My 2012 - The Closing Bell [Part 2]

+ Show Spoiler [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

Quantic Gaming

With the first half of 2012 done and myself having left ESFI World for Quantic Gaming. I was about to enter a new league of work and demanded diligence. When Quantic Gaming first opened their doors towards applicants, I didn't get accepted. They had chosen someone named Ben Novak. I don't recall why he was qualified, but I do recall that the moment he was hired, he demanded an interview and was more focused on his own benefits than the organizations. It wasn't long before he stepped out and they had taken me on. This is where I met my good friend Brad, who, at first, seemed a bit uptight, but as we worked more and more together, he became more loose, relaxed and very friendly. If you haven't met Brad, then you missed out because he is still one of the most hardworking and relaxed people I know and I wish he was still involved in E-Sports (sadly, he has some common sense and moved on to more reliable work).

Working with Quantic was different than anyone I've ever worked with before. Compared to my other teams, there was a hierarchy and division of labor. With Team Dynamic, it was about 5 of us and I never met anyone but the owner. With VT Gaming, Frank was an upstanding and very devoted person, but we were small and there wasn't much of a hierarchy more so than just all of us working together (you can minus out the vice-president, Grant, who openly masturbated his ego on regular basis).

With Quantic, there were directors, CEOs/COOs, writers, etc. The whole lot. It really looked like a place that worked and had everyone doing their rightful place. When I was first asked to join, I knew I wouldn't be paid. It was nothing new and I was already heavily in the rhythm of doing a lot of work. I figured the least I would get was a jersey and took every opportunity I could to bring up the idea of having Quantic be a part of BarCraft Montreal (we were making headlines and at the time, we were helped out by EG). But in the end, I didn't really get anything at all except long-nights and a good boot.

Writing about Quantic is long, winded and probably inaccurate in some areas. Hopefully some collaborators can come in and either add credit, correct or just simply dismiss me, but here we go.

When I first joined Quantic, they shaped up the way I handled players. For starters, I would take all kinds of information ranging from phone numbers, email addresses, battle.net ID, birthdays, traveling information, location, etc. At the time, I was handling about 9 players: Agh, Apoc, Flo, SaSe, TheOgnis, NaNiwa, Destiny, inKA, Shuffle and I believe DarkCell was starting to become inactive. 9 players across 6 different time zones and 3 major countries. It was just myself and Brad working the ropes and while the main group of NA players worked quite well together. SaSe & NaNiwa did not (even Apoc was much friendlier and social).

When I first started, I was to take everyone's information. I soon learned that I would also be doing more than what I was accustomed to like waking players up for important matches (which meant staying up late to handle issues with players in S. Korea and waking up early to call NA players for qualifiers). It never groaned me to do this because the feeling that people relied on me meant I had a duty to go up-and-beyond to do whatever was needed. Unfortunately that would also be my downfall, but we'll get to that.

As introductions passed, most welcomed me with happiness. I didn't hear much about their previous manager, but it also has been a fair bit for me since I managed (I was doing event-planning & writing for ESFI world previously). However I was warned NaNiwa and SaSe could be difficult and I was a very optimistic fool about this because I was arrogant in how I figured players. They didn't prove as much trouble for me, but they were quite a handful for Quantic and played a toll on a lot of people. From the start, NaNiwa openly told me he didn't like or trust me. Not because we've crossed paths before, but because he knew I was with ESFI World and apparently they slandered his name. Right off the bat, I told him that I didn't care if he trusted me, just that he knew whatever I tell him would be for the sole purpose to improve his success and achievements. We've worked on that relationship ever since.

Although you can't see it on Liquipedia, the previous COO or Mark's right-hand man was YuTz (Bryan). Bryan was awesome and veteran management, but very stern in his affairs. He was a no-bullshit kind of guy while Mark was very emotional and flexible, especially when it came to the players that really made his organization stand out. This caused a lot of friction between the two and ultimately having Bryan leave because not only could we not get a full handle on these players, but Mark was constantly undermining us and giving into NaNiwa's demands (and SaSe on occasion). Eventually Bryan left because the players had more of a handle on the staff than the other way around and they were being disrespectful without repercussions (insults, verbal attacks, ignoring staff based on false-accusations or misperceptions of issues). Bryan wanted to rid SaSe (as did most of everyone else for justifable reasons, apparently it has been building for a long time because 1. he was a pain and 2. he didn't achieve anything at the time, but was paid more than the NA squad combined). while Mark felt the organization wouldn't live without the Swedish pairs (SaSe & NaNiwa). In essence, it was underachiever, overpaid, very difficult to handle player over veteran no-bullshit right-hand management man. I didn't agree with the trade, but I didn't voice out against it either (big mistake).

