Esports Interview - Jonas 'Oxygen' Ferry

So its been a while since my last Esports Interview, but my next one is one I really enjoyed doing!

I have been intrigued by the popularity of the French CoD Esports scene for a while, and I thought that I would speak to one of the foremost names in the community, Jonas 'Oxygen' Ferry!

The French CoD eSports scene is widely accepted as being one of the best supported communities in the world of eSports. Players and personalities involved in the French scene are very well respected and followed by the gaming public in France. One such personality is Jonas Ferry, otherwise known as Oxygen.

Jonas has played CoD professionally across a lot of different titles for teams such as, Millenium, mythiX, TCM and LiNK. He is now involved in gaming, working for Scuf in France, as well as casting events such as EGL, which means he is still heavily involved with the community. Here Jonas speaks about his time in professional gaming, and how things have progressed within the scene both in France and further afield.

1 - What initially got you into competitive gaming?

I think like a lot of people, I just used to play public games until eventually someday I met someone who was playing competitive tournaments on a website. At that time, for me it was Leaguexbox (which was kind of the French game battles) and on Perfect Dark Zero. I always loved competing, even in sports and I became a big fan of eSports quickly and spent more and more time playing it until I became better and moved onto Gears of War and then Call of Duty where I got a relatively good success!

2 - What is different now to when competitive gaming started for you?

Everything to be honest! I started about 7 years ago so it's obviously a lot bigger, but also there's a lot more passion and show around it. The games have become more intense and more easy to watch which has gathered more spectators, more fans and a lot more reasons to play for : wanting to be the best amongst thousands of teams rather than a few, money & fame mainly. But I think as I saw, and as a lot of players see it, is just a way to prove yourself you can be the best at something which can drive you into putting hours, days and even months on a game to find out how good you can be

3 - Why do you think that eSports is so big in France in particular?

We do have a quite big country that also has a decent amount of Call of Duty players which eventually wanted to learn more about the game through forums, YouTube, twitter. And at some point, on these platforms they got to discover - just like I did when I initially started competing - that there was a whole world of entertainment and passion on the video game they love to play that existed and was just waiting for them. For French eSports on Call of Duty, no one can deny the huge success of Gotaga on YouTube was the starting point, but he got known because other YouTubers had reached a huge amount of subscribers with more casual videos. But what Gotaga had was a huge career and YouTube videos showing how crazy & good a competitive call of duty game can be.

4 - What advancements in games/technology have helped CoD eSports advance?

Until last year I would've had a hard time answering that question, but Black Ops II was really an amazing game when it came to eSports with so many great features included! In particular, the introduction of Hardpoint has gotten Call of Duty such an intense game mode that it was extremely fun to watch, but also that wouldn't have been so good without the CoD casting that really helped making the game enjoyable to watch as a spectator and drove all the energy of a game on streams.

5 - How do you see eSports in general growing over the next few years?

A lot! 2013 was definitely a crazy improvement for Call of Duty, but also for eSports in general as everyone saw how big LoL is getting. The PC scene is really driven by LoL and the console by Call of Duty, and both these titles are not getting any less successful as the years go by, so I'm hoping 2013's increase is a good indicator of eSports growth for the upcoming year

6 - Tell us about your current role with Scuf France, and what other future projects have you got lined up?

After I ended my competitive career, I got involved with Scuf Gaming which is a company I've always loved not only for their investment in eSports, but also for great inventions (paddles, trigger stops, gripped controllers' amongst others) that revolutionized the way people play FPS and other games on Console. It was a good opportunity for me to work in eSports but to also use my knowledge and skills in the Call of Duty scene! I obviously do a lot of community management and marketing in France, but also in Europe for the company and I'm extremely humble being able helping to support some of the best gamers Europe & France has to offer when it comes to eSports. As for the future, you will probably still see me operate for Scuf Gaming as I wouldn't want work anywhere else, but also cast some big competitions for the French community as I had the pleasure to do for ESWC's finals (which was completely crazy by the way!) or SkyLAN most recently.

We would like to thanks Jonas for sparing the time to do the interview and wish him the best of luck in all his future activities.

You can follow him on Twitter here - @_oxygenJF

You can follow Scuf France here - @ScufFrance

Keep an eye out for any upcoming Esports Interviews!

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 

Neil

Esports Interview - TCM MarkyB - EU Champion!

