The deepest position in the North American League Championship Series this season might be in the jungle, and Cloud9's new starting jungler, Juan "Contractz" Garcia, 17, is a leader of the pack already.
On C9's minor league team last year (now FlyQuest), Contractz turned heads with his in-your-face style, just counting the days he became of age to play in the majors of the LCS. After qualifying with the FlyQuest roster into the NA LCS, Contractz signed with the main roster of C9, and was named starter for the 2017 spring split.
His debut was nothing short of a marvel, finishing the first LCS weekend 2-0 and securing 26 kills in only five maps. ESPN sat down with C9's new boy wonder to discuss his entrance to the world of pros and his goals for the upcoming year.
"I did have some nerves going into the game," said the rookie about standing on the LCS stage for the first time. "It's my first LCS game against TSM, Bjergsen, Svenskeren, so it went alright.
"It definitely sucked [waiting to turn 17] because I really wanted to play LCS and give it a try," he continued. "And just, after all these years, and finally being ready age-wise to play in the LCS, it was very exciting and really surreal event for me."
Many junglers tend to have outspoken, brash personalities but Contractz differs. He is humble about his accomplishments, taking everything in stride instead of getting ahead of himself. While his aim is to become the best in the world, he knows it's going to be a difficult process, and the work only gets harder from here.
"Junglers I look up to in general are probably Reignover, Dardoch, Svenskeren. They're all really super strong junglers that have played the game for a long time at the top level."
Contractz discussed Immortals' Dardoch and his proclamation last year that he had the cleanest Lee Sin in all of North America for a non-Korean player. Contractz, Dardoch's closest challenger for that title now in the LCS, still gives the edge to his elder.
"I have to give that one to Dardoch right now," he said. "Maybe I'll catch up to him soon."
Dardoch, Contractz, Echo Fox's Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham, FlyQuest's Galen "Moon" Holgate and Phoenix1's Rami "Inori" Charagh are all homegrown jungle talent who have made their LCS debut during the past year. Dardoch won the rookie of the split award last spring, Akaadian led all junglers in the first week of LCS, Inori lit a fire under P1 last summer with his inclusion on the team, Moon helped FlyQuest to a perfect record in Week 1 of the new season and Contractz -- maybe the most hyped of all of them -- is on a team that has aspirations of making a deep run at Worlds.
Once a disregarded position in the NA LCS, the arrival of new talent, homegrown and otherwise, has made the jungle the most interesting position for the spring season in North America.
"When I was 15, probably not," he said, talking about his parents and their opinion of him being a pro gamer. "I was just spending all my time on the computer. School was ... there. But when I was 16 and finally got on [Team] Ember, they started to support me a lot more because I was actually getting a paycheck.
"Ember was definitely a good experience. It did boost up my career, and I'm thankful for them."
Ember, a former minor league NA team, was the first of its kind more than a year ago when it publicly announced salaries for each player. Contractz, the jungler for the team, was on a $60,000 base contract with $10,000 in possible bonuses, making him one of the highest-paid players outside of the top leagues. The team didn't live up to expectations, however, failing to qualify for the LCS and eventually folded after a single season.
"I'm looking forward to playing against [SKT] Peanut," he said without hesitation when asked if he had any foreign junglers he'd like to test his skills against. "He's just one of the best junglers in the world right now and I'm just really looking forward to playing against him."
Peanut, 18, is a little over a year older than Contractz. He began his career in a similar way, entering the LCK with amateur accolades to his name and the mechanical skills to back it up. Now, a veteran of sorts, he is on the best team in the world in SKT T1, and has evolved from a one-dimensional player to an elite at his position.
A similar player to Peanut in in-game style, as well, Contractz and C9 hope this isn't where the parallels between the two aggressive junglers end.