What do the world number 1 ranked ‘Poppy’ player of 2015, the best Jungler of the OCE, and the captain of the Legacy OPL team all have in common? They are all impressive titles to hold, and they are all firmly in the grasp of one player- Tim “Carbon” Wendel. I sat down with the 24 year old, now-Sydney sider at the official launch of the ASUS-Legacy gaming house to discuss what it takes to become king of the jungle.
Tell me your origin story- what was the catalyst for your involvement with League of Legends?
I started playing League [of Legends] 5 years ago when it was still in relative infancy. Prior to this, I was not really a big gamer- I liked playing Nintendo gameboy growing up but I wouldn’t have considered myself hardcore or anything to that effect. At the end of high school I was introduced to Starcraft 2, in which there is a DOTA mod. I played that a little bit, then all the guys I was playing alongside said ‘there is this game that is exactly like this mod but it is a standalone game’. Naturally, I had to give it a go.
League became my main game during my second year of Uni but I just played for fun with my mates. Actually, I gave it away for a while- about 6 or 7 months- because my Uni (Note: Tim studied a Bachelor of Health Sciences) results were suffering. Eventually I got my marks back on track. At this point I thought ‘now I can reward myself with a game, and see some old friends again.’ It snowballed from there. The same year that I finished Uni, 2014, was the first year that I played in a tournament. I loved it so much that I decided to forget health science and instead said ‘video games are the way forward’. Here I am 2 years later, still pursuing it.
The Legacy gaming team moved to Sydney in early January to live in Australia’s first professional gaming house. Tim, was that the point at which you said “I’ve made it as a professional gamer”?
Back in 2014, I had a team but we all played from home. Back then, it was nothing like it is now. There was significantly less support and money. Even last year I worked all year to support myself. This is the first year that I would call myself a professional gamer in the sense that I can now live off of what I do.
To be honest, we’ve been working towards this for a long time- I’m a player but I also co-own Legacy, so I play but I also run a lot of the business aspects of the brand. This has kind of been a long term goal for us as a business- it didn’t happen overnight. It’s 2 years of cash flow projections and spreadsheets… I’m very happy that we’re here but I don’t think there was any one moment where I thought ‘this is it.’ Ok, I guess when we signed the lease I thought ‘I’ve made it.’
What sacrifices have you had to make along the way to get here?
I mean, I haven’t sold an arm or anything… I guess I’d have to say that the sacrifices would fall mostly in the social category. I’ve left everything behind, my friends and family. My girlfriend and I have been together for 6 years or so, that’s 4 years before I started playing professionally. Gaming demands a lot of my time so we see each other less. She didn’t move to Sydney with us. So that’s been difficult.
I’ve also sacrificed a lot of time on the game- there were a lot of other things I was planning to do. This is not in a negative way because I love what I do and given the same opportunity I’d make the same sacrifices again- but you know, if I’d just secured a job after school I’d be in a different position to now.
How have you found living in a gaming house has impacted team dynamics compared to your previous living and gaming situation?
It’s been incredible! Amazing! I can honestly not speak highly enough of the set-up we have here. This is the international standard. Everybody overseas has a gaming house already. We are one of the first in Australia to do it- certainly the first to do it to this level of professionalism and to this extent. I cannot speak highly enough of the impact this has had on the team- we have only been here one month and we have improved ten fold. It’s been amazing.
Historically, OCE has had pretty poor results internationally, and one of the reasons commonly cited for this is the lack of gaming houses. Do you think the presence of the Legacy house will help close this gap?
This is definitely the first step. I think you’ll find there will be a lot more teams trying to emulate us in the future. Maybe not this year but definitely in the 2-3 years I expect most if not all teams to have these types of houses because if you don’t, you simply will not be able to keep up.
What does the schedule look like for the team and for you personally?
For me personally, it’s a bit different to the other guys because I have a role in running the team. I have a lot of business stuff to do, and I’m the oldest with the most life experience so a lot of household things come down to me. I start my day at 8am- doing mundane things like shopping, cleaning, making sure everything is in order, then I’ll probably do normal work until 12pm (business stuff- mostly sending emails).
As a team, the schedule fluctuates. This week we are doing 12pm starts, last week we did 2pm starts- more hours practicing this week just to see if we can handle it. This week on Monday and Wednesday we did 12pm-5pm blocks of solid practice, then took a few hours break, in which I went to the gym, made dinner and relaxed for an hour. Then we practiced again from 8pm-11pm. That is the time we spend practicing as a team but each player has their own individual practice time as well. You could easily do anywhere from 2 to 5 hours of solo practice in addition to that team practice.
