Great companies are characterized by great leadership and it is evident French telecoms giant Iliad fits into that category after the company’s billionaire owner Xavier Niel faced criticism from one customer head on. And by ‘head on’ I mean he showed exemplary leadership skills and accountability when he appeared at a Lidl grocery store to ‘1v1’ an angry Call of Duty gamer who challenged the billionaire CEO over his company’s lag.
By showing up to ‘1v1’ his customer after being challenged and then sharing selfies of himself at the Lidl story ready to throw down, the billionaire Frenchman proved that ‘come at me bro’ is universal because while I don’t speak a lick of French I fully recognize what was going down in this exchange. This saga played out over the course of months so let’s start at the beginning…
Back on May 20th, a Call of Duty gamer by the X handle of @JimmyBLLT was furious after he experienced lag while gaming. So he took to X and posted this:
Xavier Niel je te déteste je te propose un 1v1 devant le Lidl de la rue Sainte à Marseille
— Fuego 7️⃣🇲🇦 (@JimmyBLLT) May 20, 2024
The translation, according to X, is “Xavier Niel I hate you I propose a 1v1 in front of the Lidl on rue Sainte in Marseille.”
Flash forward to present day and the billionaire telecoms CEO responded. He shared a selfie of himself on X with the classic ‘come at me, bro’ stance and the story immediately went viral and got picked up by Dexerto and other outlets. Again, I don’t speak French but this message is universal:
Je t’attends https://t.co/jdCOL0j5nc pic.twitter.com/2SHPHSVIPf
— Xavier Niel (@Xavier75) November 15, 2024
It didn’t stop there! Realizing that he’d just angered a powerful billionaire, a man with an estimated net worth of $10.2 billion according to Forbes, the Callof Duty gamer attempted to diffuse the situation but Xavier Niel responded with a video saying “I’m here! I’m waiting for you! Where are you? Come on! Do you want to meet in the car park?”
pic.twitter.com/ia8PwC5QVu
— Xavier Niel (@Xavier75) November 15, 2024
If you’re wondering, he absolutely did not show up. The gamer replied “I would have liked to but 34.2 temperature + stomach ache + headache sorry I give up.” in French:
j’aurais aimer mais 34.2 de température + mal au ventre + mal a la tête dsl j’abandonne
— Fuego 7️⃣🇲🇦 (@JimmyBLLT) November 15, 2024
Did he have a fever or did he just not want to publicly get beaten up by an old man? By a billionaire? I guess we’ll never know…
Also, billionaires aren’t exactly the most popular people on earth but this dude is out in the streets standing on business and I think everyone everywhere needs to respect that…. Oh, you’re mad about lag? Do something about it!
For their part, the grocery store Lidl where all of this was going down got in on the action too. They shared this message on X “Please come and pick up the man who has been tweeting since this morning in front of the store on rue Sainte in Marseille.”
