LVNDMARK's Journey To The Top of Tarkov

Escape From Tarkov is gaming’s most notorious extraction shooter, and few players have dominated the game quite as hard as LVNDMARK.

LVNDMARK has ascended to the very peak of Escape From Tarkov success. A few minutes spent watching his stream will show the average player an almost unattainable level of poise and coolheadedness in big moments. It’s a product of having eight years of experience (and thousands of reps) battling the ups and downs of gaming’s most punishing extraction shooter. We spoke with LVNDMARK about his journey into gaming, streaming, mastering Tarkov, and what it takes to find that zen level of composure when all the chips are down.

What was the first FPS that really hooked you, and what about it lit the spark for you as a player?  

The first FPS that I really remember playing was 007 GoldenEye on N64. I used to play with my older brother and his friends, and got sucked into it after they always whooped me in split-screen. Soon they started PC gaming and I followed along – hopping on CS 1.6, Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, and the original Delta Force. From there, I was totally hooked because I was never really any good as a young kid and always wanted to get better to be able to compete with the guys. I definitely grew up on FPS games, and although I don't play them anymore, I do have a soft spot for RTS, and spent a lot of time with Starcraft, Command & Conquer, and Dawn of War.

Escape From Tarkov is not an easy game to master the way you have. How many hours would you estimate you’ve put in all told?

I’ve clocked well over 15,000 hours on Escape From Tarkov at this point. It is a very difficult game to learn, but I’ve been playing it since 2017. When I started, there was hardly any of the content in the game that there is now, so I got to slowly learn and adapt to each new piece as it got added. Starting right now is like jumping into the deep end, but some of the best times I’ve had in the game were when I was brand new and still figuring everything out. A lot of the fun of the game comes from the challenge and uncovering each new experience it has to offer. Sometimes it’s almost more fun to be bad and still learning compared to when you’ve mastered a game.

The game is a bit of a pressure cooker. Every single fight brings up my heart rate. Do you still get that kind of thrill in big spots, or has the intensity dulled over the years?

It still has its moments, but nowhere near like when I first started. I always say it's a bit like public speaking, where the shakes start to go away after you've done it enough times. When you log so many hours in a game, you start to see a lot of patterns emerge in play. You’re never in the same scenario, but you’ve probably been in a few that were similar and can approach whatever is in your way with a much more concise plan. You also learn to rely on your ability and knowledge a bit more, which helps build confidence in taking risks. It’s a bit less scary to barge into a room or building that a player is held up in when you know EXACTLY, down to the smallest detail, what is on the other side of the door.

Two of the LARGEST GUNS in the game go head to head in DORMS

There was a pretty popular clip from Summit1G several years ago where he ranted about stream snipers and insinuated your skill was forged in the “fires and flames of stream snipers.” How different is the Tarkov experience for someone with your level of visibility vs. the average high-tier player? Do you have to adopt different playstyles or approaches to deal with steam sniping?

You 100% have to play differently when you know people may be stream sniping, and this goes for pretty much any extraction shooter. You need to have the mindset that you can't play slow because the slower you play, the more time you give people to outmaneuver and react to your moves. This is a lot of what shaped my very aggressive playstyle early on, charging at opponents, making them think on the fly, and testing their reactions. Someone doesn’t get an advantage from knowing where I’m at on a map if I charge right at them instead of trying to sneak behind them for an easy kill.

Who would make up your Tarkov dream team if you had to form the best possible squad?

If I had to cook up a dream team, it would have to include Pestily, Glorious_E, WillerZ, and Summit1G. Pestily has got to be one of the most knowledgeable guys out there when it comes to general knowledge of the game, guides, and questing. The rest of the fellas are OG’s of Tarkov and straight shooters, so I know they’ll be flicking heads. They’re all great dudes and would just be an enjoyable crew to game with, not just for their skills.

Is there any other game, currently or on the horizon, that you could see yourself completely committing to in the future?

There is nothing certain at the moment, but the extraction shooter space has been blowing up lately. It seems like a new extraction game or spinoff comes out every month right now, and there are some really promising and unique titles on the horizon. I'm really looking forward to ARC Raiders, which blew me away during the last public playtest. I’ve also been keeping an eye on HUNGER. It has huge Hunt Showdown vibes and is looking like it could be a very gritty, immersive, and dark game that hardcore extraction fans could really get into. I’m sure there are plenty more in development that are being kept under wraps.

Before streaming, what did your life look like?

Life before streaming wasn’t all that much different. I went to college and had a job, but I still gamed like a madman with my friends, except there wasn't a camera on me. Streaming wasn’t something I ever expected to be doing at this level. I started it as an extension of my existing love for gaming and really used it as a way to record and document some of the awesome times I had with my friends.

What’s the biggest takeaway from your streaming journey so far?

Streaming has taught me that life can be a wild ride. I never imagined that I would one day be doing this because when I started gaming as a kid, streaming and content creation as a whole practically didn’t exist. Follow your passions and keep working at the things that you love and make you happy. Good things will follow. To everyone who has supported me along the way: thank you for making this a reality. I couldn't have done it without you.