When Ola tells people what he’s working on, he’s used to asking them questions. Not everyone has met a professional Fortnite trainer.
- Ola Løyning (32), better known as Sjokoladen, is a professional Fortnite trainer who teaches players in both Europe and the USA.
- It mainly works with two players and two, called a “duo”, and involves a duo consisting of a Norwegian and a Hungarian, as well as an American duo. They are now preparing for the 2023 FNCS World Championship in Copenhagen.
- Løyning previously played with Emil “Nyhrox” Bergquist, who would later become the Fortnite World Champion.
- Løyning lives off of his Fortnite coaching job, and earns more than he would as a carpenter, thanks to steady payments for training sessions and a percentage of any prize money.
It is not unusual for the workday to begin after 4 p.m. Many Norwegians do. However, not many people have the same job as Ola Løyning (32).
Under the name “Chocolate”, he trains “Fortnite” players all over the world.
I coach teams in both Europe and the USA. Between 16.00 and 18.00 I start to plan the session, just like in any other sport. Warm-up, exercises and “Scrimmage”“Scrimmage”Training matches.. After this arrangement, every day we tend to review the games we played, and then we review what we have to train for the next day. And so the weeks pass.
Løyning trains so-called ‘duos’, ie two players and two playing together. He is currently engaged to a couple consisting of a Norwegian, a Hungarian and two Americans.
The teams are now gearing up for the 2023 FNCS World Championships in Copenhagen, a massive international tournament with a top prize pool of $4 million.
The ambitions are clear.
– In order to win. They are all good, and on a good day they have a good chance. “I have two chances to win,” Luening says with a smile.
Below you can watch a video of when duo Oakes (Arnel Avdagic) and Bucky (Logan Eichenborg) were close to qualifying for the tournament, with Luening on the coaching side.
I worked with a world champion
Løyning has been gaming his whole life, spending a lot of time on games like Counter-Strike. So much so that he was simply bored, looking for new challenges.
– In 2016, I started with “PUBG”, “PUBG”, PUBG, like Fortnite, is what a Battle Royale game is called. The goal of Battle Royale games is to be the last one standing in an all-on-all match. During the period it was very popular. I got pretty good at it. Then I heard about this new game “Fortnite”. I had to try it, and I won the first match.
He was sold out, and the first victory made the impression that he still remembers history.
– September 26, 2017. That was the day I got out, he says.
Then it went really fast in the corners. Løyning played for six months as a duo with Emil “Nyhrox” Bergquist, who in 2019 became world champion.
One claims that the “peak” is in the teenage years
– Your ex-partner won the world championship, while you gave up as a player and became a coach instead – Why did this happen?
I helped others qualify, but I couldn’t do it myself. Then I discovered that I was probably a better coach than I was as a player. I was simply getting old. It’s heavy! Being 29 and too old for your hobby, Luening says with a laugh.
He believes that it is almost impossible for someone his age to prove himself against the “young man”. Like Emil Bergquist, who won the World Cup when he was 16 years old.
– It’s impossible for me to keep up with 16-17 year olds. It’s a bit strange, that is. And in other games, like “CS”, you will find many pros who are over 30 years old. You don’t do that in Fortnite. You simply have to deal with many different things, all the time. In a game like “CS” it’s probably more about coordination and tactics.
He might have a point. And in 2014, one was made to examine, More than 3,000 players had to show their reaction time while playing StarCraft 2.
And rightly so, the results showed that the average reaction time decreased significantly after the age of 24. But it’s not necessarily black and white either. Luneng explains:
– If I give one task to a person who is 30 years old, I find that person can solve it as quickly as someone who is at least 18 years old. But if you give him 15 different things to do at once, the teen does it better. I’ve seen this in thousands of players.
“Can you live on it?”
According to Luening, there are not many people in the world who have been able to make a living training others in the game “Fortnite”. So he is used to people having questions.
– The first question that comes to my mind is whether I can make a living on this. I can do that. If you do well, you can live well.
– Are you okay then?
– I’m doing well! I have been a carpenter for many years, managing a sole proprietorship. He says: I earn a great deal more money now than I did then.
In addition to the fixed payment for his sessions, he also receives a percentage of any prize money.
It is also set by organizations. Among other things, he is hired to work with players from Guild Esports. David Beckham himself sits next to the owner.
– He says it’s completely surreal for David Beckham to pay me a salary.
But the medal has another side too. It’s not easy to combine the life Løyning lives with what most people would call the A4 life, and he’s open that it can make an impact.
My working day starts from four o’clock in the afternoon until four o’clock or five o’clock at night. It’s tough. But I also addressed two areas at the same time. I work with people from Europe and the US as well.
– I’ve had the idea of moving there for a while.
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