This weeks Clan Focus turns the spotlight on Leverage eSports who were kind enough to send me an encyclopaedia full of information about their team. So grab yourself a coffee, or energy drink, and let’s take a look at one of the biggest local franchises.
Background History
Leverage eSports was created by a Devan ‘Tranquil’ Sequeira 2 years ago. In February last year he decided he wanted to further his gaming career, as well as increase gaming awareness to the masses. He also wanted to make a name for himself and his team and thus he started Leverage eSports from the team "Nero", a local South African CoD team. As of July last year we have seen massive growth both in our social media and in our calibre of players.
What are Leverage’s plans for the future?
Leverage aims to become one of the biggest and most successful franchises in gaming in the South African and European scene. This will be achieved by the inclusion of a League of Legends EU LCS team as well as a professional DOTA 2 team ( Hopefully South African ). We have decided to only branch out of the FPS genre in the mid year due to a very rough patch in terms of roster changes that are happening with teams at the moment, we hope to one day rival the top gaming organisations and feel that we can realistically accomplish this through our hard work, dedication and our management division.
Goals:
– We would like to have a team attending the Call of Duty: Championships at the beginning of 2015, our current EU and SA roster had extremely good chances of making the cut this year in terms on skill but were unfortunately unable to compete due to age restrictions.
– Leverage would like the inclusion of a EU League of Legends LCS team to represent us at the end of the spring split, this would get us a lot of exposure in the MOBA community.
– We are looking out for a South African DOTA 2 team but we are finding problems with players not being able to train as much as we would like them to.
Current Sponsors:
SteelSeries:
From day one, SteelSeries has been focused on making high performance gaming gear used by the most demanding, top professional gamers worldwide and peripherals that provide superior quality and a competitive edge to gamers of all skill levels.- Asus
Hard Rock:
Since 1971, Hard Rock has been committed to a wide range of philanthropic causes and activities around the World. Our passionate and dedicated team members in our Local Ambassador Program help our communities on a daily basis. As Hard Rockers, our actions are guided by mottos, which can be seen on the walls of every Hard Rock Cafe, Hotel and Casino location, and help us in our goal to make the Earth a safer, healthier and better place for all.
Asus
ASUS makes products in almost every conceivable category of information technology too, including PC components and peripherals, notebooks, tablets, servers and smartphones.
Partners:
Gamers Apparel
Gamers Apparel is a professional Apparel Designer and creator for Gaming teams and Organisations. Having worked with countless top notch clients Gamers Apparel has seen a massive rise of success from their Social Media and public awareness, not only are they one of the best apparel company’s in Gaming, they produce high quality content for a very competitive price in all sorts of fields.
Teams:
Leverage COD EU:
Leverage CoD EU is Leverage eSports Professional European Call of Duty: Ghosts team. After the recent roster changes from pro teams dropping their U18/ players for the upcoming CoD Championships, an Over 18 event. Leverage saw this as an opportunity towards the future, the result was a highly enthusiastic, ambitious and skilled roster of individuals who will be the flagship for Leverage eSports and will hopefully one day become what they can’t become today. This team is currently ranked 3rd in EU Call of Duty: Ghosts pro circuit.
Social Media:
Twitter – www.twitter.com/LeverageEU
Roster
LvG Haddzy – www.twitter.com/LvG_Haddzy
LvG Wongy – www.twitter.com/LvG_Wongy
LvG CooperR – www.twitter.com/LvG_CooperR
LvG Jord – www.twitter.com/LvG_Jord
Leverage Reflex :
Leverage Reflex is Leverage eSports oldest team. Originally being the foundation of the organisation, Reflex has helped grow Leverage from humble beginnings to the giant in Global eSports that it is today. Reflex originally started in the February of 2013, not being able to compete with any of the top South African teams as all the players we’re new to competitive gaming. Reflex soon honed their skills down to where they now compete for the top spot as SA’s No.1 Call of Duty team.
