Appreciation Post for Inspired, the LCS & LEC MVP, and the MVP of our Hearts
Everyone knows Inspired: the only player to win MVP in both LEC and LCS. The shotcalling king of the jungle. But who is Kacper Słoma? The goofy gamer boy who grew into a great leader?
I have been meaning to write this for a while, but what makes this slightly harder than jojo’s is that he has a longer career that blossomed in the years I wasn’t watching League. In any case, I’ll do my best, and I hope I could do his story justice. (Alternatively: Making the Inspired wiki we deserve because his leaguepedia has ZERO bio and that’s absolutely criminal?!)
[If you missed the jojopyun appreciation post, you can check that out here.]
Inspired Origins
Kacper was introduced to League of Legends thanks to a friend from another country who sometimes visited his own grandparents in Poland (they were his neighbor). He actually first started playing on the NA server, unknowingly, with more than 100 ping, supposedly in season 3.
The image shown on LCS broadcast before spring lower bracket finals XD
As a kid, Kacper played a lot of soccer (football for the non-Americans, sorry, I’m American). But he got injured and couldn’t play soccer for a year, so he started to play way more League than before. He first hit challenger at age 14 while playing all roles and liked the jungle champions the most. When he got high elo, he chose the name that would stick with him to his pro career- “Inspired”. The story behind the name isn’t much, really. He just liked the word.
“It took me like 10 minutes, maybe. I just like the word ‘inspired’ and I just went with it. There is nothing special behind it.”
At some point, Kacper and someone he was duoing with formed a team together for a Polish tournament. Since he was still going to school, he regarded this more like a hobby than a profession.
An Inspiring Path to Pro
Kacper’s first time traveling out of Poland and flying on a plane was at age 16, after joining mousesports in 2018 and going to some tournament in Germany. They made it to EU Masters summer 2018 play-in but unfortunately didn’t make it out of the play-in.
in 2018 Inspired also had a brief stint on Pompa Team, where he also played with Mystiques, who would later go on to become jojopyun’s teammate on EGA (fun fact)
Kacper played on Rogue EC in 2019, aka Rogue’s academy team, which participated in Ultraliga (Polish pro league). They got 1st place in the regular season with a 13-1 record, and also got 1st place in playoffs, managing to win the finals 3-2.
Although Rogue EC didn’t make it out of groups at EU Masters, they still showed how good they could be. People thought Rogue EC was better than the main team (who got last place in spring 2019 with a 2-16 record). And Rogue decided to give their academy players a chance on the big stage, promoting the whole team for summer: Finn, Inspired, Larssen, Woolite, Vander. (Profit was the starting top but Finn was subbed in later.)
This whole time, Kacper had still been attending school, which he found very easy. Still, it was a tough decision to drop out of school to join the LEC. He says it’s less risky to just finish school first and then look for a career, but ultimately he decided he didn’t want to wait since he had an opportunity right then. Plus, 17 year old Kacper believed in himself; he had confidence as a rookie. He knew he was going to be the best jungler… or at least top 3.
have some rogue inspired pics :3
Promoting Rogue EC was definitely the right call as they performed much better than the spring squad, made it to playoffs, and finished a respectable 4th place. Kacper also won rookie of the split, with just one point over his teammate Larssen.
During his next 2 years with Rogue, Kacper became a well-respected player around the world and cemented himself as an icon with his 2021 summer MVP split and the Viego pentakill he got in those playoffs. Sadly, however, he was never able to lift the LEC trophy despite coming very close multiple times.
Inspiring NA
Okay that’s enough background for you right? Let’s talk about this year, 2022.
Absolutely no one saw NA Inspired coming because he had signed a contract extension with Rogue just months before that. When asked in his reddit AMA why he did that, Kacper replied, “I’m young I do stupid things in life,” which might be the realest thing he’s ever said.
Anyway, let’s not get too into the details of how Rogue kinda forced Inspired and Hans sama into NA with high buyouts. Let’s just focus on what Kacper himself said: he wanted a change after playing on the same team for so long, which is perfectly reasonable. And he wanted to join the best team that he could join, and given the options, he decided that was Evil Geniuses. (TL was also in consideration btw.)
i’m not sorry
Why Evil Geniuses? Well, as mentioned in his early interview with Travis Gafford, he already knew Impact and Vulcan were good players due to their history. He saw some Danny clips and could tell he had good hands, which is the main thing an ADC needs. And most importantly, he saw mid lane. Everyone knows how important mid-jungle is as a duo in this esport, it’s as iconic as bot-support. So naturally, the main factor Kacper was considering was mid lane.
