Buddy

Known competitively as Buddy, Manuel Steiner is a young support player who has carved out an early presence on the European grassroots circuit while representing the roster Austrian Force. Listed as being of South Korean background and still only 18 years old, he sits firmly in the age bracket where a professional League of Legends career is either taking its first meaningful steps or gathering the momentum that decides everything that follows.

The Support Role and Its Demands

Playing support is among the most cerebral assignments in the game, and it defines much of how Buddy must approach every match. Rather than chasing personal kill counts, a support lives to enable others: warding the map to deny enemy movement, protecting the bot-lane carry during the fragile early laning phase, and initiating or defusing team fights at the exact moment that swings a skirmish. It is a role measured less in flashy highlights and more in the quiet accumulation of vision and tempo that a whole team leans on.

Team and Competitive Setting

Buddy currently competes for Austrian Force, an organization whose name points to the tightly contested Central European scene where emerging talent tends to first surface. Regional and national circuits like these serve as vital proving grounds, giving players the repetitions against live opposition that raw solo-queue climbing can never fully replicate. For a support in particular, this environment is invaluable, because coordination and communication only truly sharpen inside a stable roster playing scheduled competitive series.

At 18, Buddy embodies the profile of a prospect still writing the opening chapter of his story. The support position rewards patience and game sense that deepen with experience, which means his most productive seasons may well lie ahead. Whether he eventually climbs toward a larger regional league or settles into a leadership role on a developing squad, the fundamentals he builds now — shot-calling, map awareness, and disciplined lane support — will shape the trajectory of a career that is only just beginning.

Looking Ahead

For followers of up-and-coming European talent, Buddy is a name worth tracking. His youth is an asset in a discipline that prizes reflexes and adaptability, and the support role offers a clear path toward becoming the tactical anchor of a competitive team. If he continues to develop his read of the game, Austrian Force could prove to be the launchpad for a broader professional journey.