Social Media:
Twitter – www.twitter.com/LeverageReflex
Youtube – www.youtube.com/LvGReflex
Roster:
LvG Miggy – www.twitter.com/LvG_Miggy
LvG Squiggles – www.twitter.com/LvG_Squiggles
LvG Monster – www.twitter.com/sZ_Monster
LvG ZaK – www.twitter.com/ZaakirEssa
Leverage Necrome:
Leverage Necrome is Leverage eSports competitive Battlefield: 4 team based in South Africa. The team, captained by Ashzeck and is to Compete in Local 5v5 tournaments and have a passion for growing Battlefield as a competitive franchise. The teams manager ShupAs is currently in talks with ESL about getting an A-series for South Africa.
Social Media:
Twitter – www.twitter.com/LeverageNecrome
Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgE_DnWlocQwxL5O1gXRTQ
Roster:
LvG Ashzeck – www.twitter.com/LvG_Ashzeck
LvG Darkon – www.twitter.com/Darkon_Iramus
LvG Xenon – [Ed] Get it together Xenon
LvG ShupAs – www.twitter.com/LvGShupaS
LvG Dregor – https://twitter.com/LvG_DR3G
OR
Leverage Academy:
The Leverage Academy is a group of young talented individuals who go through our select training program. This program is attempting to turn European Amateur teams into top professionals who would one day be able to compete against the best. We get our current pro teams, Acrux and CoD EU to take these teams through a 2 month training course. The current team we have in the academy is a UK based Call of Duty team who formally played for the organisation "Vanquish"
Social Media:
Twitter – www.twitter.com/LeverageEntity
Roster:
LvG Kiwi – www.twitter.com/LvG_Kiwi
LvG Wangul – www.twitter.com/LvG_Wangul
LvG Dono – www.twitter.com/LvG_Dono
LvG Melia – www.twitter.com/LvG_Melia
Leverage eSports Social Media:
Leverage has the biggest fan base in South Africa out of all other gaming teams. We also have a large fan base in Europe. We mainly operate on twitter and our website.
Website: http://www.leverage-esports.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LeverageEsports/videos
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeverageEsports
We currently reach an audience of about 10,000 people across all of our team’s social media platforms.
Main Management BIO
Name: Devan Sequeira
Team: Leverage eSports: CEO
Bio: Ambitious and hard working, I formed Leverage eSports so that professional South African and European gamers had a platform to base their teams on and to support the eSports community in general.
Name: Adam Marshall
Team: Leverage eSports: European Management
Bio: I am the European Call of Duty manager, I take great pride in making sure our European teams are of the highest caliber and have everything they need to be able to compete at the highest level. I have always had a passion for Call of Duty eSports and this organisation has the passion and mind set to strive for only the best so I am extremely proud to be apart of the family here at Leverage.
Name: Ashley Martin
Team: Leverage eSports: EU Manager
Bio: Joined Leverage eSports at start of January 2014. Worked my way up to Leverage eSports EU Manager and have taken pride in my work since day 1. My aim is to make Leverage eSports the leading EU organisation that inspires many others on a daily basis. Started as a competitive player and made my way into management after retiring. Very proud to be part of this organisation, always feel like family.
Svarupa (Manager of Leverage) and Devan (Leader of Leverage) are both 16 years of age. How does this affect your abilities to manage the clan and how do your players treat you?
We have the maturity and skills required to be influential in the gaming scene. If anything being young is a good thing because we are able to see things from a different perspective, and we are are able to capture and inspire the younger gamers. We do not get treated differently per say but when we are in teamspeak together older players do refer to it as a ‘daycare’.
Q. Who do you see as the biggest hurdle to professional eSports in South Africa?
Getting more recognition internationally for South African players and trying to get big leagues such as the ESL to support South Africa. Also a big hurdle is to try and get the whole MSSA situation sorted as we feel they really are not doing what they are supposed to do.
I see that Leverage has a team in Europe, please tell us more about them.
Our team in Europe is a Call of Duty Xbox pro team, consisting of Haddzy, Wongy, Jord and CooperR. All are spectacular players in their own right but they have all been dropped from their previous teams due to them being under 18 and not being able to compete at Call of Duty championships, we feel that this is a grave injustice to these players and saw the opportunity to recruit the team for their skill and ambition. We do not care how old they are, one day they will be the powerhouse of EU Call of Duty and this is because they have been able to play together for such a long time.
Your clan mostly consists of players under 21, why is that?
