Who am I

I'm Cameron "Thistle" McCallion, also known as Coach Cam or Coach Thistle.

In 2018 I started this journey with a small group of people that all wanted to improve at organised Overwatch. We were all on console so we hadnt a hope but we tried anyway. We called ourselves the "Pachisquad". I had a couple people from my highschool and some online friends join this "clan" we made. I wasn't anywhere near good enough for organised play so I decided to cast overwatch private tournaments. After casting for a couple years and working on my game sense / mechanics I was good enough to finally try out for a team. I made team captain and played with them for a little over a year until we won the grand finals of the Rose Invitational.

I then moved on to playing Collegiate Rainbow Six: Siege for SCAD ( Savannah College of Art and Design) in Georgia. I came on as a silver player who didnt know what I was doing. I was only signed out of necessity because one of their players was stuck out of country during covid. I worked hard to make sure that when he came back I was indispensable. I ended up as the only freshman on the Varsity team and I was coordinator of defensive strategy for the team. We made playoffs against the 30 best colleges in the country and we ended top 16. This led to my next position at Lindenwood University.

A friend of mine left SCAD to go to Lindenwood University and upon arriving he realised that they also had an esports program. After a day or two of playing with them he realised that they needed some serious help. I recieved several calls the next day from multiple player who were told that I can help them. I worked with several one on one before I was able to join their practices and give them some group coaching. The director of the program came in to listen to what I had to say and after listening for a few hours. The director told me that they were looking for someone just like me and he wanted to know if I would take up teaching them regularly.

I have been working with them for the last three years and I have made massive progress with the team. The first year that I was here the team was overall placed around number 450 out of 500 schools. Over the next couple years they slowly climbed and now with my working with them full time they have achieved top 150 in the country.