 

Next in line for the GoG Esports Interview experience is Mark Bryceland, although you may know him better as TCM's very own MarkyB! The man know for his strats and work ethic agreed to an interview after a busy weekend!

Last Sunday, at Twickenham Stadium, under the gaze of the Esports community, TCM beat Epsilon in the final of the CoD European Championships. The first day's competition had been all about qualifying for the World Finals in Los Angeles. With that complete and places in the bag for both TCM and Epsilon, these two powerhouses of the EU CoD scene faced off in the final to decide who would be crowned kings of Europe.
After a solid performance from the TCM line up, they ran out 3-1 winners and took home the title and 15,000 Euros!

A couple of days later, I managed to get Marky to give his thoughts on how the weekend went, and his hopes for the trip to States!

1 - Firstly massive congratulations on winning the EU Champs! What did it feel like, and has it sunk in?
Honestly, it felt great to win the European Championships and to officially have the crown of the best team in Europe. A lot of people doubted us due to our online performances as of late but we knew we could win and we knew what we had to do. It hasn't sunk in yet though, Sunday night was actually pretty depressing as everyone else was going home empty handed so there were a lot of sad faces about.

2 - What do you think lead to you being so successful at the event?
I think it was a mix of a couple of things, our preparation, our desire and the belief in each other as individuals to succeed and to win every gunfight that needed to be won.

3 - Having now qualified for LA, what are your hopes and expectations for that event? 
I want to go as far as possible and to know that we've did our best. As long as that's the case, I'm happy.

4 - What do you see as the teams major strengths, and what things do you think you can still work on?
I see our versatility as our main strength, everyone in the team is comfortable with any weapon in their hands.

5 - With the EU scene looking quite strong at the moment, how do you see the EU teams going versus the NA teams?
I see the skill-gap on this game being a lot smaller just due to the nature of the game. It's really about who turns up on the day more-so than who looks best in the preparation prior to the event.

6 - Any shout outs or thank yous want to give?
Shoutout to TCM Gaming, my team and all of the sponsors BenQ, Burn Controllers, Cooler-Master, CM Storm, CCL and Multiplay.

Marky is such an active member of the EU CoD Esports scene with his Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/MarkyBNoobSlayin) showing content from recent matches to strats for 'nades!
Marky also regularly streams via his Twitch channel, showing GB's, 2K series and much more - http://www.twitch.tv/themarkyb

So keep an eye on both those links in the build up to CoD Champs Finals, as Marky will surely keep us informed of all the goings on at TCM HQ.


My thanks to Mark on his time in putting this interview together, and I wish him and TCM the best of luck in all future events, especially that little thing happening in LA soon!

You can follow Mark on twitter here - https://twitter.com/TCM_MarkyB
And his team, TCM CoD here - https://twitter.com/TCMCoD

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 

Neil

Esports FIFA interview - Epsilon Vinch

Another Esports Interview comes to The Grumpy Old Gamer Blog, but this time its not CoD related!

Fifa plays a big part in my gaming life, so its been great to catch up with someone very much at the forefront of the Competitive Fifa World! 

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Vincent Hoffmann - Fifa World Champion!

1 - Tell us a bit more about yourself? Who is Epsilon Vinch!?
I'm 17 years old and in real life, I am studying management. I've played football for 10 years so I am really passionate about it.
I've represented Epsilon Esports for 5 months, and I'm the new FIFA World Champion and it is a real honor.

2 - How did you get into gaming, and then move on to play games competitively?
I've been playing since I was really young. I played a lot of Pro Evolution Soccer and I then started to play FIFA in 2008. At the start, it was only for fun, to chill and spend time with my friends. Then one day, two friends of mine told me that I could maybe play at a higher level because they thought I had some potential. They explained to me how to get into the competitive scene and my career was started.

3 - Are there any other games apart from Fifa that you play?
I play a lot on my phone with some addictive games like Flappy Bird! You know, it is a really challenging game! You need to beat your record and the design is pretty fun and cool but the real fact is that you can play everywhere, anytime. I like games like CoD too. I'm not really that good but I have a lot of fun playing games like this when I get home from school.

 4 - What makes the difference between a public Fifa player and a Pro Fifa player?
The real difference is the training and my organisation. This offers me the opportunity to showcase my talent world-wide. I prepare myself for some events very carefully and conscientiously. I have trained my mind a lot too with my manager. You have to prepare yourself like a real professional, it's not only for enjoyment!

