Melvin

Manager & Performance Coach @Envy
Former Assistant Manager, Team Pro Winamax ♠️
Helping players perform under pressure 🧠

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Hot or cold, stay in the round.

Sources:
[1] Gilovich, Vallone & Tversky (1985) https://t.co/ZMGwbqizv6
[2] Miller & Sanjurjo (2018) https://t.co/0x44upqfAz

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Snowball.

Your team wins 4 rounds in a row. Your AWPer hits every shot. Everyone feels it: we're on fire. The other team feels it too: they're snowballing.

But can you actually know, mid-match, that you're on a streak?

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

After any round, won or lost, two questions: what do we change? What do we keep?

Lost a round? Don't change everything. Won one? Don't skip the review. Both are traps.

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Sources:
[1] Fletcher & Sarkar (2013) https://t.co/yM4MlAKC5F
[2] Fletcher & Sarkar (2012) https://t.co/Ios4SPETpA
[3] Ardern et al. (2014) https://t.co/ATMVYCXGCE
[4] Ardern et al. (2013) https://t.co/JHZxeJGSCc

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Resilience.

Working in an ultra-competitive world means facing constant adversity. It's dog eat dog. As a mental coach, I quickly noticed that some people were resilient, and others less so.

But what does that word actually mean?

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Limits: interviews with 12 champions give insight, not proof. The injury data are correlations, with few studies on psychology. Fear may drop because the knee feels better, not the other way round.

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Consistency.

One thing that keeps striking me since I started working alongside the very best: their consistency. Small daily efforts, repeated again and again. Small sacrifices that can seem trivial. And never losing sight of their goals. Consistency. Discipline.

Others bet on a different strategy: a huge effort once their back is against the wall. The way I used to learn "everything" for an exam the night before. So who's right?

For learning, at least, science has a clear answer.

The forgetting curve: we forget fastest in the first hours after learning something, then more slowly. Ebbinghaus first described it in 1885, and it was replicated in 2015. [1]

In one experiment, 1,354 people learned 32 facts, then reviewed them either the same day or 3 weeks later. Tested 70 days on, the "3 weeks" group recalled 111% more, with the same total study time. [2] The best gap depends on how long you need to remember: about a day for a test in a week, about 3 weeks for a test in a year.

A review of 317 experiments points the same way: spacing out practice beats cramming. [3]

Limits: the 2015 curve comes from a single person, and these studies used facts and words, not in-game skills.

A little, often. Beats a lot, once. Be consistent.

Sources:
[1] Murre & Dros (2015) https://t.co/OzPOpfYjFB
[2] Cepeda et al. (2008) https://t.co/IZ0JvlOYJd
[3] Cepeda et al. (2006) https://t.co/YbAJTQa8DP

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Sauna.

Even if it takes us a little away from performance and the mind, I couldn't leave Sweden without talking about it. Personally, finding a sauna in the hotel when we travel is one of the things that makes my job so enjoyable. I love it.

People say the Nordic countries are ahead of us thanks to this tradition: in Sweden alone, some 10,000 public saunas were built in the first half of the 20th century. [6] I can only agree. But looking into it, I realized it's far from that simple.

The most solid

- Heart and longevity. 2,315 Finnish men were followed for about 20 years. Those using a sauna 4 to 7 times a week had a 40% lower risk of death than once-a-week users, and a 50% lower risk of fatal cardiovascular disease. [1]
- Blood pressure. In 102 adults, a single 30-minute session lowered systolic blood pressure from 137 to 130 mmHg and reduced arterial stiffness. [2]

The less solid

- Endurance. 6 runners added sauna sessions after training for 3 weeks: their time to exhaustion rose 32%. [3]
- Mood. In 30 adults with depression, one session of whole-body hyperthermia reduced symptoms more than a sham. But it was a medical device, not a sauna. [4]
- Sleep. 83.5% of 482 sauna fans say they sleep better. Self-reported, by enthusiasts. [5]

Bottom line: a pleasant, plausible tool, with real signals for heart health. Not a miracle. Either way, if it does you good, don't deprive yourself!

Sources:
[1] Laukkanen et al. (2015) https://t.co/9A8LiWYuqf
[2] Laukkanen et al. (2018) https://t.co/PS5PKrMgD2
[3] Scoon et al. (2007) https://t.co/AhhkZkC3iW
[4] Janssen et al. (2016) https://t.co/vzwzEREIZR
[5] Hussain et al. (2019) https://t.co/8QoMG4Txjt
[6] The Local (2021) https://t.co/97QxfLWkXj

[Melvin @Mel_vinP]

Excitement.

Today, we play our first official matchs in @Envy colors. High stakes, high expectations. And I can already feel it: the heart beating a little faster, the mind running through every scenario. Pressure is part of high-level competition. Unavoidable. And yet, what a joy when you manage to use it to elevate yourself and bring out your best. So today, I won’t try to calm it down. I’ll call it what it can be: excitement.

In 2014, Alison Wood Brooks (Harvard Business School) ran 3 experiments. Before each task, participants either said or read that they were excited, tried to stay calm, or got no instruction.

• Karaoke: 81% singing accuracy after “I’m excited”, vs 69% with no statement.
• Public speaking: those who said “I’m excited” were judged more persuasive and confident, and spoke longer (167 s vs 132 s).
• Math test: 3.6 correct answers out of 8 vs 2.9 for “try to remain calm”.
The idea: anxiety and excitement are both high-arousal states. Relabeling may be easier than forcing yourself to calm down.
In 2025, the speech experiment was re-run: people still felt more excited, but observers saw no difference in performance. Singing and math haven’t been re-tested yet.

Sources:
[1] Brooks (2014) https://t.co/WBHY3HJpxG
[2] Poynter & Pasqualini (2025) https://t.co/NMj8dgGr5j

[ENVY @Envy]

Bonjour, France. Aujourd’hui, nous nous unissons à nouveau.

[ENVY @Envy]

For the first time in nearly 6 years, ENVY jerseys will appear on stage at a CS LAN. We take on HEROIC at Stake Pulse Beat III tomorrow in Stockholm, Sweden. Allez!

@Makazin_
@LuckyCSGO_
@misutaaaCSGO
@Kursycs2
@graviti_cs
@WasinkFPS (Head Coach)

[wasiNk @WasinkFPS]

I’m extremely happy and proud to officially announce that I’m continuing my journey as Head Coach of ENVY! 💙

After everything we’ve built together , I’m excited to continue this journey under a new banner. I can’t wait to keep working hard with the team and help us achieve great things together.

I’m also happy to announce the staff joining me on this journey:

@AlexTopGoal as Assistant Coach & Analyst

@Mel_vinP as Manager / Performance Coach

Let’s keep building, keep improving, and make the most of this new chapter together.

A big thank you to @hastr0 for the trust.

Merci pour votre soutien, les Français ! 🇫🇷

À bientôt. 💙