A Football Brand At Heart - An Interview With Wolves Esports

When Wolves Esports, the esports division of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, invested in Rocket League, they put a brand-new team together. Shift asked the organisation and the team about their exciting time in the RLCS.

Russel Jones is General Manager Marketing & Commercial Growth at the Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, and as such, he is involved in the club’s reach into the esports scene. He takes his years of experience in sports marketing to grow the Wolves brand in new directions.

Joessi “Juicy” Moorman is the coach for Wolves Esports. Aside from coaching Libertas and now Wolves Esports, he’s been busy casting Rocket League in English and Dutch for The Kickoff, Rocket Baguette: Summer Grand Prix, Rocket Benelux, nicecactus, and more. He founded Rocket Benelux in May 2020.

Rix “Rix_Ronday” Ronday is the team captain at Wolves Esports. He has played competitively since 2017, most notably on Reason Gaming, Method, and Triple Trouble. After Libertas disbanded at the end of October, he signed with Wolves Esports to bring together a team for RLCS X.

Luis “LuiisP” Puente Peña started playing on SUPRMODE Gaming as soon as he turned 15. After half a year with SUPRMODE, he played on the Swiss teams Servette Geneva and Edelweiss, before signing with Wolves Esports. Next to competing in 3v3 leagues like RLCS X and the Swiss TCS eSports League, he stands his ground in the 1v1 arena.

Ole “Oaly” van Doorn made RLCS X in the Fall Split with Barrage Esports before coming to Wolves Esports. Just like LuiisP, he started making an impact on the Rocket League esports scene in the second half of 2020.

Rix_Ronday, Oaly, and LuiisP join Wolves Esports (Source: @WolvesEsports)

You said you have spent six months scouting teams and players, before signing this roster. What made you decide on these players specifically?

Russell Jones: We wanted to take our time to understand the market before we committed to a roster. When we met Rix, we felt an immediate connection. His experience was crucial, but his confidence and enthusiasm were also vitally important. We tasked Rix with leading the first phase of our recruitment under the direction of finding an attack-minded team with potential to develop into future world champions.

How does the esports division of the Wolverhampton Wanderers fit into the football club’s brand? Do they cooperate?

Russell Jones: Wolves Esports is a brand vertical of Wolves, just like the Football Club. The main advantage we have is the opportunity to utilise club resources to support Wolves Esports from a player development perspective and a business growth perspective. As a result, we currently utilise resources from the content team, the sponsorship team and medical and sports science teams to help the project. Moving forward, we expect Wolves Esports to operate as its own business and who knows in time, it could be even bigger than the FC.

What is something you noticed in esports that your experience in sports marketing didn’t prepare you for?

Russell Jones: The evolution of the gaming and esports industries is quite staggering. I have a ten-year-old son, so I get to see and experience the gaming world through his eyes. The simple truth is that all ‘live experience’ sports and entertainment brands need to be mindful of the advances in gaming. I know that my son would rather watch an end-of-season Fortnite event than a live football game — mainly because he feels part of it (and it’s free!). The challenge ‘live event’ marketers will have in the future is how they can create similar (or better) immersive experiences for young fans in a very traditional game like football and in very traditional stadiums.

How do you combine your job as a coach with your aspirations as a caster?

Juicy: I don’t know how Finish [caster and coach for Solary, red.] does it, but massive props to him. My goal was always to be able to live Rocket League, whether that’s as a caster or a coach, at least for the time being. At the time I got a lot of great opportunities to cast due to DannyBoy, and it allowed me for some limelight, especially during the Rocket Baguette: Summer Grand Prix. As a result I was able to get into touch with Libertas, and subsequently got with Wolves Esports. I still cast in Dutch almost every week, but coaching for Wolves definitely has the priority. But we’ll see how it goes, if a future European Studio is erected, maybe I can be the European Turtle, though I’d have to brush up on my non-existent music production skills.

Rix_Ronday at DreamHack Valencia 2019 (Source: @ZeeboDesigns)

What makes Oaly and LuiisP good teammates for you?

Rix_Ronday: During the last few years of me playing competitively, I played a bunch of different playstyles. This time around I wanted to try a completely new style which I needed two mechanical players for and this is why I chose them. I really like to play off of my teammates’ mechanical plays, and that is why I think they are great teammates for me. So far, I think we haven’t really been able to perfect this playstyle yet, but there have been some big improvements so far.

Juicy also coached you on Libertas, so you were already familiar with his coaching. What brings Juicy to a team?

Rix_Ronday: Juicy brings a variety of things to a team. He’s very flexible in his approach to different situations and I am happy to have him on this team too. For example, Juicy brings a lot of hype to the team. Sometimes when we aren’t really feeling it on a day he makes sure to remind us what we are fighting for, and it motivates us a lot. Juicy is also a great friend of ours, and he is glueing our team together and helping us form a stronger bond together as teammates and friends.