This reminds me of the time NaNiwa and SaSe were going to Red Bull:

(I'll try and quote everything I wrote when I was first laid off by Quantic (I wrote to some friends). This was written back in April 2012 so it's a lot more accurate than I could rewrite.)

Quantic was seeking out a sponsorship with Red Bull a long time ago. We were hoping NaNiwa and SaSe would improve relations. It was a huge fuss getting them over there because SaSe didn't feel ready to play and wanted to stay and practice as well as NaNiwa (especially with the GSL coming up and soon after). NaNiwa folded when we find out the one way that could push him to go without effort, SaSe was not so easy, but eventually folded after we went back and forth on the issue with him and we ended up losing our COO: YuTz/Bryan. We were at our wit's end and looking at picking up Taeja and two others players from two certain teams (won't mention names), especially with the salary SaSe had.

Eventually we got them over there and SaSe was apparently a dream-boat. After a lot of tantrums, we read a tweet that he was a happy camper with 17 hours of sleep [he originally said he wasn't going to go because Red Bull booked him a flight a day earlier than what he wanted. NaNiwa and SaSe also objected to going if they didn't get separate rooms to which required Brad and I to be very creative with our words for this supplmental demand]. The day before leaving, SaSe told me that if anyone wanted to interview him, they have two days to do it because he won't do it after. This made the Bic autograph event signing at MLG completely up in the air and difficult to coordinate. They also originally objected to going because there was no money involved in Red Bull where Lone Star Clash had a lot of easy money for them.

NaNiwa apparently was giving a lot of issues and problems, thus soured our relationship. We never told him, but when he asked us to have him reinvited in the up and coming Red Bull event (not saying when or where), I was finding talent in pulling ambiguous reasons out of nowhere as to why that would be unlikely.

If asked if I ever disliked SaSe or NaNiwa, I would say no. If asked if I preferred one over the other, I couldn't say as they only talked to me and only wanted to talk to me which made me feel incredible given all the horror stories I heard from them. I was also very unfortunate to never have to do the hard work: going to the organizations and making it abundantly clear about their demands. I would either have to relay the info to Brad who would have to do the sweet-talking or tell SaSe and NaNiwa, no deal, to which they never blamed me. NaNiwa isn't careless or impersonable, he's just very quick to make absolute judgements on people and has trouble letting go and forgetting.

Unlike Brad, the gaming director who was treated poorly by one or the other, I was treated very well and they even commended me and wished I was sent to events (none of our staff were sent to events, they paid for their own trips. This was changed when Vile merged I believe).
With NaNiwa, you have to ensure you compliment him on what he deserves or earns. He's very emotional and gets angry instead of discouraged. SaSe loses confidence a lot, but you must never wish him luck, lavish him with confidence boosters or anything. Let him find his way out of trouble and just be there when he knows how to exit (but needs your help to achieve it). SaSe & NaNiwa never talked with the other players, they left the player's chat soon after I joined and were always separate from the rest, even when Apoc. arrived in the StarTale house, I am not sure what transpired, but our translator told me that one of them made Apoc very mad, which was apparently rare. I didn't inquire much more about it.

I still talk to SaSe today. NaNiwa removed me after I wished him a safe trip. I'm not sure if SaSe will still talk to me after this, but I hope so because he is very talented and very nice, so long as you are trusting. James Banks said the same about NaNiwa, but Johan is very difficult to get on any reasonable terms. It takes a lot of understanding, a lot of flexibility and a lot of tolerance to see his rational and thought-process, make compromises and try and get him to play ball (interviews, autograph signings at MLG, etc.). SaSe was a pain for many, but he would always mean well. He often times had trouble balancing the care that the team saves money (would sometimes argue with ticket-prices and such, another player I managed would often be a huge headache because he knew other flights that would help the team save on costs [Quantic was very close on their budget and had hardly any to spare]).

