Tomas “Tomas” Kaka is the newest face of Mirage Esports. Tomas is still discovering his role and defining what he can bring to Mirage after learning many lessons from his time with TSM (formally Excelerate Gaming). We had a chance to sit down with Tomas and chat about his journey.
Steve: How did your esports career kick off in Siege?
Tomas: I’ve always wanted to be a competitive player. I watched Optic and FaZe growing up. I tried to get a start in Call of Duty, but that didn’t work. One of my closest friends sent me a Snapchat of him playing a game and it was Siege. It was Year One, right when it came out. I never really cared for it, but my mic broke one day and when I went to Best Buy the mic I wanted was literally on a shelf next to Siege. I thought to myself: since it’s here, why not? Let’s try it out. That’s how I got into it.
What have been some of the biggest hurdles in your career leading up to now?
My biggest hurdle was transitioning to Pro League. Some players don’t have a voice on their team, right? They don’t come out the gate questioning plays. I was the type of player that question plays when something went wrong. I’d say, we need to fix this; I was kind of hard-headed. I shouldn’t have been questioning my former team, but it happened. I was kind of a hardhead kid at the time, stubborn, a little bit loud. I’m still loud, but not as loud as I was before. My current teammates now can attest to that.
As a new face for Mirage, how does it feel to make the jump over?
I was picked up by the team and one of the things they didn’t want me to be was IGL [Editing note: in-game leader; shot-caller], and I completely understand that. I’ve come to a certain point in my career where I don’t want to IGL either anymore. On my previous team, it was just me talking much. I wasn’t getting assistant help on the call. Taking a step back from IGL-ing and letting Zachary “Nyx” Thomas and Mitch “Dream” Malson handling it is right up my alley.
On Mirage, I’m the quiet guy. And it’s crazy because I’m the loud guy too. As an IGL you have a certain weight on your shoulders. When a call goes wrong you think about what to do to fix the call. I’m not doing that anymore. I just focus on my game, and I call what I see; I communicate with my teammates.
This interview has been edited for clarity, style, and pacing.
To keep up with Tomas you can follow him on Twitter and Twitch. Stay tuned for more player and creator highlights.
