EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JXbBRo6.png)
Part reflection, part interview, this article is dedicated not only to the staff of the CSL, but to all the competitors and members of the community who invest their energies and talents into e-sports at large.
- 1. Defining the Intangible .......................................................................................................
2. An Earnest Preparation ....................................................................................................
3. Frenzied Beginnings...........................................................................................................
4. Obstacles and Organization.............................................................................................
5. Reaching the Apogee.........................................................................................................
6. A Resolution to Return.......................................................................................................
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/FZhRJ8d.png)
“Passion” is a word that is sometimes thrown around lightly in the world of e-sports. When it’s used to describe a player’s game, or a caster’s play-by-play, it skirts the meaning but betrays it’s weight. Passion is an emotion, but it is also a motivation and drive to achieve an end, encompassing so much more than a single performance. Passion is a common thread shared by many organizations in the industry. These organizations are built on a backbone of only the most passionate of people: volunteers. The Collegiate Starleague is just one of these many volunteer-driven entities.
Everyone at the CSL is a volunteer in some way, and it is through the eyes of these individuals that the league’s recently-ended season is framed as a story of the transformative nature of passion. While the world watched it rise from a small, grassroots collaboration of college Starcraft players to a more professional and mature organization, the staff guided, crafted, and struggled for it every day. These volunteers can be seen as a picture of what anyone can do to help the community grow. What drove them to want to want this group in particular to succeed so badly? What inspired them, and how did they change as people along the way?
This is their story, of a season of suspense, and a finals of triumph. And, in many ways, this is yours too.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3mc7Riu.png)
Back in the summer of 2012, the CSL began planning for the fall season in earnest. While Season 5 was successful in its own right sporting a record number of registering schools, regional LANs, and an exciting finals, there were certainly things that needed improvement. By the spring, the staff had come down to only handful of admins, a situation definitely in need of addressing. Running an entire operation is no simple task, but somehow these dedicated few were able to pull it off. Instead of becoming burnt out and overwhelmed by the experience, they regrouped and reached out to old colleagues while pushing for new recruitment to work on the next chapter of the CSL.
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A staff photo that would take months of work to achieve.
(Photo by: Robbie 'GHOSTCLAW' Nakamura)
(Photo by: Robbie 'GHOSTCLAW' Nakamura)
The response from the community at large was good, with many fresh faces offering to volunteer their talents with the league. Every new member’s strength was put to good use, whether it be in casting, writing, or issuing a timely response to emails. Almost two months before the first broadcast of the season aired, the newly invigorated departments began to meet and plan. Timothy Young recalls his early experiences as head of production in this regard: “Going into Season 6 [Azubu Collegiate Champions] broadcasting, we had just begun learning what made a good stream production. Still, the team had a lot to learn at the beginning and we were always exchanging new ideas and finding new and efficient ways to make the stream look better.“ It was this dedication of time and ideas that would underscore the efforts of the staff for the next six months.
However, a unique opportunity emerged with the entrance of a new partner to the CSL that would change some already formulated plans. Azubu, a gaming media organization based out of South Korea and Germany, teamed up with the league to construct an international season that would end in a prize pool of $40,000 for the first place winning school in Starcraft 2 alone, not to mention the other prizes that would be awarded to the runners up as well as equal prizes to the competitors in the recently formed League of Legends division. For a staff of volunteers, dealing with such staggering figures in a collegiate competition would pose a challenge, forcing many of them to grow very quickly as professionals to accommodate.
![[image loading]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/dacyi3clm9ss5kg/512_01827_t.jpg)
Mona Zhang interviewing a member of Chunnam at the finals, with UC Berkeley's "PulseTwoOneJ" translating.
(Photo by: Kevin Chang)
(Photo by: Kevin Chang)
The dark horse. The silent seven. Chunnam Technical University entered Los Angeles as the mysterious team in SC2, but came out with not only second place, but a face the world would remember.
“I don't think we quite understood the scale of AZUBU taking up arms with the Collegiate Starleague and what it would mean for collegiate eSports. Two games, two leagues, four regions. Over 600 schools. I can't tell you whether I was happy or horrified that we had over 1,000 initial registrations - including the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - and over 9,000 players,” said Mona Zhang, the CSL’s “queen of the hive” and founder, in retrospect.
She continued: “We always knew and were proud of the fact that the Collegiate Starleague is the largest team league in competitive gaming, but this was something else...this was a multi-lingual and multi-timezone tournament that required new staff for translators and an internationally sensitive eye; this was a league that required all our time, energy, and concentration.”
