Rick Fox’s club: Echo Fox, Inero has continued to find himself surrounded by traditional sports even in the midst of his esports career path. Despite pursuing football when he was younger, a severe asthma diagnosis scared his family and sidelined him as he entered middle school. Looking for something that could satiate his competitive needs, Inero stumbled into esports.
It wasn’t always League of Legends for Inero either. He was a big Call of Duty player, and found himself playing online events with his friends, building camaraderie and connections that he still maintains to this day. After a couple of passes on the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), however, Inero decided to dive headfirst into the vast world of League of Legends. “The game has so much depth to it that isn’t seen at the surface level. Every year I’ve played and taught this game, I’m learning as I do it,” Inero reasons.
“Think about if the NBA came with different patch notes… like there’s new ways to flop now. You can get an edge on someone who has been playing longer than you because the game fits the way you play better. (League of Legends) gets a soft reset every now and again and it’s not impossible to catch up to people who have been playing far longer. That’s the best part.”- Nick ‘Inero’ Smith, USA National Team League of Legends Head Coach
Fast forward to today, and Smith has been tasked with one of his most daunting challenges yet, shaping a team that the United States can be proud of. Bringing along 3 of his former players to the team, he’s been granted an edge that some of the other countries simply aren’t afforded. “I've worked with everything from vets to rookies… but it's up to me to adapt to my players and help shape them into a unified direction.” The teams from China and Korea are poised to be the steepest competition for the American roster, but it’d be unwise to pencil them into the final already, according to Inero. With so many teams featuring a mix-match of professional athletes and top-tier ranked ladder players, the top performers will be determined by who can best gel their rag-tag group.
Inero and USA Esports share the same goal for the future of esports legitimization: getting the product in the hands of students. “It’s about getting to the place where the game is recognized as a team sport and is popular in schools.” As a longtime industry veteran, he worries about eventually becoming out-of-touch with how gaming is consumed at the youth sports level. He has witnessed firsthand what programs like Maryville University and Winthrop University have been able to produce for the competitive League of Legends scene, including a handful of current professionals in the LCS. Those programs, he is hopeful, will eventually lead to the same kind of fandom that packed the LCS arena in Los Angeles a few short years ago, and drive local communities to rally behind their schools. The opportunity to experience different cultures has not been lost on Inero throughout his time in esports, in fact, it is what drives him. “International competition makes me feel alive, makes me feel in tune with the rest of the gaming world.” When gamers from all over gather in a single place for a tournament, you “naturally want to feel like you’re just as good as the other people meeting you there,” Inero posits.
The bottom line is simple for Inero: “For me, it's all about representing my home and the place I grew up. I've traveled the world thanks to esports, but being able to represent my home country is a massive honor. I'm just hopeful to provide a good base for USA National Team to build from for the future, and to help enable our players to compete at the highest level they can.”