For this week’s spotlight, I have had the pleasure to interview tnek, or Kent Lullo, from the Illini Esports Rocket League team! See what tnek has to say when it comes to playing his favorite game with Illini!
What year and major are you in? I am a Freshman graduating in 2024, and I am studying Civil and Environmental Engineering.
How involved in Esports were you prior to IE? Prior to IE, I was moderately involved in Esports. Fortunately, my high school had the resources to fund a Rocket League team for the first time my senior year so we were able to compete in a regional conference with about 12 other schools. I played on the Varsity team and while we did make the playoffs, we got eliminated pretty early on. The summer after my senior year, I also played on a park district team in the A league. This time, my team not only made the playoffs, but we ended up winning the championship which was a pretty fun way to end off my high school “career”.
What made you choose Rocket League? Soccer with cars! Seriously though when the game first came out, I was naturally intrigued by the premise because I had played soccer for my entire life and it was definitely my favorite sport. So, I figured I’d give Rocket League a shot because FIFA was fine, but I always felt like as a player I didn’t have enough control over what was going on. But in Rocket League you have all the control. Which is amazing because when you make a nice play, you know it was all you, and not some built-in program or AI. On the other hand, that means when you mess up, it also means it was all you. So, there’s that interesting balance of being super rewarding and also super devastating at the same time. And I think that’s what’s made me keep coming back to the game. It’s really satisfying knowing that you’re improving not because you memorized some combo or because you’ve fitted out some weapon really well, you’re improving because of the hard work and time you’ve put in to gain better control over your car and the ball as a result.
What does training before a match look like? Training before a competitive match usually consists of two types of practice. The first type, and probably the least fun, is just solo practice. For this, you usually identify a few weaker parts of your skillset that are more mechanical in nature, so shooting accuracy or aerial car control for example. After that, it basically comes down to finding a few drills or training packs that relate to what you want to work on in which case you repeat them, and repeat them, and repeat them over and over. This is honestly such a mental game because you have to fail at a skill hundreds of times before you start to get a hang of it, and it’s really easy to want to give up. For the second type of preparation, you start to coordinate with your teammates. Initially, you might watch a few replays of previous games in which you can pick out some rotational mistakes or talk about changes in your game plan that you as a team want to implement in the future. Finally, you can get into some real games and try to work out any kinks in the team’s chemistry as a whole.
Any interesting stories about a certain match or experience? Coming into the state tournament my senior year, I was super excited to be a part of my own smaller version of what I had been watching the pros do for years beforehand. While I had definitely been able to admire the mechanical skill and teamwork they displayed, I had never truly appreciated the immense amount of pressure they were doing it under. I think Esports is unique in the sense that all the pressure one feels must be conquered by their mind. There is no aspect of physical activity which allows a person to blow off steam, and this was pretty crazy to experience firsthand. The whole time, my mind was battling between needing to stay calm and focused while sitting still and wanting to go crazy while running down the halls or something. I learned how much of a mental game Esports really is, and even though my team didn’t end up winning the tournament, I still felt as though I had come away with a lesson that was just as valuable. You can put in countless hours of work and become extremely skilled with the controller, but if you can’t control your mind, then everything else is irrelevant.
Any upcoming events our students should know about for 2021? Unfortunately, none of our teams managed to qualify for the Collegiate Rocket League circuit this semester, so nothing too notable is happening in the near future.
How can more people get involved with IE? I think watching Rocket League events that come up in the future would be a great way for people to initially get involved with IE. Unlike other Esports, Rocket League’s gameplay is very intuitive to follow because it doesn’t have complicated rules and mimics an already well-known sport. Competitive Rocket League is extremely entertaining to watch, and I think even tuning in for one 5-minute match would get people hooked.
If they want to compete with the Rocket League team, the first step is joining our discord server! All you have to do is contact our coordinator, Tyescraper, through the main Illini Esports discord and you’ll get an invite. After that, feel free to join one of our 6mans matches or sign up for tryouts at the start of each semester.
Especially if they want to compete with the Rocket League team.
Anything you want to shout out? I want to shout out Eric Serrano and Nathan Miller for making up my favorite team I’ve ever played on!
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Thanks again to tnek for taking the time for this interview! Keep up with our Rocket League Team via Twitter and Instagram to see what they are up to by following Illini Esports!
Also, if you wish to follow me, check out my Instagram at hannykinz20 to see what I get up to in my personal life.