- Sports , Student
- 26/04/2023
LoL coach at top level
At TU/e, Ralph Tesselhof is given plenty of space to combine his master’s degree in Human Technology Interaction with a career as an e-sports coach. This is because the Student Sports Center has granted him top sports status. Under his leadership, the e-sports division of soccer club KRC Genk became the reigning champion of the League of Legends game in the Benelux. “I’m ranked at the top of the Benelux and I’m almost graduating; I wouldn’t have been able to do that otherwise.” What does his life look like?
Ralph Tesselhof (26) is not part of the ‘culture of mediocrity’. He knows what he wants and he wants to be the best at what he does. This is something he inherited from home, because he has several family members who are extremely fanatical about certain things. For example, field hockey (“my father was a member of the junior East Netherlands team”), swimming (“not only did we swim for fun, we also competed in rescue swimming competitions”) or teaching (“everyone likes to teach. I used to tutor myself”). You could say that competitive spirit is part of the Tesselhofs’ DNA.
Freedom
Tesselhof also knows what he is good at and what he could excel at. Not gaming itself, but coaching League of Legends players. “When I started my Psychology & Technology program at TU/e in 2017, it was the first time my screen time wasn’t limited by my parents. That was great, but the result was that I only obtained five credits in the first semester.” The first-year student put his shoulder to the wheel and earned 50 credits in the following two quarters.” I realized I had to make a choice, and I chose to study.” He changed his goal from being the best at gaming to using his competitive spirit and acquired knowledge to coach others.
Status
Ralph works well under pressure and has no problem working long weeks, but without the special top sports status granted to him by the Student Sports Center, he would not be where he is today. “Now I can focus more on my coaching career. It gives me peace of mind that I get to fully pursue my passion.” He has since climbed to the top of the Benelux as a coach. [The main photo shows Ralph shortly after winning the Benelux winter competition, at the Brussels Expo Halls on October 8, 2022] This is due not only to his personal drive, but also to the knowledge he gained at P&T.
Proactive
“At P&T, I specialized in sports. This proved useful during my coaching of the Zephyr Manticore.” When his coaching was going well, Ralph sent an email to all twelve professional teams in the Benelux, offering his services as a performance coach. The main task of a performance coach is making sure that players can perform at the right moment. “I received a positive response from KV Mechelen and got to work there. A year later, I was scouted as head coach by KRC Genk Esports, which is also an e-sports team within a soccer club. Genk is reigning champion in the Benelux. The Benelux is one of the twelve European Regional Leagues and ranks 10th among them. “After completing my master’s at HTI, I plan to go to a stronger league.”
Conflict
Ralph’s strength lies in conflict management, according to Ralph himself. “There’s always conflict in a team, and that’s necessary. Only then will members push each other to be the best they can be. I occasionally organize a physical training camp, but we often engage in team building online. I don’t just approach the players from the perspective of LoL, but from the perspective of coaching in general. I could coach a field hockey team the same way I coach here. How can we optimize the structure of the team?”
Social life
This is what the last month and a half before this interview looked like for Tesselhof: “After three weeks of complete focus on the playoffs for the Elite Series (highest league in the Benelux, ed.), I did a European tournament for a week and a half. After that, I had five days to prepare for one of my last TU/e exams. I’ve been pretty anti-social all this time, but this is how I have to work, otherwise I won’t get the results I want. And this week, I have nothing to do for Genk or my studies, but I can catch up on my social contacts. Those are just the cycles I go through. Only my very best friends understand that.”
Advice
Ralph counts himself fortunate that he was able to do an internship at SSC for his master’s degree in Human Technology Interaction, which he is completing over the course of three years. There, he explored what the Student Sports Center could do to understand and better guide e-sports. “I’m very good at seeing the big picture. I recognized how both groups, e-sports players - who are still housed in the Fenix building on the eastern end of campus - and athletes on the fields and in the halls of the SSC, could benefit from each other. The first group enjoys tasks like making podcasts and videos and the second group just wants to play sports. The first group doesn’t have enough material to film and the second group is the practice material. So my advice was: use each other!”
Asia
LoL is much bigger in Asia than in Europe. Does he get inspiration from Asian coaches? “There are two big regions. China plays very fast and aggressively while South Korea plays more strategically and in a more controlled way. I prefer the latter because it allows you to stay in control. But the downside is that you can be predictable... From South Korea, I learn how to take the right steps. From China, I learn which steps a team can skip to speed up the game.”
Role model
Peter Dun is the coach Ralph holds in high esteem. “He also looks at his role from a coaching perspective unlike how many former players see their coaching role. When I’d just started coaching, I saw that in one of his interviews. I followed an online masterclass with Peter Dun, and last week, I even spent 5 hours talking to him personally via Discord. It was very special. I’d sent him a message saying that I planned to start coaching full-time after the summer and that I would like to ask him some questions. He knew my name! That really means a lot to me, I can’t quite describe the feeling. The words ‘truly wonderful’ fall short.”
More advice
Not many e-sports professionals are as proactive as Ralph was when he emailed Peter Dun and previously all 12 Benelux teams. That is why he then intern advised the SSC to make people aware of the fact that e-sports can be a top sport as well. “Few people know that because it’s not an Olympic sport - yet. If you know someone who plays Valorant, CS:GO, LoL or maybe another game at a high level, please tell them that they can apply for a top sports status at the SSC. I was granted one too. And yes, I applied for it myself.”
Discussion