Administrator, Friend, Mentor, Parent: A 'Rocket League' Manager Logs On

G2 Esports should have one of the best teams in pro Rocket League, but it hasn't been smooth sailing ever since they acquired the first Rocket League Championship Series winners from iBUYPOWER. That roster imploded and missed the Season Two playoffs last fall. With a new lineup built around returning captain Cameron "Kronovi" Bills, G2 got off to a blistering start in RLCS Season Three this spring… and then collapsed once again, winding up on the postseason sidelines.

Even lately, they've been up and down, dominating an RLCS Summer Series online invitational in June, only to underperform at the FACEIT X Games Rocket League Invitational in Minneapolis. For whatever reason, this team cannot find its footing long enough to maintain a consistent level of play, which is killing their competitive chances.

Enter Jacob "Jahzo" Suda, G2's new Rocket League manager.

"G2 just needed somebody who could oversee Rocket League and really make sure to babysit—to be the 'mom' of the team," Kronovi said following their X Games exit. "We're all very needy as players, and he makes sure that all of our needs are met, helps communicate information, and keeps us on a need-to-know basis… and keeps G2 on a need-to-know basis too."

Framing managers as "team moms" is common in esports, where the youth of the (typically) all-male teams and the challenges they pose blurs the lines between mentor, parent, and administrator. In esports more than traditional sports, the personal and professional spheres often exist side-by-side. Whether this is a good thing in esports—and a good thing for the players themselves— is an ongoing debate, but Jahzo operates at the intersection of those worlds, boasting both a longstanding personal friendship with Kronovi but also his own Rocket League bona fides.

Announced as manager just days before X Games, Jahzo is a past college roommate of Kronovi's who plays Rocket League at a high level ("Grand Champion" in the game). Acting like a surrogate parent for the team and minimizing their contact with G2 "lets the players have less stress and just some more free time, or a chance to have time be more productive," said Jahzo. "In this way, I am in fact the 'mom' of the team that gets things handled while the players can be focused and honed in."

G2's roster includes big personalities: Kronovi is an RLCS champion and was one of the earliest Rocket League stars, accumulating more than 300,000 YouTube subscribers to date. And Dillon "Rizzo" Rizzo commands large audiences for his rambunctious Twitch streams, with 170,000+ YouTube subscribers of his own. Jacob "JKnaps" Knapman doesn't have the same online presence, but he's every bit the equal of his teammates on the pitch, and is one of the strongest offensive threats in North America.

At X Games, G2 seemed out of sync at times and the team play suffered. Could it be a matter of egos clashing as these young talents fight to be the star playmaker? Jahzo suggests otherwise, saying that everything has been friendly between teammates since he came aboard. They spent the week between X Games and DreamHack Atlanta in a boot camp to smooth out differences in play styles, and Jahzo believes that strong team synergy is "definitely something that can be nurtured."

He teased greater things from their DreamHack performance in late July, and sure enough, they played much better than at X Games,making the semi-finals before falling to eventual champions The Muffin Men (now Cloud9).

They also looked more comfortable on the stage, complete with big smiles and post-goal fist bumps. That's a key point to consider, especially since X Games marked this roster's debut in a LAN setting. JKnaps explained that X Games was the first time they had roomed together and spent significant time as a unit, and says, "Here is where we are actually teammates."

"Yeah, I see it as the start of the actual team," Kronovi chimed in. "Like, you see us at LAN. This is the beginning of this long-term journey of sorts, and it starts at the X Games."