As Bryan moved on, it was now just myself, Brad, Laxx (great guy), Ben (great fucking guy, this marketing genius), myself and Garrett (PR, now managed Quantic when Vile came in, amazing person) and Mark the CEO. Mark was very emotional and Brad warned me ahead of time that I would soon see him throw us under the bus to please his players. Mark was probably the biggest fans to his players than us all. He would stick with them when others wanted to consider TaeJa and MorroW (this was pre-GSL when SaSe was also not achieving much at the time). I wrote the same viewpoint back in April:

Mark is a very passionate and emotional person. He's more fanboy when talking to the players than even I was. He would gush about them and yet, would try to be firm when SaSe and NaNiwa acted out very poorly.

A strong example of this would be when Red Bull offered SaSe and NaNiwa a computer hotel room and then MLG would offer them two more rooms. NaNiwa was fine getting his own room to be with his special someone. SaSe was not readily available to give up one of his two rooms for one of our other players since 1. they were undeserving and 2. he earned both of these rooms 3. he needed both rooms for in case NaNiwa wanted to practice (and he wanted sleep so he would take the non-gaming room, an unlikely scenario).

I told SaSe the irrationality of having two rooms for yourself and he couldn't really see my point and would lament constantly about how Brad's trip to MLG was being paid for by Quantic (it wasn't and we've corrected him before) as well as sending people who did not achieve anything to MLG (they were going because it's good media exposure since SaSe and NaNiwa are a bit difficult to get them to do autographs or interviews [there's a story to that one as well]).

After much explaining, Mark stepped in and was very keen on where they stood, what their options were, etc. etc. SaSe was not resigned at the time and he often threatened to go to other teams (he's overpaid on our team as well).

Mark has great intentions, networking skills and overall management understanding, but he's very emotional and sometimes verbalizes it very clearly. He means well, but comes across as a bit silly or obnoxious which doesn't make people sit very comfortably near him.

In the end, I don't think either rooms were given up, but Brad bunked with TheOgnis.
None of these issues really bothered me. I assumed all major organizations suffer these types of issues and getting past them meant I would be an ideal candidate for future work (should I ever find a job in the real world). My values are the same as they've always been:

I always want from a team is two things: 1. to feel like I am with the team and not working for them, but with them towards a great success and 2. credibility. That I get credited or appreciated personally or publicly. Those two things emphasize my importance in an organization and highlight that what I do matters.

This is one of the many jarring stories that I really recall (or could find). I could find the chatlogs to back them up but to be honest; if you don't believe it then that is fine with me. I reformatted my computer, but my laptop still has some of the many chats, so I could definitely sift through them.

So how was I fired?

I can tell you very well.

They "severed ties with me" due to the fact that Apocalypse got DQ'd from the MLG Qualifiers. I had told Apocalypse to come on at 10AM KST to play his match, I omitted the AM/PM part just out of error, but it's always been this time previously anyways.

Apocalypse didn't show and I was overworked (for the past 6 days, I was online 18 hours a day with both schoolwork because of the final semester of the year as well as ESEA/Quantic stuff like scheduling times, making sure the players could get on, drafting streaming schedules so we could showcase our players better, lining up showmatches for Destiny [he's done like 7 in two weeks]. Handling SaSe's and NaNiwa's very specific demands and relaying all info to my Gaming Director (Brad who is 3x overwokred as me).

So on Friday, I took a small evening off to be with friends. I told Brad to make sure Apocalypse gets online at X time (the correct time) and so Brad showed. But Apocalypse got on much, much later. So Apocalypse didn't know 1. that he had been DQ'd and in loser's brackets and 2. who he was suppose to play. He ended up being DQ'd due to Brad not being there and no one informing him on what was happening.

It was a joint accountability of miscommunication and misunderstanding. This has been the first time a player has missed any match on my watch since I have done these jobs for teams in two years. Mark, the CEO, is not very fond of me because I find his hierarchal approach very demeaning and intimidating (he was writing in the Quantic public chat about how we needed to be better and other inspirational ideas, then he would rant about how he needed to fire someone [we're all volunteers, there are no perks to this job [no pay, no jerseys, no trips to events and no sponsored gear -- I'm not complaining, but I absolutely despise people treating us like employees working for for a team or organization rather than the underlining semantic of being with the team and working with it]. I bluntly and neutrally told him that that's not how you address people who want to work and help improve the team (he said he was joking about firing people) and you certainly don't joke about firing people in a public chat.

