Every project starts with one person’s idea. ShiftRLE was the brainchild of Achilles, a Rocket League fan like all of us, and has grown into a community with a culture of its own. Multiple people mistake him for an attractive female due to his Discord profile picture, some community members dislike him and he doesn’t care; Today’s interview is with our founding father.
Introduce yourself, and tell us what gave you the idea of creating Shift - Did the utter deletion of DramaRLert have anything to do with it? How involved were you in the Rocket League community before starting Shift?
My name is Achilleas “Achilles” Fotiou, I’m 21 years old and I’m from Cyprus. I have been doing the “leak” hobby in private Discords with friends since 2017/18, and then in 2020, I had the idea of evolving it into what it is now; Shift, with a stellar team behind me. The DRL deletion had nothing to do with it; Shift was almost a month old before the deletion, and I never intended to switch it to drama content.
I have been around in the RL Esports scene for essentially its entire existence; although I wasn't as involved back then as I am now, I was a religious viewer of tournaments such as Gfin weeklies, Rocket Royales, the MLG event, and more. As time went on, I got more and more into it. Around late 2016, I found a community to be a part of. (Shoutout to people like Dingle, Kevoo, Dentvis, and more.)
To follow on from the first question, when did you first contact Jayski about creating Shift?
Jayski and I talked a lot before the creation of Shift. I used to say “Wouldn’t it be nice to make something like this?” but it never became a reality until the start of March this year. I messaged him and I was like “Are we doing this?” and by April, Shift was up and running.
Are you surprised that Shift has reached 8000 followers and over 1000 Discord members before 2020 has ended? What are your goals for next year?
Yeah, reaching that amount of followers was a surprise - my goal was to reach 5000 by the end of 2020, and we completely blew that goal out of the water. Same with the Discord side; I never expected it to be so active, especially during the season, which can be considered our “off time”. I thought the activity would drop off significantly outside of the trade windows, but I was once again proven wrong.
Our main goals for 2021 are getting sponsorships, having limited merchandise, and creating our own website - and I think it’s highly likely that we will achieve all 3 of these.
What rumour released by Shift surprised you the most so far?
One of the most “surprising” ones for me was the NRG Squishy move. When we released that, Twitter basically blew up. Another one is from the transfer window after the Fall split of RLCS X, which was Team Liquid dropping Kuxir97 and getting Ronaky on board within the space of a few hours.
While the majority of the community has accepted Shift and look out for new leaks regularly, some people have voiced their negative opinions about it. How do you plan to make them change their minds?
I think I speak for everyone on the team when I saw that we expected a lot more negativity than has turned out to be the case so far. I respect the fact that some people don’t like us and the work we do, but hey, if it wasn’t us, someone else would’ve done it later down the line. To me, it only signifies the game’s growth, alongside the potential Rocket League has to become a Tier 1 Esport.
Does the explosive growth in followers and interactions since you formed Shift bring any added pressure for you to keep the brand growing in the future?
Definitely! The growth has been immense and definitely added pressure to keep Shift going. However, this growth has also helped me with verifying rumours; if we aren't 100% sure about a rumour, we don't post it. It’s as simple as that. There's a lot of added pressure that comes with the growth because if you put false information out there, you won’t last long in the spotlight. However, with the team I have behind me, I’m confident in our accuracy and credibility.
Do you feel that the new RLCS X format has more negative or positive potential implications on the work Shift does?
It depends; I feel like longer windows will help us steadily grow, and will help my job as the “dirty work” guy of the team, doing things such searching & asking for information about tryouts, roster moves, etc. The new format has made everything a lot more hectic for everyone involved. But I don't see any downsides with the format change/trade windows on the work we do.
Other than posting rumours, what content would you like to publish on Shift in the future?
I would love to continue interviewing high power people from organizations like GM’s, CEOs etc. I feel like, while player interviews can be great content, they are very common, and we want to stand out from the crowd a bit more. As of right now, some ideas include continuing to do Power Rankings, as well as maybe having a podcast after every offseason going deep down into the roster moves and the scene in general. As Shift expands, with potential sponsors, I feel like a lot more quality content is just on the horizon.
What do you enjoy most about owning and managing Shift?
To be honest, one of the best feelings is having such a friendly Discord community (even though sometimes they get out of line!) as well as the knowledge that many new friendships and connections have been formed through Shift (e.g in our Discord server.) I would say that owning/managing Shift has made a positive impact on how I am viewed in the scene. Whereas before, I was always viewed as the bad guy, I feel like now a lot of people’s views on the leak department has changed to a more positive outlook. I have also made a name for myself in case I ever want to do something else in the RL Esports community; however, I won’t be leaving Shift any time soon.
Finally, give us some defining characteristics of each member of the team you work with.
Jayski: Hands down one of the nicest people I’ve ever talked to. He is my duo partner, as well as one of the most talented people I know.
Falty: I have known Falty for years before getting him on board for Shift. He is insanely talented as well and has helped tremendously with graphics and the general growth of Shift.
Jonas: Similar to Falty, I’ve known Jonas for a while before asking him if he wanted to help around if we ever need anything related to updating Liquipedia rumours, etc. Having a connection with LP helps with the work we do at Shift.
Base: We asked Base if he wanted to join almost 2 months into Shift, essentially to have more hands on board, as well as more sources to help me verify rumours. Sometimes he can be dumb, but he is super nice as well.
Aspect: The most recent “acquisition”. It’s only been a few weeks since he has joined the team and he has already helped massively with having more hands to help with graphics, social media activity, and more. We have a talented squad, especially in the graphics department.
Author(s)
Falty (@imfalty)
Dion (@dionginge)
