In this livestream‑style conversation, Evan Carmichael explains why he gravitates toward League of Legends and, specifically, strategic champions like Teemo and Heimerdinger. He argues that the game fosters self‑awareness because players must choose champions that match their personality and preferred playstyle. Evan prefers champions that reward strategic thinking over raw mechanical skill, citing Teemo’s built‑in vision (mushrooms) as a tool for map awareness and Heimerdinger’s turret placement as a strategic, low‑mechanics option. He discusses his personal experimentation with different roles—carrying as a "carry‑Teemo" jungle versus a more supportive approach—and relates these shifts to his growth as an entrepreneur, moving from doing everything himself to supporting a team. Throughout, he draws parallels between coaching in League and business mentorship, emphasizing that success comes from aligning tasks with one’s natural strengths and personality.
Chapters
I had a story planned today about why I play Teemo.
Oh cool, tell!
One of the things I think about League of Legends, a lot of people think that it's not related, you know, people saying it's a waste of time playing games. One of the things that I found is increased self-awareness that I really appreciate because one of the things that you have to do is within League there are you know, a couple hundred champions that you could play. And when you first get into it, you don't know who to play, and you don't know, you know, what you're supposed to be doing. And you need to pick a champion that fits your personality. And so I found that I really like strategic champions, things where you think more instead of having to be mechanically skilled. So there are some people who can move their fingers on their mouse, you know, 1,000 miles an hour and can get the exact combinations out super quick. That's not me. I could do that if I practiced enough, but we play once a day. The people who are playing 8 hours a day are the ones who can get really skilled at that, just like anything else. But strategy is something that I'm naturally good at. And so I would have more success with the champion that has a strategy component to it, or is highly, you know, strategy-oriented instead of the mechanical skills. And I started playing Teemo because, as you guys can see, I guess, when you watch, you try to figure out what we're doing. It's a 5v5 game, and you're trying to destroy the enemy base, and a lot of the map is dark. You don't know where anybody else is. Um, and one of the biggest problems in the lower, uh, tiers of the game is people don't create vision. Um, so you can buy these things that show you parts of the map, and when you have vision, then it allows you to see when people are coming, allows you to make escapes, allows you to not get killed. And I was upset that nobody on my team was getting vision. And Teemo has vision built into his kit. Ah, Master Yi, they picked a Master Yi. So one of his abilities is to drop a mushroom and the mushroom gives you vision. And so I started playing him because I liked the ability to see what was going on before I go and make the move. That's why I picked him, uh, and then I learned to love him a lot more. I'm actually playing Heimerdinger in this game, again a champion that is way more strategic than mechanics. Um, did I do well my last timer? I think it was okay, right? I think it's been a while.
Your last timer game, you usually always do well with timer.
I feel like it's been a while since I played him, and the last game I was a little rusty, but I think we, I think we won anyway. So, so I typically do well with strategic things, and in helping people who've, who've started playing the game And they ask, "Well, what champion should I play? What's the best champion, right? What's the best champion to go out and play? Who's the most powerful?" Well, there is no one most powerful champion, just like there's no one most powerful business to start. The right answer is the one that's right for you. So what kind of person are you? Because if you play somebody who is not suitable to your personality, you're not gonna have success. So I'm appreciative of the self-awareness that I've gained by playing the game. One minor adaptation I've made— for most of this stream I've been playing a carry Teemo jungle style. What that means is the burden is on my shoulders to win the game. I'm taking— well, I'm taking a lot of the resources, I'm pushing hard, and if you look at my scores, they're like 15 kills and 4 deaths or something. It's always massively in favor of me, but then my teammates are always dying, right? Jay and I do well, and the team's always feeding, and we end up losing, especially recently. We had a good streak for a while. And so yesterday I tried a different style that actually didn't work out, but I'm not done with the experiment of just being a more supportive player, of trying to do things to get my team ahead, where If I see an opportunity to do something myself and take a kill or take an objective, then I will. But my main priority is getting out there and trying to set up opportunities for my team to be successful. Now, it didn't really work out all that great because we lost yesterday, and I had a bad score. So, not a bad score, just not my usual, like, I'm gonna carry this. I'm going to carry this, uh, this thing. I think it's also kind of reflective as of, uh, my growth as an entrepreneur where at the start I was doing everything myself and I will just, I will just carry this, I will just do everything, um, and then relying more on the team and saying, hey, how can I support you and build you guys up? And so I'm trying to find the balance. So we'll see. I was hoping to have a good Teemo game here today and continue that experiment and see what happened, but We're Heimer mid, and so if you guys are watching here, I place these turrets down and these things do most of the attacking for me. And so all that I need to think about is where I put them down. So it's much more strategic. And the thing that, you know, I've worked with a couple of League of Legends coaches and people who are experts at the game, and they'll— they— that's— it's the part that's missing. It's the same thing about teaching people, you know, what home business should I start? What's the hottest thing for, you know, 2016, 2017? Nobody asked me, well, what kind of person are you? You know, what do you like doing? Right, that you say, well, this person is really strong, this is a great idea. And so there's a lot of parallels. It's parallels for everything. Doing things that suit your personality, and when you understand your personality better, And it was on me to explain, I want— I like strategy. Yes, I can learn the specifics, I can learn the mechanics, but I'm naturally good at strategy and I love it. So give me something where I can be more strategic and embrace the thing that I'm good at and enjoy doing. Anyway, so that's my— that's my story time.
