My 2012 - Pulling the Curtains [Part 1]

Here we go. I just sighed like crazy because I'm really going to dig deep. I can hardly remember most of everything I've done and most of the shit that's happened, but let's just do as much as I can. No suspense, no descriptive writing, just gonna write it out plain and simple and going to be honest and see where it goes. If this hurts me, whatever reputation I have or shit, I don't think I will regret it. I want to let all of it out, including my own thoughts and perceptions of things. Please remember that all stories have two sides, so let's keep in mind this is my viewpoint and understanding of things.

In 365 days, I have done the following (let's ignore my work in 2010 and 2011):

Event Planning/Marketing

Organizational Management/Public Relations

Writing & Social Media

All for free and I liked it. I liked that I could prove to myself that I could do, tolerate and achieve a lot. I helped a lot of organizations, but gained very few true friends because I hated the working conditions and ultimately got too bitter about a lot of shit. I did multiple jobs for organizations because most of them were understaffed or unreliable. I didn't stay for many months because if I'm doing work for free, I need to enjoy being with the people I enjoy and doing work I feel has some value.

Concordia StarCraft Community

After I left VT Gaming and casted some games at Montreal's LAN ETS, I started university and decided to kickstart my own university club: we were 20 on the first day and my first opening dialogue was: "Is this the Zerg Anonymous group?" A joke about how Terran raped us so hard and everyone laughed. At the start, things were great, everyone came to the meetings: we talked StarCraft and figured the university would let us get a room so we could ultimately start bringing laptops to play. We really had big plans for Montreal and thought we could recruit a lot of people. We had our first tournament at a friend's house where maybe 15 people came and we casted all the game and came down to Half (a random player) and nSpace (mutual friend of Attero and I, as well as member of CSC [Concordia StarCraft Community]). As the days grew, I continued to properly established executives and goals for the group:

CSC Constitution. This links you to the constitution I wrote in 48 hours, non-stop. It was my first piece of political writing and because I spent so much time on it, I slept for about five days. Those five days were the days where my best friend from high-school died and his funeral occured. I didn't find out about this until the month after from an even older friend. Losing my friend for this piece of shit writing was pretty hard on me. But I moved on, etc. (I still think about it from time to time, but it doesn't really bother me. Sometimes I see him pass by, but its just some other guy lol). The club remained until 2012 where I ultimately quit the organization because one thing you'll learn about university gamers is that they can be sometimes very lazy and very unmotivated. When the four other executives ended up cutting communication, I tried to handled the rest of the club for another good year or so before bowing out.

Team Dynamic

During CSC, I also partook in a lot of other work. I got back into managing through my friend (P)

Attero and Team Dynamic. I was excited to get back with a team that I really enjoyed the players and the management was small. Turns out the last divisional manager for SC2 moved on to TTEsports or something. I took the helm and tried to really push our players to achieve: AlexCMoi, Attero, Clonze, Mass, Simon LeGosu, Everize, Pro, Legion, Doctor. We weren't the best, but we had good times and tried a lot of variations to ensure our players practiced. Ultimately LeGosu, AlexCMoi and Pro all ended up becoming inactive, too lazy to practice but some demanded travel to major events. Attero was always ensured travel because he streamed a lot, had some minor popularity and was the only one who did qualifiers and achieved on some level (though Everize, Mass and Doctor also had their crowns). I soon left that organization because the workload was too much. What started out as just managing players ended up being Liquipedia, budgeting and travel for the players and writing. None of my writing on there has my name because I didn't have access to the site, so I got no credit. I also did marketing for Team Dynamic and their sponsorship deck:

Sponsorship Deck for Team Dynamic. I updated and improved this and reached out to a lot of sponsors. I received one from a friend of mine over at Vuugo.com who were more than interested in the prospects of sponsoring a Canadian team. They were a small business, most of their profit came from the Montreal/Toronto area and so they were only willing to sponsor us six months to a year and only to Canadian events. At the time, we had no real sponsors and they couldn't negotiate much on the terms, so I figured we'd take it. The owner, Mitul, agreed, then disagreed, then said that we should give the title sponsor spot as we promised them, but remove a lot of the features we mentioned. Unhappy with this manipulation, I told him I wouldn't tell Vuugo that and that he could do it. He uttered: "I'm your boss and you do what I say". So I quit, left and never looked back. The SC2 division held up with just Mass, Clonze and Attero and soon after just Mass and Attero. When Team Dynamic got their BenQ sponsor, Attero was given 250$ a month and travel to all MLG events: not bad in my opinion. Ultimately, he closed shop and moved on with his life. He taught me a lot and he was a good friend. Sometimes he could be a bit full of himself, but his confidence and attitude were great and meeting him in-person those many times were just all fun and really got me excited with managing players. I love managing organizations, making them better, grow, succeed.

(p.s: while on Team Dynamic, I tried to recruit Snute and syz haha. I'm so hipster).

BarCraft Montreal

Let's move on! While managing Team Dynamic I was getting involved with BarCraft Montreal. If you guys aren't familiar with it, here you go:

I did a total of four of them with the last one leaving me very bitter. I am the founder along with Marco-Olivier LaFleur (MarKo) just a business student in University who manages a local club and fan of StarCraft II. That guy is awesome and sometimes he can be a bit too confident in himself, but it was definitely the ying to my insecure yang of my ability to do things. Event-Planning and marketing an event was new to me. I've done organizations and knew what to look for in organizations, but an event was a whole new world. The setting up was the best part where we took ideas, saw what we could work with and did that. I also worked with CyberActiv who I am always on the fence with. On the one hand, the more I worked with them, the less I enjoyed their company and their talks. Like most organizations you work with, a lot of the top people like to talk. They like to befriend you, butter you up and boy did they talk. A whole lot of talking and a whole lot of saying nothing. All of our BarCraft Montreal events were awesome, but degraded in quality the longer we went. When we reached 1,000 attendants at MLG Providence, we started getting a lot of publicity, but it also meant setting the right image: if you haven't seen Marko on @$#% Slasher, then I suggest you check it out (it's pretty funny). At the time, I was also very conflicted because I was doing a lot of the work for BarCraft, but never got any mentions: CyberActiv did, Marko did, I didn't get a mention either at the end of events where everyone mentions their thank-yous or in interviews.

It bothered me so much, I privately messaged Slasher, hoping to God he would read it in time:

Hey Slasher, can you make sure to specify that there are two organizers to BarCraft Montreal? I was the second organizer of BarCraft, I was selling tickets, Setting up at 8-10 in the morning (Marko had overslept).. Handling interviews and PR with various newspapers I acquired, I made sure of sponsors were ok (Vuugo.com), etc. but I never get proper accreditation or recognition.

I'm not asking for a specific shoutout or anything, but if you like introduce your guest and say that he organized it with me (or I organized it with him, either or), that'd be appreciated. Marko keeps forgetting to credit me in all his interviews and posts and it's a bit discouraging considering how much work we put in (cyberactiv as well as the guys from LAN ETS helped tremendously).

I don't know if it'd be too much trouble or anything.

Love your Twitter feed by the way, use it a lot to inform myself of other games I like, but unfamiliar with the sport (Quake Live for example, I'm terrible, but if you ever want to play, let me know!)

Michael Cohen/Torte de Lini
Happy Holidays

Embarrassing I know but I really wanted to be mentioned. I felt like an attention-seeker, conflicted with wanting what I felt was due, but didn't think it was fair to bring it up so many times. They weren't intentionally leaving me out, it just happened a lot. But yeah; two events in and I was rewriting Marko's answers in a TL interview because his English is ok, but his French is better (so his answers didn't look 100% professional).

CyberActiv. Productions - BarCraft Montreal + White-Ra Masterclass

I worked with CyberActiv for four more events including the White-Ra Masterclass event. Our final barcraft was abysmal and it really soured me up. Especially when we started getting complaints and those guys wouldn't listen to how we should approach the situation: BarCraft Montreal August 26th- Feedback from a disapointed attendee. CyberActiv never treated me wrong, but they were doing everything wrong. They kept pushing for titles even though they were unpaid group of about 6-7 members who pretty much did everything and anything (unrelated to their "duties" as said "title") and there were a lot of clashes about issues ranging from "looking to use the organization to be popular" and issues of trust. We were just a local group of productive people, but some of the foul-smelling drama that spewed had me running from the doors. These guys know what to do for events, but their direction is off-putting.

During the White-Ra event, it was fantastic. Afterwards however was annoying. The White-Ra Masterclass event was suppose to be a progamer exposition. People would get to meet White-Ra and seeing him showmatch against SLush. I was the observer and I was doing alright.

Afterwards, people were promised replays and pictures and such. People waited almost a month for it: "Please release the replays. I eventually uploaded and posted it, but was told to remove it because they were going to package it with a DVD and sell it. That never came into fruition and the replays have yet to be released so far. Kind of a ridiculous idea and it annoyed me that they didn't at least tell people what their intentions were. I hate misleading people and I hate not being upfront about this sort of shit. It's not the capitalistic idea of selling replays, it's the fact that you're being so slow with it and not even saying anything. Just ignoring it and moving on, tired me out.

Later on, I met Andrei at NASL S3 and we were polite and friendly, but I don't think beyond that. He does good work, just not sure about his reach and interests. I think it was after NASL S3 Finals that I stopped talking to CyberActiv. WCS Canada was also a big kill for me: Topic for WCS Canada. CyberActiv was tasked with WCS Canada qualifiers, I was excited for this except for two issues: 1. All communication from Blizzard (Rob Simpson) was passed to Charles, "head" guy for our SC2 division. Although he was the head guy, we were only two working on this [lol], so he was just the "boss" to me. Because he was the boss, he was the only one who could talk to Blizzard. If I had any questions or wanted clarification, I had to ask him so he could ask them. That annoyed me because we weren't equals and he had no more directional power than I did, yet kept the contacts to himself and only relayed partial/selective information. I did my part, but ultimately the system to select Canadian qualifiers for WCS had its flaws and huge problems. We were trying to both tie-in local organization recognition and tasks while also creating an even online/LAN format. Obviously that didn't work out the best. I had my anger and frustration back then, but if Blizzard was happy, then so was I.

NASL Season 3 Finals

At NASL S3, it was a giant eye-opener. I got to meet so many people that I admired and really looked up to. I arrived on Wednesday by bus: it was 6 hours and I paid for my trip. All this work thus far has been unpaid and NASL S3 was no different; except I was paying for myself to arrive early and help set up. The booth construction was done by CyberActiv and they did a good job. I handled much of the smaller stuff and also got to eat and drink with some of the figureheads of NASL. I also got to meet the behind-the-scenes guys like Elliot, Mike Ulaky and Barbie who always fascinated me more because they were doing what they loved and they look so satisfied! Later on, E-Sports Canada founder: Ken Silva works with NASL. He's very handsome and a charismatic guy. I always feel compelled to say that about him because he's very fucking cool. When NASL S3 finally kicked off, I got to be a manager for the first time at a major event. I had someone to root for, watch from behind, check on his morale and discuss strategies. All my other players qualified in America, we had one canadian: (Z)

jEcho. At the time, I was managing Infinity Seven. At NASL, I got to meet Kennigit, Treehugger, Smix, Thomas from ESFI World, reaverxai for Dota 2, I think itsjustatank of Liquipedia, D-Esports [I go on to work for them], Day [9] (he gave me a backrub and tips for my interview with Ostojiy), some girls from Girls of StarCraft (brightside, Livinpink), Soe (amazing hardworker), MrBitter, Frodan, Gretorp, iNcontrol, Idra (had dinner with them), my very good friend Conrad (QuantumPope with EG), Justin from Twitch.TV, CSL guys (shindigs and Mona), a lot of Esports Canada people, Rotterdam (bought me a rum and coke, which Ret drank I think). Ret, HerO, Alicia, Scarlett, and so much more. Jesus so many people. It was so exhilarating and I realized that everyone has their judgements and views of others but when you meet them in-person, it all dissolves and doesn't really matter. I just learned that you should just do what you want and keep doing it and do it for the sake of doing it. I lost track of that idea later on, but it's coming back.

ESFI World

I'm going bit out of chronological order. Before NASL and all that, I was working with ESFI World, I was referred to apply by my friend Conrad (QuantumPope). When I started working there, I was thriving to prove myself. I was doing BarCraft, but no writing since I stopped working for Team Dynamic and felt utterly at lost with my time, just completely unfulfilled and lacking some real attachment. ESFI was awesome: Yosef, Thomas, Reece, Brent, John, Jacqueline, Jasper, so many people there are just great and put in so much effort to do things right and they sure as hell had the diligence and determination to do it. I improved my wriiting, formatted them properly. Got familiar with HTML a bit and wrote some cool articles (about 50 or so). I did a bit of Dota 2, but was way too unfamiliar with the scene. I got to transcript interviews with JP, I got to write questions to Korean progamers (TaeJa), release news as soon as possible on ESFI. Got to learn insider secrets and how a lot of the organizations function, their real levels of power and direction and also a lot of networking. Got to talk to a lot more people than ever before! I left soon when I was told I couldn't manage Quantic Gaming's roster and write for ESFI World. Big shame too, I would love to sometime contribute for their site, their editorials are getting better and better too.

Guide Writing & Frustrations

After Quantic, I was so mad I ended up writing another guide for TL: How to E-Sports (Expectancies and Starters). Whenever I got mad, I would write a large guide and that's how this one and the TL FAQ came about, because I got frustrated and decided to "stick it to the man" but educating or writing something informal to others. Kind of fucked-up I guess. A lot of these guides also got me a lot of hate mail, some of them nicer (like the one below) and some of them a lot more personal and rude.

Michael, it isn't your style of writing that urged me to comment on your guide, it is your lack of experience within the eSports industry.

For instance, all of the organizations you have worked for, are lower tier organizations within the scene. ESFI and iS being the most prominent. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying these places are bad by any means, but their level in the scene is much lower than top tiered organizations.

To clarify, by "top tier" I do not mean Blizzard and IPL. I mean, EG, WCG, MLG, etc. Organizations born out of eSports that are centralized around eSports.

Additionally, your only "eSport experience" seems to be from Starcraft 2 only. Which I have to say, is incredibly limited. I might be wrong, so forgive me for assuming, but from what you wrote about and the organizations you have been a part of would lead me to believe that.

Creating a guide for kids who are interested in getting into eSports I think is not even necessary. It is incredibly easy to become involved, even at a very young age.

Anyway, I would be happier if you changed the post to reflect what Chobopeon wrote in his original comments about there being incentives and compensation within the scene.

That is my personal take on this.

- Cameron

What Cameron is referencing is Chobopeon's idea that you can get paid in E-Sports (albeit it is very difficult to do so). Within my piece, I emphasize heavily that most will never get paid in E-Sports and that should be ok because what you learn and achieve can be built outside of this niche scene. Chobopeon disagrees and although I can see his point-of-view, I made sure to ask those more heavily involved than myself [see credits: Jibba, Heyoka, HawaiianPig, Kiante, Plexa, 343[, Liquid`Nazgul, tree.hugger] for a realistic expectation.

Here is the conversation we had:

On May 03 2012 07:43 Torte de Lini wrote:

Show nested quote +

I think working with a passion and with effort is a better qualitative idea that what you're trying to relay to everyone. Hard-working and persistence are all inter-related with the idea that you love doing what you are doing and working in that clockwise sense and fashion. When you talk to and read stories about djWHEAT, Day[9] and SirScoots, you hear about how they got into the scene and doing what they enjoy more than the path of getting what you earned or working hard towards eventually getting what you feel you can earn later on.

Money to them and to everyone should never be the end-goal or the rational next step to what working hard or persistence should be. It never was and should never be and I think you know that above many others. Right time, right place for the things you talk about and I try to avoid as a main-line of discussion because ultimately, its relevance shouldn't be important yet. This guide is for those looking to get started into the scene and sector, I think highlighting any real likelihood of money is to presume a foreseeable future that isn't realistic or remotely possible yet. While I see your point of view, it's going left-field with ideals.

I think you have to consider who the target audience is before claiming something is untrue.

As far as I know, neither Chobopeon nor fams have an E-Sports job that pays. That isn't proving me right and them wrong, but it really shows that if you're writing a guide for people who want to get involved (and are just starting out), you shouldn't have them set their sights on being paid doing something they love before having them realize that you need to simply love doing it and being paid is just a bonus (a very, very, very rare one).

That private message still sticks with me to this day.

So that's Part 1. I have to get ready for dinner and mull on some things I probably should not have said. I skipped some of the bigger issues or more recent work because 1. It'll take me several thousand words to write-up an 2. I have to think it over. I hope this enlightens the work of contributors. A lot of people work with a lot of organizations over the course of a year and really do a lot for nothing in return. What I learned are the limits of my work ethics, the height of moral tolerance and my abilities I can market. I've done a lot of these jobs simultaneously and as I wind down to two or three jobs (I once had 5-6 at a time + school), I can't help but wonder.

Topics left to discuss

Quantic Gaming
Infinity Seven
BarCraft Union
D-Esports,
ROOT Gaming
Critical Series
My Friends

My 2012 - Pulling the Curtains [Part 1]

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Ongoing

Upcoming