We mainly have players under 21 because we feel that we want to invest in the youth of eSports, the longer that players are with us the tighter bonds we will form with them, having young players is essentially an academy for the future of Leverage.
Are you looking to recruit more players for Leverage and will there be certain restrictions like only players below a certain age?
We are looking to recruit players and their is no age restriction, we feel that no matter how old you are you have the ability to compete as a professional in the pro circuit, as long as you abide by the rules that we set in terms of respect etc and are able to compete at the highest calibre of competition we will consider you for the organisation.
And that’s all folks, top marks for everyone who managed to read all of that and I do have to say I’m impressed that two ‘kids’ are doing so well in the eSports world. I am truly impressed and wish them the best of luck moving forward. They are, as we say, the future of eSports for ourselves and Europe.
Give them a follow on twitter and let us know who else you want to see given the limelight?
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Last Updated: February 6, 2014
Grant Hancock
February 6, 2014 at 14:45
Wow .. seems like they are really set up well. Wishing them all the best with their ambitious plans 🙂
Admiral Chief in Vegas
February 6, 2014 at 14:45
Squiggles video is cool, just maybe a little more emotion in the voice-over commentary?
🙂
RinceThis2014
February 6, 2014 at 15:03
Nicer kit than Bafana Bafana (Too SOON?)
Svarupa Singh
February 6, 2014 at 15:18
No we dont dress like a bunch of losers 😀
RinceThis2014
February 6, 2014 at 15:20
BOOM! And well played 😉
Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim
February 6, 2014 at 15:26
That’s..impressive.
Gamer with an opinion
February 6, 2014 at 17:47
Was very interesting to read this clan article, however I am a little concerned as to how a lot of it seems to inflate the truth. Leverage Reflex have not been around since February 2013 and yes even though they are new to the scene, I am yet to see them take part in a tournament and come out tops, so how do they say they are now competing for top spot in SA.
I have huge respect for Devan aka Tranquil but feel that some of what is said in this article has been inflated to make Leverage look good. I say, put your money where your mouth is and take on the top teams like Adept, Hi5 and Vinco in tournaments and see if you do come out tops.
LvG Tranquil
February 6, 2014 at 18:16
Leverage Reflex as a team were not competing since February, back then we were known as Fariko Nero and Orion, the roster is the same apart from 1 change that happened when Haunted decided to quite Call of Duty, the name has just changed over the time we have been together. We were unfortunately not invited to attend the Afrihost LAN, if we would of I am sure we would shock the teams you mentioned above.
What Bull
February 7, 2014 at 08:58
WOW Im sorry , that is really wishful thinking , most of this stuff in this article is fabricated … Firstly barely anybody in the SA community knows who you guys are , you guys have never won a single competition or even placed in top 4 , and there have been many many in the last year … You guys are nowhere skilled enough to even compete with any of the top clans in SA … 2ndly your twitter account was bought , you guys are not sponsored by the sponsors you have mentioned …
You were not invited to the afrihost lan because nobody knows who you guys are get that straight …
Lazygamer you guys really need to start investing time into the cod community or atleast do some research on articles you post … Yet again you guys post absolute bull without even confirming or checking up on information you have been given …
Rags
February 7, 2014 at 10:15
Interesting, first time I’ve heard about them too. Tried googling the EU team but could not find anything on them.
And this is the only thing I can find from Reflex team:
http://decerto.net/v4/index.php?threads/leverage-esports-boxing-day-cup.160254/
Which helped them “grow Leverage from humble beginnings to the giant in Global eSports that it is today”
Sounds a bit dodgey if you ask me.
Svarupa Singh
February 7, 2014 at 19:51
Im sure you one of the xbox haters i assume?
Rags
February 6, 2014 at 19:20
Hmm, well you can’t blame any of the local clans for lacking in ambition. GL HF.
RedRover
February 7, 2014 at 15:49
I am not sure which was funnier. “Leverage has the biggest fan base in South Africa out of all other gaming teams.” or “Joined Leverage eSports at start of January 2014. Worked my way up to Leverage eSports EU Manager” I must be losing it but until this article no had heard of them and one month is not exactly a long time when someone is working their way up. Dat Instant gratification.
Guest
February 7, 2014 at 15:53
*no one had