Twin brothers Vladimir and Mihajlo Labovic star for PNW’s esports team – The Times of Northwest Indiana

After the Wood Dale, Ill. natives moved to Valparaiso ahead of their high school junior year in 2019, both continued their soccer careers. But amidst the uncomfortable, lingering aftermath of COVID-19, they switched to football as Wheeler seniors.

A year later and off to college in 2021 at Purdue Northwest, the Labovic brothers brought aspirations of preparing for careers as electrical engineers for the Portage-based engineering firm their father and uncle manage. All good — and even better when Vladimir and Mihajlo learned at New Student Orientation that PNW fields an esports team.

After peppering coach Justin Bragg with questions, the Labovics joined the PNW team, one of some 500 varsity collegiate esports programs in North America, according to Bragg.

Esports is short for electronic sports — i.e., competitive video game-playing — or as Mihajlo puts it, “I tell people I play video games competitively on the PNW esports team.”

And to put a finer point to that statement, Mihajlo and Vladimir have excelled at their current competitive passion despite not having played on an esports team until arriving at PNW.

In fact, as freshmen in 2021-22, they each achieved rankings of Grand Champion 2, the second highest of eight levels for all North American competitors in Rocket League game play.

Expressed another way, the Labovic brothers hold status among the top one-third of the top 1 percent of players across the continent — amateurs and professionals combined — in Rocket League, the video game’s premise of which is a soccer match played in a car.

The current 2022-23 season finds both 19-year-olds having switched their PNW esports focus to the newly collegiate-sanctioned Valorant — a game of attacking and defending relative to bomb detonation.

Already having again achieved elite Valorant status, Mihajlo has reached the Immortal 3 level as one of the top one-tenth of 1 percent of all North American players, while Vladimir is at Immortal 2 status (top one-fifth of 1 percent).

“I can’t think of many players who are as accomplished at multiple games as Mihajlo and Vlad are,” Bragg said. “They are very competitive individuals. As twins, they have competed against each other their whole lives, which has helped them become better and better. A combination of loving video games and wanting to be the best drives them.”

Bringing an athlete’s mindset to the esports arena is also an asset, according to Bragg, who grew up playing soccer and basketball before moving on to achieve top level esports status as the No. 10-ranked League of Legends player in 2015.

According to Bragg, the keys to success for players on a team who likely won’t break a sweat during their competitions are similar to athletic teams.

“In esports, we preach the same life skills learned in athletics. Communication, problem solving, leadership, critical thinking and mental toughness,” he said. “I would argue it’s harder mentally to be successful at esports because you have to be mentally focused all the time. There are no substitutions, no down time in our games.”

Under Bragg’s tutelage, PNW’s League of Legends team was a top-35 national finisher and Battle of Indiana champion last season. The university’s Call of Duty team also came within one victory of a top-32 finish.

The Labovics agree about the demanding mental intensity of esports competition.

“There’s the same adrenaline (rush) playing esports as athletics,” Mihajlo said. “The difference is that in athletics you get physically tired, but after esports competition, you are mentally drained. It’s like taking a college SAT test competitively.”

Added Vladimir, “I try to spend every millisecond putting my energy into the competition; you can’t let up, you have to stay focused.”

Both brothers also contend that esports success is based 85 percent on proper mentality and 15 percent on talent and mechanical ability.

Relatedly, the Labovics say they seek to adhere to a competitive philosophy of aggressively striving to obtain every advantage possible against their opponents, exert significant offensive pressure, overcome disadvantages and attempt to influence opponent mistakes.

“As soon as you get into your opponent’s head, you’ve won,” Vladimir said.

Also similar to athletics, both brothers are big on, “Taking what you’ve learned from one game and incorporating it into a (future) game,” Vladimir said.

According to Mihajlo, “After you understand and learn the fundamentals, you want to stay consistent (applying them),” adding that he attempts to do that by regularly watching video replays of his game performances.

College esports competition typically consists of best-of-five or best-of-seven competitive series play held in various games, also referred to as titles. Comprising the PNW team are some 60 coed members, nearly half of whom receive esports scholarships.

The PNW esports team competes and practices regularly in a campus esports “arena,” filled with scores of computers. The arena is accessible to all PNW students, faculty and staff.

Suffice to say Mihajlo and Vladimir have come a long way since their introduction to Rocket League as middle school students. And for each of them there has been an esports takeaway that has helped them as engineering students.

“Because of my video game experience, I’ve been able to focus better and understand what people are saying,” Vladimir said.

Added Mihajlo, “Esports has helped me with time management and being more disciplined.”

Though on an academic engineering track, each brother also is aware of the growing popularity of esports, including the multi-million-dollar annual incomes premier esports professionals are pocketing.

“(Professional esports) is not a primary consideration with me, because I want to become an electrical engineer,” Vladimir said.

As for Mihajlo, “Yes, I’ve thought about it (pursuing professional esports). Will it happen? We’ll see. If it comes, so be it.”