A day later, they held me accountable and fired me despite the Gaming Director's specific begging not to fire me. Brad just quit today (April) as well (for unrelated reasons for starters, but firing me meant he would need to be available 12 hours a day at the computer, to which he wasn't prepared to do so yet). Their Dota team manager just quit due to unrelated drama, so their entire Gaming division that handles all their tournaments and player managing is empty and they have to find people, new people.

At the time, Quantic was being helped by Joe McDougall. I was told two things: 1. he would not talk to the players and 2. he's someone very credible because he's worked with Team Liquid before (apparently). We were to trust him and work with him and right from the start, I would tell Brad how I didn't like his attitude at all. It was very fishy, but apparently he got the writing staff cleaned up and churning articles (before it fell off the grid). Joe also kept in line the hierarchy, where if I had an issue, I were to talk to Brad who would talk to Joe who would talk to Mark. For communicating to player's, everyone would need to talk to me. This worked until everyone said fuck it and just resumed what we did before. Apparently, it was Joe's idea to fire me, but Mark didn't tell me this until I hinted at it in my first article of Armchair Athleticism. I also just received some other news about the other reasons I was fired, but it's just icing on the cake from the above (and it's not related to my work ethics or ability to manage):

If I were to say similar things or tell my own bad experience with Quantic Gaming, it’d look bad. It’d hurt the organization which still has a lot of good in it. It’d hurt the players involved who are living their dream thanks to this organization. So while I may get my egotistical justice served to one bad experience, it puts a lot of people out of work and out of options. Ultimately, it also hurts my reputation, or whatever illusion of it I feel I might have. Plus, would everyone believe me 100%? Unlikely, there will be skeptics and rightfully so. I don’t have the trust and credibility of the community to say what Scoots can say and that’s mostly because of how new I am (like many, many others) to the business than the more experienced.

As you can tell, most of the players have moved on and I can now stop holding my tongue. Many people told me to come forward with this, some with their own self-interest. I finally decided I would now since resolutions are best made at the start of the year and 2. because keeping quiet doesn't improve your chances at much, it only reassures the feeling that you won't be judged. I'm beyond that now and to be honest; I always wanted to talk about the many problems contributors face on a regular basis. Casters, interviewers and people in front of the camera get a lot of public flack, but also eventually earn a lot of recognition (at least the selected few). Everyone backstage get a whole new set of commendations and jabs of head-butting. I'm probably the most cowardly person here to not be able to suck this all up and move on as so many people do, even the top people have this amazing talent to speak only when they have the most noblest of things to say instead of spouting drama and trouble at every turn.

Moving on, although the two Swedes were difficult, the NA side had some issues. Although most were more than a pleasure to work with (and to this day, as well as any other players I have on Skype, I remind and message them all with upcoming tournaments and qualifiers to make it easier for the player's to remember matches coming up [I remind them when the qualifiers are announced + the day before when sign-ups will be closing]) and more than willing to play in ESEA & qualifiers. Others were giving us PR trouble. iNKa and Shuffle were amongst the two that were eventually let go. The incident involving iNKa and our partner StarTale & their player Aphrodite was the last nail where we had to let him go and Shuffle went to the StarTale house to train but eventually just played League of Legends all day (huge waste of an opportunity). Other than that, all players were amazing. Destiny, Flo, TheOgnis, Apoc were absolutely amazing and I still talk to them and try and make sure they're ok. These people are my ideal players and they did everything I asked and hoped for.

NaNiwa & SaSe are still players I wish to continue managing or at least help, but it seems both are completely fine on their own and that's ok with me. I've been through a lot and Quantic really changed me. It isn't our last stop however. I apologize for any wording of the quoted anecdotes, I haven't altered them to keep their accuracy.

For salaries, most NA players got either nothing or around 200 + potential travel. This was Pre-Vile, but I'm pretty sure some of the players on Vile were not paid nearly as much as you would think. After Vile, some managers were paid a lot more. The person who replaced myself & Brad was paid in 4-digit area + travel. As far as I know, their work was a lot more encompassing however, though I can't confirm (and he does a good job as well) as the Swedes got paid similar to the managers as well (pre-Vile however). So there's a shakedown of most Quantic with a lot of big missing gaps in many areas.

