Aman Dhami (he/him), 25, attends the College of DuPage (COD), in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. He is currently in the honors program, studying psychology for his second year at COD. Dhami is originally from Chicago, Illinois, but his parents are from Pakistan and India.
Dhami plans to one day be a therapist and provide mental health services.
“I've been at COD taking classes for a few semesters,” said Dhami, “They introduced the Discord college hubs and through that, I eventually found this little Valorant server where I met one of the organizers, Shin. They went on to start the esports Discord and got the ball rolling. I tried out and made the team!”
Dhami explained that he plays many different games, but spends most of his time playing Valorant and Escape from Tarkov. Compared to his teammates, he has the least amount of time spent on Valorant so he has really had to push himself to improve his skills.
“There was a bit of a mechanical curve I had to get through, although my game sense for Valorant has always been high, I developed a daily training routine that takes about an hour to two hours that helps me maintain consistency with my aim and gun/movement mechanics. On top of that, I routinely vod review our games and come up with new strategies/pinpoint weaknesses in our gameplay to improve on as a team/individual performance,” said Dhami.
How has it been being a part of a collegiate esports team?
“It's been an incredibly unique experience. It's difficult to get people that may have been strangers before and get them to perform together in a consistently well manner. I have had more enjoyment out of doing our esports activities than I have from Valorant before,” said Dhami, “I think that the NJCAAE is a wonderful concept, I'm happy that even community colleges have the opportunity to perform in such an environment.”
What is your gamer tag and how did you choose it?
“My tag is Lavie, I got that name from two things really, I loved the song "la vie en rose" growing up, and when I started writing philosophy and poetry, I wrote about life and death, and so for a while, my tag was Lavieendeces, one day when I was watching the Twitch streamer MacieJay who plays Rainbow Six Siege, I donated and he referred to me as ‘lavie’, it's stuck ever since,” said Dhami.
Dhami expressed that he is incredibly meticulous in his everyday life and gives his 100% effort on things until he can maximize his results. He is not only an esports player, he has a profound love for music. He plays the cello and piano. He is also a writer, poet, and philosopher, currently working on his second book.
“Above all else, I love playing Valorant competitively,” said Dhami.
Where do you see yourself in the near future?
“I'm hoping to maintain my 4.0 GPA and graduate from COD as an honor's scholar,” said Dhami, “In 5 years I see myself likely doing the same thing I'm down now, playing competitive Valorant if possible, maintaining a YouTube channel and making videos, studying at university as I'm pursuing a doctorate's. Hopefully, I have some avenue to discuss politics as well, as I'm a stark supporter of socialism and want to maintain some relevancy online in order to discuss that.”
Written by Mia White
