I recently caught up with Taylor Fritz, the superstar tennis player who currently occupies the fourth-place position in the global ATP rankings. He’s hot off a historic run at Wimbledon and preparing to dominate the DC Open in Washington, having spent the summer so far winning tournaments and collecting more than $3 million in earnings.
He’s also busy grinding League of Legends and going hell for leather at trying to break out of Emerald, his all-time peak, into the Diamond stakes. As he puts it, that’s where you start getting noticed by ‘genuinely good players’.
Before you dive in, here’s the full video interview:
‘If You’re Good At It, You’re Insane’
Taylor Fritz is a master on the court and is currently in the best position of his life, having climbed up the ranks and broken into the final four at Wimbledon. While his run was cut short in the semi-finals of the iconic tennis tournament, Fritz didn’t let that sour him, and he jetted off to get ready for the DC Open, another historic event.
I had a brief chat with Fritz after he arrived in Washington to prepare, and we took a deep dive into all things gaming. Given his recent comments about League of Legends, I was eager to hear more about his relationship with the game, including which Champion is his go-to:
Viego is my go-to pick. I could be better (with) other Champions, to be honest, but I probably spend the most time playing him, I think he’s the coolest Champion. There’s a lot of 1v5 potential with him. I think he’s one of the most masterful characters to play. If you’re good at it, you’re insane. There’s a very high skill ceiling with him. I just think he’s the coolest character.
League of Legends sleuths heard about Taylor Fritz’s love for the game and started digging into his profile, uncovering his rank and sharing his stats, revealing quite how talented he is, sitting in around the top 10% of players worldwide.
I grilled Fritz on his efforts in League Ranked, and he told me of his ambitions:
I don’t know what the percentile is for my peak, which is Emerald 3. I’ve dropped; I haven’t had the time to play a lot, being on the road. I’ve got to play on an EU account in Europe. I’m in the process of trying to make a climb to Diamond – I don’t know what the percentiles are, but they say Diamond is the rank where genuine good players will start being like, ‘Okay, you’re pretty good.’
Last year, Fritz found his way to London for a rare esports-themed opportunity, checking out the League of Legends World Championship Final, the pinnacle of the competitive scene for Riot’s MOBA:
I got to go to the Riot Games stadium, where they have the pro VALORANT, pro League games, but I think going to Worlds in London worked out great. I did a training week in London before going to World Tour Finals, and I mean, going to that was probably one of the coolest – probably the coolest event experience I’ve ever been to.
I tried to see if Fritz was playing anything these days, but apart from scratching an itch with Rust now and then, he’s locked into League of Legends. He explained why that is:
I still won’t play single-player games. I don’t hate single-player games, just with the free time that I have, I just want to doing something competitive, so it’s mostly just League.
As we wrapped the conversation, Fritz suggested he’d be open to one day investing time and effort in the esports industry, perhaps fronting an organisation or even starting his own. Given the track records of sports personalities breaking into the esports scene, that’s not all that bad an idea.
Do you outrank Taylor Fritz in League of Legends? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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