The race was on to get the freshly christened Azubu Collegiate Champions ready for primetime.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sxWBeMZ.png)
Even with all the planning that had been done, the volunteers at the CSL couldn’t possibly have prepared for what they were about to face. With their massive growth, came a wealth of problems. From issues with dealing with a large amount of new teams from all over the world to organizing a new team of broadcasters, the CSL had a lot of adapting to do in a very short amount of time, from production, to writing, and in between.
First off came the issue of organizing the new teams that had come in. According to one of the CSL’s head match admins, “the start of the season was fairly hectic, as that is when we finalized all the registered teams and begin to construct divisions; the NA bracket alone had over 200 teams for each game title, making division separation a good amount of work.” The organizers wanted to try and keep it as local as possible, while still keeping the groups fair and balanced. The global format threw an even bigger wrench into their already practiced system, but they adjusted and as some members picked up the slack, the job got easier. Overall, the head admin thought “the entire staff pulled through together” and that “these experiences will definitely help us make any future events even better.”
![[image loading]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/vocf03vkgcas4cl/_K1P3923.jpg)
UC Berkeley, the grand finals winners who need little introduction, with members of production in the players room.
UC Berkeley underwent a huge amount of preparation for this season's finals. You can also check out Suppy's blog for more about Berkeley's experience at the event.
However, it is impossible to have a proper league without broadcasts. Thanks to an highly-driven production team, the world was able to see all of the biggest CSL games of the season. However, it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Daniel Tompos, the CSL’s regular streamer and observer, said that the production team got off to a rough start: “A lot of us had never worked together so it was a lot of finding how we all work well.” However, after a month or so, things were running smoothly. Tompos continued, “Doing all the work for the CSL was made so much easier and better because of the people I got to work with.” This almost wartime sentiment is often expressed by the CSL staff, but can be heard in other e-sports organizations that need to band together to survive under stress. A sincere affection and concern for the people you work with, as well as a shared love for e-sports, makes it all worth it.
Despite pockets of understaffing, website hiccups, scheduling crunches, and growing pains, the whole season came together in a chaotic frenzy. The CSL still had a finals to get through however, and certainly, that would be the biggest challenge to face yet.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RNJSHQT.png)
With the regular season drawing to a close, the CSL announced it’s Grand Final event in Seoul. Set to take place on February 25th, the finals would be a best of five series between the top two schools in the league for each of the two games, with the semi-finals between the top seeds from the respective leagues playing in online semi-finals. The announcement was met with mixed emotions. Teams were excited about the chance to play in the Mecca of eSports, but were concerned about a best of five series, given that the rest of the play-offs had been best of seven. In addition, conflicted emotions about the travel led to a sizeable discussion amongst many coordinators. In the end, UC Berkeley ace Conan “Suppy” Liu wrote a well thought out and incredibly respectful petition to Azubu, explaining in simple, effective terms why a North American finals was better for the league as a whole. Posted in Reddit’s Starcraft sub-reddit, the community rallied behind Liu’s petition, and Azubu agreed.
With this amazing news, several new obstacles were formed. Where would the finals be held? Where was the CSL going to get ten computers for use at the finals? Where would the 50-something volunteers, players, and coaches sleep? There was a set to be planned, casters and hosts to arrange, production materials to be ordered, and transportation to be arranged. This, though, is where the strength of the CSL shines. “Mona and I packed our bags and said, ‘You know what sounds like a good idea? Let’s forget our lives and move to Cali for a while.’ We literally woke up every single day, white-boarded our goals for the day, and didn’t get back until later that night with everything done,” said Aston Mack, head of Human Resources.
![[image loading]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/kembwatj7z7ul7k/CSLFinals%20%28235%20of%20358%29.jpg)
Members of the University of Washington show their true teamwork colors by conferencing with Berkeley after their own loss to Chunnam.
"I do remember always being excited to cast UW, especially after news of their Winter Break Bootcamp. It was fun casting Kawaii and Caliber, but I was more impressed to see their lesser-known players like the Terran "SentrY" achieve noticable jumps in level of skill," said Chris Messer, a CSL caster. There is more information about UW's trip to the finals on Kawaii's blog.
With the full force of the CSL’s volunteer staff behind these issues, things were knocked out in the month alotted between the change in location and the announced date of the Grand Finals. The Peterson Automotive Museum was selected as the venue, a beautiful location whose layout allowed for a secluded player’s room and a large area for spectators. MSi stepped up to the plate, supplying CSL with the computers that would see some of the best gaming action of 2013. Sean “Day [9]” Plott and Tricia “megumixbear” Sugita were selected to host, and a beautiful set was constructed what seemed like an impossibly short amount of time. Hotels, flights, and road trips were arranged, documented, and carefully planned by volunteers, ensuring all teams, staff members, and even local schools had a means of getting to the event.
