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Coach Peak on the importance of coaching: “If a team is too fragile, the coaching staff is fragile…”

Volamel 2018-09-16 06:25:41
  As a former member of the Dallas Fuel coaching staff, Peak Swedish coach Emanuel "Peak" Uzoni is itching to get back into the league. With experience dating back to Misfits run through Overwatch APEX Season 2 and acting as the interim Head Coach for the Dallas Fuel during Overwatch League Season 1, Peak brings a plethora of insight to any team he’s with. Peak sat down with Esports Heaven to share some of that insight around his coaching philosophy and more. _____ Like many fixtures in the league, you have experience in gaming outside of Overwatch. How has your experience with Heroes of the Storm prepared you for the Overwatch League? Heroes of the Storm played a significant role in my life and career. The experiences taught me what it means to be fully devoted to a craft, how to understand myself and others. It taught me how to work with all kind of different players from all over North America and Europe and adapting myself to many different cultures. It prepared me in the sense that I very quickly developed my understanding of concepts such as pattern recognition, reverse engineering, abstract algebra and how it can be applied to create strategies, anti-strategies, running teams and much more. I created my own teams because no one wanted to trial me at first; I was simply not popular enough. That gave me an immense amount of “fire in my belly” and I started juggling work, HoTS, and university simultaneously to prove a point to the very same people. Don’t get me wrong though, I held no grudges to anyone; it was simply my gut telling me that this was the right way to become the strongest version of myself with the tools and resources I had at the time. I discovered what it meant to have no fear. No fear when I tested my own limits both physically and mentally. My job in real-life was to lift a minimum of two-ton in packages in total on a daily basis for various logistic companies, sometimes I had to cover for one or two people because of bad organizing at the workplace. [I] studied while I commuted and practiced the game whenever I didn’t sleep or eat. Picture this scenario; the “honeymoon phase” is over and this figurative team is starting to crumble from the inside out. When it comes to handling players that are lashing out or are a bit too aggressive, how would you suggest the smaller Contenders level coaches approach this situation? Players that express frustration with problems they find difficult to solve, situations that are annoying or just bottled up stress and anxiety, often don’t mean harm. It is very rare for players to want to cause harm in such a way that they thrive on and enjoy it, extremely rare from my experiences. It’s just a very easy way to ventilate stress through anger. One of the most important lessons I’ve ever received and that I always will look up to was from Cho Gyu-nam (Editor’s Note: Cho Gyu-nam was a former coach for CJ Entus' Starcraft Brood War team and is now managing the League of Legends team, Griffin) during my time in Apex S2 with Misfits. He told me that a team reflects the coaching staff [and] that a coach has more than just a single role. This means that a team that’s disorganized has leadership that’s disorganized. If a team is too fragile, the coaching staff is fragile. There’s not simply one role for a coach in a team and I’m not talking [about] the typical roles as in Head Coach, Assistant Coach or Analyst. The smaller Contenders coaches must understand that sometimes they have to be the nurturing and loving mother, scary father, cool big brother and sometimes a friend to the players. There’s no magic formula for it, each player is different. It's not a coincidence that players in the Overwatch League that argue a lot also tend to have a strong drive towards winning. I would tell the smaller coaches to ask themselves, “what does a player with a strong desire to win do when they lose trust in a team?” Well… they pull as hard as they can into their own direction because that’s what their instincts tell them to do. Imagine a tug of war between the players in all directions. The quickest way to unify them is to gain their trust and allow them to stand with you. You’d be surprised by how quickly trust can be lost. It takes on average three attempts to mess up and then it’s lost and very hard to regain. Intense situations and conditions produce a lot of stress hormones that can cause players to tunnel vision on just one route, it can be their own route as well as someone else's. It is important to understand that they will add more positive value to the team by using positive reinforcement and unifying the team, rather than punishing and suppressing them. It is easier said than done, it’s a method they need to discover themselves and means being self-aware of when to change roles and doing it instantly. High-intensity competition doesn’t wait for lazy or unprepared coaches, hence why it’s key to be proactive as a coach. The big narrative that has resonated with the community after the first season has been burnout and many pundits point towards the season's format as an issue. As a former coach of an Overwatch League team, how would you repurpose the season’s match formatting? I think that it could be repurposed by giving matches different weights depending on the stage. That way there’s room for burnout short-term and will reward teams that optimize themselves long-term. I’d also suggest that every Overwatch League team looks into developing in-house training for future staff because the organizational culture plays a huge role and they might as well train it from the ground up. Save time, money and health by training your staff to become the staff you want to hire. The match format isn’t the main problem but does contribute to the issue. Players and whole teams have been plagued by burnout before Overwatch League even started. It was rare to have this many matches to play every month but it still occurred. Players