From Baseball And CS To Coaching C9's VALORANT Team ...

What is your greatest strength?

For some, it’s a simple question that can be answered with ease, but for Cloud9 VALORANT head coach James “JamezIRL” Macaulay, it was a question that he had always thought about, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly what gave him strength as a coach.

Naturally personable, he pondered if it was his genuine care about people that made him a good coach. He then wondered if it was his years of experience in first-person shooter (FPS) games that got him to the point where he is now. He sat on the question for a minute trying to think about what helped him get to where he was now.

Then, it all came to him quicker than a fastball reaching home plate.

He let out a slight chuckle mixed with the realization that his greatest strength was driven by a simple goal: his hunger to compete.

A common driving factor among anyone competing at the highest level in esports, that drive to compete holds a different meaning for JamezIRL. Competition is something that has been ingrained in him ever since he was a young kid.

Before JamezIRL was a coach, he was in a similar position to the players he coaches to this day. A high-level Counter-Strike 1.6 player and a talented baseball player, JamezIRL won the biggest tournaments in the scene and competed in high school baseball. Naturally, he wanted to pursue a career in CS, but that reality just was not there yet.

“I got to the top level in Counter-Strike when I was in high school. I won the equivalent of ESL Pro League back then and I remember feeling happy about those wins,” JamezIRL said. “But there was no money in the scene because it didn’t exist yet.”

Photo credit: Riot Games

A victim of being in the right place at the wrong time, JamezIRL opted to go to UC Berkeley for college because of the financial realities of esports at the time. He put those FPS aspirations into his back pocket and applied his focus on his engineering degree and eventually experienced the traditional work life.

“I had a professional job as an engineer that paid well,” JamezIRL said when asked about what he did after college. “But that style of life, I don’t know. My aspirations never felt as pure as they do when I am working towards a goal like when I was competing in Counter-Strike or playing baseball.”

For JamezIRL, the hours he would put into becoming a better competitor were never for monetary reasons. The feeling he got working toward a goal, whether that was Counter-Strike-related or baseball-related was the same. It was all done from a natural hunger to compete and become better compared to his days working as an engineer.

So when he had the opportunity to pursue his original passion of competition, only this time as a coach, he did everything he could to make the necessary adjustments to make it happen. At first, there were some major differences.

While the competitive nature is still there as a coach, the approach is very different than when he was a player. That difference stems from creating team-oriented goals rather than personal goals.

“You can’t be worried about yourself as a coach. You can’t be fixated on accolades or else you won’t give out the right vibe to the players,” JamezIRL said. “Success as a coach needs to come from a genuine place of wanting [the best for] other people. If you are a coach focusing only on how you could be better, that will not work in the long run.”

Photo credit: Riot Games

A multi-talented individual with an ingrained competitive mindset, JamezIRL is in a position where his passion for competition is at the forefront of his day-to-day life. All those years of placing his aspirations to the wayside have now come full circle and are driving him every day to become better at his craft.

“I have so much hunger to make up for this aspect of my life that I felt like I could never pursue before,” JamezIRL said. “Now, I just want to output so much good work and effort because I am now in a position where it is a realistic option for me now.”

Right now, JamezIRL and Cloud9 are in a transitional period with their VALORANT team. After they traded longtime member Son “Xeta” Seon-ho to T1 for Rahul “curry” Nemani, Cloud9’s performance has declined and they have a 1-3 record in the group stage of Stage 2 of the VALORANT Champions Tour and are out of contention for the playoffs.

Integrating a new player into the Cloud9 system is challenging, but this adversity does not deter JamezIRL from the values that he holds close as a coach.

“The overarching goal I have for Cloud9 is for this group to build a dynasty, for them to become the best version of themselves,” JamezIRL said before expanding on the environment created at Cloud9. “We have a tight-knit environment where it feels like family. Even if we win or lose, it’s about the everyday process and that’s all I am doing on a daily basis. I just want to continue to put in the effort for my players and let the work speak for itself.”

Cloud9 now will look toward the VCT Last Chance Qualifier for North America later this year for a shot to qualify for Champions 2022. Until then, the reigning NA LCQ champions have one more match against Sentinels in the group stage, where both teams will fight to avoid last place in Group B. That match between Sentinels and Cloud9 will take place June 12 at 4 p.m. ET.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games