esports
Find out how the British Underdog’s new Head of Performance wants to transform Excel into winners.
With just two months to go until the return of the League of Legends European Championship, plenty of organisations have been doing business in the offseason in an attempt to strengthen their teams.
Having already brought in Joey ‘YoungBuck’ Steltenpool, one of the best coaches in the LEC, Excel Esports have now made Fabian Broich their Head of Performance – an incredibly valuable addition to the organisation who finished tenth last split.
Fabian, who has previously worked with Schalke 04 and Origen, explained why he decided to join Excel.
He told us: “It’s really important for me to be with an organisation that aligns with my values and my beliefs and since they have these incredible facilities and want to go that way, they needed someone to execute on that.
“We both want things to go in the same direction and also show the community and the young kids how important it is to have a healthy lifestyle. I wanted to have a big impact on performance in the view of esports so joining Excel was a decision I had to make.”
Leaving football for League of Legends
Fabian, who used to be a professional goalkeeper, didn’t know anything about League of Legends before he turned his attention to esports.
He told us: “When I was at Schalke, my friend and CEO of Schalke Esports, Tim Reichert asked me to have a go at looking into the sports psychology of esports. We didn’t know if that’d make sense at the time but after an internship we realised that it made quite a lot of sense so I started working on it in 2018.”
These young athletes didn’t have awareness of things outside of playing League of Legends like what they actually needed in order to be a healthy and happy human being.
But despite his lack of knowledge of the game at the time, the 29-year-old managed to identify key problematic areas in the pro-gaming environment.
He said: “What I saw was a really negative atmosphere. Everything was focused on the game and nothing was focused on the human needs.
“These young athletes didn’t have awareness of things outside of playing League of Legends like what they actually needed in order to be a healthy and happy human being. As you can imagine, they play and play and they don’t really know if it makes a difference to go to bed at 3am.”
How Fabian plans to make Excel winners
The psychology of esports and how to optimise performance outside of the game is still quite a niche topic in the industry but for Fabian, everything is simple because it’s backed up by science.
The 29-year-old revealed he’ll be focusing on four key areas with the Excel players: Physical activity, sleep, nutrition and improving their mentality – he also shared with us how these aspects can make pros better players.
He told us: “You have to educate the players about why it’s actually important to get a good night’s sleep because sleeping well means you can restore and memorise things from the day before which makes you more efficient and you have a better emotional balance because you can reduce stress.
“Fitness has a direct correlation with concentration over time which is the most important thing especially if you play several hours a day where you need to be consistent and efficient. In the end of the split when you need to play best of fives, you will obviously perform better than a person who is not as fit.
“Mentality includes a whole range of issues players might experience. It could be something private, not being able to cope with stress, choking under pressure or in game issues with coaches and other players – I will try and act as the mediator for those things.
“I will also be working on developing the players as people. You will never hear me call players by their in game names because that’s just a part of them, it doesn’t define them or who they are. Of course, it’s a huge part of their lives but it’s not everything. So, for me, it’s also a responsibility to help them grow into men.”
For me, it doesn’t really matter if Excel came ninth or tenth place. What matters is that this company and organisation focus on the same values that I like because my wellbeing is also important.
Excel have struggled in the LEC but Fabian says he doesn’t care about what’s happened in the past and has chosen to focus on how he can contribute to making his new organisation a team of winners.
He said: “I think it’s really important no matter where you start, if you want to be successful you have to be confident and stand for what you believe in.
“For me, it doesn’t really matter if Excel came ninth or tenth place. What matters is that this company and organisation focus on the same values that I like because my wellbeing is also important.
“I was a professional competitive athlete, although I’m no longer competing, I still want to create the best performance environment in esports in the world.”
