The 4th edition of the e-Sports Tunisian Cup (ETC 2017) took place at the Carthage Game Show (CGS 2017) on the 5th and 6th August at the UTICA. Carthage Game Show is an event that gathers multiple activities related to video games: game development conferences, game development and artistic competitions, cosplays, retro gaming and YouTube. The event had more than 1.500 visitors, 20.000 watched the 16 hours of live streaming on Gamers Arena’s channel, and more than 350.000 viewers heard of the event on TV channels Nessma TV and Hannibal TV.
43 teams participated in the ETC 2017 – League of Legends and the grand winner was Armoured Brothers. They convincingly won against Geekerz 3-0: team captain Ali Gaaloul and his teammates were in top condition and won every single game during the whole tournament. Armoured Brothers have been training very hard for the qualifiers and for the IeSF WC, their current roster is the following : Ali Gaaloul, Sami Sliti, Ayoub Chargui, Samih Massaoudi and Selim Zaouali.
34 players participated in the ETC 2017 – Tekken 7 and the grand winner was Aziz Kallel. His solid execution and patience were too difficult for his opponents to deal with.
The winners will have the chance to represent Tunisia during the e-Sports world championship – IeSF World Championship which will take place from November 9th to November 12th, 2017, in Busan, Korea.
We interviewed Armoured Brothers’ team leader – Ali Gaaloul, a regular player of the IeSF World Championships.
Interview with Ali Gaaloul – Armoured Brothers captain(By Mary Stambouli and Raft_k – August 2017)
Hello Ali, firstly we would like to congratulate you for your amazing performance during the national IeSF qualifiers, wishing you all the best in your participation at the IeSF World Championship Busan 2017.
Answer : Thank you very much, it truly is a pleasure to be able to represent Tunisia internationally once again, we have sacrificed a lot and we are going to put in a lot of effort in order to be able to succeed internationally in Korea.
Q : Do you remember your first experiences of playing league of legends and did you think – back then – that you’ll become the undisputed best Tunisian League of Legends player?
Answer: I would not call myself the best Tunisian League of Legends player, I think however with the right amount of resources in game which my team is able to give me, I know how to carry the game and I also have good knowledge on what makes a team successful through my previous experiences.
My first ever team experience was with a team named “Godslike gaming” in Tunisia, I was around 13 years old and I was diamond 1 in season 3 and I had uploaded a screenshot of my achievement in a Tunisian LoL group, I had then received a message from someone named “Amine Abidi” (Godlike King) who had offered me a spot in their team which I ended up accepting.
I always did strive to be the best however and I was never satisfied with coming 2nd place, for me, coming 2nd was the same as coming last, so every time I would lose, a tournament, I would analyze what went wrong and what I should not do again and how I can improve the team atmosphere, etc.
I always did strive to be the best however and I was never satisfied with coming 2nd place, for me, coming 2nd was the same as coming last, so every time I would lose, a tournament, I would analyze what went wrong and what I should not do again and how I can improve the team atmosphere, etc.
Q : Being a successful player, how can you manage your time between your studies/work and gaming? (if applicable)
Answer: Time management and setting up a timetable with discipline is very important, I do not think that it is necessary nor is it productive to play for more than 5 hours a day, so I would wake up, eat etc, workout a bit, play, but in between every win/loss I would take a 10-30 minute break analyzing the game i had just played/doing other activities such as school work etc, but time management and knowing how to discipline yourself is very important for both LoL and real life matters if you wish to succeed in both categories.
Q: What are the qualities needed to be a successful League of Legends player?
Answer: I believe that discipline, self-criticism and motivation are the 3 most important factors when it comes to doing well in League, most players tend to blame their team mates in soloq when in reality, most of their games would’ve been winnable if they were simply better at the game, but they are unable to view it; also it is important to know how to improve, and to have the patience to admit that you are bad and to admit that you need to improve, and to also know how to do it through watching your own replays and better players play.
Q: What do you think of the League of Legends scene in Tunisia?
Answer: My honest answer would be that I do not believe that it is getting enough media attention and players are not treated very well.
Players in Tunisia who DO have the potential to go pro even at an LCS level would be ignored or looked down upon or even laughed at, I have seen players who have the potential to go pro, but people who are actually high up and do have the power to help them would simply laugh at them or mock them saying they are not “pro players” nor are they “semi-pro” and that they will never get anywhere etc, which ends up ruining their self-esteem.
Players in Tunisia who DO have the potential to go pro even at an LCS level would be ignored or looked down upon or even laughed at, I have seen players who have the potential to go pro, but people who are actually high up and do have the power to help them would simply laugh at them or mock them saying they are not “pro players” nor are they “semi-pro” and that they will never get anywhere etc, which ends up ruining their self-esteem.