You’re four years older than both your teammates. Besides being team captain, are you also a mentor for Oaly and LuiisP?

Rix_Ronday: Luis and Ole both definitely know that if they have any problems, they can always come to me. No matter if it’s in-game issues or real life issues. We are all close friends and can talk about anything together. I do think I have a lot of experience that they don’t have, though, with stuff like interviews and high pressure games, and that’s where I do think that experience comes through.

Happy birthday to LuiisP (Source: @WolvesEsports)

Late happy birthday, LuiisP! You turned 17 on the 11th of December, which means you’re the youngest member on the roster. Oaly, you turned 17 less than a month earlier. Where do you see yourself in four years, when you’re as old as Rix_Ronday is now?

LuiisP: My dream is to win the RLCS so I hope I’ll win within four years. I know it’s very ambitious and unpredictable, but I have faith in myself and I think I’ll be able to do it someday. It’s very hard to predict where I’m going to be in four years — maybe I don’t even compete — but that is my hope for the future.

Oaly: I’d like to try to combine Rocket League with my studies, so in four years I’d like to at least have my degree, which is more than Rix has haha. As for Rocket League, I’m already amazed by how far everything has gone. I went from playing weekly tournaments with friends, to being contracted by Wolves. In a few years, I hope I’ll have some offline events under my belt, but my dream is to have played at the World Championship by that point.

You’re both rookies when it comes to the RLCS. How was it to go from local leagues to the highest level of Rocket League in EU?

Oaly: It’s weird, because when I started in small weekly tournaments we used to lose a lot, even to players that I really should’ve won against. And then my breakthrough came at the beginning of this season, which was also weird, because we basically came out of nowhere. I’m not even really convinced we deserved to be as high as we were, because there’s so many good teams that we beat and I don’t even know how. I hope it’s a sign of me getting better, and hopefully that will continue.

LuiisP: When I started playing against teams as Triple Trouble or RCD Espanyol six months ago, there was a big gap between them and me. But as the months were going by, I started to improve more and more, and the gap got smaller and smaller. When I play against teams like that now, it’s not a surprise anymore if we win. I obviously still have to improve a lot to make my dream come true, and I won’t give up until I’ve reached that goal.

You have a lot of experience as a 1v1 player. Does that make it harder to get used to a 3v3 playstyle? Do you think your mechanical 1v1 abilities translate well to 3v3?

LuiisP: When I used to play more 1v1 than 3v3 and finally got a team, it was really hard to get used to a 3v3 playstyle, but my teammates at that time helped me a lot, and I started to play more like a 3v3 player instead of a 1v1 player playing 3v3. Nowadays, I think my mechanical 1v1 abilities translate really well into 3v3. It was definitely hard and I had to do a lot of replay analysis, but right now I think the fact that I played so much 1v1 has helped me be a very good player in 3v3 as well.

Your coach and team captain are also from the Netherlands. Does it help you to have other Dutch people on the team?

Oaly: I guess so. Sometimes, communication is hard for me, and if it’s in another language, that makes it even harder. I’ve been friends with Rix and Juicy since the start of the season, and it’s easier to talk with them, and express my opinion. It’s not a necessity, but it definitely helps. But I do think that just being friends, and having fun while teaming is more important than just the language.

In order to improve, what is the team’s biggest challenge?

Juicy: Knowing your mistakes, and fixing them, are 2 entirely different entities. Both Ole and Luis were used to playing purely based on instinct. However, you have to think about your mistakes consciously in order to change things up, which can be very tough since it’s such a fast-paced game. That has proved to be a little bit of a hurdle, but I believe it’ll be overcome soon enough. Then the entire process just starts all over again, because new mistakes come to light, but that’s the only way to go forward and improve.

What results are you looking to achieve in the RLCS?

Russell Jones: Our aspiration is to challenge and be successful at the very highest level. We are a football brand at heart, so performance is central to successful growth. However, we are committed to a development phase, so our immediate focus is on the top ten.

Juicy: When we signed up, this first season was never about the results for us. The main goal was growing together as a team and then just see where the road takes us. However, after our results in the first Regional, everyone started smelling blood. That is why we were quite disappointed with our performance during the second Regional. The Regional only further proved that no one in Europe is safe, which opens up a lot of opportunities for all teams. And it’s very possible — just look at teams like Giants and BDS. A year ago, only avid followers of the European RLRS knew who these teams were. As a result we’ve set our eyes on getting to both the Winter and Spring Major, which I think this team is more than capable of.