Why choose jojopyun? Supposedly, Kacper was shown a jojopyun highlight reel, and from that he could tell that Jojo was good and had a lot of potential. Plus, he had once been the unproven 17-year-old rookie, eager to become the best. So Jojo’s status as a young rookie didn’t deter him. Kacper believes in developing rookies more than fielding players who have already played a few years but are average.
“I have a lot of trust in new and upcoming players for mid and ADC, because I was also an upcoming player. And when I was coming in, I knew I was gonna be the best / at least top 3 jungler, and people on other teams or analysts didn’t think about it that way.”
“I knew that if I would come there and give them the knowledge I have and the knowledge I didn’t get when I was starting… if I can help them with this right now at the beginning of their career, we can be a very good team,’ Kacper told Dot Esports at the start of the year. I think that’s really sweet of him, honestly, and clearly that trust in EG’s rookies paid off.
After less than a month in NA, Kacper already felt like he’d adapted to the new environment and it was way easier to adapt than expected, according to his interview with The Click. He liked that his teammates were very nice and had similar personalities to him outside the game, which made it fun to spend time with them. He also had more compliments for the other vets, Impact and Vulcan, after lock-in. He liked how decisive Vulcan is with calling engages, and how Impact knows how to win games thanks to his experience.
have a rare spring 2022 EG pic
Also, at the end of lock-in, Kacper humbly set his goal for this year as wanting to work well with Jojo and help with his knowledge in game- and he believed they could be the best mid-jungle and carry most games.
Well, he definitely fulfilled that goal, and much more.
Wolfspired Calls the Shots
wolfspired!! expired?
In the jojopyun appreciation post, I talked about Dogopyun. Now, why is Kacper wolf? Well, he's similar to jojopyun, but older and with more leadership qualities. He's also pretty talkative in general, and pretty sociable, definitely an extravert.
First, let’s talk shotcalling. Kacper is a shotcalling mastermind, which becomes very apparent if you listen to one of his CQ games (there aren't many saved, but there are some out there on youtube) or EG or Rogue voice comms. Players who played with him in CQ would always have good things to say about him. He says he likes to be in control, so he feels like he needs to be shotcaller. For him, shotcalling means understanding the win conditions in that specific game, whether that means playing more around his lanes or around himself. It also means taking input from teammates, something he’s improved at over time.
“Inspired is too good! The way he narrates the game is like so easy to follow. His comms are very very good. It’s not just his individual play. He’s a very good shotcaller for sure.”
On one episode of the EG files, the players were asked who the biggest mastermind/smartest person on the team was, and they answered Kacper and Vulcan. (Except for Jojo, who jokingly answered himself… Also Vulcan said Kacper, and Kacper said himself HAHA). In our podcast, the NAmen Podcast, former EG head coach Peter Dun described Kacper as one of the smartest and most structured thinkers he knows.
Here are some more positive reviews from his 2022 teammates:
“He’s the shotcaller of the team, he shotcalls most things, he’s really good at shotcalling, he’s really smart about the game so it’s really good to have him.”
“Inspired is a pretty good plan maker. He does a pretty good job actually.”
“He is the most consistent player on our team. He always tries to make a play for the team when our team is at the hardest.”
super sweet words between inspired and impact :(
Of course, Kacper has grown as a shotcaller and leader. He’s only 20 now, and you have to remember that people change and mature a lot in these years, like from 17 to 18 to 19 to 20.
“At the beginning, when I was playing on Rogue, I think I was not that good of a teammate because I didn’t care about other people’s opinion as much. Now, I think I’ve changed. I think I will be happy playing with myself.”
This statement (courtesy of oneesports) says a lot to me because sadly I see a lot of mindless hate directed at Kacper, especially because he tends to say exactly what he honestly thinks, which can come off blunt.
Also, in an interview with Inven Global, Kacper was asked to reflect on his departure from Rogue.
“I got very angry after Worlds [2021] that we lost to Cloud9. Maybe my frustration was a bit too hard on my teammates because I felt like the game was really won for us if we just played at least on a decent level. That’s why I was very sad and very angry after we lost. Maybe at that point, my teammates didn’t really like feel well but it was at the very end of the season and the game that mattered the most and we didn’t manage to perform well there. That’s why I got very frustrated.”
