Why Mia is a vital cog in the SK machine

SK Gaming is one of the most renowned brands in eSports, former world champions and winners of more than 60 major championships. Always seeking the best in their field, after recruiting a football World Cup-winner to train the physical side, they then brought in Mia to take care of the mental challenge of eSports.

SK Gaming are firmly among the elite in eSports, with world titles and millions in prize money to their credit in more than two decades of competition, but when they noticed the impact Mia was having with rivals Astralis, CEO Alexander T Muller decided to add her psychological nous to his team’s armoury. “From 2016 to 2018 we were the best team on the planet, and we faced off against her a lot, when she was with Astralis,” explains Alexander, whose side are based in Germany. “We played a final in Copenhagen, and they had Mia on the other side, and our coach couldn’t get there, so I was coaching the team, which I usually don’t do.  

“This meant I saw her at work first-hand, and then, when I heard her speak at a conference in Berlin, we had a beer, and shared ideas and it was clear she was on to something.”

SK Gaming dates back to 1997, as a ‘bunch of friends playing computer games’, and quickly earned plaudits, with a world championship runner-up spot in 2002 putting them on the radar, before they dominated the sport in 2003, winning three of the four major events. Their first blue chip sponsor, Intel, helped them also become the first side to contract players. “We were the best team on planet earth and became the Real Madrid of eSports,” explains Alexander. “The journey from then had always been about always being ahead of the curve, one step ahead of the other teams.”

This is what took them to Mia. “You try to develop your programme, year-in, year-out and deliver something that makes the players better, trying to get the next 20-30 per cent out of them,” says Alexander. “They’re all monsters in terms of skill, but to be competitive you need to be focused, have discipline, structure-driven, so that you can always deliver – with your body you can’t build more muscle that will help, but you can learn to focus better.

“You can learn to do things with your mind and body that puts you in a better position than the other team and Mia has a certain way of tackling the mindset of a player, she knows the mechanics and how to get them out of a certain zone and into a zone of focus, self-awareness and an understanding of what it takes to be No.1. 

“It’s a process,” he continues. “It’s not meeting after meeting, then boom you know to be a world champion, it’s a journey. She brings everything we wanted, we look at a player ‘360 degrees’, always adding new stuff: nutrition, athletics training, sleep training. Mia brings new structure.”

Mia is not the only non-playing world-class addition to the squad, with another big name arriving before her. “In terms of athleticism, we try to expand the network and find the right person to run fitness with our players and we brought in Benny [Yann-Benjamin] Kugez – who between 2010 and 2019 was the fitness coach for the German national football team – at the 2014 World Cup, when you see all those guys jumping around, Benny was among them.

“He was super interested in joining us because of the interesting field and the challenge. So now we’ve got one of the best athletics coaches based on track record, then it was about the next field, sports psychology. Who is the best out there? Who understands the market and is close to what we do? Mia was there already, making it happen. We want the best of the best to work with us.”

ESports is like any sporting or even non-sporting team when it comes to the characters Mia is dealing with. “With nutrition, I can see what the chef cooks, I can see the menu and the food on the table, but with this I never sit in on a meeting, or get notes, there’s patient privilege and trust, for each and every player.

“Psychology is the same as athletics, where you have two different athletes, two different characters – one is super open-minded and wants to work, the other is closed down and builds walls. It’s then down to Mia – by going over the top, sideways, or with a tunnel, whichever way works – to finds a way to connect. It sometimes takes time, but she builds this relationship the right way and the trust that’s needed.”

On the practical side, Mia works both face-to-face and remotely, whatever suits the player, the competition schedule and, of course, the lockdown regulations. “Our teams are based in Cologne and Berlin, so she’ll fly in to work with them,” explains Alexander. “We have schedules, and a rhythm to how we work, and we know she’s there and everyone can rely on her – a player can always schedule something with her. 

“She’s always available online, whether it’s Skype, WhatsApp or however the player wants to connect with her, I’d say she’s 24/7, she’s always available, but with boundaries which there has to be, but she’d always be there when we need her.”

And the impact of her work? “You can see the progress in the team, the way this team plays against teams, with a mindset, an aggressiveness, they’re in the zone to win these games.” But this is not the only part [of winning], because if players slack in one of the other areas too much, the fruit of her work gets deducted even though she has done a great job. The data doesn’t back up the progress yet – we’re not back in the top four yet, which is our ultimate goal – but from what we know and what we see, we’re getting there 100 per cent.”

A recommendation though isn’t forthcoming. “I wouldn’t recommend Mia to anyone, because we want her for ourselves – ‘she’s not good, nobody should consider working with Mia!’,” laughs Alexander. “Obviously her track record is phenomenal, Astralis became world champions while working with her. We know how hard it was to work with those players, and she is sometimes the glue that keeps the team together as well as the part of the team itself. 

“Sometimes she’s a large part of the team, sometimes a small piece, it’s like a piece in a clock – whether large or small, she has to be there. From everything we’ve seen and expected from working with her, so far, it’s been ‘check, check, check’ – we’d recommend her, but don’t tell this to the outside world.”