Esports Pro Interview - Tommey

 Second up in my series of Esports Pro Interviews is Team Vitality Member, Tommey.

Tommey is a British based Pro Player who has played for a number of French based teams, and here he speaks about his experiences of this fairly unique situation:


 What are your Top 5 favourite games?
Tough one, I don't really play that many games but I'd have to say Socom, Halo, FIFA and CoD (I don't have anymore (worry))

What interests do you have outside Gaming?

I love football and pretty much all sports, I spend a lot of time with my girlfriend too. Nothing else as of now but I'm quite a busy person.

Who is your closest friends in Esports?

All of the people that I've played since CoD4 with, Sam (SewiCyde), Gavin (GuvnaGavin), Ben (StyleR), Josh (Furbzy), Zac (chillaZ) and of course my brother David - There's too many to name though, I enjoy playing with people who aren't fully in a competitive team but still play using the rule set and so on.

How did you get into the competitive/Pro CoD scene?

I was introduced to GB via my brother, back on CoD4 and since then it's just evolved into what it is now.

How did you end up playing with a predominantly French team?
To tell you the truth, I really don't know. It started with Millenium and it worked well (weirdly). I'm now with Vitality but I teamed with Gotaga under apeX, and Krnage under Millenium - so this time it's a lot easier.  Communications are sometimes difficult, as you'd expect with a slight language barrier, but with strats being sorted, things seem to flow OK, and in general we get our call outs across .

Are roster changes a necessary evil, or do organisations/teams change too much?
Most of the time they are necessary, If you're winning but not enjoying it due to the people around you, it can really grind you down and in a way make you depressed/hate playing the game. There are some which I can't get my head around but then again, each will have their reasons and in their own mind it will be necessary.

Trash talking in games recently became a hot topic. What are your views on this and do you think it has a negative impact on eSports image in the world outside gaming?
I personally don't trash talk, the only time you'll here me say anything is when the other team are trying to verbally abuse my own and even then, I wouldn't call what I do trash talk. I keep mine in line with the game. It's definitely has a negative impact, teams and players just need to mature/grow up a little bit.

Where do you see eSports and competitive CoD in particular going in the short to mid term future?

Tough one - At the moment it's going well, a lot of progression in a short space of time (since BO2) so it's hard to give an answer, If it carries on at the pace it's going I'd like to think we can achieve what LoL have created/done and maybe go even further.

Do you see players from different countries playing on the same team? Fopr example a Brit playing for one of the US teams?

That could happen, I just don't think it will yet. I'd love to see that though.


Big thanks to Tommey for giving up his time to do this and best of luck to him and the rest of Team Vitality for upcoming events.

Give them a follow on Twitter:
Tommey - @TommeyJT
Team Vitality - @Team_Vitality

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 
Neil 

Esports Pro Interview - Chris Blevins Curse CoD

(First published on 360 Icons)

 I’m very pleased to introduce the first in a new series of Esports interviews. These will take the form of some light hearted questions about the interviewee, and also some more searching questions about the current Esports world.
 
Starting us off is the General Manager of the Curse CoD Esports Team, Chris Blevins or @CrsBlevdog. Chris was very kind in giving up his time to allow me to do this article and for this I thank him.

What are your Top 5 favourite games?
My top Five favourite games of all time are Call of Duty, Everquest, Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and FIFA 98.
 
What interests do you have outside Gaming? 
I love playing Golf , University of South Carolina Football and really enjoy watching MMA.  I used to do MMA for a couple of years, but now I’m pudgy and old.
 
Who is your closest friends in Esports?
My closest friends in ESports are Mr. Ernest Le (Works at Twitch), Steve Arhancet (Director of eSports at Curse) and Rawn Valenzuela (Producer at MLG)
 
What lead you into competitive gaming, and then onto your current position within Curse?
I started playing Multiplayer Call of Duty when Black Ops 1 released and I was hooked constantly trying to get better.  I started getting into Competitive Call of Duty by watching Ernest Le doing the Race to Master Prestige last year with the release of Black Ops 2. After that I started watching the competitive call of duty scene and really tried to become a student of Competitive FPS.  I eventually thought there were some things/ideas I could do to make the scene better so since Ernie was local I reached out to him.  We met for lunch and talked about some different ideas we could and became friends.  Through him I met Stan Press at Elgato at MLG Anaheim and we developed a relationship and then through Stan I met Steve Arhancet and Nathan Lindberg (VP of Sales).
While working with Curse to emphasize the importance of the competitive eSports and Youtube Scene within Microsoft I started consulting with them and eventually Steve asked me to come on board to run the CoD division.
 
What do you feel sets a Pro player apart from an amateur/Public player?
Pro players have a much better sense of Map awareness and overall flow of the game.  I think really good competitive players can make instant decisions about where the opposing player is and is going versus the amateur.  They also have a much better understanding of lines of sight and strats.  The Pro player will try multiple times to master a strat where an amateur will usually rely on gun skill alone.
 
Are roster changes a necessary evil, or do organisations/teams change too much?
I think roster changes will happen just like they do in any other sport.  The problem we have is that Pro Points travel with the player. So players can make themselves valuable not only because of their talent, but also because of their Pro Points.  I hated doing the roster changes we have so far.  I really want to promote longevity and continuity.  The changes I have made were due to Chemistry.  I don’t anticipate making any changes for the rest of 2014 no matter who comes available.
 