5 - How did you feel after your win at ESWC?
In fact, at first, I didn't really realise! It was a really new experience for me. So for the first night, I just had a party with my team mates at the hotel, it was so fun!
After that when I came back home, all my family was really happy for me and it was a really proud moment. One day later, when I was in the street, a lot of people were talking about me. Then, when I went to order a pizza, the man from restaurant recognised me, and it was at this moment I realised for the first time, I was a World Champion!

6 - What are your expectations and hopes for the upcoming Fifa events?
At Gfinity, I sincerely hope I make a good result. I want the win and nothing else. In Epsilon, we never do an event without the desire to do our best and win. So I want to end my season by winning all the events I take part in.

7 - Do you want to give any shout outs to people/sponsors?
Thank you to Epsilon eSport and their sponsors, Nike, Gamdias, Scuf Gaming and Dailymotion for all their support for me. Thank you to my manager ZiK and the Fifa community manager for Epsilon, Radium. Also to all my team mates because without them I wouldn't be where I am.

Since the interview, Vinch took part in the Gfinity Fifa LAN and unfortunately lost out to Tass in a very tense Final!

I'd like to thank Vinch and his manager at Epsilon, Zik for their time and support in doing this. Good luck to them and the rest of the Epsilon Fifa guys in their future events!

Follow Vinch on Twitter at - @EpsilonVinch
Follow Epsilon Fifa at - @Epsilon_Fifa

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 

Neil

Review - Orb Accessories GPX11 Wireless Headset

 

Time for another review on my blog and another from one of my partner companies Orb Accessories.

There is a slight twist to this review in such that, unfortunately Orb have discontinued this Headset from their range. This is a shame, but felt I would still do the review, as it is a great indicator of Orb's product quality and design.

Ok, so basically, this was the first time I'd tried a wireless headset for the Xbox 360, so I was excited to see what the experience would be like.
The headset is also compatible for PC and PS3, and I did use it for some PC gaming and Skype chat too!




The box includes the headset, a wireless receiver and all the relevant cables needed. You need to charge the headset first, and I must say the charge time was incredibly fast, so a big plus there!

The set up is very straight forward and is like most other headsets in terms of connections. However, obviously its only the wireless receiver that hooks up to the console, and then you simply have to synchronise the headset and the receiver by the touch of a single button and you're ready to go!

The headset itself is really comfy, and has excellent padding on the headband and on the ear cups. It feels incredibly secure on your head too and will not slip whilst gaming.
One massive plus point, and I've found this with other Orb headsets, is the mic. It is very flexible and yet very strong and secure. I never felt like it was difficult to position or that it moved whilst in position.

The other key features are the control buttons located on the ear piece. Once I got used to their positions, it was very easy to adjust the chat/game volume using the wheels on the right ear piece, and also the mute buttons have different little bumps on, so that you can tell which is which whilst quickly feeling for them.

As I said right at the start, I feel its a shame if Orb do indeed decide to discontinue the headset, as its a cracking value for money wireless unit. As usual, Orb provide excellent build quality at an affordable price, and should be considered if you're looking for an alternative to the mainstream brands.

Thanks as usual to Orb for their assistance and keep an eye out for more reviews and interviews coming soon guys!

Orb Accessories - http://www.orbaccessories.com/
Twitter - @Orb_Accs

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 

Neil

Multiplay i51 - We're going to LAN!!!

Hi guys, just a quick Blog post to bring you all up to date on some news that was confirmed yesterday.

Both myself and the little grumpy gamer (Dom!) will be attending i51 on Sunday the 20th April. It'll be mine, and obviously Dom's first LAN event, and to say I'm excited might be a slight understatement.

Going back to the days of WGL running the CoD tournament I heard nothing but good things about Multiplay and iSeries. Now they have moved on to the Ricoh in Coventry, I believe this will be a cracking event.

I was swayed by the fact that there is clearly lots to do. Firstly at the event itsefl, with games areas, retailers, arcades, and much more as well. Dom likes his Minecraft, so that part of the event will be good too!

Obviously the big draw for both of us will be the CoD Ghosts event. I personally plan to try to pick up as much info as possible, some for 360 Icons and some for my own blog. 
I will try and get some interviews and see what the general feeling is. The next stage will mainly be for Dom to get himself introduced to as many of the players as he possibly can! Well at least that seems to be his plan.

Depending on who's attending, I think he'll be bugging most of the top players and casters for their autographs and having a few photos with them if possible.

