“Now that you are here, how are you experiencing the Call of Duty Major at Paris La Défense Arena, the first major tournament organized by your club?
Corentin “Gotaga” Hossein: (smile) This is pure dopamine. Everything goes up and down, stress, fear, all the scenarios in our head. Our team had concerns about the performance. We just changed two players due to internal problems, but we were still expected on the turn, because this is our major, we had to answer… That’s it, we’ll play.” Championship on Sunday “This Sunday we are in the top 4, even if the other three teams will be difficult to find. After the first major we won, we finished in the top 6 twice. This is better and this is already great.
Another problem was the event itself. This is an official tournament Call of Duty The league, but we organize it, this is our image, we take risks, invest money, have to find sponsors, sell tickets… At the moment we have checked all the boxes. Now we have to go to the end, but I’m already happy, we are breathing after months of organization. The pressure begins to rise.
How do you feel about this return to the forefront? Call of Duty in France, hosting the biggest competition ever staged here, almost 10 years after the game’s last major tournament?
It’s true that the last big tournament was supposed to be ESWC in 2016… Even in my wildest dreams, when I was a player, it was hard to imagine. We had 3,000 people attend during Paris Games Week, it was crazy, but what we players saw left indelible images for the rest of our lives. That said, we’ve had GP Explorers with a lot of people, but it’s still a shock. In general on Call of DutyPeople come to tournaments for OpTic (American club). There we break the attendance record and they are all screaming about us, about Gentle Mates.
When you created Gentle Mates, you still had a dream of bringing moments like this to life on this scale. Call of Duty ?
Fully. For me, I never ended my playing career. When I stopped I said to myself: ” Well, that year’s game wasn’t very good, I’ll wait for the next one “. And then it wasn’t good either. Nobody played it, it was a disaster. The next one was the same. A little despite myself, I went in a different direction. H1Z1, PUBGThen Fortnite. I’m happy that I can turn the page and say to myself: ” Okay, I can still help this competitive scene. “. The one who makes me be here today, who made me become who I am. Being able to “give back” in a moment like this feels so good, it’s a source of pride.
Among the fans there are many people who were there ten years ago, but there are also guests, people who comment… We feel that there is a strong nostalgia around this major.
Everyone feels nostalgic. We wanted to admire those who provided this Call of Duty was what it was at the time, those who continued to support the scene, commentate on the league before it was integrated… Even me, I was not warned about using music from my old Youtube videos when players entered (remix of “Monster” by Meg & Dia, which became a cult classic). I had to remove it from my videos at the time due to copyright… This is so cool. And among the public there are people who follow us individually. Some people like to say that M8 has a young community, but CoD many of my age come with their children. And they participate, they give a voice, it’s not just The Gentle Suits (an association of Gentle Mates supporters). We brought little Enzo with his father, I want people to identify with these kinds of events, to tell themselves that yes, you can still be a professional at this. Call of Dutyit still exists. We’ve lost this thing a little bit.
More Call of Duty was the basis for the development of eSports in France…
Yes, even just games, YouTube too. There was Mining craft, GTAA little FIFAbut above all Call of Duty. The first major YouTubers in France, other than those who made video blogs, were Call of Duty. Indeed, it was completely lost. My team is currently making a documentary about the golden period of CoD, they have been working hard on it. There are many speakers, some unexpected. It will be released immediately after the Major on Monday. A lot of people will have a new dose of nostalgia, but there will be others who will discover this story after seeing the tournament this weekend… They will be able to understand the essence of it all, where this story comes from.
What does it mean for Gentle Mates to host the first big event that has been a sporting and visual success so far?
Already as a structure, it shows some people that we exist. There CoD The league is a very America-centric league. The players have already said that they didn’t sign a contract with us because they didn’t know us, now they won’t be able to say that anymore(smile). We showed what we really want to do Call of Dutywe’re not here just for the image, we want it to be an important element of Gentle Mates. The players know that we are not making fun of them, that we are actually pushing them forward.
Joseph “JoeDeceives” Romero, who you recruited in early June, said on Friday that if he signed with M8, it was for “this,” pointing to the public. The gravitational pull of your fans is already working.
Fully. JoeDeceives was the advocacy we did on networks that failed earlier in the year. We just went 6 wins-27 losses in 2025. The transition to us is not as safe as to the American clubs that have been there and been symbols for decades. If JoeDeceives had stuck around after leaving KOI, he probably would have had offers from FaZe, OpTic, there were people in the business… There a rough diamond fell into our hands, which we were able to provide for years. I’m very happy, it shows that we are not here for extras, we want to be part of the best structures in this game.
Out of this sporting chaos you mentioned, a great opportunity has finally emerged.
That’s it. A month ago there was fire everywhere. We had just finished top 6 at a major and the players called and said they didn’t necessarily want to play together anymore… We made the first change with Estreal (Justice McMillan) coming in, which was too good, but after two matches we realized the problem was deeper, with internal problems. Everything went to pieces three or four weeks before the major. Therefore, this is a double victory for us. We have walked dangerous paths. We experience this in all games… But on Call of Dutywe’re really far from everything, we can’t go and solve problems in Dallas, we don’t have all the infrastructure that we have in France.
Your desire to become a top club in Call of Duty did this play a role in your recent decisions, including stopping Counter-Strike ?
Obviously it goes a little bit in that direction. I won’t necessarily insist on this because then people will think it’s “because” Call of Dutya game that “does not exist in France” that we leave behind C.S.. But inevitably the two founders of the club started with Call of Duty… This is in our history, this is a game in which we do not want to limit ourselves. If one day we want to recruit HyDra (Paco Roussevies, the first world champion from France in 2023), we don’t want to tell ourselves that we no longer have the budget for it. Currently on C.S.we have between 800,000 euros and 1 million that go away every year. If we don’t make it to the majors, we won’t be able to get that money back.
Win CoD The championship has always been your dream…
As CEO, we dreamed of winning the main trophy at the beginning of the year, and I did not expect it to happen so quickly. I have to check whether this event will be successful. The goal now is for this world champion to light up the ring. Call of Duty. I failed as a player, I hope to succeed as a CEO. I will experience it vicariously, in quotes. I think they will call me if we arrive (laughter).
Does the success of this major, the first tournament you organize, make you want to compete in more physical competitions?
This is not really our event, we are tied to the league. We don’t control everything. But yes, this is already the first step towards what we would like to do later. Afterwards it was still very pretentious to have such a big room (smile). Eventually people responded, but many people had to do a lot of work at once to make the event happen. We would love to have our own date night, but it will take a little time to get it right and make everyone happy.
World Championship meeting. Call of Duty one day, is this also possible?For this to be realistic, people would have to come to the Call of Duty as for “Tender Companions.” We will do our best to make this happen by gradually developing the game in France, showing them that the game is good. Nowadays events are too tied to our performances. If we organize a World Cup and don’t qualify, we can’t be sure it will work, that’s a risk. Ideally, it would be to organize Major 1, the first of the season, which launches the game…”