Will ‘NoName’ Jones, a British rising star League of Legends player, is hoping to make a good impression in his first EMEA Masters tournament this week.
The 20-year-old has had a great impact so far, having won the Summer 2023 LVP Spanish Superliga Regular Season with Bisons Eclub and been named Rookie of the Split.
This follows stints on UK and Ireland teams including London Esports, Munster Rugby Gaming, LDN UTD, Resolve and Ruddy Esports, with NoName thanking people like player Sof, coach/manager OfficerNaughty for helping him on his journey.
NoName has been playing League of Legends since he was 10 years old, and now is about to embark on his first EMEA Masters tournament as Bisons Eclub prepare to play against GTZ, DenizBank İstanbul Wildcats and
Orbit Anonymo Esports at 5pm, 7pm and 9pm BST respectively today (Monday August 21st 2023) in the Summer 2023 EMEA Masters.
Speaking to Esports News UK in an interview, NoName said: “For me, Istanbul Wildcats have been the best team [at EUM] we’ve scrimmed against, so I think they’re a strong team. I don’t know much about the other two teams. I think our expectations, or our feelings, are to at least get top two and get out of the group.
“This is my first EMEA Masters and I want to show a good performance. A lot of people can be watching and you can make a good impression for yourself. So I’m really excited, honestly, it feels good to represent the region.”
NoName
“When I think about it, in the past I used to watch EU Masters a lot, and sometimes before I even actually understood what it was, I would just see it on Twitch and watch it, and now it feels really good to be a part of it.
“And there’s always the fans discussing which is better – LFL or LVP – and now I can be the one to change the tides.”
NoName on playing in the Spanish Superliga, being named Rookie of the Split – and his LEC goals
As mentioned, NoName won the Summer 2023 LVP Spanish Superliga Regular Season with Bisons Eclub, winning 13 and losing five, and was named Rookie of the Split.
Although Bisons missed out on winning the playoffs, it’s still been a great season for NoName.
“The season definitely was not what I was expecting at the start of the year – I didn’t get into the Superliga until this [summer] season,” NoName told Esports News UK.
“I didn’t have super high expectations, but our team ended up clicking very well in the regular season. We lost our first game but we won like 12 in a row or something like that, and went on a very good streak, and we made it to the final, which felt really good.”
NoName also previously played with another Spanish org, Guasones, an org founded by Spanish footballer Ruben Garcia. What does he think of the Spanish scene compared to the UK, Ireland and Nordics?
“It’s completely different in the Superliga compared to the UK,” NoName added. “In Bisons we have an office and people can come in and watch match days live, just normal regular season games. Some fans come every single week. And there was the live event in Valencia midway through the season which would never happen in the UK.
“And the finals themselves, the amount of people there watching – that was crazy to me.”
NoName also shared his longer term ambitions with Esports News UK.
“[Reaching the LEC] is my goal, for sure, I don’t know at which point I’ll be ready or how many years [it’ll take] but that’s where I definitely want to end up.”
NoName
If NoName continues on his trajectory and has a good showing at EMEA Masters, like he plans to, then we’ve no doubt he will go from a NoName to making a big name for himself at a higher level in League of Legends in the years to come.
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.
