Alumni Spotlight: Chase Linder
Alumni Chase “NillyAZ” Linder graduated in Spring of 2022, we touched back with him to see what he’s up to now and how gaming at UArizona set him up for success.
Q: How long have you been gaming?
A: I have been gaming since I was probably 5 or 6 years old so in total probably 15 years. My dad had the original Playstation and I loved to watch him play and sometimes he would let me play as well. I have only been super serious about gaming for the past 3-4 years when I noticed I had a chance to play professionally.
Q: What are some of the challenges you faced in your gaming career?
A: I think the biggest challenge in my gaming career was the stigma around gaming. I always cared about school and most of my friends did as well. Trying to explain how gaming was important to me and how it was going to become my career did not make sense to a lot of people.
Q: What do you do now?
A: In March of this year, I signed my first professional contract with Cloud9. I am playing Valorant for Cloud9 Academy and I am pursuing Valorant full time. I graduated from UArizona in May and plan on attending Law School in the future (if gaming doesn't work out).
Q: What was the best lesson you learned at UArizona?
A: I played on the UArizona Valorant team my sophomore year. The best lesson I learned was how to be a good teammate. I learned pretty quickly how to practice correctly and how the Valorant scene worked. I was very new to the competitive scene and seeing how different the game was in practice compared to the ranked game mode was a very quick learning experience.
Q: Do you have any role models or supporters who helped you get to where you are now?
A: I would say my biggest role model would be my uncle. He is the definition of a person who follows his dreams and does what he wants regardless of other people's opinions. Going into professional gaming a lot of people disagree with what I am doing and I have to focus just on myself and what makes me happy.
Q: What advice would you give to fellow gamers/students?
A: I would always recommend to students who are gamers to focus on school first. Make sure to get all of your work done BEFORE gaming (if possible). This will ensure that you are able to focus just on gaming, and have no reason to miss out on other gaming opportunities if you are caught up in all of your work.
Q: Any funny gaming related memories?
A: One funny gaming story was going to my first LAN event. I showed up not expecting people to know who I was and I found out pretty quickly that people knew me very well. I was playing my first match and I turned around to probably 15-20 people watching me play. At first I was nervous, but then I was laughing at how many people actually knew me and wanted to take pictures with me. Although it was a very fun experience, I thought it was funny how I had no clue the exposure I had before the event. People have started to reach out to me and look up to me as a professional player and I have had to learn how to take this new role more seriously with Cloud9.