Fairy Peak! on scouting Zen at 14: "He was the future best player in the world"
Fairy Peak! shares the story of when he scouted Zen for Team Vitality despite being on his way out of the organisation.
01st Nov 2023 17:05
Team Vitality | Rocket League Esports
Fairy Peak! on scouting Zen at 14: "He was the future best player in the world"
Fairy Peak! shares the story of when he scouted Zen for Team Vitality despite being on his way out of the organisation.
01st Nov 2023 17:05
Team Vitality | Rocket League Esports
Team Vitality's legacy in Rocket League is legendary, as their recent wonderkid pickup of Alexis "zen" Bernier helped the French organisation win their second World Championships in the game, as the only side to ever accomplish this feat 12 seasons in.
But this year also saw them pass out two legends from their ranks in order to get fresh blood, as Victor "Fairy Peak!" Locquet and Alexandre "Kaydop" Courant were shown the door.
A year down the line though and Fairy Peak! has returned as Head Coach, and it now turns out that he hasn't only just started to be Zen's mentor. Instead, he actually scouted the world-beater back when he was 14 to come into the organisation as he and Kaydop departed.
Fairy Peak! was coaching Zen back as a 14-year-old prodigy
The potential for Zen was rather well-known as the youngster was forced to bide his time until he was eligible; he was a leading Ranked player, performed well in non-Psyonix-backed 1s tournaments, and just had to wait until his ban for playing underage was overturned before he could come out and dominate the RLCS.
But Fairy Peak! knew of his powers before most, and took him under his wing at a much younger age, he told GGRecon in an exclusive interview.
"I noticed him when he was 13 and in Ranked," Fairy Peak! said. "He was not playing that well. He was ball-chasing so much and only had -okay- mechanics. He was new and we didn't really know him but he was starting to get high ELO in Ranked.
"Then he started to build a love of mechanics. At this time, I gave him some advice because he was playing a little bit stupid in Ranked, so I gave him some advice to play a bit smarter and change the way of his ball-chasing by not just giving the ball away every time - he had to build something every time he wanted to do a play - and he took the advice and then after he became better and better until he was considered one of the best players in the world."
Of course, what happened next was nothing short of miraculous, winning the three Regionals and a Major to pull off a never-done-before perfect Split, and then winning Worlds a few weeks later.
Fairy Peak! once scouted Zen for Vitality as the 'future best player in the world'
As Vitality went through their revolution though, Fairy Peak! actually told Co-Founder Fabien "Neo" Devide to pick him up.
Neo previously echoed this sentiment in a separate interview, but Fairy Peak! has now added that not only did he probe Vitality to take a risk on scouting this kid, but he actually saw enough in him to stake the bold claim that he'd be a future legend.
"He was 14 then, and I told Neo that he was the future best player in the world in Rocket League," he said.
Now, you can hear Elton John's circle of life playing in the background as Fairy Peak! returns to Vitality to coach the one player whom he scouted, was dropped for, and helped mould from an early age, all as reigning champions of the world.
About The Author
Jack Marsh
Jack is an Esports Journalist at GGRecon. Graduating from the University of Chester, with a BA Honours degree in Journalism, Jack is an avid esports enthusiast and specialises in Rocket League, Call of Duty, VALORANT, and trending gaming news.
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