Katie Willis

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Virge @RocketLeague Aww look at the three of you! 😍❤️

[Virge @Virge]

Introducing: Rocket League University

[Virge @Virge]

New video just dropped! Link below all feedback appreciated🫡

[Virge @Virge]

New video + big announcement dropping this Saturday. Can't wait to share! Here's a teaser 🎬

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Virge Can’t wait 🥰

[Meg @megannn_lynne]

i would tweet this to let you all know i was in a hostage situation

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@ItBeCaleb @bekaboobs Congrats! 😍❤️

[Virge @Virge]

Retiring from the RLCS.

I want to start by thanking everyone who has supported me in my career in any capacity. I would never have been able to live this dream of mine and accomplish any of what I did in the RLCS if it were not for the fans, friends, and family I’ve made along the way. What started as a passion and a love of mine for what was at the time just a small video game, grew into something much larger than I ever could have imagined. You have allowed Rocket League to be much more than just a small game for me, it has become a home. I was able to accomplish many accolades in my career that I could never have thought possible for someone like me. I’ve been blessed with a career and experiences that many can only dream of having the opportunity to pursue. So truly from the bottom of my heart, thank you for having given me this once in a lifetime opportunity to chase a childhood dream for almost my entire adult life.

Starting today I am going to be retiring from coaching in the RLCS. This was not an easy decision for me to make for a lot of reasons. Rocket League is a beautiful game and I still believe it can become the largest esport in the world some day. It has always been the game that I see bridging the gap between traditional sports fans and the world of esports. Even though there has been a lot of talk of the game potentially dying recently, I think Rocket League still has the same potential and I will be an RLCS fan for the rest of my life.

I am reaching a point in my life where my priorities have shifted. I want to focus on building a family and future with Katie. I want to be able to spend more time with her family and mine. I want to provide a sense of stability for our future as best I can. And unfortunately a career competing in the RLCS is too consuming, competitive, and volatile for me to make the progress I want towards those goals. I have gone through many changes in organizations and teams and the longer I have competed in this game the more unpredictable and less secure my position seems to become. And that’s simply the nature of competition. There are no guarantees with pursuing this career path, which is something I now need to provide stability for a family.

As I mentioned before, this decision was incredibly hard for me to make for a few reasons. I think I speak for every player and coach in the RLCS when I say the ultimate goal is to win the World Championship. Having not accomplished that goal in my career after working so hard for so long trying to try and do it, part of me feels that I’m leaving this chapter of my life unfinished. That feeling played into my hesitation to retire at the start of the first split after not finding a team. I held on to hope that I’d fall into place during the usual rostermania mayhem between splits. Having the start of the second split come and go with no team to work with, it reinforced my feelings that it’s my time to metaphorically put the “Epic Pen" down in regards to the RLCS and make way for the next generation of coaches so that I can focus on what’s becoming increasingly more important in my personal life. I’m 27 years old, which I know is like 60 years old in RLCS years. I have far more responsibilities than when I first started this career as just a kid with a passion. I have to accept that not everyone who competes can accomplish the goal of becoming a World Champion. But I’m glad I tried and I am still proud of all the accomplishments I achieved in my pursuit of that. As someone who has never played professionally and got my start by reviewing replays for viewers on Twitch, I think did alright. And if I can do it, I hope that shows other people that it doesn’t matter where you’re starting, you can do it too. If you prioritize, work hard, and have passion for what you do then you can overcome most adversity. Although I would be lying if I said there wasn’t some luck involved, so my words of advice for anyone who wants to pursue this career;