The inboxes of the CSL volunteers were stuffed with new emails daily. Schedules, graphic requests, production questions, arrival times, and countless other pieces of information were being compressed and organized into agendas, itineraries, and helpful reminders as the last few days before the finals loomed near. In just under a month, the CSL had done it. Duran Parsi recalled, “Given the time frame, what we were able to produce topped an expectation that I had going into the event.”
An immense change of plans might be enough to stop some folks, but the volunteer force of the CSL, the incredible dedication of people doing what they loved, proved enough to get it done. Everything was settled, the chaos had subsided, and as if from nowhere, an intricately planned Grand Finals had appeared. Even the people closest to the preparations of the event were shocked at the efficiency and results of the month.
All that was left to do was get there.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GdejBQw.png)
Although the CSL staff had spent over six months working together to produce the regular season, meeting and overseeing a live production was an entirely different animal. SC2 Executive Assistant Brittany Lattanzio commented, “Before the Grand Finals … it felt like we were all off in our bubbles, doing what we had to do, and then we mashed our work together to get the final product.” Whether or not the CSL could come together and produce a live finals was an open question, and no one knew what to expect.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qaqAPWS.jpg)
Overlooking the kingdom, the CSL Grand Finals production room.
(Photo by: Kevin Chang)
(Photo by: Kevin Chang)
Dedicated volunteers from across the continent converged upon Los Angeles to donate their time and energy to making the Azubu Collegiate Champions Grand Finals a success. “Now that I think about it, it’s pretty crazy realizing I flew halfway across the country to work at an event with people I’ve never met,” recalled LoL Executive Assistant Ivan Vega. Vega was not alone in his investment. While rooms and food were provided for the event, many volunteers flew from the east coast to Los Angeles on their own dime. “I had no idea that when I left, I’d be working with some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my life. It was an amazing experience and I’m glad I didn’t have second thoughts about it.”
Ferguson Mitchell, an SC2 caster for CSL said, “I had very little idea what it would be like, and it was everything and more than I had hoped for. Tons of excited fans, great venue, and amazing games. I couldn’t have asked for more.”
![[image loading]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/3iycmrgtpwaqomf/_K1P3970.jpg)
Ferguson "AlphaFerg" Mitchell and Daniil "Cheeseheadlogic" Pauley casting at the finals.
Friday night before the finals began the volunteer crew was hard at work putting the finishing touches on the venue: getting lights and chairs set up, postering the entry hall, setting up computers and running system checks to ensure Saturday would begin without a hiccup. The majority of the team did not vacate the premises until nearly 11:00pm, and had to arrive by 9:00am the next morning for final preparations before the doors opened at 10.
When Day 1 officially began everyone buckled down -- the game, as they say, was on. Everyone had an assigned role: from the casters at the desk, to the dedicated observer and production crew manning the cameras and lights, the stream-monitor who made sure staff knew the moment it went down. There were assistants to Sean “Day[9]” Plott and Tricia “megumixbear” Sugita. The content team took notes, photos, wrote blogs and posted to sites to get the word out. The tech guys and match admins in the player room monitored the computers and the games.
![[image loading]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/r2jdcx1g9c20ezp/_K1P3951.jpg)
A view from the other side of the carpet, while Sean "Day[9]" Plott hosts.
But as with most events, especially those of the e-sports variety, things don’t always go to plan, and people sometimes have to do double-duty. Lattanzio, who was a caster assistant to Plott, recalls, “I ended up doing a lot of running around for everyone--the production team, the match assistant people, the registration desk people, the venue owners, the CSL admins, and so on. I was happy to be busy and to be able to help, so even though it was a bit hectic for me, I was pleased.”
No one at the event was immune from taking on extra tasks. When the casters weren’t casting, they had other tasks to perform. “I ended up spending like 6 hours one day just driving to the NASL studio and back for a bit of equipment they had forgotten/not foreseen needing,” Mitchell recalled. Daniil Pauley, the other SC2 caster for CSL at the event, commented, “With all the numerous areas that needed to be covered and helped with, there wasn’t a lot of off time. For someone who hasn’t been to an e-sports event before might consider it hectic, but most of the CSL staff looked at it as normal.”
In the production room the NASL crew monitored the cameras and sound, while Tompos manned the match computer and did dedicated observing for the day’s games. “It's actually funny how close the production room resembles a live TV studio setup that I've experienced,” said Tompos.
The day was long, and even after Liu’s game 7 win over Jae Heum “Nossave” Go, the volunteers kept working. While Berkeley celebrated their win, and everyone drank and enjoyed some food, the staff had to change out banners and graphics, reorganize and straighten chairs, and prepare the player room for the next day, adding 6 more computers to the room. In addition, the writers found a corner and went to work busily recapping the day’s events.