I will also be trying to speak to some of the retailers/product manufacturers on behalf of NismoTech to see what new products we might be able to get for review on our YouTube channel for the future.

So thats about it for now. I'll try and keep updates going for our little day trip to Coventry. So in the meantime, head over to http://insomniagamingfestival.com to see all the details of i51 for yourself!

You can follow Mulitplay on Twitter too at - @Multiplay
For more details of Nismotech's upcoming reviews follow us at - @NismoTechUK

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 

Neil

 

Neil

Esports Interview - Oli Sellors/FazeAcidd New Role at Faze

He was the man behind Team Prophecy, and widely known for having the most recognisable hair in eSports! Now Oli Sellors or FazeAcid as he is now known, has took his vast eSports knowledge to Faze, in a bid to push an already well respected brand even further.

 
Here Oli speaks about the closure of Prophecy and what his future at Faze has to offer:

After your recent decision to sadly close Team Prophecy, did you have any other plans in mind?

I had been dwelling on the possibility of closing Proph for a month or two now, but I held off them thoughts as I really wanted to make it work. We genuinely had no intention of closing it until about 48 hours before it became public. A lot of people questioned why I hyped up the return and showcased new jerseys, I think that’s enough to show that it was a quick decision I made after all this had happened. I wanted to take a week or two and look at all possible options I could take, I wasn’t sure if I was going to receive any big contact, or have to go out and initiate it all myself.

How did the Faze link up come about?

It was quite sudden that initial talks happened. After the official announcement of Proph closing from my twitter, I was contacted by FaZe management expressing their interest in bringing me on board as part of the core management. I thought with bigger brands such as FaZe that it might take me having to get in contact to see if there was any possible future together, but the guys at FaZe had seen what I’d done with Proph and wanted me in.

What are your main roles and responsibilities at Faze?

I essentially have two key roles within FaZe now. I’m the brand and marketing manager for the entire FaZe org itself, which will involve me taking an already greatly established brand and taking it to a new level of professionalism. On top of this I’m the team manager for the FaZe Pro squad, which will be a key focus for myself primarily. We want to bring the level of the FaZe Pro brand aligned with the rest of FaZe, so it’s seen as equal and not undermined by any other part of the brand, as FaZe is strongly known for it’s sniping for great reasons.

What are the teams hopes for the upcoming CoD Champs?

The team want nothing less than first place at CoD Champs, and if you go in expecting anything less then you have no chance of this victory. With the recent addition of Nameless in the squad they are looking really strong right now, and the chemistry within the team is great! Can only see big things happening with this squad the more they gel together and get strats nailed down perfectly.

Have you got any feelings on the current glut of roster changes and what impact do you think this will have on teams chances at CoD champs?

The roster changes right now are pretty mental, and they do really need to stop. However saying this, it was bound to happen with CoD Champs being announced, and the confirmation that it was 18+. For some people, winning a tournament can be a huge life changing experience, to receive the money you can, so people want to give themselves the best chances.

Lastly, do you have any long term goals, either at Faze, or maybe in different avenues?

I have always had big long term goals in eSports, obviously I had them all planned through Proph, but that would of taken much longer to put in place. FaZe has the perfect brand and structure that someone like myself can take to new levels. I want to make it possible that every member of FaZe can do this as a full time career and not have to worry about money, plus have the Pro team, eSniping team, Management all in great facilities and offices to really be able to be seen as the biggest and best.

Well it would appear that there are exciting times ahead at Faze, so good luck to both the organisation and Oli in all their future endeavours!

You can follow Oli on twitter at – @FazeAcidd and The Faze clan at – @FazeClan

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 
Neil

Esports Interview - Kerry Bennett of Team Orbit Pro

Welcome to another one of our Esports Interviews! This time round we have Kerry Bennett, the only female team manager of an all male team in top flight COD Esports. Kerry is the manager for UK based Team Orbit Pro and has been involved in Esports for quite some time now.
Below is her interview, looking at her progression into Esports, her time with Orbit, and her hopes for the future of Esports.

How did you start out in gaming, and what lead you to the competitive CoD Esports scene?