Trash talking in games recently became a hot topic. What are your views on this and do you think it has a negative impact on eSports image in the world outside gaming? 
I think hype and excitement is so important, and trash talk is a byproduct of that.  The problem is that when that becomes disparaging or derogatory comments it goes too far.  I think because it is such a spectator sport and the nature of Video games in general is to trash talk it can have a negative impact.  There needs to be a balance between hype and trash talk.
 
Where do you see eSports and competitive CoD in particular going in the short to mid term future?
I think eSports are going to continue to rise in popularity.  We see that from League of Legends and Dota and how big their championships have become.  For COD I am not so sure.  We need consistent developer support and right now we didn’t see that from IW.  All the goodness that Treyarch gave us went out the window.   I do think there is a huge appetite for a FPS eSport and eventually we will see a Riot or a Valve or similar come along and create a console  FPS that will become the standard if Activision doesn’t do something. 
 

Thanks again to Chris for being my first interview in the series! Keep a look out for more to come and please get in touch if there is anyone you’d all like to see being interviewed.

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 
Neil 

 

The Return of Prophecy - Exclusive Interview with Oli Sellors and XLNC

(Originally published on 360Icons on 4.12.13)

On the 2^nd December an announcement was made by Oli Sellors (Proph Acid), Team Boss of Prophecy, that they would be restarting as an active CoD Esports team in the very near future.

They have been out of the limelight for quite a while now, after disbanding shortly after i49, with players leaving for new ventures. Oli thought this was an opportune time to give the organisation a break from competitive gaming, and so Prophecy faded into the background, well at least the team did, as let’s face it, Oli is one of the most recognisable faces in CoD esports, and he remained active at events and monitoring the whole scene.

After reviewing the recent Ghosts events at MLG and i50, Oli decided that it was about time that Prophecy was brought back, and the announcement was made along with the news that Nick Ward aka Proph XLNC would be on board as team captain and the first team member to be announced.

I caught up with both XLNC and Oli, and here is what both had to say on the announcement, starting with XLNC:

“Oli recently approached me in that he wanted to rebuild Proph in 2014, which I thought would be the perfect opportunity for me to get back into the swing of things. I've recently been taking a break from cod as I’ll be away to Brazil this month (for 5 weeks) so I thought it'd be best to try arrange something after I get back; as it wouldn't be fair on a team if I was to join them for a few weeks only for me to then go on a lengthy break.

 It's also great to see Oli continuing the Proph brand too - with or without me. He's put far too much effort into Proph for it to go to waste and I'm glad he's come to realise that. With all this being said, hopefully we can arrange a line-up that can challenge the best teams this game has to offer by the end of January (at the very latest). Be sure to follow @ProphecyTeam for updates on our squad! #prophReturn”

Following on from that, Oli had this statement on the return of his team:

“Going back to after Gfinity 1, the team made a huge decision to release both Swanny and Jake, in which I supported. We quickly made it clear we wanted MadCat and Jurd, who at the time were the best two EU players on the game, and we thought it was exactly what we needed. Then came EGL10 where we fell short of our expectations placing 5th (something I wasn't too fussed about). Jurd went back to Epsilon after, just before i49 and we weren't sure what to do from then, and then even after winning i49 MadCat left to return to Epsilon. In reality this upset me as one of the main things I wanted with Proph was stability, and minimal change is our roster throughout the year. When we had no chance to attend Gfinity 2 or ESWC I said to Gunshy and XLNC that would be it from Proph for Black Ops 2, as I didn't want to force anymore rosters that we weren't comfortable with.

Since then we lost Gunshy to TCM, which he came to me with the news before anything went public. I was happy for him that he got to attend MLG Columbus and Clash of the Titans as he deserves it, but majorly gutted I'd lost the main player I started Proph with, and probably my best friend in gaming. It got me having doubts of whether I wanted to continue on doing what I was doing, as I gave a nice job to do this full time, so it was something I instantly lost out on, but for so long I'd been happy doing Proph and working with the team I had.

This weekend watching i50 gave me the spark I needed to know that I will be 100% carrying on the Proph name. I created Proph to put the EU/UK scene on the global map, to give the EU someone they could support and get attached to like the US scene has. Not only that, I wanted to make sure individuals received the fanbase and profiles they deserved. I still have on going business talks in the background to make Proph even bigger than it already is, but we will be coming back stronger whatever happens!

 Prophecy is grateful to work with some of the best in the business, and companies who provide us with the support we need to be the very best. We look forward to our continued partnerships with Red Bull UK, ASTRO Gaming, SCUF Gaming, Philips Monitors and GamerGrip. Look out for some possible new partnerships on the horizon in the near future to.

Follow myself @prophAcid on twitter to find out more on Proph as the news unfolds! #prophReturn #prophLife”

So it would appear that the EU scene has got back one of its biggest names, both in terms of teams and a personality! I believe that a strong Prophecy team will only be good for the EU scene, and will help take the fight to the NA contingent!

Good luck to Oli, XLNC and whoever ends up on the team, and one thing’s for sure, it’ll be an entertaining and interesting ride!

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 
Neil