Fayez ‘Dragdar’ Ahmed is one of UK League of Legends rising stars. The 23-year-old in Lewisham, South-East London, has played for a number of esports teams before making the switch to streaming. Now he’s also with Nord Esports and is playing in NLC Division 3 with a content creator team. The Challenger ADC known for his Ezreal skills, has some bold ambitions, which he tells Dom Sacco all about in this interview…
Hi Dragdar! Please tell us a bit about yourself and your background in League of Legends/esports.
Hey, I’m Fayez (Dragdar) Ahmed, I’ve played League since season 1, so around 12 years now! I mainly played League for fun and as a distraction from ongoing health issues at a young age and ended up hitting Challenger in season 6.
Most people assume I’ve played ADC my entire League career but I actually reached Challenger on jungle and mid before I even dabbled in the bot lane role. The only reason it stuck with me is because I found it the most challenging of the roles to climb – and so I kept at it.
I continued to play in Challenger with no knowledge of esports until about three years ago when I was reached out to by a manager for a German Div 3 team at the time. This initiated my foray into esports, having played in the NLC and Benelux coming third and first respectively.
While still consistently being at the top of the ladder with ease, I’ve since taken a step back from the esports grind and ventured onto the path of content creation on multiple platforms.
Why did you decide to switch from esports to content creation?
To those looking from the outside in, esports can seem to be this glorified career of competition, fame and glory. While that happens to be the ‘high’ that every player chases, it only pertains to 10% of what it means to play professionally.
Gruelling hours, unhealthy amounts of pressure, verbal abuse, no job security, shady organisations, toxic work environments, extremely low salary to time investment ratio (in mid tier ERLs). These are but some of the issues you simply have to accept in the current esports ecosystem.
It requires a degree of dedication and mental fortitude that many people are completely unaware of on the outside. And for a lot of these players, they absolutely don’t want to be in that situation, but put up with it in hopes of reaching the ‘promised land’ of the LEC, which is accessible to very few and far between.
I came to realise, while having quite the successful career in esports and potentially even being able to reach those heights, my passions aligned elsewhere. Sharing my enjoyment for competitive League as an entertainer and connecting with people directly rather than through showing my gameplay on a random tournament is much more fulfilling. And so, becoming a content creator was a no brainer.
There is of course still a part of me that has a burning desire to compete and be the absolute best I can, so there may be future endeavors for me in esports. But as of now I’m very happy with where I’ve found myself.
“The distinct lack of life in the UK League space also aligns with my goals as a League personality, we’ve come a long way since the days of Gross Gore and that’s a void I’d like to fill that no other UK League player outside of SpearShot is doing currently. I feel very confident in spearheading that push to put UK League back on the map – and I hope you’ll all follow my already explosively successful journey in doing so!”
Dragdar
Why did you join Nord Esports? Tell us about the NLC Division 3 content team you’re a part of.
By an interesting twist of fate, the very manager for the German Div 3 team that kick-started my esports career just so happens to be Michel Klepper, the CEO and co-founder of the org!
He noticed the trajectory I had been taking my brand, and while still having small reach, had complete faith in my potential to explode as a creator. He invited me to join them as a creator for the org alongside long-standing streamers Elite500 and Lathyrus.
For me, being in the infancy phase of developing my brand and having my talents already be noticed and welcomed to join some of the well established giants in the League streaming community was nothing but an honour, and I gladly accepted the opportunity.
Since joining up with Elite500 and Lathyrus we also entered to take part in the NLC Div 3 competitive league with the addition of SpearShot and PusiPuu. It’s a similar concept formula to the ever successful NNO in the German Prime League.
Fortunately as a group of five we already had great synergy in terms of connecting and generally having a good time. That definitely translates to the amount of fun and the shenanigans we get up to in our (supposed to be) serious competitive matches.
While we don’t scrim at all nor have coaches, we’ve yet to drop a series which is a testament to all our individual skill, each of us being Challenger players, as well as the general good vibes in the team environment.
What sets you apart from other content creators? Tell us a bit about your streams and what viewers can expect to see from you.
Generally you can look at League streamers and categorise them into one of three groups: entertainment, educational or competitive. It’s very rare to find streamers that check all three boxes. That’s where my talent lies, my competitive history combined with my articulation skills allow me to explain every detail of my Challenger gameplay with ease – at no sacrifice to my performance.
But I also come across as naturally charismatic and like to be a bit of an entertainer to my audience. For that reason, you’ll find many new viewers come to my stream for the Challenger ranked gameplay but end up sticking around for my personality instead!
Another important philosophy to me, which is definitely aided by the fact that I’m still quite a small time streamer, is that I like to connect directly with every single viewer in my chat. Twitch has come a long way since its early days, and now everyone has become fixated on seeing streaming as this industrialised version of itself.