I think it’s admirable of him to acknowledge that he was a worse teammate in the past and that he’s made the effort to become better. I think that shows character, and I hope that the haters will understand that he is not the evil person they want him to be. (Only an evil genius.) Although Kacper is naturally honest and blunt, he’s making the effort to speak and act differently based on who he’s talking to, because he now understands that not everyone is the same.
“I think I’m more mature now and more confident in the clutch moments... Now I know how to motivate my teammates in stressful situations to make sure they perform at their best level. I guess that’s the biggest lesson I got since last year.”
And Kacper shows he cares about his friends/teammates in his own way. He'll do things like volunteer himself for loser interviews when he knows everyone else isn't in the mood to. He watched all of the EG Academy games and even gave advice to the academy jungler, Tomio. In one of those loser interviews he talked about wanting to cheer his team up and make sure they don’t feel too sad after the loss. And he's always willing to take the blame/ hold himself accountable. I’ve also heard good things about him from fans who have met him in real life.
He was actually so funny for this
He's still willing to show personality and spice though, like jojo. He says he and jojo are the biggest trashtalkers he has ever met lol. And that’s true, what with their all-chatting and banter and funny tweets and silly emote spam and in-game dancing. #LIVEEVIL, right?
“Inspired maybe plays up his “Live Evil” a lot on social media. But he’s one of the smartest and most structured thinkers that I know.”
Houston is Inspired, Inspired is Vibing
Compared to a flashy Lock-in, EG had a quieter spring regular season. They went 9-9 and people were quick to write them off, saying things like promoting jojopyun was a mistake and Inspired was washed up after “NA retirement”. EG were definitely considered underdogs in playoffs against teams like TL and C9 and 100T.
Proving the doubters wrong, Inspired finally won his title, and in a dominant fashion, going 12-1 in the lower bracket of the spring playoffs. He could finally leave his “choking” curse behind and kiss the trophy in front of the electric Houston crowd.
the best boys…
“It doesn’t feel like I actually really won something, I don’t know why. I think it was just too easy.”
The narrative and the eyes of the fans were understandably centered on EG’s young NA talent, Jojo and Danny. But it didn’t bother Kacper that his teammates were getting the spotlight over him- he was totally fine with it.
“I don’t really mind, It’s nice that Jojo and Danny get a lot of showtime, and they’re also from NA so I see why LCS is hyping them up so much, they’re also playing very well so I’m fine with it.”
And I'm fully aboard the NA talent hype train! Even so, I celebrate Kacper’s contribution (it’s a team game, all 5 players earned that trophy together) and appreciate his leadership, shotcalling, and teaching. And the way he always believed in his teammates from the very start.
Kacper was all smiles in that interview with The Game Haus after winning spring. When asked whether making MSI or winning LCS mattered more to him, he said brightly, “I actually don't care about MSI too much. I was really happy we won the split.” This championship surely meant a lot to him, who had been chasing a trophy for years now. His profile picture on twitter is still a picture of his team with the trophy.
Something that worried him a bit at the time was the thought of the team not getting a break from the professional grind at all. They would have to fly straight to Korea for MSI, and then fly back and go straight into summer split. And if they made it to worlds after, that would be 8 straight months of competitive League. It was cool to see Kacper express his concerns about the LCS calendar and the potential of burnout. Although he didn’t seem to end up experiencing much burnout this year, it’s easy to see how it could happen.
“....if we don’t play league for 3 days we kinda want to play it again... every offseason, I’m saying that I will take a break but after 3 days I realize that everything I’ve been doing for the past years is just playing league, so I get very bored and then just go back to the PC.”
At MSI, EG finished top 4 and didn't go down without a fight, which, as I mentioned before, is a result we could be happy about as a region. MSI and the break before summer is also the time that I sort of “became” an Inspired fan. During MSI my friend sent me an old Rogue voice comms video to show me how funny and talkative Kacper is, and I started binge watching those because he is truly so funny. That was the start of it.
NA vs EU?
