In this exclusive interview, we speak with Jack “JackeyBoy” Douma, Rocket League Team Manager for Cyber Grizzlies Esports Club.
Q: Would you mind introducing yourself?
Jack: Hello, my name is Jack, I’m 20 years old, and I’m from Barrie Ontario. In game I go by JackeyBoy, and I’ve been competing in Esports for around 6 years, and Rocket League Esports for 3 years. My first Esports wasn’t much of an Esport, but I played on the Minecraft server Hypixel rather competitively back in 2016, particularly the gamemode Skywars. I pretty much exclusively played that game, and managed to get around 300th place in a tournament with around 50 thousand players in 2019. In 2020 I also started participating in tests for the Minecraft event MCC, which the biggest Minecraft event featuring all the top youtubers and streamers. I managed to win a couple times, which is really hard to do considering how good some of the players are in those tests.
Q: How did you initially become interested in gaming? What drew you to Rocket League?
Jack: I first started playing games around 2010, the first game I ever played being Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite. I only ever played mobile and ps3 games until 2015, then I started playing on a really cheap laptop after that. I started playing Rocket League in 2019. How realistic the game was to real sports is what really got me hooked; people may say a game like FIFA or NHL are the games that are most like real sports, but although visually they are, actually playing the video games and the real thing is a completely different story. To shoot in those games all you do is press a button or to pass all you do is press a button, but in real life there’s obviously hundreds of things you need to consider to hit the ball perfectly. This is exactly what rocket league is, there’s no pass or shoot button, you control every aspect of your car, and every slight movement will change how the ball is hit, which is why Rocket League is my favourite game by far.
Q: When did you decide to start competing in tournaments, and how did you end up as the Rocket League squad manager for Cyber Grizzlies Esports Club?
Jack: I started participating in Rocket League tournaments in 2020. It was the Indy Gaming League, which is what I played for 2 years until it discontinued. It was a really good tournament, teams would get separated into different divisions based on rank, there’d be a 6 week league, and a single elimination playoff. The transition to team manager for Cyber Grizzlies was very obvious, I captained lots of teams during my time in IGL, so I was more then capable to step up when the club was looking for a team manager.
Q: How is your team’s training session going, and how do you establish game strategies?
Jack: Training sessions have differed for different teams, the most important thing for our teams is to simply get on the game and play everyday. It’s very easy to not play the game for a couple days, which can quickly begin to hurt your mechanics. In terms of team practice we try find some scrimmages at least once a week during the season to work on our comms, chemistry, etc. I’ve tended to lean towards a demo heavy playstyle in tournaments, which is going to be amplified heading into the 23-24 season, as 2 gifted Rocket League players Bishop and comet are going to be competing at our club, so it’s going to be important for me to make as much impact off the ball this year, whether that be demos, stealing boost, or just being as annoying as possible to the other team.
Q: What was your favourite part of the competition?
Jack: My best moment in competition has to be the NSL Playoffs during Spring 2023. My teammate Trtn and I went to the school and played in the same room for our playoff games. We managed to sweep Rensselaer, and put up a really good fight in the Semifinals versus North Texas the eventual tournament winners. It was a really enjoyable experience overall, and we’re hoping to do more in person tournaments in the future.
Q: What was the competition’s worst moment?
Jack: If I had to pick a worst moment it would probably be our CRL Qualifiers in Spring 2023. My teammate Rade just got from Christmas break, so we didn’t have time to practise before the tournament, and it showed in the game as we went out 0-2 when we were excepted to go much farther. This poor play would continue at the start of NSL league play, but we finally managed to regain and win our next 7 NSL games with our main roster.
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Q: What tournaments are you planning to enter, and what are your expectations for the upcoming fall season?
Jack: We are going to be playing in the CRL Qualifiers and NSL Open Premier. I have really high expectations for this season with my 2 new teammates Bishop and comet. I except us to have a real shot at qualifying for the top 16 CRL league play, and qualify for playoffs in NSL and hopefully going far enough for some prize money.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for those who want to start playing competitively?
Jack: I would say finding teammates around your skill level who are motivated to get better is the best thing to do. It’s hard to stay motivated to get better when it’s just you, but having a team all helping each other get better helps a lot.
Q: What are your future plans in Esports?
Jack: I’m planning on competing until Spring 2025 when I graduate. After that I don’t know yet.
Q: Do you have any last thoughts or comments?
Jack: I’d like to thank all the staff at the club for all their hard work, all my past teammates, and especially Spragouu who has casted almost all our games for the past year.