Wow, such a busy schedule! Do you have any time for any hobbies outside of League? I’ve been asked to mention Push-ups specifically…
(Laughs) That’s a meme that has followed me around. I used to be very into weight lifting. From the age of 20 to 23 I went to the gym almost every day of the week. So when I first started going to tournaments, I was significantly bigger than I am now- and people don’t expect that from a gamer so people made fun of it and whatnot. My old routine before a big game was to smash out some push-ups because that would help me settle some nerves. Once I started becoming a pro-gamer, and dedicating more and more time I eased off on the gym and gave it up for about a year and a half. I’ve only started going back now in preparation for living here. That’s the push-ups thing… I haven’t done it for a year and a half or so…
It sounds like you have a pretty strong background in health and fitness…
Yeah, both my parents were super super active growing up. My dad was an ultra long distance runner- he used to do anywhere up to 100km runs. My mum was a swim teacher, which influenced me to get into it. I taught swimming through Uni as a part time job and then I kept that up when I moved in to gaming- just to earn some money on the side. And of course I studied health science. I place a lot of importance on my personal philosophy- healthy body, healthy mind. League is mainly a mental game so I try to do as much as I can outside of the game to keep in good physical shape. No, I don’t NEED to run anywhere but I feel like I function better mentally with a healthy body.
So you’ve brought some of your background in physical activity to your work ethic here at the gaming house and to the team?
100% I try to bring as many team members down to the gym as possible. It’s not for everybody- you don’t need to be fit to do eSports, so I don’t pressure anyone but you know, I get a couple of the boys to come down to the gym with me on a daily basis. For those who don’t, every 2-3 days we go for a walk or kick a footy or something. I think it’s very important to get outside and get away from the PC a little bit, so you can clear your mind.
You were mentioning your family before, how have they reacted to all this?
At this point, they understand it. I’ve been doing this for 2 years now so they’ve seen me grow with it. They are very supportive. My old man came to the last tournament I played and he watched, which was great! He learnt a little bit about the game through watching so he could make some valid comments afterwards. Originally, no, they didn’t support it- especially as most parents do, they said that I spent way too much time on it, which is probably true but as soon as I started getting in to the pro stuff they were supporting me 100% and the only thing they really said was ‘make sure you have a backup plan’. They’ve been amazing.
Where did the gamer tag Carbon come from? Was that some kind of childhood nickname?
I get asked this a lot. The unfortunate truth is that there is no real origin story there- it just sounds cool. I used to have an old name- the name I used before Carbon was ‘Cavey’ that was because as a child I used to watch Captain Caveman so my original tag was just that, and it shortened over time to Cavey. When I switched to league, I thought ‘no, I need a clean slate, new image for myself, what should I be called?’ and I just thought Carbon sounded cool.
I get asked it so often that I should come up with a better story.
You’ve demonstrated that you’re a very fast paced player, particularly in the recent series against Hellions where you favoured early pressure- what has influenced this play style?
It’s definitely how i’m playing at the moment but I don’t think I always play like that. I’m playing like that at the moment because I think that my team is the best team as individuals. I think they are the best player in their respective roles in the region. So my job is to stop the other Jungler from interfering in my lanes because i’m confident that my guys will win their 1v1s anyway. So all I need to do is make sure the other Jungler doesn’t interfere with that and then I know we’ll win. I try to play as quickly as I can, get in there make sure he’s not doing anything and get out. It’s worked so far.- fingers crossed for the future.
Who is your favourite champion at the moment?
My fave champion at the moment is Graves because Junglers are usually more a support role but Graves allows you to be a carry, which is something I enjoy because I don’t do it often. Also he has a giant shotgun. It looks cool.
Do you have any advice for players trying to climb the ladder and be selected for a professional gaming team?
I think those are two different things. If your aim is to climb the ladder, I suggest getting really really good at one or two champions max. Just pick one or two and you can probably play in a few different roles and get extremely good at them. Why? Because once you’re really good at playing this one champ and you don’t have to think about playing that champion anymore then you’ll start to learn more about the game. If you’re constantly playing new champions then you’re not thinking about the game, you’re thinking about how do I play this new character?
Surely if you’re at the top of the ladder, that equates to you being picked up by professional teams?
Not necessarily. When you get to the top, pro players will have no respect for you if you can only play one or two champions- you’re considered a one trick pony, and held with low regard. The best players can play all champions and have knowledge of the game. If you want to play professionally, you first have to get to the top of the ladder and then you need to just impress people. People will notice if you’re consistently good with a range of champions.
Finally, how do you think we can push the Australian eSports scene forward?
For me, as a player, what I would love to see is more live events. My favourite part of playing is having the opportunity to play live- having a crowd, meeting the fans, the atmosphere is always amazing. I want more live events because that’s what I love. As a small business owner, if I can call myself that, I can see that Oceania does support eSports but just not our eSports. Everyone seems really big on the European market, the North American market… Australians are watching other countries play so I think a big step forward would be getting people from this area watching our region’s league. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do that.
If you want to cheer on team Legacy, support the OPL and check out some League of Legends, the 2016 OPL Split 1 is currently being streamed live by Riot Oceania here on Mondays & Wednesdays from 7pm and Tuesdays from 6pm.
Stay up to date with all the team Legacy news through their twitter page here