OH HOW THE TURN TABLES
When it comes to comparing NA and EU, Kacper feels like the regional difference doesn’t matter as much as the teammates / team environment. He has said on multiple different occasions that he doesn’t feel much of a difference between the regions. It’s very interesting because I would have kinda expected there to be a significant difference. For Rogue specifically, he felt like the atmosphere was more serious than EG. In that interview with Dot Esports, he credits Jojo as the reason the EG atmosphere felt “less tryhard”, saying Jojo ‘doesn’t care’ . (I assume that means Jojo “limit tests” a lot in scrims, haha.)
On one stream, he said EU is more boring compared to NA and that he doesn’t miss anything about EU. However, he does think that it is harder for players to grow in NA because of worse solo q quality and less players to train with. He thinks the top 4 teams in NA are similar in level of play to EU, but the bottom teams and academy are worse.
The funny thing is, he once said he'd probably never come to NA, but look what happened. (You're welcome to stay here Kacper we love you… but if you were to go win MVP in lck/lpl/other regions, I wouldn't stop you ahdjsjdjs… just joking… unless?)
Inspired Style
So I’m once again referencing EG’s fashion tier list episode. Impact didn’t hold back with his criticism for Inspired Style. “Kacper is low tier. Looks like he’s 40 years old and drinks vodka all the time and watches soccer or something,” the top laner remarked.
Danny’s evaluation was kinder: “It goes with the vacation style, so I mean he’s going for something, he’s trying! But sometimes he doesn't try also so that's why he's not S -tier.”
I mean, I like his vacation style, it’s fun. Cancel scrims into beach angle? Always.
Kacper got his “weed crocs” sometime after Jojo started wearing his lavender ones. I guess he’s a Crocs enjoyer now. I wonder if it’s Jojo who converted him. There are a number of charms on his Crocs. My personal favorites are the US flag and the MVP one. Besides that, he also started wearing some cool neon green shoes during Worlds.
lcs players’ crocs remain iconic
There was also an era where Kacper had silver hair! As a silver hair enjoyer, I personally think it looked great! He dyed it because several Rogue players agreed to dye their hair silver if they qualified to Worlds 2020. During the Rogue years he also used to have this cute bunny hat. Sometimes he would wear it or put it on his gaming chair.
You may notice that Kacper is perma chewing gum in game. According to him, it’s a tasty caffeine gum that his coach on Rogue recommended to him. He thinks chewing gum is relaxing and that the caffeine means he doesn’t have to drink coffee before the game. And you may also notice him bouncing up and down on his gaming chair. It looks kinda fun.
Remember, Kacper was a soccer (football) kid! He still plays a bit, like some people in LCS do soccer nights on wednesdays, and Kacper went with his teammate & friend Vulcan sometimes. (Soccer buddies!)
And if you’re interested in what music Kacper listens to, here is his Spotify! (Listening now to get in the mood. Found new songs thanks to him listening on stream when he streamed in July XD)
Inspired’s Inspiration
As for Inspired’s inspiration, well, he gives some jokey answers in his AMA, like “myself” or “good players”. But anyway, his favorite player is SofM. He’s called himself “SofM Jr.” as well. He didn’t have a favorite player before, but he became an SofM fan after playing vs him during Worlds 2020- he felt like SofM was the jungler who stood out the most among all the junglers he got to play against on and off stage.
One interesting thing that SofM does is play different roles in solo q. This is something that Kacper is also doing in order to better understand the other roles, which helps him become a better jungler and shotcaller.
Peter Dun also told us on the NAmen Podcast that Inspired is the EG player that eastern players respect the most. He says that some top junglers in China watch Inspired vods, including at least one who was at Worlds. Wonder who they could be?
Faker spitting facts! They have also met IRL, which is cute.
The Bumpy Road to Worlds 2022
EG decided that “MSI slump” didn't exist and came into summer split dominant. Perhaps people have forgotten now since a lot of things happened between summer and now, but Inspired had such a cracked summer regular season. He was in MVP contention so early and at some point it became clear it was gonna be uncontested. And the actual ballots were so unanimous.
He also won 3 Player of the Week awards that summer, and thankfully I managed to get at least ONE of them right (would have really been mad at myself if I didn’t lol) so I have an Inspired statue, woohoo :D
Anyway, EG finished regular season in first but fell to lower bracket in playoffs. That's when they had to claw their way to worlds in two grueling best of fives against TSM (that one filled with unfortunate tech issues) and then TL, the $7 million superteam. Watching these series as a fan was just nonstop heart attacks, I can't imagine how stressful it must have been as a player.
