Two weeks ago, 7rowl won the Lewis Fulham Invitational – the biggest Minecraft speedrunning LAN ever. After a tough series of seeds in the grand final, Rowl was able to win the tournament and take home the trophy. We sat down with him after his victory to ask him about the experience.
The hours leading up to LFI were hectic, as the production team and runners worked to set everything up for the competition. “At the start of the day, I was really anxious just because of the setup and everything,” Rowl tells us. “I didn’t bring any of my peripherals, so I was playing on Beefsalad’s trackpad and mouse and on Hax’s keyboard. There were so many struggles with the setup, and I was really anxious about something not working.”
Despite not being at his home setup and not being able to use any of the peripherals he was used to, Rowl managed the change well. “I wasn’t even that nervous playing. The new setup made me focus more on small things and things right ahead of me. Like, I need to focus on this right now because nothing else matters.”
Rowl is an incredibly skilled runner, having placed in the top ten on the MCSR Ranked leaderboards every season since Ranked was first created. Even though he has qualified for every Ranked Playoffs, they have yet to win one of those tournaments. “It’s a recurring thing that I always choke. I’ve put myself in a position to win the tourney so many times and every time I would mess something up – I would get too nervous – but this time, I feel like I couldn’t.”
He explains how what he learned from his past tournament experiences allowed him to bounce back from prior seeds where he died, or where he did not perform as well as he would have wished. “I feel like if I played this a year ago I would just be so in my head about it, especially because I died on the previous seed,” Rowl says. “I would think that I’m letting it slip through my hands once again. But honestly, I had none of those thoughts – I just feel like I was able to focus.”
Rowl is Ukranian but recently moved to the UK, so did not have to travel as far as many of the runners. “My mom was here in the UK, so I was finally able to spend more time with her – she was also watching,” Rowl explains. “She messaged me right away saying she’s proud, and nothing can make you more happy than your mom being proud of you.”
“I watch a lot of esports, especially [Counter Strike], and a lot of the time the players say whenever they win the biggest tournament that it doesn’t feel real, and it only settles in after a week or something,” Rowl says. Following his victory, this is now a sentiment he understands: “it just doesn’t feel real.”
With this win under his belt, the speedrunning community is sure to stay tuned to see whether this strong performance continues throughout Season Nine of MCSR Ranked, where he and the other LFI contestants compete for spots in January’s Playoffs, and for the title of Season Nine Champion.
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