Samy Mazouzi was already a key figure in Call of Duty esports when he acquired Team Infused, one of the best teams in the world on March 17.
Before joining Millenium in 2014, the Frenchman played an important role in assembling Epsilon Esports’ Call of Duty team in 2013. That team featured future stars such as Jordan “Jurd” Crowley, Dylan “MadCat” Daly, and Callum “Swanny” Swan. While Mazouzi was with Epsilon, they became one of the top teams in Europe and an internationally recognized brand.
Now Mazouzi and Millenium are aiming to make an impact in the Call of Duty World League Global Pro League next month. His team will face off against Luminosity Gaming, eUnited, and his former employers, Epsilon Esports in the Yellow Group.
In a recent interview with Dot Esports, Mazouzi talked about the departure of Millenium’s all-star roster in Black Ops III, the thought process of going back to their French roots in Infinite Warfare, and his expectations for the CWL Global Pro League.
As team and talents manager of Millenium, what are your responsibilities?
I spend my budget. Well, we define games on which we want to invest and my mission is to recruit teams and players and re-create what I was doing back to Epsilon, a winning org. Besides that, we do have a media and ops part with our marketing service thanks to Webedia. But my main mission is to be in charge of our teams. Depending [on the] game, I am a manager [as well] as I like to be really close to my players and prevent problems before they happen.
Please explain what happened in the last part of 2016 that made Millenium go in a different direction with the Call of Duty roster.
At the end of 2016, during and right after the Champs, the European mercato started. We knew Madcat and Jurd wanted to change something in the team. I decided to let them check what possibilities they could have and they then joined Splyce. Besides that, I’ve started with Epsilon (on Ghosts) a youth project with Gotaga’s little brother, Carbon, and I did the same last year with him and Zeek in Millenium. I had a choice to make with Zeek turning 18 in September so we tried to continue the project we had with them and left the UK scene.
Did you expect MadCat and Jurd to leave the team or were you expecting them to bring in two outside players to replace Swanny and Tommey?
I let them the choice, and when I’ve seen all the stories between Joshh and Rated/Joee, I took the decision to continue with our French players.
So the stories you read/heard about the Splyce players led you to choose a French roster?
Let’s say I had in mind the French roster as I was working with them for a few years and losing Jurd led me to continue with them.
What were the problems with the French roster that made the organization decide to release the players?
We had so many issues online and lost many pro points due to out-game problems. We then lost Malls to Supremacy and with the way CWL is done this year, if you miss pool play at international events, it’s impossible to reach the CWL.
In hindsight, do you believe that going with the French team was the right move? Do you think you should have went with a UK team again?
I still do believe it was the right move. Game was new and my goal was to go with players I knew and trusted. With Jurd and Madcat gone, Swanny out due to personal problems and Tommey left alone, my choice was easier.
When and how did Millenium begin contacting Infused about acquiring the Call of Duty team?
I’ve worked with MarkyB a few years ago on Advanced Warfare and I had an amazing experience with him. He’s really loyal and professional. We had a few words on Black Ops 3 and at the start of Infinite Warfare but nothing more. Two weeks ago we started to talk regarding his roster and it went really fast with them, Infused and Millenium.
It has been reported that Millenium acquired the team through a €10,000 release clause. Is that true?
I can’t really give you exact numbers, but we did invest a lot in them.
What are your thoughts on Millenium’s performance at CWL Dallas?
It wasn’t our best event but we’ve showed good things. We always lost our series due to one Hardpoint we’ve never won the entire event. I’m sure we will be ready for the GPL.
What are your expectations for the LAN league?
I want to win it of course, and that’s my only wish. We can’t start with low expectations, that’s not being a competitor.
