April Intel Monthly MVP and May Nominations

The Intel Monthly MVP is a community driven award where students around the country can nominate their peers for their outstanding behaviours, activities, achievements and just going above and beyond within gaming and esports.

For April, our MVP is none other than Gorilla, a student of Brunel University. Gorilla was nominated by his peers for the work that he put into the Valorant teams and esports at Brunel, and so we wanted to sit down with him to talk about how and why he did it.

What was the first memorable game you played when you were younger?

World of Warcraft was probably the first video game I ever played, I was only allowed to play it on Tuesday nights or whenever I would spend time at my dad's house. I started playing it in like 2006.

So, why did you sign up to be the esports treasurer at Brunel? What is entailed in that position?

So this is my second year as Treasurer and I initially signed up because I wanted to be more involved in the organisation of events etc. but covid had other ideas. Being treasurer honestly entails just logging all the financial transactions the society takes for the student union - and just being nosy in all the discord channels really.

You seem to dedicate a lot of your free time to helping the 1st Valorant team at Brunel, what motivates you to do this?

Yeah so I've been on the university's main Valorant team since the game came out and honestly by continuing to run it, it's allowed me a break from Coaching and to actually play the game in a team environment as well as to help develop players who might be new to a competitive team and want to improve.

What do you enjoy about esports, what makes you passionate about it?

Gaming originally was an escape for me as I didn't have the easiest childhood and it was like a whole different universe I could get lost in. I used to play a lot of sports when I was younger and loved competing in tournaments so esports was really a way for my two passions to come together and I'm so fortunate to be in a position where I can compete in Valorant full-time.

We've been told that outside of uni you also work as a coach with teams entering VCT, where does your passion for Valorant come from?

Yeah, so I'm currently the Analyst for Team Vitality's Valorant roster. I got this position after winning VCT EMEA Stage 1 with FPX in March and honestly, I love Valorant and all the support Vitality gives. I swapped to Valorant from CSGO on day 1 of the beta and instantly knew that I wanted to pursue it full time. It has endless possibilities and you can get lost in the "what-ifs" when coming up with strategies and combinations, I think with how frequently and fast things change within the game it makes it so it never gets old.

If you know of somebody who you think is an outstanding member of your community, for any reason, then please, nominate them for May's Intel Monthly MVP award - entries are open now! The winner (like Gorilla) will be awarded a swag bag of Intel goodies, including an exclusive Intel Monthly MVP pin.

Nominations for May close on Tuesday 31st May at 11:59pm.

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