The Tunisian LoL platform brings players down rather than helping them succeed due to its horrible infrastructure and the fact that players are not treated like the e-Sports superstars that they should be.
I believe that if players were treated the way that they should be treated, and if Tunisian Associations/organisations had actually paid enough media attention to e-Sports in Tunisia, then we would have at least 3+ players who would already be in the LCS because Tunisians are actually good at League but they do not get enough support nor do people care about them enough in order to help them succeed.
A player who could potentially be the next Deft may be ignored or disqualified in a tournament or he could have his spot taken by players who are around bronze level which although organizers believe that doing this is “fair”, it seriously does harm the e-Sports scene, I was the winner of the IeSF qualifiers for 3 years in a row which I believe is a pretty big accomplishment, and I have received 0 media attention and me and my team are not present in any of the aftermovies, this makes it impossible for spectators to know that there is a scene in Tunisia and it makes our accomplishments void and invisible, I have tried to change this myself through Youtube/Live Streaming and media, however I am not able to change much without the support of organisations, and it seems like my voice has gone in vain and I have simply been ignored, which is why I have decided to go to Turkey/UK as I believe that i can help out Tunisia more through playing on their platform rather than playing in Tunisia.
Q: Do you have any recommendations for the aspiring young players who dream of making a professional career in playing League of Legends ?
Answer: Focus on self-improvement and do not flame, younger players usually do not understand how bad it is to flame in LoL and how badly it reduces your chances of winning, you need to be disciplined, also, if you wish to join a team and you are diamond +, I recommend posting your achievements in Tunisian LoL groups so that team owners may actually find you and recruit you, if you never post your achievements then team owners will simply not know where to look to find you.
Q: About the CGS qualifiers, what was the most memorable moment? Maybe the 3-0 sweep in the finals?
Answer: Most memorable in game moment was probably when Ayzou said that I was going to 1v9 which had actually motivated me and hyped me up to go for riskier plays such as 1v2ing or getting a 2v5 pentakill. However my team performed very very well, all 5 of us played very well as a team, especially Ayoub (Imjustpro).
Q: We followed your recent trainings through your vlogs, and knowing that you are leading a new roster, how did you manage to create such a good cohesion in your team?
Answer: Most memorable in game moment was probably when Ayzou said that I was going to 1v9 which had actually motivated me and hyped me up to go for riskier plays such as 1v2ing or getting a 2v5 pentakill. However my team performed very very well, all 5 of us played very well as a team, especially Ayoub (Imjustpro).
Q: We followed your recent trainings through your vlogs, and knowing that you are leading a new roster, how did you manage to create such a good cohesion in your team?
Answer: I think the fact that we had sacrificed so much as a team was able to help us bond a lot, all 5 of us had sacrificed together and we would sleep in poor conditions and we sacrificed food and comfort just to be able to practice together as a team, so when we were playing we would be thinking about all the sacrifices that we had made together as a team which had seriously helped us out a lot, I think it is important for a team to bond together and to get to know the other members personally as it builds trust which would then translate into the game, it is also important for all 5 members to understand each other’s tempers and also how to help each other calm down so that the team does not give up.
Q: Have you guys scheduled any special preparations for the world championship?
Answer: Yes, we have, we plan on practicing together as a team however we do not think that we can unless we are able to find sponsors, our main priority right now is to find sponsors and once we do so we will go back to practicing as a team, as we unfortunately are not able to practice in the same place that we were practicing in before as it is a school and school has started again for them, so we are looking for sponsors who may possibly aid us as me myself, I personally am unable to play from home due to poor Internet conditions so we hope that we find aid as soon as possible so that we can actually practice and win.
Q: If you had to change a few things in your team, what would that be?
Answer: I do not think that I would change anything, all of the players with me are extremely motivated and we all strive to win.
Q: What are your goals in Busan, South Korea?
Answer: We honestly wish to place top 3, I know that it is possible for us to win the whole tournament if we could miraculously find a sponsor who would help us practice in Korea, but since that is very unlikely, top 3 would be achievable if we are able to receive the required aid in Tunisia.
Q: Thank you very much Ali, we wish you the very best of luck, anything to add?
Answer: I think that it is very important for everyone to understand that we are representing Tunisia internationally, we are not representing Armoured Brothers nor am I representing myself, we are representing our country, therefore we need as much support as possible in terms of media/sponsors etc, because I know that if we win internationally, we may be able to change the gaming infrastructure in Tunisia.
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