used to not value the benefits of having a support staff and those affected were those who tried to push their limits but failed to notice the symptoms of burnout. When talking about substitutions in Overwatch League, the community only seems to view it from a purely logical angle. How often would you guess that substitutions are made outside of the overall strategy for that day? Was that an issue you had to personally handle? Early stages in Season 1 had teams sub players left and right. The general consensus was that it's not going to be as impactful for the worse as it turned out to be. It wasn't easy for teams to predict it because few had the chance to work with that many substitutes before the league. I'd guess that 80% of the times, they were a part of the overall strategy for that day. Same goes for later stages when we started to see fewer swaps. Teams realized that the more they focus on their consistency rather than countering the opposing teams, they'd have a higher probability of winning. The same principle there, 80% of the subs were most likely intentional. We all know that players are trying their hardest to make a push to join a franchize for Overwatch League Season 2. As a coach, how do you approach that same goal? What would you recommend aspiring coaches do to get noticed? I took an approach that had little focus on building my brand and becoming popular among fans. I simply didn't know how to make use of social platforms back when I started out so I tried to compensate by becoming a stronger coach than anyone I competed with. Very little of what happens within a team is expressed by players and it meant that I had fewer opportunities than more popular coaches as a result. I recommend aspiring coaches to do two things: build a brand and do it legitimately. It's not worth to “explode” before you're ready, so to say. It's very easy to ruin your career as a coach since you're expected to add positive net value to a team once you're hired. If you end up being popular but not able to deliver, then it's the same as being invisible but able to deliver. They have to find a balance that works for them and be patient, it's absolutely not a race. Money and fame is not the driving force for the coach that wants to win the Overwatch League because there are far better ways to earn both of them than coaching. You once mentioned that younger players are going to have a hard time entering the Overwatch League. Hypothetically, if you were given a GM spot would you favor the older player with more life experience? That's correct, young players will have a hard time entering the Overwatch League. It can be either because they don't know how to be hyper-efficient and improve at extreme rates or because they have had too little time to grow as rookies and cannot integrate quick enough into OWL level teams. Young players have personalities that are still developing and molding them in the wrong way will make them decay rather than improve. It's tied in with coaching too high up, too early. I wouldn't prioritize older players because of their age, that's very discriminating in my opinion. I would balance a roster based on multiple factors such as background, experience, personality, aptitude and more. My goal has always been and always will be to make the strongest roster possible. I will go as far as I need in order to find the very best for my rosters. Personally, I’ve been a big fan of the twelve man system of roster management where theoretically you would be able to run in-house practice and horde information. Now, as someone who has direct experience with the league, do you think that is even remotely possible now or in the future? Yes, I believe so. It just requires more effort, competence, and manpower than a smaller roster. I'm 100% confident in that it's possible and will be possible later too. If it's possible in industries outside of Overwatch such as high-end software development studios and restaurants, then it can be done in Overwatch as well. Quality control and strong management will enable it. When things within teams start to break down, many players cite that they “lost respect” or “trust” within their teammates or coaches. How would you approach trying to repair that relationship in the team? One of the many ways is by observing players and reward them when they do something that’s positive. Positive reinforcement is very underrated at the moment. Individuals need to be conscious of what they are reinforcing for it to be effective as well, otherwise, there are pitfalls where coaches would reward bad behavior without knowing it or try to change a behavior from the wrong angle. Be self-aware of what the expectations are because it helps deal with any frustration when they’re not met. Adults shouldn’t be treated as if they’re infants or victims. There’s nothing more annoying for any adult than to be treated as a kid and to not be trusted. Don’t use silly or unnecessary rules and be honest with them. A player will always be able to know what their coach feels, even when they don’t show it. Last but not least, I want to end on a high note. From your time within Overwatch League Season 1, what is your favorite memory? My favorite moment was when I was told by KyKy that he’d allow me to trial with the team. It was during a time when it was closed circles only for OWL teams and very hard to even apply to any team except Boston Uprising and Dallas Fuel. It gave me a lot of energy to work as hard as I could, even though I worked night time and long-distance for half of the season. It’s a heartwarming feeling when you notice that there’s someone who believes in you when no one else even tries to hear you out. It’s my third year coaching in Overwatch now and I’ve been all-in since day one. Getting the news that I would be able to prove that I have what it takes to do what I love doing the most was my favorite moment in Overwatch League Season 1. _____ Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel. Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment and Dallas Fuel  
 

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