I started gaming when I was around 4,  I used to play PC games so much my mum got sick of me hogging the PC so she bought me a Super Nintendo – my first game on it was UMK3. Since then I was addicted to games, I’ve had every console from Playstation to even Nintendo Gameboy Colour and Advance.
I was a heavy MMO player back when I was 13. I played Runescape for years (about 5 years I think on and off) once again my mum was sick of me hogging the PC so she bought me a Nintendo Wii. It was boring on my own so back to Runescape I went and from there I learned about Halo 3 and Xbox. I sold my Wii, got my 360 and never looked back. I joined the competitive GoW community in 2008 and moved to CoD4 at the end of 2008/2009 when the change to MW2 was happening.

What lead to you becoming involved with Team Orbit, and what are your main duties as Team manager?

After being in Fariko Gaming for almost 2 and a half years I took a break from representing an organisation and decided to do my own thing for a few months. Then, Gfinity and all these other amazing events started happening so I blasted out on my Social Media I was looking for a new organisation to join and represent – Orbit were one of the first people to contact me to join as their head of media. They seemed like great guys and I’ve been with them since.
My main duties in Team Orbit are to cover them at events. Taking photos, video footage, interviews and making sure Social Media is up to date on scores etc. I also plan and organise trips such as hotels, flights and various other things.

How do you feel the CoD Esports scene perceives Girls being involved?

Back when I was the only girl in the UK scene, so 2008/2009 it was fairly bad. You tend to find you get a lot of hate for no reason. What I ended up noticing was if they actually got to know you, they then stopped hating and started being normal. Now, 2014, it’s a LOT different. There are more girls than ever before and I’ve been in the position to be able to do a lot of great things which would have never happened back in the olden days. The scene  has grown a lot but what you tend to find is the fact that the majority of the pro players are now also a lot more mature than they were 4/5 years ago so that helps towards the attitude of girls in gaming.

You have been involved with some interviewing at events, how much do you enjoy that, and will you being doing anymore?

I LOVE interviewing! Not just at events but for my Youtube channel in general. I just love being able to zoom in on people’s faces and really capture their emotions and show just how passionate they are about gaming. I also love a few controversial questions now and again! I am currently hoping more interviewing opportunities arise – but for now it’s just EGL, Team Orbit and my own Youtube I interview for.

What are your thoughts on the current plethora of roster changes and the discussions within Esports of a need for more stability and even a governing body?

I think some of the team changes were needed, others were not. Can we really blame it on the players though? There are no benefits of staying with an oganisation and loyalty seems to have gone out of the window. I think one change that should definitely happen is pros stop using their team names as their Twitter names as it changes every other month and promote themselves instead! I always have the Twitter handle @KerrBearrxo but depending on the Org I represent I change my name to suit e.g Orbit KerrBearr. I think orgs need to offer more benefits for players to stay with them. Although, saying that it is hard because finding money to fund these players is hard for the majority. I think we will only see the community grow and eventually it will turn into a more profitable business.

What do you think Esports needs to do to grow into a more mainstream entertainment?

eSports really needs more advertising. Local newspapers, TV adverts etc. The amount of people that don’t even know about MLG or that people even play games for cash prizes is insane, yet everyone knows about Poker and world tournaments in that area. That’s because it’s advertised. Unfortunately to advertise it needs someone with a big budget to come in and do it. Having an event in the middle of London with a small sign outside and a post on gaming websites and forums doesn’t really help to reach out to the bigger audiences.

I’d really like to thank Kerry for her time in doing this interview and wish her and Team Orbit the best of luck in all future activities.
Hopefully more Esports Interviews will follow, so keep your eyes peeled!

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 
Neil

Interview with GamersLook

Welcome to another interview on the Grumpy Old Gamer! 

Today we have an interview with Jordan Marzec, creator and mind behind the website GamersLook. The website is designed to bring a wide range of interviews of gamers from all areas of Esports. Ranging from Pro players to well known amateur players, Gamerslook represents great contact with people in the Esports scene.

Below Jordan gives us some insight as to how GamersLook started and future developments.

1.     What is your gaming background before you started GamersLook?

Very good question! Well, I have been gaming since I was 5, with the very first Nintendo. My whole life I have grown up with video games, owning almost every system that’s ever been released. As the years rolled on, as any gamer can tell you, the games gradually turn from just being fun, to a competitive level amongst friends. At a competitive stand point, I started when MLG first started LANing Halo 2. Being from Michigan, we had a majority of the top players, in the world, for Halo; Walshy, Victory, Mackeo ect. So, knowing that those players were in my own backyard, it prompted me to try and become a professional Halo player. Later realising, that it took way too much time, effort, concentration and money to get to the level that PRO players achieved. Not to say I didn’t used to game 14 hours a day and put gaming before school (which almost every player did back then), but these guys I knew ate, slept and breathed this game. Now, I just play games casually to enjoy, have fun and fool around.

