Following good friend and former teammate, Sergen "Broken Blade" Çelik, Golden Guardians' new jungler, Can "Closer" Çelik, came to NA as the second Royal Bandit/Royal Youth member to join the region in two years. Though the team was poorly rated, expected by many to have a bottom two placement, they have started off well with a 4-4 record, and are tied for fourth in the League of Legends Championship Series. 

Closer spoke with Inven Global about his friendship with Broken Blade and how he inspired and influenced him to pursue a journey to NA. He spoke about GG's progression so far, as well as playing with support, Yuri "Keith" Jew, and overall team strength. You can watch the interview on our YouTube here, or read the transcription below. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more Inven Global video content.

Parkes Ousley here joined by Closer, the jungler for Golden Guardians. You guys just finished a week 2-0, how is the team doing?

I’m really happy that we showed our performance this week. I think today’s match was really clean, so I’m really happy.

So at the beginning of the season, you guys had an 0-2 week, now you have a 2-0 week, so has there really been incredible growth since then? Or were you actually better than you looked at the beginning of the season? Or just lucky that you got the 2-0? Where do you think you are strength-wise?

Our scrims were good, like really good. I wasn’t expecting us to start 0-2. And I’m definitely not expecting us to be in 10th place like everyone is talking about. We kinda proved ourselves and that we could be a good team, and I’m really happy that we can play close to how we play in scrims.

That’s good, and you think there has been good growth since the first week too?

Yeah, I think we obviously improved a lot, but also, we kind of stabilized our playstyle to be more similar on stage and in scrims. I think that was our biggest issue because on stage we were really scared of doing some things, but now I’m just saying, “Just go, whatever.”

After we were [last place] we said, 'If we’re going to lose, just lose with no fear.' I don’t want to go back to review and say, 'We are scared here, we didn’t do this, we could do this.' I don’t want to say that. So let’s just go and lose. *laughs*

So I was talking to Keith earlier and how he was playing better, but he pointed at you and said: “This guy gets me killed sometimes, because he just tells me to go in and that the enemy is trolling.” Man, what are you doing to Keith! He’s already getting flamed, you’re killing this guy!

laughs Definitely I’m not killing him. I see enemies making mistakes for sure, but we are not in a position to punish them, so then we are getting punished, or when we are playing scared, that’s why we are giving some random kills in the games. I think that was the main issue in our losing games.

Alright, I’ll have to tell Keith it’s not your fault.

Haha, yeah just tell Keith it’s never my fault.

So I want to talk a bit about Turkey. How is it coming here? How is the meta different, the lifestyle, what is the biggest difference playing in NA rather than Turkey?

Besides League of Legends, I think it’s a dream for many people to live in Los Angeles and have a good life. I think so far, I’m really enjoying it. Like everything is good here. My teammates are good, my environment is good, and we’ve started winning, so everything is perfect here. I mean I just miss my friends in Turkey, and my family. But it’s normal, I’m just trying to focus on my job and do my job. But yeah, overall I’m happy.

It was a dream for me to come here as well, so cheers to that! I know what you mean.

Nice! *laughs*

You also followed an old teammate over here, and you just matched up against him last week. It seemed like there was a lot of tryharding there between you. It was a lot of fun to watch, how was it playing?

He was my really close friend back in Turkey, we played on the same team. I knew he was going to be a good player, but I didn’t think he was going to TSM right after Turkey. But when he went there, I think he proved to a lot of pros in Turkey and in minor leagues that everyone can do it, everyone can shine. You can get a good offer if you play well.

So when I went here, I realized, in the beginning, I would be playing against Broken Blade, we would meet again and we could hang out. But yeah, before the match, we were joking about “I’m going to beat you!” Like just joking around. But when I lost, of course it’s bad to lose to a friend, because he will make fun of me for the rest of the year. So I need to win against him next time and get my revenge.

Yeah, we gotta see you go 1-1 and then face off in the playoffs to see the true victor. If there’s another player from Royal Youth/Royal Bandits to come over to NA maybe next year, who would it be?

I think İrfan "Armut" Berk Tükek, my old top laner. I’m actually just really close with top laners, Broken Blade, Armut, and now Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell. I think Armut is a really good player as well. If he works hard, he can do it as well.

Awesome! He had a really good Worlds, it was fun watching you guys at Worlds.

Actually, Huni beat me at Worlds, but I got my revenge there as well. It’s so nice. *laughs*

Oh true! Congrats, there’s a little delayed gratification there, but I’m sure it feels nice.

Thank you. Yeah, it does. It feels good.

Anything else you’d like to say to your new fans? You’re here in NA, you’ve proven yourself individually. Anything you want to say?

Yeah, I have a lot of Turkish fans supporting me, and I can see foreign fans supporting me a well, so that feels really good. Thank you guys for your support. Thanks for trusting me and my team. I hope we can prove ourselves and play better as well.

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