Esports News UK’s top 11 esports interviews of 2023

With another year soon drawing to a close, we look at some of our esports-centric interviews of 2023 that stood out to us, in no particular order.

ManLikeCaps at MSI London 2023

We caught up with G2 mid-laner Caps ahead of MSI London on his team’s chances, what he thinks of London, plus we taught him cockney rhyming slang!

In an unexpected sequence of events, our questions about his views on grime artists led rapper JME to tweet out ‘ManLikeCaps‘, with G2 and DonJake also getting in on the action with related content (who also conducted a ton of interesting interviews in 2023)!

We also arranged part 2 of our interview with Caps about exiting MSI, and even brought him a grime-related gift…

UK LoL i71 interview with Ruddy Painkillers, Cabbage Corp and Brod & Friends

It wouldn’t be a top ten Esports News UK interviews list without a UK League of Legends LAN interview.

We sat down with the lads from three teams, and some discussions around champion puns led to one of our most-watched Esports News UK TikTok videos.

Iain Chambers on the UK’s first major Fortnite LAN

Iain Chambers has enjoyed a rapid rise in esports in recent years – the British host has featured heavily in Rainbow Six Siege and Guild Esports broadcasts – and this year he headed up the Red Bull Contested broadcast talent line-up along with Frankie Ward.

We sat down with Iain to get his thoughts on being a part of the UK’s first major Fortnite LAN, and tested his knowledge of all things Scotland!

VikkiKitty Interview: ALGS caster on the strength of the Apex Legends community

With the UK hosting several major Apex Legends esports events in 2023, an abundance of talent flew over to get involved. Vikikitty has been casting the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) since 2021, providing valuable insight into the teams, structure and atmosphere of ALGS LANs.

Hannah Marie sat down with VikkiKitty during London’s ALGS Split 2 Playoffs (won by Dark Zero) to discuss the Apex Legends community, their personal journey of falling in love with the community, and going from player to caster.

The man behind the GT Academy, played by Orlando Bloom in the Gran Turismo movie

Darren Cox worked at Nissan in 2005 when he thought up the idea of the GT Academy, a programme for the best Gran Turismo players to become actual pro race drivers.

Nissan and Sony thought Darren was ‘bonkers’ at first, but his GT Academy idea was a success. We asked Darren Cox how true to life the film really was, and what it was like having Orlando Bloom portraying a character based on him. Definitely one of our more frank and fascinating chats of the year, particularly for sim racing fans and petrolheads.

The return of the League of Legends UKEL

Some two years after national leagues were shut down by Riot Games and NLC tournament operator Freaks4U (which no longer runs the league), the UKEL returned.

We caught up with Alex ‘Synygy’ Winton, UKEL Founder & Operations Director, to find out all about it.

Yinsu interview: Football banter, F-bombs and being in the moment more at MSI 2023

We conducted plenty of interviews at MSI, but Yinsu’s was a memorable one for us, having seen her go from esports journalist to leading Valorant host in the space of a short few years. She can speak Mandarin – as witnessed on the MI stage when she helped BLG player Bin with his first English interview.

Our interview somehow went beyond hosting and journalism to football banter.

Interview with Jamada and OfficerNaughty outside MSI’s Copperbox Arena

We caught up with UK League of Legends caster Jamada and former MNM Gaming team manager OfficerNaughty to chat all things UK League, their background and the great things about London. This was our longest video interview at MSI, full of genuine discussion reminiscing on the old days of UK League to today.

‘Being told “you stupid b****, go back to the kitchen” doesn’t affect me anymore’ – Guild’s Counter-Strike team on ESL Impact and changing attitudes toward women in esports

UK esports organisation Guild launched their own campaign, #NoRoomForAbuse, earlier this year, highlighting the toxic environment often faced by women in gaming and esports. Guild also signed their first women’s CSGO roster, and also field a women’s roster in Valorant. Hannah Marie spoke to their CSGO players in this interview.

Women’s CS and Valorant Interview with Winteriio and Ne0kai at Insomnia 71

Dom Sacco caught up with UK casters Neo ‘Ne0kai‘ Caine and Summer ‘Winteriio‘ Iola, who worked on the Valorant Women’s Cup at i71, to discuss the state of women’s CS and Valorant esports, and the constant barriers women face, plus a lesson on how a little change in language can go a long way.

How NUEL is Evolving Beyond UK University Esports

Since 2010, NUEL has provided university esports tournaments to thousands of students across the UK. In recent years, the organisation has taken much bigger strides. NUEL has partnered with £5m esports complex Confetti X in Nottingham, which played host to the Amazon University Esports Masters finals, and NUEL was acquired by GGTech.

Dom Sacco sat down with long-time industry friends David Jackson and Josh Williams to see how NUEL is changing.

Thanks to everyone who gave their time for us to interview them this year, and we look forward to publishing more interviews in 2024 and beyond. See more Esports News UK interviews here.

Dom Sacco

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.