Our Athlete’s Voice series gives athletes a forum to talk about how technology has impacted their careers and their lives away from sports.

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Justin Fargo-Palmer, known by the gamer tag SiLLY, has been playing the first-person shooter game Call of Duty for 12 years, making him one of the longest-running players in the game’s history. In 2018, while still in college, he was instrumental in helping his former team, Evil Geniuses, win the Call of Duty World League Championship.

The 24-year-old, who put college on hold for the moment, has played on nearly 20 different competitive Call of Duty teams in recent years. A few months ago, he moved to Minnesota from Las Vegas to begin a full-time pro gaming gig with the region’s first-ever pro esports team, Minnesota Rokkr. The team is owned by the Wilf family, who also owns the NFL’s Vikings, and by VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk.

The team recently kicked off its inaugural season in the new Call of Duty League, which has a geographic, franchised structure with home and away games, much like traditional sports and the franchised Overwatch League. Minnesota Rokkr is currently ranked No. 6 out of the 12 teams. It trains at the Vikings’ practice facility in Eagan, Minn., and plays home tournaments at the iconic Armory in Minneapolis, an 8,400-person capacity music and events venue.

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On pursuing a shooting game ...

“I played other first-person shooter games but Call of Duty has always been my favorite. The difference is you’re looking at it from your eyes. There’s all kinds of options in esports: MOBAs [Multiplayer Online Battle Arena], fighting games, cartoon fighting games. But with first-person shooter games, you’re a digital soldier.

“I was attracted to that, and when I picked it up I was good at it. For a lot of esports players today, many people are stuck with the first game they played and pursued.”

On focusing on gaming full-time ...

“Now, with franchising, it’s impossible to do both college and pro gaming with our work schedule. Eventually I can get a degree, maybe one that will help me in esports. I was going to be a nurse and was studying that originally, but I’m having second thoughts. I’m still young and have time to figure it out.

“Franchising was a pretty drastic change for all of us but it was for the better. Being able to represent an actual city and have a home base has been awesome. It gives that traditional sports feel and is improving esports as a whole. The Overwatch League ended up being pretty successful when it first launched and it’s great to see Call of Duty following top-tier esports in those footsteps. It benefits all of us.”

On using technology to train ...

“Technology is the entire basis of our job. Everything we do with esports is based around technology. We start off at 11 a.m. every day and have a 12-hour work day. We review film in our theater room. We have state-of-art setups, multiple monitors, good computers. It’s all needed for us to succeed in our workplace.

“Right now, we’re right before an event, so our days are a little longer than usual. We wake up around 9, usually go to the gym, we’ll eat lunch at 11, review film before we play at 1, play from 1 to 8 or 9, go over stuff again and come back home and sleep, before doing it all again the next day.”

On staying healthy and fit ...

“The gym is a really big factor in our overall success and work ethic. Getting up every day with a purpose to do something other than sitting in a chair all day gets us out of that funk. Going to the gym takes us out of laziness and the repetitive element of scrimmaging. I’ve always worked out, but I’m on a better gym schedule out here. I also got all my teammates to work out with me because it’s important. It helps our body and mind to go together, and helps us play better. It gets our brain moving before we actually play our scrimmage.

“I was playing when esports weren’t big like they are now. We work at the Vikings’ practice facilities, and being around elite athletes that want you to do better, makes us want to succeed and be like them. It’s really motivating.”

On having a home team advantage ...

“It’s been awesome being the first esports team out here. It’s an untapped market and I feel like there were a lot of gamers waiting for something here. We’re the first of the first out here. The crowds showed up at our home event. It’s amazing to finally have a fanbase.

“In previous years, only certain teams would have that home-field advantage of having people cheer for them. And now that we do, I think it helps us play a little bit better.”

On traveling to tournaments ...

“I’m looking forward to all the travel this season. We used to have tournaments just once a month or every month-and-a-half, but now we have two in a month sometimes, so it makes it more exciting and gives us something to train consistently for. We can go back-to-back-to-back and keep that same training regiment and momentum going.

“On the road we’ll have somewhere to practice, but our biggest thing we do is go over film. We do as much studying and research on our competitors as possible to make sure we get the best possible outcome. For the film session, we go over video with the coaching staff. Pretty much we’re just looking at which maps the other team has played. We watch every map they played and pick the ones that are going to benefit us the most based on their strengths and weaknesses. Maps are pretty much the area you play in the game, and we play five or six maps a match. We have a veto process where we [negotiate] and then settle on all five with the opposing team.”

On connecting with fans ...

“I feel we’re able to interact more closely with our fans in esports [compared with traditional sports]. Every guy I know from age 14 to 30 plays video games to some extent, and I think that makes it relatable to everybody. Not everyone is a physical athlete, but pretty much everyone has played video games, so it brings everyone down to the same relatable level.”

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