IQeon: A Gaming PvP Platform That Continues to Thrive during the Pandemic

Yuriy Navadvorski, CTO at IQeon tells us about the gaming PvP platform.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Yuriy Navadvorski: We’re fine, thanks. For sure, the first days of quarantine were quite challenging as we didn’t expect we would be confined at home for months. But today the situation has changed for the better: we are accepting a new reality by rebuilding our daily routine. Everything is online from entertainment and shopping to communication with loved ones. It’s clear that the pandemic has some pros. It brought families closer and allowed us to spend more time with children. In my opinion, that helps a lot to bear with global cataclysms.

Tell us about you, your career, how you joined IQeon.

Yuriy Navadvorski: I started programming as a teenager, worked a lot on freelance projects, gained experience in international companies.

The work has never been boring and monotonous. I’ve developed plugins for eCommerce companies, information portals, cryptocurrency exchanges, and smart contracts, an automated system, and a neural network for insurance institutions.

Later I joined the IQeon project as a Chief Technical Officer. Today my job is the pinnacle of multitasking. I generate concepts for new products and algorithms, build application architectures, and manage a development team. 

How does IQeon innovate? 

Yuriy Navadvorski: Well, the development and implementation of innovations is one of the key processes in our project. Thanks to that we are who we are.

With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, many became apartments hostages, and millennials immediately went online. There was no question about the project’s survival, as our gaming platform IQeon.com is already a part of the digital space. But then our team realized that it was necessary to continue adapting our product for the increased inflow of users.

Apart from improvements to the company’s main project, there have been no major changes in IQeon. We tried to pay more attention to the organization of work within the team. Previously, most of our employees worked in the office, which formed a strong habit of offline work and communication within the team. Later, we’ve seen that the general remote work enthusiasm in the first weeks turned out to be deceptive.

At the beginning of the quarantine, we noted the high efficiency among workers. But over time, the inability to be physical with the team began to slow down the useful dynamics of work.

We haven’t introduced some fundamentally new tools, but we’ve worked out the motivation system for employees and focused on psychological support in order to swing our talents into action. And this was the very thing we needed. Today IQeon team continues to work as a single effective mechanism.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances? 

Yuriy Navadvorski: The pandemic actually expanded our business, because we all saw an unprecedented boost in digital platforms over the past year. Thus, the number of users of the IQeon.com platform has also scaled up!

The coronavirus has also become a trigger for the growth of the digital economy and the crypto industry. Many countries began to print money to support the population, and a lot of funds were poured into domestic markets. And while there is a worldwide lockdown on the planet, there are not so many options for spending money. That is why it is natural that large financial resources were invested in digital assets.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources and what are the lessons learned?

Yuriy Navadvorski: As the leader of the development team, I understood that I wouldn’t turn to leniency due to remote work. We tried to increase the motivation of those facing burnout and stress due to blurred corporate boundaries. We also worked with the mental health inside the team to redirect the energy of people from panic to creation.

In general, I didn’t have to make difficult choices regarding the team. The main conclusion I came to is that the most important competence for a leader is the ability to see opportunities in tough times, not problems. The empathy and transparency of the leader will always motivate employees to work better and achieve a common goal.

Your final thoughts?

Yuriy Navadvorski: COVID-19 has definitely changed the structure of the world and affected all spheres of our life. The pandemic has become a kind of political and socio-economic phenomenon that has exacerbated many problems.

But any crisis implies an impetus to move forward. So, one of the mainshocks of 2020 accelerated the process of digitalization, and now it just needs to get a toehold.

We will never be ready for something like this pandemic. But when passion, determination, and adaptability are combined in business, it helps the company to survive the most difficult challenges.

Your website? 

IQeon project