EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/shiroiusagi/herosofthestorm/esv_annoucement.jpg)
Today, ESV Wildfire has been purchased by Jesse Cox, a well known youtube personality. The team will now be known as Stellar Lotus
Statement from Jesse Cox
I've always been interested in competitive gaming and wished I could be more involved. When it became clear I lack all the talent necessary to do so, I decided the next best thing would be to start my own team, find the best players possible, hire strong management, and live vicariously through them all. So far, everything seems to be going wonderfully. I can't wait to see what Stellar Lotus achieves
We also took this chance to interview ESV Diamond, captain of ESV Wildfire, and get all the details of the announcement.
Hello! Its great to have you here! I think we’re all familiar with who you are and your contributions to the Heroes of the Storm community, but for anyone who’s not in the loop, care to introduce yourself?
Hello thank you for having me today! I am Patrick Soulliere II and I go by the online ID of ESVDiamond. I live in Michigan and am 29 years old, I have worked in the E-Sports industry at a high level for over five years now. In the past I have worked with and sometimes directly for major E-Sports players such as IPL, GOM TV, Dreamhack, ASUS ROG, Blizzard, and many more.
My major body of work was in Starcraft II where I led one of the top broadcasting stations, mapmaking teams, and online tournament circuit. On top of those I worked with several Starcraft II players such as Liquid`TaeJa and Axiom Crank in furthering thier careers.
Well, lets start off with the big question. This is *huge* news! What does ESV being picked up by Jesse Cox mean for the team and the organization?
Jesse offers us that X factor we had previously been missing as well as financial resources and contacts that were previously beyond our grasp. Jesse is a major star on Youtube, and countless companies are always looking to work with him.
One big thing that ESV never had was the big name indivduals to draw lots of new eyes to the company. We based most of what we did in things such as broadcasting in not spending huge to get the big names and it was an ok decision, but now working with Jesse we can have that star power built into the team. The financial resoucres are nice and allow us things like our teamhouse which were previously out of grasp for something as large as a five man team.
A teamhouse! That's really awesome, and I'm excited to see how that pans out. I bet its a big transition for the team. Speaking of big transitions, given your involvement and role in ESV, this news is especially big for you, how does it affect you and your involvement in ESV? Are there going to be any major changes for you?
This will put ESV more on the backburner for me. After we get the teamhouse up and running 100%, I would like to do some more ESV TV events. However at this time my full focus is on getting Stellar Lotus up and running 100%.
Since we’re on the topic of you, a nagging question: you’re the owner of the team, but when need calls for it, you’ve also subbed in, have you considered becoming a permanent member? What’s the dynamic like when you’re playing considering you other responsibilities?
Just to clarify I own ESV but Jesse Cox is the full and sole owner of Stellar Lotus.
I have considered it from time to time, however it becomes an issue of time. It may have been different when E-Sports was younger however at this point E-Sports has matured quite a bit. I have many daily things I have to do for the team and often things like meetings overlap with our practice schedule. While I believe I can do well when I put my full time into it, and did so in the past when I had more time, that time has come and gone. I cannot simply dedicate enough time anymore.
Overall I am glad, I get more enjoyment out of watching my team play instead of playing myself. When I did play with the team I made sure we always worked on something else as well and worked to improve "in game". From simple things like positive reinforcement ("Good job!") to more subtle stuff such as timing Heroes wells, I wanted every time I played with the team to be a way to help them improve. Sometimes it worked, sometimes I held the team back. Was a fun experience however getting to compete vs people I have looked up to for a long time like IdrA, Arthelon, Sheth, and all the other pros from other games and I am glad I got to do it!
Its very impressive that you can both manage the team and play at a high level, huge kudos for that. I want to pull back a little on the topic of the team purchase: Can you tell us exactly how this deal came about? This is Jesse Cox's first esports team, who approached who, was there a previous relationship there?
It was actually quite interesting how it happened. Jesse has come up with his idea for a team and had a couple players in mind from his personal experiences with them. One of those players was one of the players now on Stellar Lotus, his id is Nightmare.
He came to Nightmare with an offer to join his new team, however Nightmare wanted to work with me and this team in specific, and said basically "Thanks but no thanks, I work with Pat, you will have to talk to him."
After that Jesse contacted me and we talked briefly. I am always cautious when a team comes with an offer, as coming from SC2 I have seen a great many "good" team deals go south. However I prepared him some info documenting my past in SC2 and what we have been doing in Heroes thus far.
