Noukky:''Having Academy Teams Is Crucial For The League To Succeed''
Player, observer, producer, tournament organiser, team and general manager - Ysabel "Noukky" Müller has worn many hats in the Overwatch Community. This year, she has finally reached her goal of becoming a General Manager of the Overwatch League, after many years of trying to get involved.
In the first part of our interview, we talk with Noukky about how she found her way into Overwatch, how she managed to have her roster picked up as an Academy team, how she became the General Manager of three different teams at Cloud9, how Fusions bounced back from a career-low to get into Overwatch League, how a false reputation of players such as Hafficool can keep them from being promoted, and more.
PERSONAL CAREER
- Noukky says she played with Spree and Corey in the early days when she was still actively playing on teams as a main support
- Noukky has gone through many different jobs such as player, observer, producer, tournament organiser, and team manager
- Stylosa put Noukky in contact with Cloud9, which allowed her to pitch “Those Guys” as Spitfire’s British Hurricane
- Noukky worked herself up in the Cloud9 organisation to the point where she could become the General Manager of the London Spitfire, British Hurricane, and Cloud9 White
BRITISH HURRICANE
- According to Noukky there was an internal struggle during the time that they dipped into trials
- Noukky recalls a story of how Cameron "Fusions" Bosworth was under fire from the team due to a perceived underperformance in Contenders season 2 in 2018. He came back in a major way and even made Overwatch League
"We managed to rebuild the trust of the team in [Fusions], and he managed to get into Overwatch League that year"
- Noukky doesn’t like to drop players based on bad performances but rather decides how players act under the pressure and fight their way back
- Hurricane had a ratio of players that needed to be British in the first seasons; when there was a shortage, Noukky was able to put the argument forward that the policy should be changed, which C9 agreed with
- Noukky says that generally speaking, she feels that whenever she brings a well-reasoned argument to Cloud9 and the owners Jack Etienne and CEO Dan Fiden, the two have an opener ear for the suggestions
I personally think that having academy teams and having teams that develop players is crucial for the League to succeed in future years. I don’t want to just drop it
- Noukky thinks Hafþór "Hafficool" Hákonarson should’ve made Overwatch League but was barred from it due to his reputation
- Seb "numlocked" Barton reached out to Noukky for a spot on Hurricane shortly after he was dropped from the Valiant because he wanted a spot on a team that allowed him to get back into Overwatch League as soon as possible
- Noukky says that players rarely directly reach out to her for a spot and that she felt it was really impressive that numlocked took charge of his career in this way
- Noukky said that numlocked was a natural leader
"He stepped in there and literally owned the place"
- Noukky thinks that the pressure on their young players was high during the Atlantic Showdown, making them underperform with only Hafficool and numlocked playing well
That was the first part of our interview with Noukky. In the second part, we talk about why some of Hurricane’s players such as Dannedd and Jofi didn’t end up being promoted, how the Spitfire’s 2021 season will work logistically, the importance of securing SparkR, why they decided to go with Blasé, whether more trades are planned, and which player they had an eye on.
Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment & London Spitfire
