World Cup Spotlight: Team Ireland - Interview with General Manager 'Andy'

30/07/2019

With the 2019 Overwatch World Cup in sight, fans across the globe are rallying around their respective countries and even some they're not a part of, whether that be because of their players or other reasons. One team that's gained a noticeable following as of late is Team Ireland. Their engagement with the community has been consistent for months now. Additionally, they've done numerous scrims with teams such as Italy and Poland on stream. However, their antics aren't just limited to Twitter, where they regularly call out South Korea, extending to a discord server filled with Irish flag-coloured beer and pogchamp emojis.

It's clear they have one goal in mind: build a community. By embracing their culture and pumping out regular content, from a committed team of graphic designers and writers, Ireland are well on their way to achieving that goal. From there, we may hopefully see Irish players progress onto Contenders and make a name for themselves in the tier 2 scene.

Their incredible staff roster includes:

General Manager - @andygmb1
Head Coach - @ScrivzyOW
Assistant Coach - @thebestalexeu
Community Lead - @CelticDemonOW
Business Manager - @Theobane
Social Media Expert - @Connlocks
Content Editor / Writer - @Ihgluke
Graphic Designer - @Osiren_
Graphic Designer - @vlvtrm
Graphic Designer - @DarwinStreams
Design & Video Editor - @kefriz90
Fundraising & Sponsorship - @nexzMW
Videographer & Video Editor - @TeaFez
Art Director and Head of Branding - @hanafuda_OW
Team Photographer - @fakepossum

Instead of having a community fundraiser, asking for fan donations, Team Ireland are looking to make the necessary payments from sponsorship. This enormous task is being coordinated by Theobane, who has 7 years worth of experience in Irish esports. He's also the head of esports at EuroGamesWeek and has worked on articles such as https://europeangamesweek.com/a-brief-history-of-irish-esports-and-how-partners-like-marvin-ie-are-the-driving-force-behind-esports-in-ireland/.

Ireland will soon announce the team of players who will be representing their country on the international stage.

Team Ireland's general manager, Andy, was kind enough to answer a number of questions to help us understand the process behind and goals of the Celtic contestants:

(Abbreviations:

GM = General Manager
OWL = Overwatch League
OWWC = Overwatch World Cup
PUGs = Pick-up games)

What are your goals for Team Ireland?

"For myself as a GM I see the Overwatch World Cup as an opportunity to showcase Ireland's players and our amazing culture. I'm heavily focused in making sure that if anyone thinks of the World Cup in 2019, they first think of Team Ireland and the impact we have had, through our players and our social media teams' amazing work.This is the year for Ireland to showcase our best players that deserve spots in Contenders teams, and to grow our players and scene to a point where the first Irish player steps foot on the OWL stage.

The World Cup is an amazing opportunity for smaller countries like Ireland to showcase our players, and I intend to give each and every one of our players the time they deserve in the spotlight."

Your team has gained quite a following due to your social media, which has a relatively large team managing it. Was this a decision from the start or something you decided to capitalise on?

"The Irish Overwatch Community has always been active on social media - @IrishOverwatch on Twitter has been going for almost a year now, we run events in our discord and have weekly PUGs, so being active on socials is nothing new to us. The decision to build up a large team of 13+ people behind our social media team came naturally as we onboarded talented people for all aspects of the social media 'game' - we have writers, graphic designers, social media experts, web developers, videographers and photographers. These are the people that are really doing the hard work behind making Team Ireland the best it can be.One of my mantras I go with is "We may not win the OWWC but we will win the heart of each fan" - I think we are getting there with the hard work everyone has put in so far and will continue to put in for the next couple of months before Blizzcon."

Is there a particular team you're looking forward to competing against?

"Personally, I would really love Team Ireland to go up against Team Finland, as I'm a huge fan of many Finnish players like SKIPAH, [hopefully] one of the 2020 World Cup players for Finland.

The Finns have a similar outlook on life as the Irish - it's no secret that we're both fond of a drink, we have a sense of humour that involves not taking everything too seriously, and they're generally just great craic to be around.I think Ireland vs. Finland would be great to watch alongside my Finnish brothers and sisters like SKIPAH & KAT."

What led to you getting into competitive Overwatch?

"I started casually playing Overwatch shortly after it launched, and what attracts me to games, particularly games with a lot of varied abilities like Overwatch, is the depth of combining abilities in unique, unthought of ways - like Mei walling a teleporter on top of a tree to have your Reinhardt charge over a roof:https://gfycat.com/pitifulilliteratecraneflyI was a Mei player in season 1 because the wall was so insanely fun to make use of. That's what got me hooked into the game and naturally over time I began to enjoy the more competitive side, taking part in all-Irish Overwatch tournaments like the Mercy Cup in 2018 where I played with some of the Irish players that are now trialling for the Irish World Cup team.After some time spent exploring the scrimming scene in Overwatch and competing in a LAN event in Dublin with NYYRIKKI.NSG, I decided that I wanted more players in Ireland to experience being on stage with a crowd screaming for your team to win, so I started working hard on building up the Irish Overwatch Community to a place where it can sustain many tournaments a year."

What does your role as a general manager consist of?

"My day to day tasks would involve things such as:

Organizing photoshoots/video interviews with the trial players.
Managing tasks for our graphic designers and videographers.
Keeping up to date with the social media team.
Making sure our Business manager 'Theobane' is on track with sponsorship deals.
Talking to the coaching staff and making sure we're carrying out our coaching effectively & fairly.
Contacting a huge range of businesses and services for things such as merch manufacturing (jerseys), travel costs, accommodation etc. to compare prices and make sure we get the best deals.

There's a lot more day to day tasks, but a large part is just talking to people and making sure we're doing everything we can to build up Team Ireland to be the best it can be. "

Who's your favourite hero in Overwatch?

"Symmetra. Her teleporter allows such an insane amount of unique strategies that add such a depth to the game - https://gfycat.com/tediousmistyamericanalligator and I can't wait to see more use of her in OWL now that the meta is more diverse with the 2-2-2 lock."

What would be your dream meta for the world cup?

"Anything that involves usage of Symmetra's teleporter. I am not involved in deciding any coaching strategies, but if there is a way for Team Ireland to at least have one map where Symmetra is used I'll be very happy."

If you'd like to see more of Team Ireland, follow them on Twitter and Instagram for regular posts:

https://instagram.com/teamirelandow/

https://twitter.com/TeamIrelandOW

Image courtesy of Team Ireland's Twitter

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