Esport-Aegis: “Launching a team we were thinking of”

It’s a real trend now. After Karmine Corp, Joblife, BMS, or even Mandatory, Aegis, a new French esports club project led by Twitch personalities officially saw the light of day on Monday evening. And its founders are no less well-known among the streaming platforms: Xavier “MisterMV” Dang, Kévin “Shaunz” Ghanbarzadeh and Alexis “DFG” Rodrigues have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.

Therefore, the structure does not start from scratch, and the trio already has a certain affinity for esports. Shones, for example, played and trained at a very high level League of Legends From a few years. But in the current main game of the latter, Aegis begins her adventure: Teamfight Tactics (where TFTthe game “automatic chess” in the world League of Legends), with three French players among the best in the world today, Grégoire “Un33d” Bodin, Arthur “Magarky” Boutin, and Laurent “Pas de Bol” Cidere, European champions in 2021.

The day after Aegis launched, its three creators detailed the motivations and ambitions behind a project that appears set to push French esports forward a bit, in an already thriving period.

What prompted you to found this club?
DFG : We all have a fairly obvious affinity for esports. The MV followed a bit, Shawn’s and I played competitively, reaching a very high level. We keep getting attracted. Create a team, we’ve been thinking about it. We first talked about it with Shawnes, then with Xavier, who was instantly excited. went like this.

shuns : The three of us have built communities through live broadcasts and our previous experiences with this medium. We exchanged a lot with the people who follow us and realized that there were a lot of esports fans out there right from the start. League of Legends It’s over ten years old… All this environment is growing but it lacks a project that has come from people like us who have been around for a long time. We want to offer something to those who identify with us. club, but you can also create events to physically bring our communities together around esports. It is missing today.

Have you inspired what we’ve seen over the past couple of years in French esports and the creation of several live-streaming projects – Kameto, JL and recently ZeratoR?
DFG : When we talk about getting people to meet up, Karmine Corp’s KCXs have been phenomenal things, for example. On a sporting level, the Kavkaz Center track is almost a miracle. It would be very difficult to clone him and we know him well. We don’t have the ambition to be strong but to offer something different. Esport is a dense and uniform system.

mr mv : You must be efficient but not skip steps or hope to be very profitable. It’s a place where most people lose money. We want to love it, to experience something with our communities that will come together. If all goes well, it will be great to live. And our three players are cracks.

start with TFTDid it make sense to all of you who have a connection to the game?
shuns : There is a strong balance between esports and live broadcasting TFT. We all play there too. It was the perfect gateway to the club, while enhancing the community aspect.

mr mv : TFT I did a lot of it while streaming but watched a lot of stuff too, including tournaments. I found the scene very cute when I didn’t capture anything League of Legends… It took me a while to do events in my corner and now I am very pleased with it, the people who follow me respond very positively. I’ve never been part of a project like this before, to build a team. In an active and dynamic society like the society TFT, Fabulous. The game is in full swing, everyone is talking to each other, they know each other, it’s a good winnowing. There is a competitive atmosphere but it is perhaps less hostile than other games.

Sportsly speaking, you will leave with an ambitious team and three players who are among the best in the world. Is there an outcome goal?
shuns We created a club above all to win trophies. These three players are the pioneers of the scene TFT And we’ll invest resources, create a staff to help them succeed. We want a professional group working together. They know they have talent but they can still improve it. There are very good players in Karmine Corp, in Solary… but the goal is clear: to win. In other games, if we go there as well.

You yourself did not go far from qualifying realms TFTWill you continue to have personal ambitions?
shuns : I will always be a player, now if you qualify for the world championship in front of our players it will be a problem! (He laughed) This is actually practically impossible. TFT It requires more and more training to be among the best.

mr mv : At worst it will be the fourth player. (He laughed)

Are you already thinking about diversification? When we know you we necessarily think of League of Legends. the playback speed (which consists of finishing the game as quickly as possible) is a separate system, but could it have room for expansion as well?
mr mv : Antecedents in terms of competitions are always poorly spent in a society playback speed, is very rooted in philanthropy. The DNA of Twitch in 2014, 2015, today has been much less. It should not be considered, no. Perhaps other games on the other hand, combat, for example.

DFG : We would like to diversify, in the end (To smile). For now, we focus on TFT. We first want to lay a good foundation for this club, to ensure that the project takes off. Then we’ll probably want to look elsewhere if that makes sense to us. We do not rule out having ambassadors either, which is something that is being done more and more in esports. Even if we were a little ourselves.

shuns : no secrets League of Legends We are interested globally. But we wouldn’t go without ambitions or a great team behind us, regardless of the league.

mr mv : Everything will also depend on the first year. If we all yell at each other and our players don’t get any results… (He laughed)

shuns : This is not a planned scenario but it’s good to talk about! We also want to have fun. this is not startWe’re not here to make money. We have invested our personal resources for the time being. We want to add value to this environment, we start and believe in it and we will work to achieve it. »