Community Spotlight: muew
My name is Zach “muew” Anderson. I grew up in Texas but currently live in Washington state, where I work as a medical assistant full-time. I am also the raid leader for VALOR Blue.
Esports/Gaming History
I started gaming when I was 5 or 6 on the PlayStation (my favorite games were ESPN Extreme Games, Twisted Metal, and Grand Tourismo). I began PC gaming at age 10 when I started playing Battlefield 2, Runescape, and World of Warcraft, and I have barely touched a console since.
I’ve competed professionally and have been a captain on many teams in various games, such as Call of Duty 4 (PC), Battalion 1944 and Valorant. After putting aside competing professionally a few years ago, I could never shake the competitive itch I have always had. I began to focus more on World of Warcraft with mythic raiding eventually leading me to becoming VALOR Blue’s raid leader.
On building a competitive raid team
Building a successful team, in any game, is not as easy as it seems. Even more so when it requires putting together a group of 20+ players that play well together. Not only do you need to find players who have the skill to perform at that level, but you must ensure that the group meshes well. You end up spending a lot of time doing difficult content together, so everyone needs to be able to enjoy each other’s company while TRYING to have fun as you die over and over again. Another struggle is that turnover can be high when there are 20+ people per team, and maintaining a consistent roster is one of the biggest challenges of forming and maintaining a competitive raid team.
I have years of experience being a leader/captain of teams in various games; however, this was my first time doing it with a team this large. One thing that I overlooked is the difficulty of maintaining a relationship with 20+ people to ensure that everything is properly communicated and everyone’s needs are being met. Whether that be about roster swaps, concerns/ideas, strategies, or attendance. As with all games, a lot of the success comes from outside of the game itself; understanding the mechanics and timings of the fights, and learning the strategies that we will be implementing, while maximizing your output. While it may be on the raiders to educate themselves on most of this, my job is to ensure that the information they need is provided. Previous leadership roles have helped me establish the groundwork for communication, as communication is such a central part of every team, but I am still working on the most effective way to communicate to all raiders what I and/or the team need.
But even though there are struggles and growing pains, I have years of experience to lean on while figuring out how to balance being a great player and being the raid leader that this team needs to be successful. Lastly, another thing my experience brings to the team is the mindset required to be on a competitive team. I believe it is my duty as a leader to ensure that everyone is of the same mindset or understands what is needed to obtain that mindset and accomplish the goals of VALOR Blue.
On plans going into The War Within
Going into the new expansion, we aim to solidify a long-term roster around our core players and hit the ground running, getting through the new content as fast as possible. The goal for the first tier of the new expansion is to obtain CE and then focus on improving realm/world rankings in subsequent tiers.
Favorite Music:
Punkrock or 2000s Pop Punk (Yellowcard)
Other Hobbies:
Backpack and spend quality time with my dogs.
Favorite Snack:
Chips and salsa
Twitch Channel:
https://www.twitch.tv/muewnt
I’ve known Muew since 2009, We basically grew up gaming together and we’ve competed together in numerous games over the years. There’s no one better suited to lead our most competitive team.
His versatility, competitiveness, dedication and understanding of our vision allows me to put full trust in him to manage this aspect of VALOR, which allows me to concentrate on other areas of our growth.
– prawfeT, CEO of VALOR Gaming
Thank you for checking out this spotlight!