The writers alone stayed at the venue until nearly 2:00am, but much of the production staff stayed overnight to work out kinks from the day’s broadcast and make sure the next day would run more smoothly. Pauley reminisced, “It was the awkward mix of exhaustion, sleep deprivation, excitement, stress, and restlessness.”
Despite staying on-site so late, many of the staff were up at 8am the next morning. The doors opened for Day 2 at 10am. The League of Legends crew had been selflessly giving up their time to make Day 1 a success, whether it be a writer working to update the SC2 live blog or a caster running various errands, but now it was time for them to shine on their own.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vlHc3B2.jpg)
Ivan Vega with the team from Aarhus University.
The mighty competitors from Scandinavia, Aarhus tore through the EU division with sheer determination and dedication to the craft, while charming their way through the staff with their positive attitude. Even though they placed fourth, they will be remembered for their indelible impact at the finals. Vega commented on the team from the North, “Greatest group of guys from Denmark I've ever met. Two of them were medicine majors, they loved StarCraft and being able to balance that with school and competitive gaming...I was quite honored to hang with them.”
By now everyone’s read the articles, the blogs, and seen the photos. The weekend was full of fantastic stories -- UC Berkeley, led by Suppy, winning over the Korean Chunnam Tech, and Texas A&M pulling through the LoL brackets in a perfect showing on Day 2 -- as well as enthusiastic fans who made cheerfuls and came to the venue in great cosplay. But for the volunteers it was a learning experience, and a chance to bond with their compatriots. “The most valuable lesson I took away from the finals is that this is, in fact, what I really want to do with my life. Production is a very volatile and risky business ... but working in that room, with those people made me remember just why I had gone to school for that, and just how much I enjoyed that kind of work,” explained Tompos.
The volunteer staff of the CSL had come together and produced a successful live finals. Going back to their respective homes and working once again over the internet would never feel the same. Lattanzio compared working with everyone before and after the finals. She said, “After meeting people, I felt more included in a group of like-minded individuals who are all using their skills and talents to work together and achieve something great.”
Tompos agreed, “I had literally never met any of them before, but I swear by the end it was all like we had always been one happy family … production was fun, the games were great, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if the entire staff hadn't bonded as much as it did.”
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lNVdgEL.png)
After the final curtain fell on February 17th, all the staff resolved to return. For some it was rooted in a deep professional drive to continue to grow in e-sports: "CSL really helped give me the experience of an actual professional production. There's a huge difference between casting in your bedroom and casting in front of a live audience and cameras,” said Mitchell. For others, it was to see their newfound friends again and revel in the delight of seeing a megalith of a project through to completion once more.
“I attribute a majority of the growth from last year to our amazing staff. Last year there were just three people helping me run the league, this year we've built a strong, supportive network of over 40 staff members who made everything possible,” says Parsi. “Now that we've learned, grown, and gone through such a tremendous battle together I'm really excited to see what we'll be able to do for the rest of this year.” With registration underway on March 9th for the CSL March Madness spring tournament, the future is already drawing near.**
![[image loading]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9aeipediw94lbj/IMG_0497.JPG)
A personal moment with Duran "Xeris" Parsi after Day 1 wrapped.
Looking back on the context of the entire season, Young adds, “Probably the greatest asset we had among the volunteer staff was dedication and consistency. We could have the best graphics, animations, overlays, and games in the world - but without the consistent and dedicated volunteer staff that we had, none of it would have been possible.“ Addressing his own production team once again -- but with a sentiment that certainly extends to all departments in the CSL -- he finished, “Everyone in the production staff is passionate about CSL, its players, and showcasing their games to the rest of the world.”
It’s the word “passion” that again emerges here. Could the staff of the CSL have made it to the finish line without it? Could any organization in operation now in e-sports have made it without the same impetus? Taking pride in your work is not something inherently “e-sports,” but it is definitely seen in fine form there. In particular with the volatile nature of a growing field, which can overwhelm even the best of intentions, it is important to hear the stories of those who keep “fighting the good fight,” putting forth their best to achieve a larger goal.
One day, the payoffs will outshine the sacrifices. But for now, we all subsist on passion.
![[image loading]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/n0aynbpky7etd67/512_04028_t.jpg)
The volunteer staff at Collegiate Starleague with Sean "Day[9]" Plott and Tricia "megumixbear" Sugita after Day 1 of the Azubu Collegiate Champions Grand Finals in Los Angeles, CA.
(Photo by: Kevin Chang)
(Photo by: Kevin Chang)
** To register for CSL March Madness, visit the CSL Mainpage on Saturday, March 9th for more information.
