So the Major, which we have been waiting for, has passed. The pro-scene, spotlights, players – all these reminders stayed behind the line on May 21st. But it doesn’t mean we don’t have anything to share: our Employer Brand Manager Vika has just returned from Paris and is ready to give a cool interview about how it was! She went there not just for fun, but on a special mission, but Vika herself will tell about this further.
Make yourself comfortable and enjoy new experiences.
- Hey Vika. I’ll start from the beginning. How did you end up with the idea to go to the Major in Paris?
— Hello! I saw a chat message from the product’s marketing team. They were discussing the upcoming Major so vividly that I decided to take a look at the organizers website and was thinking about how we can cover this event. And when I realized the scale, I thought that it would be very cool to go there literally and show the event in the first person. We all can see a broadcast, but live content is always better and adds a sense of belonging. Besides, this Major is the last in CS:GO and was supposed to take place in Europe. Therefore, I decided that it was necessary to go there to watch, to inspire and gain ideas, content and get autographs from some players.
- Cool! Tell me, please, how did you get there? We know that this is another story of adventure!
— Oh, that was quite a quest! My trip to Paris was supposed to take two days and included: train Odessa-Lviv, train Lviv-Pshemysl, train Przemysl-Krakow, plane Krakow-Paris. On the evening of May 14, I got on the train to Lviv, already feeling a bit unwell (like with a slight cold), and in the morning, one hour before arrival, the conductor came into the compartment and said that our train was delayed for two hours due to problems on the railway tracks in Khmelnitsky.
I guess there is no need to say what I felt when I realized that I was missing the train to Przemysl :)) But I was ready for this and already started looking for tickets for the next trains and buses, because luckily there was still a lot of time before the plane.
Vika laughs nervously
About half an hour later, the conductor enters the compartment again and says that the train to Przemysl is coming right behind us, so I will definitely have time to change trains. They say that people do not know how to reach the speed of light. But you should have seen me running headlong to the next train to Poland! :)) Eventually, I was on time and we set off in the direction of the border. Meanwhile, my cold was already in its full bloom.
At the border, we were forced to give way to the Warsaw-Kyiv train, so we stood there for about one and a half/two hours right at the border. And, of course, we missed the Przemyśl-Krakow train :)) Therefore, I had to buy a ticket for a new train, fortunately they go every hour. Finally, at 18:00 I was in Krakow, in the apartment of my friends. And at 7 a.m. was my plane to Paris, so I managed to sleep around 6 hours in two days. At least everything was fine with the plane and at 12 a.m. on May 16 I was already walking around Paris and enjoying the view of the Eiffel Tower.
- What were your goals for this Major? Did you manage to complete everything?
Oh, there were a lot of goals! It all started with a desire to understand deeper the market, learn more about such big tournaments, feel the atmosphere, feel with ideas and show my colleagues what the Major is, how cool it is and inspire them.
And when I started analyzing everything in more detail, another goal appeared – to bring to our Mojamers the gifts they never dreamed of. The maximum program for me was to get a signature from Karrigan, the captain of the FaZe Clan team that won Major 2021.
But I managed to do much more than that! I signed merchandise from the British team Into The Breach, two top Monte players, Woro2k and DemQQ, Headtrick from Ninjas in Pyjamas and, of course, Karrigan!
Vika shows us the signatures of the players
In addition, I bought more merchandise of the Major itself. As we say in Ukraine: «Tse skarb, what a treasure!», and this merch will be given away/donated to our guys inside MOJAM, on our internal tournaments or during some activities. Some of them will go to our Kharkov office to decorate the «museum» of the company. I tried very hard to get as many signatures as possible, only NAVI and the Monte full team escaped me. But who knows, maybe we’ll go somewhere else in the future :))
And the third goal was to show Major in the first person both within the MOJAM team and on external social networks. We are active, constantly learning something new and want to develop, so the trip to the Major became a logical step of our overall strategy to educate and motivate the team. At the moment, our top product is related to the CS:GO game, and we could not help but show how how the last tournament of this version of the game is arranged. Therefore, the content was created non-stop. As soon as there was something interesting, I was passing it on to the content and design teams, and it quickly appeared on our Instagram and on our internal Slack channel. In addition, some of the guys watched the broadcasts together and cheered for their favorites. I think that all the goals of the trip have been achieved, we have given 200% of ourselves and I am satisfied.
- We are aware that before this trip you weren’t that good at esports. How do you like new knowledge? Did the CS:GO event interest you enough to want to dive more and more into the theme?
In principle, before I got into MOJAM, I had little to do with games. As a marketer, I often had to deal with different areas, so it was not so scary to start something new, plus I was willing to learn. And when I saw the passion and fervor of the whole team working on the product and on the development of MOJAM in general, I wanted to learn a lot more about the market. When we came up with the idea of going to Major, I was very happy, because at such competitions you can feel the market from the inside. To say that eventually Major interested me even more is to say nothing! Such events are worth attending and seeing for sure. Another pro-tournament will be held already in August and who knows, maybe Cologne will see more Mojamers:))
- Who did you manage to meet from the teams personally?
I happen to know where the players live :)) Therefore, I saw a lot of guys. And, of course, the winners of this Major, the Vitality team. Personally, I managed to get acquainted only with Headtrick from Ninjas in Pyjamas, DemQQ and Woro2k from Monte, and also with the manager of Karrigan. Very friendly and nice people! I was a fan of Monte and they showed themselves very cool at the tournament this year. I am happy that I was able to shake hands with them and wish them good luck.
- There are still many big CS:GO events ahead. Have you already chosen which ones you want to go to?
Hehehe. Which ones? Hmm all of them?! :)) Now I am thinking about going to Cologne. The event is already in August, so you need to buy a ticket now. And, of course, I won’t miss the next Major! And, most likely, I will bring with me one of our Mojamers.
- Describe Major in three words? (Really 3 words)
Drive. Love. CS:GO
- What was the funniest thing about this trip?
A feeling of absolute loss of control, because everything was changing every hour: both on the way to the Major and at the event itself. And for a person who likes to control everything, it was quite difficult to accept. But once in Paris I was so ill that at some point I just let it go and focused on the main tasks. In the end, I got even more than I expected!
- Last question. What surprised you the most? Maybe some new feeling during this event? Or something else specifically?
Two things surprised me. The first one is the fans. I have not seen such love for the game, teams, the tournament itself for a long time. I experienced a cool feeling of belonging and unity with the whole world. And it is priceless.
The second is our product team, who filmed content, covered the game in general, and supported the Into The Breach partner team. What they do is so inspiring. Preparation, shooting, processing, quality – everything is done very professionally. I am very glad to be part of such a team.
