The Vainglory Unified Spring Championship will be taking place on ESI’s doorstep in London in May and one of the teams competing will be Immortals.
The Los Angeles based org will join the likes of Fnatic (on home turf) and ten other teams from North America and Europe. Immortals MVP Jungler is Laurent ‘Aloh4’ Ortega. Ahead of the tournament at the 02 in May (19-21), we caught up with Laurent for a brief chat on all things Vainglory and being a professional player in the scene.
Esports Insider: Talk us through your day to day as a Vainglory pro for Immortals.
Laurent: My day is centered around at least six hours of practice. We start it by playing ranked to warm up and then we move on to scrims. We sometimes end practice with some ranked again.
ESI: Why do you think Vainglory has been the ‘breakthrough’ mobile esports title…is it all to do with Super Evil Megacorp?
Laurent: The community. Even though Super Evil Megacorp plays a huge part in the success, the amazing fans help them improve the game and without it, I’m sure they wouldn’t get far.
ESI: Can Vainglory, or any mobile esports title for that matter, ever hope to become a true tier one title in terms of viewership, regular players and prize money?
Laurent: We can sure hope. It may be a long process, but we are here together to enjoy the amazing ride and do everything we can to grow the scene.
ESI: Immortals have a Vainglory Head Coach in the form of Jeff ‘SuiJeneris’ Chau – how important is this? In addition what are your thoughts on player-managers in esports generally?
Laurent: It’s really important; SuiJeneris is a coach, analyst and player. Altogether, it makes him excellent in every role. However, I think coaches can only do so much, because in the end it’s all up to the players to absorb all that information and knowledge he provides and then put it to work in-game.
ESI: When choosing a team to play for what goes into your decision process?
Laurent: First of all, are they committed? Do we have the same goal? Are they looking to improve, or do they already think they are the best? It depends more on what they actually think, than what I think.
