Getting to know The Academy: Dragonrouge

BY Andrew Miesner / May 21, 2013

In this installment of Getting to Know The Academy, compLexity Academy commissioner Michael “Twixz” Shane sat down with one of our newest members; Mark “Dragonrouge” Jreige from CA.LoL.

Lets start off with a little about yourself!

Hi, I’m Mark Jreige. I’m Canadian, originally from Lebanon. I moved to Canada to pursue my studies in Software Engineering, Astronomy and Physics five years ago. I’m 22 years old, and my gaming handle is Dragonrouge.

What do you enjoy outside of gaming?

My favorite thing to do outside of gaming is perfecting my massage techniques, play the classical guitar (which I’ve been learning for 15 years now; my style being flamenco/baroque), swimming, going to the gym, and going out in the mountains/skiing in the Winter.

Tell us a little about your team.

The team was first known as Armata Gaming. We were a local team formed in January of this year with the sole reason of competing in amateur tournaments around the QC province region in Canada. After taking many victories in LANs and ByoC events, we finished it off with the victory in LAN ETS 2013 (the biggest LAN event in eastern NA). After such a big win we decided to go more global and started practicing more often. We started getting requests from sponsors but nothing was as enticing as compLexity’s brand name, credibility, and resources. After signing and becoming part of The Academy program we became even more dedicated and put in more hours daily in order to become the best team we can possibly be.

Did you play any competitive games before league?

I was a World of Warcraft player and I have a very competitive nature. Since the day I could walk and run I would compete in sporting events and galas every week. That made me overzealous and committed to win, so naturally I played in the competitive arena brackets. In the arena I accumulated over 400 days played on one account and all the achievements I could possibly accumulate over the years I was active, mostly reaching the highest ranks in PvP on my server at the time. I moved to League and found the constant threat and action more suitable for my taste and took over.

What role do you play in LoL on your team?

I am the Top Laner. At the start of the game I would stick to a champion and master him. In pre-rank Season 1 I would just play Poppy or other champions that could duel well and have cool animations. I then moved to Xin Zhao and Jax, pretty much all-in champs. Then I found some fun in supporting, but only with Janna. Then I tried her at mid after noticing her AP ratios and by Season 1 of the ranked system. I climbed to the top playing Janna mid and Gangplank exclusively in any lane. In Season 2 I was still playing Janna, but I started supporting more because that was my role on the team I had assembled at the time. Later I would play Janna and Taric mostly, but in Solo Queue I would mostly go mid and jungle playing stuff like Mordekaiser, Kassadin, Shaco and Veigar. Finally in Season 3 I mastered top lane playing Rumble, Lee-Sin, Lulu, and Singed.

Who are you top 3 favorite champions and why?

My all time favorite is Janna, she just doesn’t die…or she shouldn’t with the kit she has available. I mean shes one of the most annoying Champions to deal with when you’re chasing her down or trying to take down the carry. My second favorite would have to be Gangplank mainly because of the Remove Scurvy ability. The memories of baiting people under turret, maxing Scurvy and using it in the bush so that they don’t notice how much hp it heals are just too precious. And lastly I’d have to say Singed. Singed is a walking poisonous annoyance that flings people around and gets to do whatever he wants with the proper build: immortal and dangerous, farm in their base, between their turrets and run away from 1v5 situations by running into their whole team and surviving makes him one of the most fun champs I’ve ever had the pleasure to play!

Any events coming up that we should look out for?

We will be signing up for every single amateur weekly tournament, qualifying for bigger events as they come, and practicing for the upcoming LCS!

Thanks for letting us interview you, is there anyone out there you would like to give a shoutout to or thanks?

Thank you, and I would like to thank my family and friends for being awesome, compLexity for giving us the opportunity to accomplish what we’ve always wanted to accomplish, our future fans and supporters/sponsors, and lastly the fortune cookie I had a few days ago that pretty much said strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine, by that principal I am the most powerful being in the universe because feeders gon feed.

Again we at compLexity would like to thank Mark for taking the time out of his busy practice schedule to talk with us. The compLexity Academy strongly believe in growing the North American eSports scene by supporting our players and giving them a chance to get in the community’s spotlight.