Infinity Seven

After Quantic, I was devastated. I put in so much time, devotion and dedication and all I got was a slap-in-the-face and clenched fists. I moved on too early when Primadog, a good friend of mine, suggested me to Infinity Seven ran by Jingna. If you don't know who she is, then you've seen her photos (or Silverfire's/Kevin Chang's). She runs her own team and I joined in on odd terms. I was pretty bitter after that this was a very much homegrown team, much different from TD or Quantic, but more like VT. I wasn't used to it and the terms we agreed to were simple, but limited. I don't think we ever got comfortable with one another.

I was handling 6 players: jEcho, Sanddbox, Insur, Pyre, CrazyMoviNG and Axslav. Coincidentally, Brad from Quantic came from Infinity Seven, so it intrigued me why he left. The players were also unique and amazing. Insur and Sanddbox were quite talented and achieved first, undefeated in ESEA Season 11 (or 12, I forget). jEcho was also a very calm but keen guy who I enjoyed his company a lot. Axslav was always appearing wise and smart with what he said. It was an interesting dynamic with all of them considering their age and then Axslav who stood out as a much more veteran player in the scene. They all worked out nicely, but I was so out-of-place with the way my attitude was. I kept up my priorities and values, but didn't quite get along with staff. Staff was small: Myself, Solomon as General Manager and Jingna. We had a few other people, one who handled the site and the rest were mere "advisers" who were there from the beginning. What pissed me off the most about these advisers were that they were no longer active staff members, but they had their names in the Staff section even though I was doing most of the jobs (Liquipedia, Wriitng, Social Media with constant updates during events, post-even write-ups, announcements, player-management, scheduling and when Solomon left; I was asked to do travel and lodging). I asked many times for my name to be on the staff page or at least receive a jersey for when NASL Season 3 where I would be watching for jEcho, neither came on time. I eventually left when the work became overload and it was just Jingna and I handling the team (with Jingna balancing her real life and work in photography, meaning it was just me doing more than what I signed up for). I called it quits and left, but still support the organization and players just as I did before. Most have moved on or quit, but the organization is still small and strong. I have no real qualms about them, I like them a lot, just wasn't fit for me as I was just a bitter guy.

D-Esports

After NASL Season 3, I worked with D-Esports. Back to my roots writing for another organization. 50 articles within a few months was no sweat off my back and I absolutely loved it. I still love them a lot and try and get them any news stories when it goes public as soon as possible. No real issues minus drive or direction, but that's not the contributors' fault at all.

BarCraft United

I skipped BarCraft United because that was all talk and work with nothing coming out. Primadog was with myself and Lorin at the time (Lorin Halpert) as we tried to create an umbrella organization for all BarCrafts so other organizations can run through us and we can help distribute materials, sponsorships and such to other Barcrafts. I had written a very long document involving memberships and rights, duties, inside and outside functions of the organizations, goals, tasks, etc. It took me two weeks work and it eventually lead to nothing because after the GESL issue, Primadog ducked out and was never heard from again. Without him, I was no longer sold on the idea and continue supported Halpert until I saw him playing Dota 2 almost everyday. He got a lot of investments to push this idea forward and he didn't do anything. We targeted to announce BarCraft Union in August/September. Then October, then it was just all-talk and I moved on. People talk in E-Sports. We have shows all around talking, extending opinions on things beyond our own credibility or experience. I am guilty as well, but it's probably the best way to get anything across. Talk, talk, talk, talk. Whatever gets my words to your face and whatever you yell gets in my ears. Those who talk the most know the least, maybe that's relevant here and now. He's a guy with a good heart, but I guess he couldn't quite connect idea to reality [he was close as far as I knew]

ROOT Gaming & Beyond

After all this, I met up with ROOT Gaming and that is where I am now. I soon left because I wasn't getting what I was expecting out of the team and couldn't give what I had given before with such a large roster. For now I do minor consulting and overall, just help support the guys and follow them long (update them with upcoming qualifiers and events, reminders, etc. Just check up on them. They're an amazing group of individuals. It may look like they don't do much within SC2, but they're watching, discussing, strategizing the game, matches, everything!). Catz is the most understanding person I've met and his ability to really balance both managing a team, scouting, graphics, marketing, business, meetings and streaming with practice and competition is still equal to none other. He's got a good, balanced head and his compassion is very enticing to work with. Their players

That is where I am so far. I'm doing some work with a start-up group I'm with while I sail over my last year of university. I still keep in touch with almost all my players and I still write my critical series that gets its minor amount of views and interest. I'm gonna finish up the last six topics I have, finish school and we'll see from there.

My 2012 - The Closing Bell [Part 2]

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming