|
The Valencia Esports Congress - described by some as what would be a perpetual circle jerk, where no-one would say what they really meant, began with poor sound quality and Paul Chaloner in a shirt which, let’s admit, was perhaps a little large for him.
He awkwardly began as keynotes tend to - nervous, a joke that fell flat. He told us he’d been asked to talk about his history in esports - “I love you, buddy, and that’d be interesting, but I will need a drink to get through that, if you don’t mind” - and then suddenly, it turned into so much more.
I don’t know if anyone’s seen Susan Boyle’s audition video from Britain's Got Talent, but it was kind of like that. Not that I’m likening Paul Chaloner to Susan Boyle - I would never do that, he’s a charming and handsome man. It’s about the experience of starting with an “Oh, heeeeere we go, YAWN” attitude to having your mind fucking blown, leaving you with renewed passion.
Old mate ReDeYe, who started out awkward and unsure, suddenly showed us the fire which drove him, and drove us over decades, to where we are now. As he spoke, he became more relaxed, because he was speaking from his heart about something that means the world to him and to all of us. No-one can be awkward in that moment.
The land of esports still feels a bit weird - it’s OK to admit that. We are worldwide - worldwide - and only just now becoming a large community which communicates, works together and bitches about the same fucking shit.
Paul Chaloner’s keynote is like a lecture from your favourite professor at university at the course you always wanted to complete but never thought you’d be accepted into. A history lesson with passion and commitment. As an Australian, my history with competitive gaming seems a world from what ReDeYe experienced, and yet here we are, together at the same time, thousands of us from - the same community, the same dreams.
They keynote gave us something important - a sense of legacy and history. No longer can we Magikarp around the internet like what we're doing just LOL LIEK HAPPENED OUT OF NOWHERE, YANNO?! What is happening now is a product of decades, and that should be respected. Longevity is inevitable, but time and influence will determine whether it flourishes into something incredible or fades into a horrible death where egos and idiocy prevailed.
Perhaps the Valencia Esports Conference will not deliver the metaphorical world peace that we desire in our little microcosm - that of well-scheduled tournaments, players that are 100% taken care of, sponsors that are 100% happy, spectators who will not start ridiculous Reddit posts, and some electronic United Nations to govern over us all with infinite love - but at the very least, it has gathered us all together, here, right now. And isn’t that fucking grand?
There are so many things to discuss and I will discuss them with you as I trawl through the VODs of the VEC in between my soul-destroying job. I will write a blog post per panel.
I think this is a fantastic opportunity to sit down, have a drink and discuss what really matters, together - RTS, MOBA, FPS - no matter what your poison.
And I bet that’s what all the VEC representatives are doing in the evenings behind closed doors, those bastards. To be a fly on the wall - I would kill a man and not even blink.
(My background is four years in live news and sport in Australian television in a non-glamorous role, and a 2-year stint in game design and developement at a university which had no idea what they were doing, but their hearts were in the right place. I don’t represent anyone so I can swear as much as I fucking like. I’m 29 but sometimes I lie and say I’m 26 and people believe me. I am often alcohol-influenced because working in the news will do that to you.)
|
i would upvote this 
|
Love this, your use of Magikarp will be stolen
|
You are a very good writer. 
|
United Kingdom2950 Posts
I wholeheartedly agree. I was looking forward to this a lot and when I actually looked at the schedule - it's insane how much work ReDeYe puts into this. A full day of panels with an interested, enthused and well informed moderator is not something you can ask a lot of people to do. Of course, I haven't seen every minute of the panels and will miss/missed the last two, but one thing is for sure, ReDeYe knows his shit.
The first panel was a bit shaky in my opinion, coming off a pretty decent keynote. The IeSF rep was decidedly removed from a lot of conversation and whenever he did speak he always seemed to speak in long form prose, deftly dodging Paul's questions, even when Paul tried to hammer it in once or twice. That was fine though, because the discussion brought upon by David Ting and Russ Pfister about eSports federations was quite interesting to say the least.
The second panel was one that I tuned in and out of and didn't really hold my interest all that much, since I didn't have a lot of context for it, and it also seemed like there wasn't a ton to talk about. Reading through the schedule I did feel it was a bit weird to see some people in certain places but I understand that the congress is one of the first such meetings so it was difficult to organize something with such a wide scope in one day, with one moderator.
The third panel, with the game developers, I thought was absolutely fantastic. The addition of the Na'Vi CEO Alex "ZeroGravity" was fantastic and probably the best "team" representative out of Dignitas, EG and Na'Vi. I thought former Gamespot employee Kristin Reilly did alright considering her position as a CM and not being specifically a developer, and of course Dustin "Rocks" Browder held it down as usual. Every public appearance or interview I read or watch or hear from the guy really reinforces how well spoken he is and how he moves around a question so well that even though you don't get your answer you feel satisfied. All in all I thought that panel was really strong and had some great discussions.
Overall I think the conference was a really strong showing and proved that there were at least participants from all sides of the coin that are willing to sit down and really start an intellectual discourse that could move eSports forward from multiple perspectives. Hopefully in the future there would be a bit more focus on certain aspects as I feel like there was just a huge rush to cover every single aspect of eSports and the business side of things, when in reality there is way more to talk about. I think the main thing I carry away from this is this: Paul Chaloner should do a podcast/show.
|
LOL Sunset, your disclaimer. I love you, keep drinking the good drink.
|
Old mate Sunset spouting wisdom. One might be fooled into thinking she never was a bogan in her youth
|
I look forward to having a look at those VODs myself as I didn't see it live as well as your views and discussion on them. Redeye is indeed a man of Esports history and his life story (link to his fan club - its the spoiler at the start) makes it even more amazing, a good choice by DH despite the "bad start" as you described.
|
Ha ha ha
There was certainly a lot of fluff. Yes, I finally got to watch the last part of the organizer's panel.
|
Overall I think this was a very positive event, of course there was a certain amount of posturing on the part of the panelists but the underlying sentiment that came across was that a conference like this was needed. Not even to really go forward with a plan or a time table, but just to start the conversation between the interested parties. Was nice to see the business side of esports as excited about this thing that has become such a big part of our lives as we all are.
In particular I found the marketing panel very intriguing. One of the few panels that really brought some hard data to the table which is refreshing to see and encouraging for the future.
So yeah, me likes! Thank you Robert and Dreamhack for getting the ball rolling and to Paul for keeping the panels on track and asking some really intriguing discussion questions.
To the future and beyond etc etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
