Illinois Esports

Interview with our Madden Player

Interview with our Madden Player

Learn more about Madden in the Illini Esports from our player Jacob Turner interviewed by Hanna.

Are you currently in school? If so, what year are you in and what is your major?

I’m a graduate student with the University of Illinois that is majoring in Chemistry. I’ll be finishing up in May with getting my Ph.D.

 

Can you tell me more about why you chose Madden?

I’ve been playing games all of my life with my older brothers. I remember my first console being an N64. I was also an athlete growing up and really liked playing athletic type games, mainly on the Xbox. Madden I felt like was something that I was pretty decent at. When I first started to watch the pros on Twitch play it, I thought to myself “Okay, maybe this something I can get pretty good at.” From there, I started to play online against other people and was able to use what I watch and applied it to my matches.

 

How did you get involved with LevelNextGG and Illini Esports?

I was a casual player for a while and over the years have improved. I started to follow Esports in general as a graduate student and when I saw some of the people I follow on Twitch get involved with [LevelNext] I knew I had to check it out. At the time, I had no qualifications on playing competitively and most competitions require that. Level Next however, does not require that and it’s free to register! When I got involved with them, AJ (SyncShips) reached out to me to see if I wanted to join Illini Esports as well. I knew that [UIUC] was a big school, but never would have thought there would be an Esports team!

 

What was playing in the Level Next tournament like?

I was surprised on [how] well I did in the competition. I had low expectations so never thought I would get as far as I did. When representing a school, you have a small competition within the school to see which student would be the one to rep the school. I was the only graduate student in that competition, and I believe overall with Level Next! But, the best part of the tournament was being able to beat some of the best players like Collin from [Penn State]. It gave me some reassurance knowing that I am better than I think I am.

 

Congratulations on 3rd place in the BTN Tournament! After this experience, would being a competitive player be in the cards for you in the future?

I probably won’t compete again just due to time. With going to school, a job, and a recent engagement, I don’t think I will have the time to sit down and put as many hours in like I did.

 

I also saw on Twitter that you won $1.5K in a giveaway with Level Next. Congratulations again! Any plans with how to spend it?

There are two ways in Level Next that you can win. One, be a winner of a conference , or two, get lucky in their weekly giveaways. They would usually do $500 for these giveaways, but for Christmas they were having it at that $1.5k prize which you saw me get. I plan on using those funds for the wedding!

 

Going back to playing, do you think graduate students should give competing a try?

Definitely go for it if you have been gaming your whole life. It would be kind of weird and maybe challenging if you wanted to get into the competitive scene without playing games in the past or being passionate about it. Also give Twitch a chance too! You’ll be able to see how you can elevate your gameplay by what the pros are doing.

 

Any advice or tips for eager players that want to get involved in Esports in general?

Going back what I said about Twitch, find the game that your passionate about. Learn from the best and use those strategies in your own gameplay. There’s a game out there for everyone as Twitch is such a huge platform!

 

How can we keep following your journey? Any social medias for the folks reading to follow you on?

I mainly use Twitter. You can follow me @JacobTurner22.

Any final thoughts or comments?

I’m excited to see where [Illini] Esports goes and really wish you guys the best of luck with the competition that you’re in with Level Next too. I will however, keep my eyes peeled on the Discord channel to see what else [Illini] Esports is going to do next and maybe hopefully see a Madden team in the future?

 

Thank you so much again Jacob for the interview! Stay tuned for more interviews I will have with more wonderful people part of the gaming community! Go follow Illini Esports on Twitter (@Illini_Esports), Instagram (@illiniesports), and Facebook! You can follow me on Instagram @Hannykinz20.

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