*By Jimmy Mondal*
Will “wiill” Sims, in-game leader of the NobleGG team that recently qualified for the NPL preseason, started gaming as a League of Legends player in 2012. But his League of Legends skills didn’t foreshadow his later esports success.
“I was never personally that good,” he told Cheddar Sports with a laugh, “so I ended up just trying the coaching route.”
Sims continued to coach and manage League of Legends, he says, until Riot Games started to franchise out and he realized his chances of getting in without the connections or accolades that some of his peers possessed were slim.
At this point, he was looking for a game that was “accessible and something that you could get into early.” He realized that getting to a game late makes it harder to gain access to its inner circle and advance.
That’s when he discovered PUBG, right as it was first announced.
Sims jumped into the competitive scene in February, eventually playing in amateur 2v2 tournaments with some semi-professionals who happened to be missing team members for a full-on four-player squad.
After gaining experience through the amateur circuit and proving himself to the semi-professional community, he started to make connections to members of the NobleGG squad. However, Sims didn’t have the experience of some of the other players.
Although PUBG was his first first-person shooter game, Sims was able to prove his value by using the analytical and leadership skills he picked up while coaching League of Legends ー like “how to apply strategies, how to make a team work together, how to make people mesh.”
When coming to PUBG, he said he asked himself: “What other avenue can I approach to make myself valuable to the team? What can I offer?
“And it came down to the intellectual side of the game ーbeing able to use strategies, being able to adapt and think on the fly and being able to adjust to the situation,” he said adding, “which is what battle royale’s all about.”
Sims qualified with his team for the upcoming National PUBG League. Preseason starts in mid-January.
The fantasy sports platform is already building out a product that would allow sports betting, pending a decision from the Supreme Court, says DraftKings CEO Jason Robins.
Rex Tillerson is out as Secretary of State and CIA director Mike Pompeo is in. President Trump issued an executive order blocking Broadcom's hostile takeover bid for rival chipmaker Qualcomm. Olympic gold medalist and author Scott Hamilton joins us to talk about his figure skating career and his new book. Plus, Kristen Scholer sits down with Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey at SXSW to talk about their start-up Finery.
There is big money in college hoops. Jordan Schultz, Sports Analyst at Yahoo Sports, was with us to discuss the business of the NCAA.
Handstand is a fitness app that is making it easier than ever to work out with a personal trainer. And the female-founded app is also trying to change the way women and men view fitness.
Vanity Fair's Hive + Between Bells. We’re joined by the crew at Vanity Fair's Hive to discuss Kushner, Cook, and Cohn. Between Bells celebrates International Women's Day with Cosmopolitan. Madame Noire, and more.
You don't hear sports and mental health mentioned together often, but that's changing, thanks to a new essay from NBA All-Star Kevin Love. Chat Sports' James Yoder joins Cheddar to discuss how the revelations might change the way we talk about sports.
Athleisure is a competitive industry dominated by giants such as Nike, Lululemon, and Under Armour, but Rhone is betting that it can keep up. Nate Checketts, CEO & Co-Founder of Rhone, a line of men's activewear, was with us to share the company's plan to be a winner in the space.
Pizza Hut is resurrecting its Pie Tops sneakers to celebrate March Madness. Chief Marketing Officer Zipporah Allen joins Cheddar to discuss the kicks' new-and-improved features.
For years, online gaming has been a boys' club. Now women like Emmalee Garrido and Carolyn Noquez are trying to change that.
Emmalee Garrido and Carolyn Noquez have had to work hard to achieve their status as professional gamers, juggling full-time jobs and staying physically healthy for competition.