Thankfully, the boys clutch it out and secure game 5, screaming and celebrating. When the nexus explodes, Kacper and Vulcan immediately jump up and run toward each other for a heartfelt hug. Kacper yells “WOO” at Jojo while patting him, hugs Impact, and then hugs Danny.
A happy sequence of interactions immediately following the series. Click through for serotonin.
Kacper gets called to the analyst room for the Pro to Pro segment with Hai. His voice is like, audibly sore at this point, probably from all the shotcalling and screaming, but he’s still talking a mile a minute, and he’s overflowing with contagious excitement.
“I think I’ve never been so happy in my career. I’m the most happy of all the times after a win. I was for sure not even 50% that happy when we won the spring split. Right now is so much better.”
Considering how happy he looked after winning spring, it says a lot that he didn't even find that 50% as happy as qualifying to worlds while knocking out ‘superteam’ TL. Kacper had even braced himself for a potential loss. “I’m always making worlds and finishing very high in playoffs so I had high expectations to myself, that if I lose today it would be pretty sad, but honestly I was ready to lose,” he told dGon with a cheerful smile. “I wouldn’t mind a 4 month vacation, but we won, so I’m even more happy I don’t have to have a 4 month vacation but I can go play at worlds.”
In Chicago the next week, EG would go on to narrowly lose to 100 Thieves in the lower bracket final. Ahead of the series, Kacper, the first player to earn MVP in both the LEC and LCS, takes the stage to happily accept his award amid the classic “MVP! MVP!” chants from the crowd.
After the back-and-forth 5-game series, he takes the post-loss interview again. The next day he even shows up to greet the fans alongside Vulcan and Kaori, signing posters and jerseys. Anyway, I think all this goes to show his mental fortitude when it comes to losses. Maybe that came with time.
2022’s Legacy
EG’s Worlds was a bit of a roller coaster. One of the high points was their 3-0 against Mad Lions (resulting in the funny Inspired Wave👋) in play-ins to qualify for group stage.
Kacper ended up in a group against Canyon, Kanavi, and Jankos, and he understood how scary that was. “Hopefully maybe we can win some games? I hope?” he said with a nervous smile, his voice rising with uncertainty.
EG’s 1-5 group stage record doesn’t show how just close some of those games were. But that one win was still extra meaningful, as Kacper managed to break a 0-17 bo1 loss streak to Jankos (and EG broke their 0-7 loss streak to G2). Let it be known that no one beats Inspired 18 times in a row!
“Had a lot of fun in my first year of NA… Really happy with how it went,” Kacper wrote in his instagram post after Worlds. And he should be, because he achieved a lot and hit new milestones in his career.
In an interview with dGon after Worlds (best interview bc it’s inspired AND jojo), dGon asked Kacper what he will remember 2022 by.
Rather than give a specific moment, with Worlds fresh on his mind, Kacper provided a thoughtful, inspiring response about what this year taught him. “You can win against any team if you believe in yourself and your teammates,” he said. “As long as I believe in myself and my teammates, I think we can win against very strong teams because everyone makes mistakes. I think I didn't have that much hope to beat them, but I should have, so that's the biggest takeaway.” Maybe he was a bit regretful, understandably, and thinking about what he could have done to achieve better results at Worlds.
I would say he’s right, and it’s a great mindset to have. Shouldn’t you believe in yourself and your team? And I’ll keep believing in Kacper as well. Here’s to greater heights next year and beyond!
… Hi, Kacper!! I think there's a decent chance you're reading this … I'm a little embarrassed but I also think pro players deserve to see that people appreciate them!! So… keep it up, and thank you for everything!!
And for everyone else who read this, as always, thank you!! 💗
BONUS: More Inspired Fun Facts
(sneak peek of lcsprofiles site coming soon) (info from videos on Rogue & EG or streams, some may be outdated)
Birthday: January 24, 2002
Birthplace: Białystok, Poland
Height: 175 cm (5’9)
Favorite Sport: Soccer (football for the non americans⚽️)
Family: parents, younger sister. They watch his games
Favorite LoL player: SofM
Favorite champs: Kha’Zix, Graves, Nidalee
Favorite colors: blue, green, yellow
Hobbies: soccer, other video games like COD/FIFA/etc
Favorite food: burger (maybe)
Favorite drink: homemade lemonade
Uses F for Flash
all social links: https://konect.gg/inspired
