Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition is the only Prime League team to make it out of the group stage of the EU Masters. How their training, which brought them here and should even lead them to the EU Masters victory, looks like, head coach Fabian “Sheepy” Mallant explained us in the interview.

Sheepy: “If this is not implemented, then we are absolute failures.”

Unicorns of Love already managed to get the victory in the Prime League. There the team already looked extremely dominant. This was also reflected in the games in the EU Masters so far. Top laner Daniel “Scarface” Aitbelkacem and Jungler Lukas “Lurox” Thoma explain this success among other things with their coaching. So Sheepy seems to have found a good way to get through to the players. He himself describes his coaching style as tough but fair.

“In the working hours, everything is given and the goal must be achieved, and I think it’s clear to all people that the standard is very high. […] That’s why I go in with a clear vision of what we have to do. We just have to win and play the best in the working time and if that is not implemented, then we are absolute failures, because that is the only thing that matters in the working time,” said the head coach.

At the same time, however, he makes it clear that in addition to the intense training, there is also free time, which the players can savor as they wish. “I think by having this duality between absolute relaxation time, where it’s also really said by me, all right, please do this, and this very very intense training, life is just very worth living,” Sheepy explains.

Preparations for the quarterfinals

This kind of training seems not only to please the players, but also to work well, as Unicorns of Love went out of the group as the first place. However, the team will soon have to face the Spanish team Heretics in the quarterfinals. In addition to intensive scouting of the opponents, the main focus is of course on gameplay.

Sheepy describes the training like this: “In the last two days we have been working on what kind of champions we want to have. The new patch 12.16 came which now has to be played until the end for the EU Masters. […] So there were some champions that we tried out and some that we’re going to adopt now […]. The next two days will be focused on us cleaning up relatively much. That means comps have to sit relatively well, the champions we want to pick are becoming clearer and you should be more structured in the draft.”

With that, the coach wants to win. Besides getting to the semifinals, winning against Heretics is important to him for another reason. “We have indirectly knocked out Giants, the one Spanish team and now we could knock out the second Spanish team with Heretics. That’s very nice, of course, if you can then piss off an entire fanbase like that,” Sheepy says with a laugh. “And after that, yes, there are only French teams left. That means that we, as Germans, then have to position ourselves, of course, and preferably above the other teams, too.”

LDLC next?

If Unicorns of Love actually manages to win against Heretics, it could well be that they will play LDLC next. A strong opponent, which the players and Sheepy are also aware of: “We have a lot of respect for the opponent, but they deserve it. […] I think we just see them for what they are, strong opponents. […] And that really just means we have to prepare well and train hard, and I think then people know that.”

For the head coach, however, training hard doesn’t mean that only the players have to do more. “I bleed with them, after all. After all, I’m the one who has the drops of sweat rolling down first. I really invest everything in the working hours for the people and I think that also inspires when someone invests so much in you and I think that’s also one thing that’s very important for coaching,” says Sheepy.

So Unicorns of Love seems to have some work to do before they face Team Heretics in the quarterfinals on Sept. 18. But even if they win that game, it’s still a long way to the European Cup. So only then will it become clear whether the training has been worthwhile.