I like to keep the essence and novelty of what streaming should be alive, that is connecting directly to your viewers live, and so a lot of the time you’ll find me running out of breath to respond to absolutely every individual in my chat. I’m sure as I come to grow to larger numbers it’ll be less feasible to do so, but my heart and philosophy still lies in that place. As such, my viewers feel a sense of connection to me as an individual – and at times we can even discuss more serious and heartfelt topics that you wouldn’t typically consider part of a League stream!
What are your views on other UK League streamers, would you be open to playing in Twitch Rivals tournaments representing the UK in the future?
While I do stream myself, I don’t personally consume much Twitch content at all, so I’d have a hard time forming an opinion on them. However I will say, as someone intertwined with the more competitive style of streaming, I don’t know very many high elo UK streamers at all outside of SpearShot as already mentioned.
I’m aware of the likes of Miss Baffy and Bizzleberry with the more chilled entertainment style of stream, and while I don’t watch them, I have nothing but respect for other streamers sharing good vibes to the world. What’s more valuable than that, after all?
As for Twitch Rivals, I’d definitely be interested in representing the UK, I’d give other countries a run for their money with my three years of competitive experience as well as being a regular Challenger player. I’d love to connect with other streamers too and just have a generally good time. My stream is still in its infancy phase so not many people know of my existence, so becoming more integrated with the streaming community would be amazing.
What are your views on UK/Nordics League of Legends right now?
It seems to be quite a desolate landscape for the current climate of UK League of Legends and esports. There are hardly any individual UK personalities streaming or even playing competitive to a high level. Orgs have been pulling out investment, both Excel and Fnatic were knocked out of playoffs from the LEC and the list goes on.
Related article: Fnatic and Excel on failing to reach LEC Winter 2023 group stage
To be brutally honest the Nordics have been lifting the heavy weights for putting the NLC’s name on the map since the merger, and even then, most of the best players are snatched away into the major ERLs.
That being said, there seems to be this magic charm about the NLC that no matter how hard they are beaten down, they always seem to put on a respectable showing at EUM and bring decently competitive rosters to the table.
With it seeming dire in terms of the UK League ecosystem, I still truly believe there is a market for it and just that the participating orgs have either had poor execution, or more investment on fast competitive results, rather than actually developing a brand through content.
There have been promising newer entries into the scene, namely Ruddy Esports and Fourth Wall Esports Club putting more focus on the idea mentioned above.
That distinct lack of life in the UK League space also aligns with my goals as a League personality, we’ve come a long way since the days of Gross Gore and that’s a void I’d like to fill that no other UK League player outside of SpearShot is doing currently.
I feel very confident in spearheading (no pun intended) that push to put UK League back on the map – and I hope you’ll all follow my already explosively successful journey in doing so!
‘The Nordics have been lifting the heavy weights in the NLC, and most of the best players are snatched away into the major ERLs. That being said, there seems to be this magic charm about the NLC that no matter how hard they are beaten down, they always seem to put on a respectable showing at EUM and bring decently competitive rosters to the table.”
Dragdar
What are your views on the current state of the game and in particular, bot lane/ADC?
I think people get lost in nostalgia when they tell themselves they preferred the game in its older seasons. As a whole, I’m definitely enjoying League much more than I ever have, especially with the direction Riot has been taking to be more open ended with their patch cycles and such.
That being said, there are of course issues that will always exist in a game as large as league. The bot role, more specifically support, has been plagued with carries disguised as “supports” for a long while now. Seeing the likes of Ashe, Heimer and even Kalista and Jhin.
This creates an unhealthy dynamic where the agency of the entire games can be dictated by these extremely snowball-centric botlane matchups, which is where we find the repeated adage of “every game is bot diff.”
A lot of the time I find myself sitting in lane with zero agency watching the supports battle it out and this can sap a lot of the fun from every other role in the game.
That being said, I don’t think ADC is weak at all, and anyone spouting that nonsense is refusing to take responsibility for their own gameplay. With the new changes implemented to Infinite Edge, Navori Quickblades and Bloodthirster from Phreak, the role has now found its place in soloQ with a higher degree of agency. Notable champions currently are Xayah, Caitlyn, Varus and Zeri.
Is there anything else you’d like to add, perhaps your goals for the future?
Just a small nugget of inspiration for others. I jumped into one of the most saturated markets available, working alone with no idea how to get started and I’ve been blessed to grow faster in three months than some do in years.
Whatever it is you’re passionate about, start now and give it your all. I promise you won’t regret it.
Follow Dragdar on Twitter here and see Dragdar’s Twitch channel here
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
