EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/QOtPC.jpg)
Starcraft2.nl interviews the owner and founder of TeamLiquid. In more than 30 questions he telling us his current life style and his thoughts on many subjects.
Introduction
Victor "Nazgul" Goossens, the founder and owner of TeamLiquid, was one of the first non-Korean to play in Korea. His Korean adventure started in December 2002 when he joined up with the AMD team. Won matches on national TV versus Korean stars but despite his success moved back to the Netherlands to continue his studies. He continued to represent the Netherlands at the World Cyber Games during 2001-2004.
TeamLiquid was a clan founded by Nazgul at the end of 2000. Victor picked his members based on personality and talent. It grew from 4 to 8 players in about a year. Its founder wasn't the only Dutch member, he started with 3 other Dutch Broodwar players: Liquid`Meat, Liquid`Spy and Liquid`Trip. The last two Dutch players that joined up were Liquid`Raszi and Liquid`Oaral.
In the past 10 years the website survived due to a dedicated community, one that loved their game. During that time the community and its website lurked in the dark. Something happened. Blizzard planned their Blizzcon 2007 in Korea and stated a new game would be announced. It just couldn’t be anything else but Starcraft 2. The trailer started, and hell, it was about time.
The community exploded.
Starcraft II was a success, being sold more than 1 million copies on the first day of the release. It is the best selling strategy game ever.
With the release of the beta in February 2010 the website statistics exploded. It is now up to two million unique visitors per month and still going up. These days the website is not only the main English Starcraft:Broodwar community but as well the main English Starcraft 2 community in the world.
The clan and website are currently living their own lives. After the release of Starcraft 2 the clan added six players: the Swedish duo Jinro and Haypro, the Canadian Protoss Huk, the German star TheLittleOne and the two oldschool Starcraft:Broodwar players Tyler(US) and Ret(NL).
On August 13th 2010 TeamLiquid posted the announcement about the Homecoming of the clan to Korea. Liquid was going back once more. Since then almost all of the TeamLiquid members had their chance in competing in the best Starcraft 2 league in the world: The GSL. Currently, the Swedish player Jinro has been the most successful non-Korean player in the GSL.
Their latest project, the third edition of the TeamLiquid StarLeague, it is their new pillar of liquid success in the Starcraft 2 community. Having ten thousands of spectators it crushes the website with its success.
Its more than 1 year now since the beta got released. The team, the website and its league haven living in a new era, a new e-Sports era. Each project writing history with their successes. Time to ask the founder of the brand TeamLiquid how he experienced it all.
Some quotes of the interview
Starcraft2.nl: Does it feel that TeamLiquid is living in a new era of e-Sports?
Nazgul: There's definitely a lot of things changing in our surroundings. At the same time we don't do a whole lot different from what we used to do. We run the site the same way and the TSL is also something we already did in Broodwar. To see the scene develop this fast is a great experience and hopefully it will be something that 10 years from now other people will look back wish they would have been a part of.
Starcraft2.nl: What are your thoughts on NASL?
Nazgul: The NASL is taking a big risk by investing this much money into their project. They haven't gotten off to the best start in the announcement period but if they put on a good showing in the first season everyone will accept them with open arms.
Starcraft2.nl: Tell us about your fulltime staff and their job description?
Nazgul: We have two people working full time in New York right now and are thinking about expanding the full time staff more. Our voluntary staff holds about 200 people right now. Our fulltimers pretty much need to do anything from management to design and programming. The large staff sections are writing, design, Liquipedia, moderating, TLPD, translating and programming.
Nazgul: There's definitely a lot of things changing in our surroundings. At the same time we don't do a whole lot different from what we used to do. We run the site the same way and the TSL is also something we already did in Broodwar. To see the scene develop this fast is a great experience and hopefully it will be something that 10 years from now other people will look back wish they would have been a part of.
Starcraft2.nl: What are your thoughts on NASL?
Nazgul: The NASL is taking a big risk by investing this much money into their project. They haven't gotten off to the best start in the announcement period but if they put on a good showing in the first season everyone will accept them with open arms.
Starcraft2.nl: Tell us about your fulltime staff and their job description?
Nazgul: We have two people working full time in New York right now and are thinking about expanding the full time staff more. Our voluntary staff holds about 200 people right now. Our fulltimers pretty much need to do anything from management to design and programming. The large staff sections are writing, design, Liquipedia, moderating, TLPD, translating and programming.
Full interview here
excuse me forgetting Tyler. He is off course still in the TSL3 tournament!