2. What prompted you to start GamersLook?

Back during the Halo 3 days, I used to conduct interviews on the MLG forums called “MLG Community Interviews”. I would interview players who were really active on the forums and in competitive gaming in general and post them for everyone in the forums to read. It was a great way to involve everyone in the community! I would always get a ton of positive feedback from players of all levels. Soon, however, it started to become difficult juggling school, work, hockey, gaming and doing interviews. Plus, as MANY gamers can relate, you get to that point in your life where you have to make a choice of what parts need to be let go, to make room for what you see yourself doing in the future. So, being 20 at the time, I figured I missed my shot to pursue anything more in the gaming industry and stopped all together.

Just recently, a year or less, I started to get back into it because of the uproars I kept hearing about COD. See, back in the old days, COD was a baby…no one played COD because everything was invested in Halo. Once Halo 3 ended, that’s when I disappeared from everything…little did I know…COD was going to take the world by storm! I never imagined COD growing into what it is today. It’s absolutely AMAZING to see so much passion and competitiveness in players again! When I saw this, it really pumped me up and reminded me of the interviews I had done 5-6 years ago and how much fun I had interviewing the players. From that point on, I knew I wanted to get back into the gaming community because let’s face it…once a gamer, always a gamer. The rest is history and GamersLook was born!

3. What do you see as the important issues in COD Esports at the moment?

At the moment, it definitely is the ability to change teams so quickly, without there being consequences. Teams need to have players that can work out problems…not just throw them aside and substitute them with another person. Back in the day, you NEVER saw teams changing like it was going out of style. Especially two, three or even FOUR changes before the next tournament. It’s ridiculous. There will always be bumps on the road to success, but you have to learn to slow down and analyse the situation at hand and turn it into a positive. Golden Boy said it perfectly and I am paraphrasing when I say, if eSports is to be taken seriously by major companies, at a professional level, then there needs to be contracts set in place. If you are a professional gamer, this is your job and how you support yourself with income, then a contract needs to be signed. Hopefully, this will be implemented by next years season…especially if the changes continue drastically throughout this season…which, sadly, I’m sure they will.

4. You’ll soon be attending GFG, tell us more about it and how did that come about?

Yes! I am extremely excited for Gamers For Giving! GFG is a charity event based in Michigan. It is run all weekend (February 8th-9th) at the Eastern Michigan University Center. Gamers from all over, come to play a variety of competitive games from Halo to COD to LoL to Starcraft etc. It’s pretty much 48 hours of awesomeness! GFG is founded by, one of my good friends, Zach Wigal. Anymore information can be found, in detail, at their website www.gamersoutreach.org

How this all came about: I was contacted by John Spiher, who is the PR Manager for Gamers Outreach. He liked what he had seen so far with our interviews and the growth/likeability we had already achieved within the community. He wanted to know if we’d be interested in doing public interviews, at GFG all weekend, with the gamers attending. Of course, I couldn’t say no to this awesome opportunity! Especially, since the event is so close and it’s for such a great cause. I mean, we get to interview gamers from all over the country AND interview some I used to play against so many years ago…it’s going to be a BLAST! I can’t thank John enough for reaching out to us and providing this opportunity. The event is just three weeks away and it can’t get here soon enough!

5. What hopes/ideas do you have for the future for GamersLook and beyond?

This is a great question. I’ve actually been asked this multiple times, since our start just a month or so ago. Right now, this a is small operation run by myself and co-founder, Alex. We didn’t imagine how fast this all would take off and what a blessing it’s turned into. Our hopes are to one day have the chance to attend all of the gaming events and interview gamers from around the world…LIVE. We will still always continue to do online interviews, but it would great to travel around the world interviewing gamers from all platforms. We hope to attend as many events, this year, as possible. We’re just happy that we have so much support, from so many gamers, worldwide. We can’t thank them enough for sticking with us and wanting to be apart of it all! 

Thanks a lot to Jordan for his time in giving me this interview, and hope that he, Alex and GamersLook goes from strength to strength in the future!

You can contact GamersLook on twitter at - @Gamerslook

Or at their website - http://www.gamerslook.com/

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1bxmAaXM7WqtviRGp822g 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 

 
Neil