Jonas Erik “Vandett0” Toth Jensen talks Astralis’ LEC performance and his future career plans in our exclusive interview.
We spoke with coach Vandett0 following the announcement of his departure from Astralis’ LEC coaching staff. Astralis broke the news in a tweet, citing issues with “the match in the coaching group” as the reason for the change. The former assistant coach graciously opened up with WIN.gg about that lack of a “click” when fulfilling his long-term goal of reaching the LEC, and how Vandett0 will now decide if he wants to change paths after leaving Astralis.
Interview with ex-Astralis assistant coach Vandett0
WIN.gg: Who made the decision to remove you from the team and why?
Vandett0: It was a decision made by AoD [Head Coach] and Kasper [Hvidt, Director of Esports] together, more AoD than Kasper, and the decision was made because mine and AoD’s coaching style and synergy together was poor.
We had very differing opinions on a lot of things. How to coach the team, how to use our players and the style of play/approach, what we want to focus on in practice, how we conduct practice – stuff like this. There’s a lot of disagreements here and there, so the synergy just wasn’t good.
Was it a decision you saw coming then?
Yes and no. I was surprised when I got the news because I thought that maybe we would be able to work through the differences and also the things that had gone suboptimally – maybe fix those in this time between Winter and Spring and give it another go. But obviously they felt like that was going to be too much work and the synergy just wasn’t there, so it was better to just call it quits.
During my entire time with the team in January and February, I could sense that, because of the disagreements that were piling up, maybe this partnership and this professional relationship isn’t really working out.
What are your plans moving forwards?
Since I was a child I’ve been chasing this dream of working in the LEC, back then it was the EU LCS. It started with love of the game, I got older and worked harder and harder and grinded more and more, it became more and more work. It became less about love for the game and more about reaching the end goal, in a way, and more about just overall work.
I think I found love in coaching players, building relationships with players, and teaching, but it wasn’t the same really as the years went on. Then I finally reached my goal and I got to try being in the LEC, and it just didn’t really create the same click in my mind like “Wow, this is where I belong, this is where I’ve always wanted to be.”
So I think that because it didn’t really click, I’m going to just take a step back and just evaluate what’s next for me and if I want to continue or if I want to do something a bit different.
Could “something different” still be within League of Legends or something else entirely?
No, I definitely want to stay in League of Legends. I definitely want to stay in esports.
How did it feel to help Astralis earn its best LEC finish so far during your stint?
Obviously very, very happy about exceeding expectations. Everyone had us placed ninth or tenth in the standings.
We had confidence, we said that we could go all the way. I think every team does, despite all the critics and the professional commentators, narratives and all that stuff. We definitely felt like we could go all the way. We were doing good in the beginning of December, we were confident. I think maybe we were even a bit disappointed that we didn’t do better in the beginning when we started 0-5.
I’m incredibly proud of my time in Astralis, not only in the LEC but also in the NLC.
What was your proudest moment during your time with the org?
There’s obviously many to choose from, but I think one that really impacted me a lot was the way that [Oliver “Dajor” Ryppa] shouted me out in an interview and said that I pulled him out of a really dark place after the losses. That moment meant a lot to me, and I’m really happy that it meant a lot to him as well. I think that that’s one of the biggest moments for me in my time in Astralis.
In your TwitLonger you highlighted Lee “JeongHoon” Jeong-hoon as being “amazing to work with” and the “best player” you have ever coached. Can you give us some insight into your time working with him?
Jeong is so gifted when it comes to knowledge about the game. His English is obviously not perfect but he has improved a lot, I was even helping him with his English a lot in December as well. So me and him actually had a lot of time to build our relationship. So I was very close to him on the team.
But I’m not biased, I think that he is an incredible player; really strong mechanically, can probably play any champ on bot, and he’s just really, really smart about the game. Sometimes, many times, I would talk with him and he would teach me something, and that’s obviously the sign of a very, very intelligent player.
If you ask LEC bot lanes I think that, based off of scims and officials, many people would say that Jeong is criminally underrated and definitely one of the best supports in the league.
