League of Legends: An Interview with Elite500 – Best Vladimir in the World

A Q&A with Elite500

Do you remember which Season you started playing in?

"[That] was around Season 2, Jayce was on the login screen but I kept taking long breaks and played other games, so I did not really start playing seriously until the end of Season 3"

When and why did you decide to start streaming your games?

"I started maybe [in] Season 6, I wanted to make streaming full-time my job and saw some post on r/vladimirmains talking about the standard Spirit Visage build. I at the time was rushing Void Staff first and one-shot my midlaner at level 2 with the 450 damage combo nobody knew about. People were surprised and started copying it and I got around ~3 viewers average on my first month of streaming."

Following that, when did you actually realize streaming full-time is your ultimate goal? Do you look up to a certain streamer?

"Pretty much before I even started [streaming], since I can remember my life goal was to be able to play games and make money off of them. My determination only grew with how much I streamed, I discipline myself and watch motivational videos literally every day. My favorite speaker is Les Brown, I know half of his half-hour speech off by heart now. I admire forsen for the community he managed to achieve and I find Aris from avoidingthepuddle really funny and sometimes really wise."

You started playing Vladimir after hitting Diamond already, would you still recommend him for low-elo players?

"He is definitely more suited to low elo. He has a 50% win rate in diamond and a 47% win rate in Master+, low elo players do not know when to respect a Vladimir, which makes it really easy to solo carry games."

Coming back to your streams, you often mention being a full-time streamer is your biggest life goal yet to achieve, is there anything else comparable for you, maybe outside of League of Legends?

"I am in a relationship and I want that to come out successful, so it is hard balancing time when you stream every second you have. Keeping my friends that I have made over the course of the past 4 years in my IT classes would also be great, my biggest focus, though, is definitely being a full-time streamer and becoming more and more successful."

Following, what are your favorite things to do outside of gaming stuff?

"I enjoy reading philosophy books, mainly about stoicism, and love going swimming."

Going back to League of Legends, have you ever considered going pro?

"I thought about it and while I think I definitely could, I managed to get to Challenger every season so far, not keep it because of classes and work. I think going pro would limit my streaming time and not really allow me to make the maximum money I would want to. If I am putting my IT career on pause I would not want to waste the time on being a League of Legends professional – that does not pay nearly as much either."

Following your rank, what has been your peak so far?

"I went up to Challenger 522 LP in Season 8, but recently I have gone to Grandmaster 560 LP. It might be because the ladder is really inflated right now though."

Did you like the adding of Grandmaster and Iron?

"I mean, I have been getting matched more consistently against players of the same ranking, so I feel like it did well matchmaking-wise. People complain a lot about it because they do not like change and cannot accept new things. I find the change was good."

Finishing this interview, would you like to share how often you regularly stream?

"I stream almost every day for at least 3h+ on weekdays, 9h+ every weekend. The schedule is on my Twitch page."

Here is a quick summary of Elite500’s social media:

• Twitter: @Elite5002
• Twitch: Twitch.tv/Elite500
• YouTube: Elite500
• Discord: Discord.gg/Elite500
• Reddit: Elite500
• His op.gg: Elite500

Thank you so much to Elite500 for taking the time to speak with us!

If you enjoyed this interview please let us know in the comments. Who should we reach out next to?