For something a little different, this time I spoke with the manager of the qualifying EU Xbox team Lucky 7.
Name: Ian Talbot
Age: 20
Occupation: COO of eSports for Lucky7
What does being the COO entail?
It means I'm reasonable for managing the Lucky7 eSports teams such as the RainbowSix team who is currently intending the 6 invitational, and also contacting sponsors for the team & the jerseys side of it and also the eSports design team to.
Tell me a bit about Lucky7
Basically L7 started off as a sniping team for Call of Duty for a couple of years, and they've gained huge support from the Call of Duty fans with a staggering 205k followers on twitter and 214k on our youtube channel, and now L7 have entered the RainbowSix competitive side on Xbox One.
Does Lucky7 have any siege teams besides the EU Xbox one?
Not at the moment.
What's your background in gaming and esports?
I started of managing team back in 2013 when I came to xbox 360 to manage sniping teams, such as eRa Uprising and other orgs, but after managing them I started to get interested in eSports. So I joined DoNGaming who played Battlefield 4, and I was in their second team as a competitive player. After a few months went by I decided that I wanted to become a manager again but for eSports, so I joined XGN and I was managing the originations. Then I left for abit to take a break from it all because I thought it was fun whilst it lasted. Then RainbowSix came along and my mate from work told me about this game, so I bought it and ended up becoming a RainbowSix manager for SavageGaming PC & Xbox. Then I left and took the Xbox team with me to join L7 and here we are going to Canada!
Why managing instead of playing?
I thought that the experience and the knowledge I picked up from managing Call of Duty teams in the past would help me in the future such as, sponsorship, jersey company's, working within the organization itself.
What interested you about Siege specifically?
The structure as a whole, and mostly the competitive side of it. It felt like a proper eSports game that looked like it was going places, and I wanted to be heavily involved in that, specially helping it be more noticeable for people who wanted to play the game and compete in it.
How long has Lucky7 been playing as a competitive Siege team?
Since October the 31st.
Tell me a bit about the players
I picked the team up from Wrecking Gaming at the time I was manager of SavageGaming, when we had the old team we had Skybuu as Captain, approx, brid, ScreaMy, and Flashe. After leaving Savage to come to L7 we had to let Flashe go because he wasn't committed to the team and the scrims. We looked for a 5 player and that's where Approx and Skybuu picked up L7 Erakore as our 5th player. Eventually we picked up one more as a sub called Amaze who also plays for us. They are all funny and chilled out guys until they play scrims and tournaments, then they come across as serious players who put a lot of time and effort into the game and they always give their 100% effort and as you can tell they have gotten their rewards!
How do you think the team will fare at the actual invitationals?
I think they will go far in this upcoming event. They show great team spirit, and once they get to the event they only have one thing on their mind: winning and working as a team to do so. To be honest with you, me and the staff behind L7 are really made up for them.
I wish you guys well in Montreal and hope to see the team in the new Majors!
Thanks and you'll sure will 🍀