It seems like it worked for him, and he decided to make a team with me at the helm. I was sure to ask a great number of questions to make sure Jesse was hard commited and had the right intentions, and he hit it out of the park! Jesse is always open to listen to ideas, and is quick to ask on things he is not sure of. He is green in the E-Sports industry but his work in the normal buisness industry through all his Youtube stuff has shown through, it's been a fantastic experience already!
I'm assuming at least some of the discussion that was had was on the naming of the team. The new name is “Stellar Lotus”, a pretty stellar name, if I do say so myself! What was the inspiration behind the name and logo?
Jesse has had a running meme relating to his content called the "Space Butterfly". He wanted to do something space related like that so thus the Stellar part. I don't know why Lotus off the top of my head, I think we were just looking for a cool word to combo with it that had not been used by a large team in E-Sports. I could be slightly off base however on that part.
The name was not a huge deal to me, as long as it was not offensive/taken and was easy to spell and remember it was ok with me. Strong branding is important so if people can't spell or remember your team name you have nothing. Stellar Lotus is easy to spell and remember.
I'm sure we'll all be talking about Stellar Lotus soon, seeing as you recently qualified for ESL Major League, as a result of Goat Gaming disbanding. You’ll be fighting under your new name there for the first time. You’re dropping in mid group play. How do you feel about your chances? Is the team ready?
This is a very new total roster, even though it includes many ESV regulars. Many of our players have recently moved, Pickles will be finishing his last day of school when we play Tempo Storm, and will be moving on one of the other play days. Iakona has a dream job at Google and will not be joining us at the house or long term, and is just our support for this season. We will be getting a world class support that can move to the house, but the backend stuff has delayed it longer than I had hoped.
All these in mind I would like to aim for playoffs. It would secure our spot for next season where we would aim to start being #1 as our whole team will be moved to the house by then. Jesse's vision of the team has been "start from the bottom and work up”, and that's the plan. We come in this season with a new young roster, we will likely struggle vs teams like C9M, C9V, or Tempo Storm but we will learn and get better and better.
Obviously its a period of a lot of instability, but I'm sure you'll be able to pull together. Given what you know right now, what would you say is your greatest strength as a team?
We have something that's one of the rarest things found in NA teams. We can lose games and learn from them. We don't tilt and fight like crazy. Our team dosen't disband every three losses, and even really great and long standing teams such as EG have not lasted as long as our players.
Our players are all super nice and polite guys that get along with each other. They can take advice and criticism without freaking out and leaving a team. They will listen to each other and every day just want to improve themselves.
Over the past eight or so months I have seen easily 100+ teams come and go, even sometimes the same team being built and dying 4-5 times over. Four of the members of this team played for the ESV teams for eight months, and until they were combined for the house team, never moved a single team. They won and lost as a group and never grew to dislike or hate each other. We still have an ESV chat that has all our past and present long term members, and it's still active.
That's heartening to hear, stable teams are one of the keys to a stable scene. Since you’re one of the big figures in the Heroes scene, and this is a big announcement, both for you and for the scene in general, I figure it's appropriate to ask, do you feel now like Heroes is on its way to becoming a major esport? What challenges do we still have to overcome?
I think Heroes is going to be massive. By my scientific measurments, roughly 73 bazillion people have played Blizzard games and a large portion have a Hero they found during those games they like. If it's someone who played Starcraft II and loved Tassadar, or a someone that just found Blizzard titles through WoW two weeks ago and only known Jaina they can now play AS that character vs other people. It's a pretty solid concept.
There will be many challenges but the biggest will be hoping lots of people like and spend money on Heroes. I'm talking anyone, even if they don't support E-Sports themselves. If this game turns enough of a profit (See: League Of Legends) to make it worth the game publisher themselves getting involved in the scene it will lead to many good things. No one stands to gain more by advertising Heroes of the Storm E-Sports than Blizzard themselves, they can put in the most if it's worth it to them.
For that to happen, we need players playing and some of them spending real money.
73 bazillion sounds like a sound scientific number. That’s it for questions on my end. Any last shout-outs or comments?
Just want to thank everyone that supported both ESV Wildfire and Tempest during thier time, and I hope to see you over with us at Stellar Lotus! I want to thank Jesse Cox for making this all happen, without him we would still be only an online team, and we want to be full time and be the best!
You can follow me and the team over at:
Stellar Lotus: https://twitter.com/stellarlotusftw
Jesse Cox: http://www.twitter.com/jessecox
My twitter: http://www.twitter.com/esvdiamond
We hope to do well in ESL Major League, and I promise win or lose we will continue to get better every game and do our best to be one of teams in Heroes of the Storm!
Many thanks for agreeing to this interview, and congratulations once again! Its very well deserved, and I’m sure we’ll see great things out of Stellar Lotus! We’ll be cheering you on!
