How did Lil get into esports?
How Lil got into esports
Ilya «Lil» Ilyuk posted a video on his YouTube channel, where he talked about why it’s not worth getting into esports. Lil highlighted 5 main factors that clearly show why esports is far from being the «dream job» as it is commonly believed. Only a few earn big money. Decent salaries are offered by only a few organizations in the CIS. It is difficult to break into the pro scene. New faces appear very rarely, usually just a few people per year. You will have to sacrifice time, work, education, and personal life. In the end, there is a great chance of ending up simply unfit for life, asocial, and uneducated. Health problems due to a sedentary lifestyle in front of a computer. Lack of creativity. Video games do not bring benefits to society.
• Excessive attention — it’s bad when there is no team and no results: «After all, I am primarily a player and results should come first, and then media attention. Not the other way around.»• He doesn’t interact with almost anyone from the current Dota scene because about 80% of them are from public games. He considers the lack of connections one of the main reasons why he spent a long time without a team: «No friends — no team. More than 50% is about connections.»• The main problem is that media personalities fuel harassment even more. However, when you meet them in an analyst studio, normal communication ensues. And for haters, he set up a special mini-map mute on the stream:• Lately, he has had back problems, even went to an osteopath several times for massages. The reason is prolonged sitting in one place. Now he exercises every day.
• Playing under the pseudonym John Doe — a cool experience: «When you are an unknown person from the public, if you beat someone — you’re cool, if you lose — it doesn’t matter. But when you’re Lil, if you lose, win against a tier-3 team — you’re not cool. It was funny to watch — you turn on the analyst studio and see Smile talking with a serious face like: ‘This guy knows what he’s doing.’ It was amusing.»• Alexander Levin impresses him as a person and as a player: «They talked about Nix, that he is right there — Ramzes version 2.0, also talks a lot, manages the team. That commands respect.»• The toughest moments were when Ilya was at home analyzing his career: «The thought that saddens me the most is that I wasted the two best years of my career. I can’t say it’s my fault and my responsibility. Rather, what did I do so wrong in my career that I ended up spending two years just sitting at home.»
• He deleted Twitter not because of the story with Sockshka and N0tail. The reason — he wanted to change something in his life, and at the right moment, he came across a gif where Topson says, «Let my game speak for me.» He felt that Twitter had not brought any benefits over all that time, except for a thousand dollars for advertising, and he deleted it. He believes that if he played under his own nickname, Smile wouldn’t praise him.
Ilya «Lil» Ilyuk said on his Telegram channel that at the moment he has no specific plans for the near future, but added that he is doing his best to join a good team. At the end of last month, Lil announced that he will no longer be standing in for Cyber Legacy. Recently, Ilyuk reached the milestone of 8,000 MMR. On the stream, people often ask about my future plans, so for now, there are no specific plans. And the prospects are not very bright either. Everyone probably remembers my not very serious post about how «esports players are born.» Now, rephrasing, I can say that to become a professional in this field, you need a lot of luck. You can be a great player and have a high rank, but it’s all useless until you have the right connections. And even if you have them, it’s not certain that they need players. Or maybe they do, but they might prefer someone else, less skilled but more suitable for the team in terms of personal qualities. And this will always work, whether you are a rising star or have been in this «swamp» for 5 years. Of course, a lot also depends on ambitions. For some, weekend tournaments with $100 prizes or open qualifiers are professional esports, and everyone is welcome there. As for me, in the current circumstances, practically no «normal» team changes its roster (and if they do, then with a specific plan where I am unlikely to fit in (hopefully not)), and any «new» team, without high-tier players, is doomed to fail. Therefore, if something good happens to me, it will only be if the stars align, I get lucky, or someone falls out of favor due to high expectations of their results, and at that lucky moment I get a chance to show myself. I can say that from my perspective, I put in maximum effort, and I do everything possible, but right now it’s just randomness that decides whether something will work out or not. That’s how it goes. Stay tuned for news on our website and in our VKontakte group!
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