Esport – League of Legends – Ika: “I don’t need to hide anymore”

“For this new season, you find yourself the captain of a new project in the French League of League of Legends : Of Gentle Mates. A new club, founded by successful influencers, that comes to the Championship with huge ambitions…
It is clear that the team was built to win. This is always the case, but here we have taken really experienced players, with a clear objective. We now have to click together, sort things to move in the same direction. I think we have the weapons to win everything but the play-offs, the finals, possibly the EMEA Masters… I’m confident in any case and I’ll be as confident even with a bad start.

Did you participate in choosing your teammates?
It’s Hanson (Bjorn-Wager Hansen, his new coach) Who approached me at the beginning of the Gentle Mates project and who told me that he wanted me to be the first piece of his puzzle, so that he could then build a workforce with him. I was able to give my opinion on a lot of players, say whether I thought they would suit us or not… He was more responsible for the selection but I was consulted.

On paper, you have one of the most promising squads in the LFL, with a lot of big names. How were your first steps together? So far, so good. But we all want to win and there is more pressure on us than usual. I try to make sure that everything goes well and we get along very well, we manage to solve the problems we face, we dare to say things to each other and that’s more when we have problems. Lets move quickly. There is also a lot of camaraderie, we laugh a lot together. This happens a lot in the team I’m in, I don’t know if it’s normal or not (laughs)

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During your offseason, you had several opportunities to… How were you selected? Are you still clinging to the hope of joining the LEC (European Championship, upper level)?
I had a lot of offers during this transfer window. But looking at my year with the Aegis, my goal was really to win the title. I found a project that suits me, that fits financially and offline, which was an important position for me this year… It happened quickly.

For the LEC, it’s complicated… I had some contacts at the club and I knew they were going to make a lot of changes, not necessarily. Now that I have some baggage I no longer want to join LEC for the sake of joining LEC. If someone offers me a good project tomorrow I will definitely go for it. But I don’t want to join a cesspool where I play backwards.

In the last season of Aegis, you discovered what it was like to work in an influential club… but the potential of Gentle Mates seems even more important given the enormous fan base of the founders (Gotaga, Squizzy and Brocks, three of the biggest videographers in the country). How is it going with them? (He laughs.) Basically, I don’t even know them. Well apparently everyone knows Squeezie by name, but I’ve never actually seen a single video or stream of him, or even once or twice. So yes, I told myself it would be cool to join their club, but I had no idea the excitement it would create. We’ve already high-fived the founders, but I haven’t talked much about our ambitions with them yet. We don’t need them to put pressure on us anyway, we put it on ourselves.

On December 27, your offseason was also marked by your decision to reveal your homosexuality on social networks, which is extremely rare in the competitive ecosystem. League of Legends. You explained that you felt the “need to do it”. for what

It is a personal choice. Already, I was afraid that my homosexuality would be revealed by someone else, that someone would recognize me on dating sites. Even if I’m not super famous, all it takes is one person… and at least I don’t have to hide anymore, avoid conversations, it’s easy.

Your coming out received significant media coverage. How did you experience the following days?
It was a bit stressful at first, with the fallout, the media was interested in it. It’s still a little bit but I’m slowly starting to get used to it. It’s strange to think that you really start living at 27, it takes some getting used to. But people have been very positive. I expect them, but not that much.

Many have called your message “courageous”. Do you think you were? Or do you think you did the right thing?
That’s a really tough question. It’s unique to everyone, everyone experiences coming out differently. I know I was very stressed before sending this message and even before when I had to come out personally, to one of my best friends, to my parents… It’s something I hated, before sending it. The hand was shaking. The message is that you are afraid of reactions, that the person’s point of view will change, even though you know that this will not happen. In any case, when I was told that I had courage, I didn’t really take it negatively.

In sports, homosexuality is still widely seen as taboo. Is that also why it felt important to you, so as not to take the same path?
Yes, that is something that inspired me. I wanted to do it for myself, but I also told myself that it could give visibility, a point of reference for other people, to show them that someone had experienced the same thing as them. It reinforced my idea when after my message, people, even some players, came to DM me. It shows that it was the right thing to do. »