- Zven and Fudge talk about how pro players can help the league’s outreach
- They say players should build up their personal brands and interact more with fans
- Both admit they are not being as active as they want to
The popularity of esports leagues is in large part correlated with the popularity of individual players and Zven and Fudge talked about how pros should build up their personal brands.
Cloud9 Duo Gives Their Opinion
As the new year starts, players and fans are starting to think about what 2023’s LCS would bring to the table. And while the wider League of Legends community is discussing what we will see this season, two Cloud9 players, Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami and Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen, decided to chime into the conversation.
The pair of C9 pros gave their opinions in a recent interview with Travis Gafford. According to them, both players and everyone involved in the LCS should engage in activities that help make the competition more exciting. “It’s time for a lot of people to do more effort into, you know, making the LCS more attractive to fans and to viewers,” said Zven.
To be fair, Zven pointed out he has not been participating in any personal brand-building activities that would help popularize the LCS both in the League of Legends community, as well as the wider audience. However, he claimed that he has been trying to do his part by staying competitive and playing the games on the broadcast.
Zven’s thoughts seem to be supported by the opinion of his younger teammate Fudge. He said that he feels a bit guilty for not streaming enough to help popularize the LCS, but he is “kinda lazy” to do it. He rebutted, similarly to Zven, that he has been focusing on his gameplay to make the LCS games as entertaining and high-level as he can.
The 20-year-old player also acknowledged that there are multiple things he could do to build his own brand which will contribute to popularizing the LCS. “A lot of players just simply don’t care,” he said. “And I care, but I don’t care enough… to which I need to, to actually help the league.” Going back to his previous statements that he is too lazy to build his own brand, Fudge stated that many other players are lazy in terms of personal brand-building, which hurts the LCS’ popularity.
Meanwhile, Zven said that he does not enjoy spending time on social media, with the tone on the platforms being just “f*cking bad.” He said that he recognizes the importance of building a personal brand and communicating with fans, but he acknowledges why players often tend not to be very active on social media.
Only time will tell if this year will see an increase in the popularity of the LCS, whose Spring Split begins on January 26.