The EPIC.LAN attracts well-known names, upcoming talent and players wanting to prove their worth, from all over the UK. One of them is Oscar “LVN” Levin, a Kettering veteran and former GamerLegion Academy coach turned stand-in for Dreams to Legends. At 23, this ex-in-game leader reflects on his role at EPIC.LAN and the journey ahead as he explains his next steps in 2025. UKCSGO sat down with LVN to discuss his recent performance and future ambitions.
So, if you just want to start with a quick introduction of yourself
I’m LVN. I’m 23 now. I used to play, now coaching. Um currently, I guess free forever.
The last time we spoke to you was at EPIC39 where you finished 2nd, today you just finished your lower quarter final. What were your goals for this event?
I think it would have been nice to get a HLTV and also top four, it was kind of the goal. The guys I’m with, I’m sort of filling in for because they don’t have a caller, so we have been practicing and I’ve been turning up. But overall quality, we played a few UKIC games together and they’d be doing pretty well so the sort of goal was top four. It’s a bit disappointing to go out in 9-12. Yesterday we lost to some really bad team in the first game, but then we won all the rest of our games only going down to Verdant after that. It’s a bit disappointing.
You stood in for Dreams to Legends for this LAN, is this something temporary or are you looking to stay long-term.
It’s just a temporary thing for me coming to this LAN and playing the rest of the UKIC Division One with them [Dreams to Legends], not looking to go back into playing, it’s not where I’m at but it’s been fun to be playing now and then though, for sure.
Let’s talk about GamerLegion academy, was the move into a coaching position a positive for your career? What did you learn from it?
I learned a lot, I definitely wasn’t like actively looking to go into coaching, but then the offer came about and to get started, there was no better opportunity than signing like an academy prospect. It was kind of what I’ve been doing already in terms of scouting players as an IGL anyway because of the position I was in.
In the UK scene, we weren’t really able to get anyone, or when in Europe, to get whoever we wanted. So, I always had to sort of scout and develop players anyway, which was perfect for me. The style that they gave me was the free reign to style the academy that had their goals and what they wanted to get to, at a certain point. I thought of it as a perfect opportunity for me to get started.
GamerLegion academy’s goal was a “project aimed at scouting fresh talent from the grassroots levels”, do you think EPIC.LAN is a good place to scout for upcoming talent?
Definitely. I mean the UK scene, at the moment, it has a lot of fresh talent. I’d say we don’t have too many high-level teams, but like everyone has to start somewhere, so I feel like we’ve got more teams than ever. The teams might be lower at the moment, but these people are not going to get better if they don’t keep coming into it [EPIC.LAN]. So, I feel like we’re going to have new CYPHERs, new volts coming up eventually and then those people get into the bigger teams, make teams together and then they’ll be making teams to change but they have a long way before they stay at the top.
So that it’s definitely a good way to find people because if you also look at the aspect of people wanting to prove themselves online compared to LAN. If you’ve got a person, and he’s only good online and he goes to LAN and just crumbles, he’s not going to be at a high level. If you want to be playing at high level, you must be playing at those LANs, if you can’t play well on that [LAN]. It’s definitely a good spot.
Are you still looking to continue a professional career and are you looking for offers?
I’m looking for offers but I wouldn’t say I’m actively looking into it. I’ve got like a tweet out but whatever, but I’d like to say I’m kind of enjoying being unemployed for a bit. I’ve been in a team for about five years, like since 2019, just in teams constantly as a player. Honestly, wasn’t planning to go straight into coaching after that.
I’m kind of enjoying finally going into university as well as just being free for a time, like I don’t have a week where I’m like “Oh, I’ve got practice all these evenings” and stuff like that. So, I’m kind of enjoying the free time for a bit, but I think 2025, I’ll start. I think there’s a few things that I could possibly do, but I’m in a luxury position where I don’t need to rush into anything and just see what is out there and see what happens.
Are you looking to continue as coach or would you switch back to playing?
I’m not really interested in playing. I much prefer the rocking up with two hours past two weeks and still playing okay than playing again, so definitely coaching is what I’m looking to continuing.
And would you like to add anything?
Dreams To Legends, they covered all of us to come to this event, they’ve been a good org, they’ve paid for all our hotels and everything to come here.
