A Long Beach City College student’s dream of making it into the big leagues starts as he becomes the newest addition of the esports program’s coaching staff for the Fall 2023 season.
“Coaching an esports team has been my dream job, and in order to improve and build my skills, I need to coach more,” said Giangulano.
The program gained a massive revamping during the offseason as Elijah “Carbon” Giangualano became the new coach for the Valorant team and has major esports experience within his portfolio.
Giangualano has major esports experience within his portfolio and has always had a competitive drive even before transitioning into esports, especially from his dad who is also the esports program director.
Being an LBCC student himself, he makes sure that he keeps a priority on his studies, despite the amount of time he dedicates to the esports program.
Even though Giangualano’s main pastime was soccer, he made esports his main priority as he joined the Fortnite team in high school, and then transitioned to Valorant as he went on to college.
Valorant is a first person shooter game in which players choose certain characters and work together to try and defuse or destroy a bomb site, or eliminate the other team.
With Giangualano as the team’s new coach, the team is sure to be in good hands.
Giangualano is an alumnus of St. John Bosco High School, which made it an easy transition into college being that a majority of his players and other staff members graduated from there as well.
Giangualano stands next to two computers showing his favorite characters Viper and KAY/O. Giangualano coached the LBCC Valorant team’s match at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower on Oct. 26. (Ian Salazar)
This year’s LBCC Valorant team consists of players who have already formed a relationship with Giangualano, some of whom were around him even before his coaching gig during his time as a player.
These relationships have helped Giangualano gain the trust of his team, especially with the kind of esports background and experience he has.
“I’d rather coach the LBCC team more than anyone else, because I’ve grown and worked with these guys for a very long time, and want to keep working with them,” said Giangualano.
Kasen Chea, a player on the team, has known Giangualano for a long time, both as a teammate and now as a coach. They competed together on the St. John Bosco esports team.
“It was hard.” said Chea when asked about the transition of Giangualano from his teammate to now a coach. “Time didn’t make it easier, but it took two years, where I was pretty comfortable and adjusting to him.”
The Valorant competitive scene as a whole is currently going through a process of new map additions, new composition changes with what agents to play, and new ways to play around the game compared to previous seasons.
Teammate Sean Torres, known as S3AN, mentions how Giangualano is very precise and critical with his strategies.
Giangualano has put in the hours making sure that all of his starters, substitutes or managers stay on task with their practices and be on time for match days.
Valorant is loaded with strategies, compositions, pre-game planning, and a lot more in-depth analysis.
During a replay review for their matches, Giangualano looks at any mistakes that occurred during a match while curating new strategies. Giangualano coached LBCC Valorant team’s match at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower on Oct. 4. (Ian Salazar)
Giangualano makes it a priority for his team to pour out a lot of effort during scrimmages and replay reviews to catch every small detail that can make a huge difference when it comes to matches.
Giangualano’s favorite map in the game right now is Ascent, a wide map with many angles to watch, a very open middle, and two sites that are hard to defend at different angles.
“The unique compositions and flexibility are my favorite part about the game,” said Giangualano when asked what his favorite part about Valorant is.
“I’m excited because my team is very willing to play off-meta agents and characters that aren’t part of the big four guys to play.”
With the team having a good amount of experience in the competitive field, Giangualano wants to make sure that his players are game-ready, and also build a portfolio that can potentially see these players land spots on the professional level in the future.
With the season approaching fast, Giangualano stated that since his transition from a player to a coach there is a massive hole to fill team chemistry wise.
“Four of the five main players have been playing together for the entire year, two or three of those guys have been playing years before that because I coached them then,” Giangualano said.
Giangualano is very hopeful with his team this season and is ready to make a run with a stacked roster, his great knowledge of the game, and the building chemistry of the roster.
Coach Elijah “Carbon” Giangualano and the Valorant esports team are ready to make a statement this season as they play every Monday throughout the semester.