“Psyonix has provided an opportunity for every Rocket League player to showcase their talents to the world. There really are no excuses for any players to say, “they don’t have an opportunity to make a living playing Rocket League” if they have the talent for it.” -Burns
Hey Burns, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at eUnited?
Hey ShiftRLE! I appreciate you reaching out to do this interview. My name is Matthew Potthoff, I currently serve as eUnited’s General Manager. I handle day to day operations, coaching staff acquisitions, and player recruitment at eUnited. Before becoming a GM, I was a professional Call of Duty player for 4 years. My roots are definitely embedded in the FPS space, but my eyes have been opened up to numerous esport titles including Rocket League since becoming a GM in 2016. Funny enough, I played my last event for eUnited and realized my time was coming up, I’ve been with the organization ever since as our second employee hired. I’ve been blessed to take my previous experience as a professional player and apply it to all of our players at eUnited. During my time as a player, I caught onto tendencies of players not being fully committed, teams falling apart for no reason, and now my goal is to make sure I’m doing everything in my power to provide the best path for success for all of eUnited’s teams.
Moving swiftly on, your team had a great Season 8 and went to Worlds in Madrid but then had a rough Season 9, finishing in 9th in North America with a 2–7 record. This Season, there are more teams in contention for the Worlds spots and the Season is longer with more competitions meaning that consistency is key. How do you expect your team to handle this? Do you think we will see you guys at Worlds?
I fully expect our team to qualify for Worlds. The players seem more confident than ever since acquiring WondaMike, I really enjoyed watching them play in their first Grid event. You could tell that they were creating more opportunities for goals, and brought an “organized chaos” style of play that fits this team well.
Following on the previous question, what are your thoughts on this new, longer and more action-packed format? All the up and coming teams certainly love it, as it gives them a chance to compete with the top, but what about the more established teams who may have less stability now?
Psyonix has provided an opportunity for every Rocket League player to showcase their talents to the world. There really are no excuses for any players to say, “they don’t have an opportunity to make a living playing Rocket League” if they have the talent for it. I’m a big fan of this constant schedule, it should keep all of the teams on their toes and help develop more advanced metas throughout the season. This consistent schedule helps promote a healthier scrim schedule, more brand presence for organizations, and deeper talks for acquiring sponsorships.
In the off-season following your Worlds appearance, there were rumours about Hockser potentially moving to Cloud9 (now Version1). Why did the move fall through?
No comment.
Earlier this off-season, we saw you sign Memory to your roster only to drop him for WondaMike just a month later. One would assume that once a player signs a contract, his move to the roster is final, so what made you go back on this?
Memory is a great player, I really liked his professionalism during his time on eUnited. As a whole, we felt we could see our ceiling with Memory, and we wanted to grab a player that might bring our ceiling to new heights, which is why we signed WondaMike. Plenty of teams could be in the opposite position, where they need a support player to bring their ceiling up. Unfortunately, that was something we recognized during our time playing over our short time with Memory, and we wanted to be in the best position possible for this new open system. We wish him the best and hope to see him succeed on his new team, any team would be fortunate to have him.
Memory’s departure opened up the spot for the rising star WondaMike, what made you pick him over one of the other available players?
There is a whirlwind of emotions and decisions to be made once teams start to shake up their roster. It really affects the entire ecosystem because everyone wants to consider an upgrade or a new synergy spark. WondaMike brings an unorthodox playstyle and his personality meshed well with our players. This lead to our decision to sign WondaMike, we felt Hockser and Ayjacks could play in a more comfortable position with an aggressive playmaker like WondaMike. It is really hard to force a playstyle on a team if they aren’t naturally inclined to perform that way. This change should promote a more natural team cohesion to bring individual confidence to peak levels.
Sub’n has also been a great addition to eUnited, coaches are a major factor for how I put teams together. I view them as another player who contributes just as much to a team’s success as if he were playing. We are really fortunate to have Eldar and I’m excited to see what advice and tips he relays to the team to truly bring out the best version of eUnited Rocket League.
There have been calls for more esports in-game items from the community, mainly for secondary team decals and team goal explosions. Is there anything in particular you would like to see? What do you believe needs changing for the Esports Pilot Program?
A majority of developers are dealing with Covid-19, as we all are. I feel Psyonix has done an outstanding job bringing Rocket League back to life since the last season and the break that occurred in between. I’d love to see an opportunity where organizations get more decal options for their supporters and a static position in the store so supporters can buy their favorite team’s decal whenever they want, compared to waiting and checking if it’s there. Seeing goal explosions would be great too, hopefully in the future that is a possibility, but for now, we are all collectively focused on growing Rocket League Esports.
How has the communication with the Psyonix Esports team been?
Communication with Psyonix has vastly improved month by month since the beginning of the year, and by no fault is any developer, company, or person perfect. We are all dealing with changes and have certain people to report to, sometimes information has to be kept from organizations due to leaks which could harm the ecosystem. I’m hoping that over time, we perfect our communication with Psyonix so every party is thriving and acting quicker behind the scenes.
We would like to thank Matthew for taking time to do this interview!
Author:
Achilleas Fotiou (@achilles_xf)
