Hello Mr. Mallant, right off the bat, how did you get into eSports in the first place?
It all started when Fabian( Former Jungler of UOL, now team coach) started to come late for dinner. When a discussion broke out about what he was doing, he told us about League of Legends and that he got really good at it. That’ s when we took our first steps into eSports. I had read about it before, and I used to play video games myself, but we had no idea how big this whole ordeal had gotten.
What was your first real-life eSport experience like?
My first eSports experience... That must’ ve been the LCS Qualification game against Ninjas in Pyjamas. My wife and I were really impressed by how professional everything was, the stage, the equipment, the reporting. Even the audience was completely different from what we expected: Instead of stereotypical nerds we met very kind, very intelligent people. Obviously my wife and I were the oldest ones there, but we were too nervous to care. After all, we were the underdog, everyone expected NiP to win. Luckily for us, it didn’ t go that way.
In comparison to more common sports like football, what do you think of the crowds at LCS events?
They’ re completely different than in a football stadium, which is one of the things we’ re trying to change actually. We’ re trying to establish a bit of fan culture. Everything’ s a bit silent and slow in eSports, we’ re missing the massive atmosphere of other sporting events. The Love Hurts Crew in particular is a bit polarizing in that aspect, everyone who’ s not on the side of the Unicorns is viewed as an opponent. They’ re hyping the people, and sometimes there’ s even a bit of friendly banter.
What is the relationship like to the Love Hurts Crew?
Well, it can be a balancing act at times. The players and crew want their privacy, especially when they just lost a match they’ d prefer staying inside. But as a organisation, we believe that fans and fan culture are a huge part of our business and more importantly of our motivation. It’ s pretty bad if you don’ t get any feedback due to a lack of fan support.
How does your age play into your eSports role?
You obviously try to work as much as you can to change certain things. eSports as a whole has already massively changed, it used to be like the wild wild West if you will. Especially in terms of behaviour. Additionally, I think my philosophy is a bit different than usual: As an organisation, we’ re always trying to be fair. We’ re giving players a lot of room for mistakes, and as long as we see that they’ re working hard on fixing them, we won’ t bench them. As a father, I can’ t stand it when you cut off young players because they made a mistake. You should always give them the opportunity to get themselves out of their own misery and grow as a person and as a player.
How has your life changed after you got into eSports?
Well I still have my old job, being a management consultant. I don’ t make a penny off of Unicorns of Love, all the money we make goes to players, the gaming house and salaries of staff members. I’ m basically a supporting act. The only think I get out of this is two more days of work during the week( laughs). But to be fair, it’ s amazing to be able to help out your son. Sheepey has a huge workload, so I’ m always happy when I can help him.
My wife and I actually watch more League of Legends these days than movies. We’ ve actually become pretty good in analysing the games as well!