An account from Luke "Tagzz" Moran

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TAGZZ — 

No one was thinking about 10 years in the future when we formed Limit in 2015. If I look back at the last 10 years, I would guess we’ve probably had 200 players come and go. There’s definitely been a lot of change. But even when new people come in, they kind of join in with the spirit of the guild, so that’s one reason we’ve lasted 10 years.

Back in 2015, we had no goals or aspirations related to now. We wanted to basically take it easy comparatively and be the best of the rest. We had nothing to do with streaming or esports, or anything like that. When we started out, our goal was to be first in North America and we surpassed all our own expectations really quickly. So from there we had the natural progression of wanting to get better every time.  That is what inevitably led to us competing for World First, desire for constant improvement. Every tier we put in more and more effort.

That’s the biggest reason why I stopped playing six years ago. I worked full-time — I still do — so I couldn’t keep up. That was how the guild was, for a while. Before we joined Complexity, our turnover was a lot higher because we were putting in insane amounts of effort, but for no money, no streams, no sponsors. We were doing it in secret and in the dark. And people still loved it. They loved the game, they loved competing. [But] they couldn’t play the game anymore the way we did.

I think a big kind of prerequisite of even being here in the first place is being extremely competitive. Everyone in our guild came from a very highly competitive guild to begin with, and they stick around because they’re absolutely motivated by competing and winning. That’s the best feeling, right?

The family vibe we have is kind of on purpose and emphasized, but it’s also just natural. We all like the same game. We all have the same goal. The camaraderie of being in this guild with 35 to 40 other people is a really important aspect, and it’s why a lot of our players stick around. In between tiers, a lot of people in the guild play other games with each other. We’re all basically one large, extended friend group.

That’s not necessarily the case in every guild, but with the amount of time that we have to spend together, it's actually really important. If it wasn't like that, we certainly wouldn't have lasted 10 years. We wouldn't have lasted two years. Guilds break up all the time at the top because it's so hyper-competitive. There's so much burnout.

And so for all of our players, especially the ones that have been here for over five years, these are all their closest friends in their lives, not just in the game. Everyone in the guild, in one way or another, has many of their closest friends also in the guild. That's a major reason why it works.

There’s a lot less turnover now because with sponsors, people can devote themselves to this and make a career out of it. It’s not everyone — there is only so much to go around and we’re always splitting money 30+ ways— but it’s enabled people to sort of make a career out of it, particularly with streaming.

In the past, things were a lot more secretive. We didn’t stream at all because we were averse to it. That was how the entire history of WoW PvE was up to that point — it was extremely secretive, you didn’t want to show strategy… that’s the world I played in, mostly. Looking back 10 years ago, absolutely no one in their right mind would have any aspirations like [streaming progression] at all. Even Max was extremely anti-streaming 10 years ago.

The way it’s evolved is completely unpredictable. Shortly after I took a step back from play, Max moved to that outside-the-raid role too. He certainly plays the game more than me by comparison, but basically the only two people still around from the beginning — me and Max — are both not players anymore.

For me personally, when I ran out of time to play the game, it was the camaraderie that made me stick around. As a player, I 100% would describe myself as totally washed up. I'm terrible compared to the people in the guild. But the reason I have always stuck around is that I was friends with everyone. And I stuck around because I still cared about the success of the guild.

So I started doing stuff outside the raid when that wasn't a thing at all because I wanted the guild to win.  BigWigs, WeakAuras, healing CDs, whatever I could do to help until we found someone to do each better. I think that's probably the same mentality that Max had when he transitioned from being a player to raid leading on the outside. He switched roles because in his mind, it was how to further the guild’s success. He thought he could contribute more fully outside the raid. And he did.

It's the same mentality that all the support staff have. We want the guild to win. The people that are sitting on the bench, our developers, myself — whenever we kill a boss, we get the same rush and satisfaction of competing. Because it's such a marathon event, emotions do run high, so my role these days is to try and make sure that everyone is happy, because if everyone's happy, we will do better. I'm doing that because I want the guild to succeed

I think that the two constant principals are being pragmatic and emphasizing cohesiveness, and I’ve always had a focus on the latter. It's not just a coincidence that I would liken the entire guild to a large group of friends. Most people get along because we all value that, and we try to emphasize that. I think what’s probably helped me the most in my professional life is seeing how much that matters.

Seeing how much getting along with your co-workers matters and making sure people are heard is what we learned. It certainly wasn't innate, to learn how to manage people in that way, because you can't really liken competitive WoW esports to a professional job. It's unlike anything else you get in any other space. 

But all the human elements are the same — they’re just heightened, right? It's really important that everyone gets along with everyone when you're spending 16 hours a day together with all those people in a room. Tempers are naturally high, so for me, building those skillsets of being able to resolve conflict and make sure people are feeling good and happy is probably what's helped me the most.

I think you can certainly see that sort of growth in Max as well. I would absolutely describe Max as one of the most pragmatic people I've ever met. When I was still a player, Max was much different than he is now, and it's basically been molded by what works and what doesn't. He’s good at being able to look back and change himself into a better leader going forward. I've never seen anyone do that sort of thing to the extent that he has. Max, to be frank, gets a ton of hate because he's a public figure. But I think no one really gives him credit for how much he can change himself over time.

When we started the guild, me and Max were both in college, and I don't think either of us were doing very well there — I’m a college dropout. A lot of that is to do with the fact that I was playing the game all day. In my actual professional life, I work in IT. For me, WoW has definitely contributed to a ton of personal growth for me, and learning how to be a good leader. That's absolutely helped me in my career. 

When I stopped playing six years ago, I was working at a brutal help desk job, and now I'm working for an extremely successful startup. When Max started streaming, he was just doing it partially for fun and only outside of progression. It was a thing to make some side money, but then it very quickly became his entire career. 

It's interesting for me to look back at those two parallel paths. I went into the corporate world, and Max went further into gaming, and we both ended up really successful. I think a lot of it has to do with what we got out of the guild, and how we grew as people. I would like to say that most other players that come and go through our guild come out on the other side as better people with great experiences.

For me and everyone else who plays this game as much as I have, WoW is our number one hobby. It's our number one friend group. It's a major part of our lives. We've had former players who’ve left the guild and are now on the sidelines. They watch the Race and drop a message in our Discord that’s like, "let's go.” “Proud of you guys." It's been a little bittersweet for me to be moving more into another part of my life, even if I’m not fully disconnecting. 

For me it always felt a little bad when I started getting worse as a player. I felt like a burden. But I'm still here because I want to do whatever I can to further and help the guild. And I have definitely gone through multiple phases where I've thought that my ability to contribute was waning. But at the end of the day, looking back and taking stock, WoW has been a gigantic part of my life in terms of the people I know and the connections I've made and the places we've traveled. It’s one of the biggest parts of my life, and one of the biggest successes of my life, too.

That’s a big part of why people keep doing it. That’s why I keep showing up. In other esports, if you’re on a team, you’re seeing your teammates all the time but for us, we don’t see each other at all until every 5 to 11 months, we’re all under one roof, spending all day together. And it’s awesome. It is the most fun thing in the world.

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