Trying to make it in an esport is like buying a ticket for a train that doesn’t have an arrival time. You don’t know when or even if this train is coming at all. But if you get lucky and it does show up, you have to have your ticket ready. If you aren’t prepared for that moment then you could miss your chance and there’s a thousand other people who are prepared that will happily take your spot. You have to want it more than everyone else and you have to prioritize this over a lot of other meaningful things in your life. While competing in an esport is a dream job for many, I just want to iterate that it is not just a game anymore at that point. I have never had to work harder in my life than the years that I have been competing for a living. During the 6 years I competed there were no days off, no breaks, and no free time while because I couldn’t help but always feel that if I was relaxing, that gave someone else a chance to close the gap or get an advantage over me. I had to eat, sleep, breathe, and live Rocket League to make this career work. I had to give this game and esport every part of me, physically, mentally, and emotionally the entire time. And at times, regrettably to an unhealthy extent. In professional competition there’s this unspoken, perpetual pressure that you put on yourself to keep improving at all costs. This led to me ignoring my health and developing repetitive stress injuries in both of my wrists and thumbs which I am still recovering from and affects my ability to enjoy gaming the way I used to. But I’m not sharing this for pity, rather in hopes that if someone reading this chooses to pursue a career in esports, you are mentally prepared to deal with an obsessive work life without making the same mistakes I did. I believe anyone that wants it bad enough can make it happen. Because even though luck is involved, luck is just when an opportunity comes along and you are prepared for it.

Finally, I want to speak on the effect this job has on your mental health to bring more awareness to the topic. The people you see competing in the RLCS are real human beings just like you making real sacrifices in order to put on the show we all love watching. It is not easy to be in the spotlight, and even though you may think your messages get lost in chat or we will never see them on reddit/twitter, I promise we eventually see them all. The negative comments hurt and have a real impact on the mental health of these people who are mostly teenagers or very young adults. Speaking from experience it is very difficult to cope with some of the things people say online, and I am much older than most of my colleagues. I can only imagine how much more I would have struggled with it if I were as young as them. I want to encourage everyone to be vocal about the positive things and be mindful of the impact your comments have. Nothing feels better than seeing positive comments about you from fans after a series, and similarly nothing feels worse than seeing the negative comments. We have a unique opportunity as fans in esports to uplift or tear down someone’s self esteem with what we say because of how connected we are to the competitors through social media. We should use that opportunity to always be uplifting. There are negative comments about me I have read online that I can’t help but have insecurities about. And on the other side, there are even more positive comments that I have immense gratitude for because they have lifted me out of lows on many occasions. Even though the good outnumber the bad, it can be impossible at times for the few negative comments to not stick with you. We as fans have so much more influence than we may realize, so I want to encourage us all to be more generous and uplifting with our comments. As corny as it sounds, a single positive comment may just be the reason why someone keeps going. And I know this because there've been many occasions where that was the case for me. Let’s work together to encourage positivity and respect for the people who sacrifice their anonymity for the benefit of our entertainment. At the end of the day we all share the same love for the game.

As for what’s next for me? I have begun working full time on a new project still within Rocket League and am super excited to share more details soon. I am getting back to my roots of working within the community as I set the competition down. I plan on continuing with my YouTube content and doing all the things I can to share my knowledge and experience from the RLCS with the community, as I owe everything I am to you guys. I’m excited to be able to enjoy the RLCS as a fan again. And I truly appreciate all of the love and support this community has shown me for so long.

Thank you, always,

-Virge

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Virge So proud of you! I can’t wait to see what comes next. 🥰

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Virge I’ll always be your #1 fan ❤️

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Toxtraptonized I’m so sorry for your loss ❤️❤️

[BeastBound @BeastBoundLive]

For everyone that needed something special for tomorrow. Don't worry, I gotchu!

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Yukeo Happy birthday! 🎂🥳

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Virge @EvilGeniuses Nice of them to give you and Simon such a lovely shout out 🥰🥰🥰

[Virge @Virge]

Have a bit more free time now that holidays are over! If you’re looking for help with leveling up your RL knowledge then hit me up on @TryMetafy 😁

https://t.co/qqkHmRndAA

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@angkathleen0214 😍❤️ can’t wait!

[Virge @Virge]

Scrims v Vitality // No sound

https://t.co/VhOCQ9v8SU

[Katie Willis @katearoo_]

@Virge Yes