How Vaevictis eSports made a band on the LoL scene
Lord MatusAnd what's unusual about the signing of the women's squad is that the squad is not playing in the Women's League against other similar teams, but in the spring split of the Continental League, where only men's teams are on the League of Legends schedule.
The unusual thing in the signing of the female roster is that the team doesn’t play in a female league against similar teams but plays in the spring Split of the Continental league where all opponents are male LoL rosters.
Such news has made a lot of hype and negative in various forums, social media, League of Legends betting sites and other places for discussions. It was obvious that the signing of the female roster was one of the most discussed topics of the second week of February. The majority of viewers expressed negative only because, according to their opinion, the management had made the decision, only considering the appearance of the players and relying on their media popularity but not on their playing skills. As a result, Vaevictis’ results are pretty disappointing in the Continental league now. However, it looks like it doesn’t bother anyone and the representatives of Vaevictis were ready for this, about which the esportswoman who plays on a carry role in the recently-assembled roster, has told.
Six days after the signing of the new roster, Ksenia ‘Trianna’ Meshcheryakova gave an interview, in which she told about the players’ expectations and the everyone’s indignation.
About the emotions regarding the participation in the Continental League:
«Everyone worries but there is no panic among the girls, we will just play our game and try to become better every tournament week».
About the results the players of Vaevictis expect, having come to the professional LoL:
«We are positive. Our level of playing is still not very high, of course, especially compared to the players from the Continental League, but I think that if we work a lot, the level of solo/ competitive play will grow. <…> The first week will be very mediocre because we will be playing without our coach. The minimal objective is not to lose in less than 30 minutes and the maximal objective is obviously to win».
About the community’s reaction to the signing of the female roster of Vaevictis eSports:
«I was very surprised that despite lots of negative comments, there are still people who root for us, it’s a shock. I want to say to them that we have little chances but we will make our training plan after the first and start training in full force. I believe that we will perform way better at the end of the Split than at the beginning of it. And once again, thank you for staying with us».
When searches were over and the roster was finally completed, the esports community started asking questions about why Vaevictis hadn’t signed one or another esportswoman whether she had been an experienced or beginning player in the world of the competitive LoL. As an answer, the representatives of the organization announced additional recruitment of players from a female division who will be able to play a substitutional role if it is necessary. They said together with this that new representatives of Vaevictis eSports will help active players to practice and make it to the success together. The only requirement for candidates, which was made by the management of the roster — was that the candidates’ rank was not less than Diamond IV.
If we talk about the benefit of such a risk by Vaevictis eSports, first of all, it’s worth to notice that all the attention in the CIS division of the League of Legends world is paid to the above-mentioned organization. The general manager of Vaevictis, Alexey Kholin told that they had relied on this when they were signing the female roster. It’s worth to notice the fact that even those mass media, which specialize not on esports at all, were interested in the roster of Vaevictis.
Due to the hype made, the esports organization has perspectives to attract big investments. There are rumors that the Swedish cosmetic company Oriflame negotiates with Vaevictus about the mutually beneficial partnership. A female esports team is an innovative approach to the promotion of its products, which hasn’t been noticed previously. Also, the partnership with Oriflame might help the representatives of the LoL roster and the organization in general to improve the level of its media popularity.
The general manager of Vaevictis eSports, Alexey Kholin told about this in the following way:
«The great advantage is that, unlike boys, they use social media actively, talk with the community and the main thing is that you don’t need to ask them. They do this without orders, which also makes an impact on the results of our organization».
When it comes to other advantages of the situation for the esports organization, we can’t but remember a financial aspect. Vaevictis eSports have managed to save well on salaries, due to professional esportsmen have way higher demands than the assembled roster. Especially this is an advantage when Vaevictis sets not nice results but the development of the media aspect as an objective.
Speaking of the financial aspect, the general director of the esports organization said the next:
«Everything is well now, media indicators are growing, results in the Continental league are growing too and the interest in the team from sponsors didn’t make us wait — we have already received a few good offers».
However, there are both pros and cons in this turn of events, which, first of all, influenced professional esportsmen. Five ex-players of Vaevictis who became victims of the experiment left without their spots in the Continental league. They lost their salaries together with an opportunity to play on the professional stage. Now, the players will have to find a new place to use their skills.
It’s worth to notice that there was no preliminary selection for the assembled roster at all. The team was created by the current carry player Ksenia ‘Trianna’ Meshcheryakova, which used to act as a manager. The team consists of her contacts and a few members of the team had to change their role, which makes their play even more difficult. This circumstance doesn’t stay without public attention.
For example, the former caster of Riot Games, Michael ‘Olsior’ Zverev said the roster does not enter the top 15 or top 30 of CIS. He also noticed the fact that the organization does not pay attention to the absence of perspectives to succeed.
Regarding results in the first matches, everything is pretty sad here. Debut games were played without a coach and the fact that the roster had been assembled right before the beginning of the league made a very big impact on the team’s results.
Alexey Kholin who was noticed for a number of times previously had commented the unsatisfactory results in the following way:
«The girls now have their first experience on the scene and it’s really difficult for them: from white noise to playing in public, I don’t even speak about the pressure from the community. Remember how participants of the Challenger league got lost on the stage, despite these teams had ten times more competitive experience. This is the period, which should be passed once we had set such an objective as a female roster».
Kirill ‘Likkrit’ Malofeyev, a former professional player who is familiar for his play on the support position, has become one of the very few who positively reacted to the female roster. He noticed that despite the bad start of the season and all the negative, which had been expressed by the community, the representatives of Vaevictis do right, ignoring all provocations of the CIS community and continuing doing what they were doing. Likkrit, like the rest representatives of the LoL community, thinks that they will not have big achievements but «their media is top». Kirill also told his opinion that due to the transition of LCL to a franchise system in the next year, Riot Games will set such requirements to esports clubs, which Vaevictis will probably not be able to meet and it means that the story with the female roster might finish pretty quickly. Besides, the above-mentioned organization needs to have a lot of money to take part in the Continental League.
Speaking of the developers of League of Legends, Riot Games were also hit. In fact, Vaevictis eSports hadn’t violated any rules but due to such an action, the community got excited and started talking about sexism cases. Riot Games hasn’t commented on the situation, however, if they are going to do this, it will be very difficult. The reason is many scandals with the participation of Riot Games where the last ones were accused of sexism. It was very difficult for the developers of LoL to solve those incidents and it means that it will take some time for them to do something with the case of Vaevictis.