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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fvHwP.jpg)
Recently, Ryan "neversleep" Smith of http://www.myEG.net/ caught up with Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson for an in-depth interview about the NASL. In this interview, he answers questions about a number of topics surrounding the league. Here's an except from the interview:
neversleep: You were the source of a lot of the initial hype surrounding the NASL leading up to its launch and you became very closely associated with it--something of a figurehead for the entire league--have you been comfortable with that role? What’s that experience been like for you?
iNcontroL: A lot of times when I’m taking on a project I like to jump in with both feet and really go for it. The NASL was of a much bigger magnitude so when I jumped in and starting hyping it and putting out all the promises about what we wanted to accomplish, it was sort of from the perspective of a bewildered commentator--I didn’t really have a say in any of the decisions going into it. So it was a learning experience in the sense that I was the voice to the community on things that didn’t necessarily come to be, so I became the focus of all those unfulfilled expectations. In the future I think I’ll be a lot more cautious with my words because as you’ve seen elsewhere, it’s easier to be conservative and then surprise people than it is to announce the coming of a new era and then try to meet that expectation.
neversleep: We’ve just hit on the real high point of Season One but you know better than anyone that the NASL had its share of bumps in the road--having heard your share of the complaints, what criticisms do you think have been the most fair and which the most unfair?
iNcontroL: The most fair criticisms most certainly have been focused on the production side of things, but I think all criticism is valid, it just depends on how you go about voicing those concerns. But when someone is basically just being a jerk, making personal attacks, making claims about someones professionalism, or who they respect, when those things are pushed too far you risk becoming just some anonymous flamer on a forum. But if you say, ‘Hey, having an unstable schedule, broken projectors, a poor streaming experience--these things are not good and here are some reasons why and what you might do about it’, that’s completely valid and should be listened to. A lot of the problems were rooted in this simply being the first time out with a lot of trial and error which everyone was witness to. The important thing to remember is that the longer the NASL goes and the better they get about correcting those issues, they’re learning lessons all the time and getting faster about producing a better experience. A lot of people commented that Day One was an atrocity but Day Two was almost perfect--that’s the kind of turnaround the NASL should focus on replicating in the future.
You can read the entire interview at myEG.net
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Good interview, I'm happy the finals ended up being so tremendous, really helped salvaged some of the woes he talked about earlier in the season.
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iNcontroL is a pr king. I miss him in his extra projects already. Thanks for the interview, great read.
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Fight the good fight!
Finals were great and the league improved throughout the season. Hugs all round!
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It was a rough road to the best ScII finals yet! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY! >_<
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Incontrol is a smart dude and good with people (and if he's not he'll break their neck ) seriously, he should start his own league.
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I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit.
I don't get this, I dont watch TotalBiscuit, but I do remember that he hosted a tourny in which the ad revenue went back into the prize pool for the next tourney. Granted, he's popular with the WoW folks and has a YouTube following, but is there like any evidence to back this? or could someone elaborate for me?
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On July 15 2011 11:59 Kouda wrote:Show nested quote + I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit. I don't get this, I dont watch TotalBiscuit, but I do remember that he hosted a tourny in which the ad revenue went back into the prize pool for the next tourney. Granted, he's popular with the WoW folks and has a YouTube following, but is there like any evidence to back this? or could someone elaborate for me?
I don't get it either, also the last 8 player invitation. (for which the prize pool of $1500 or $2500 were all directly from his as revenue from previous casts)
I am not the biggest TB fan as a caster but I really like what he has done for the community. I believe he even said he makes way more money from WoW than starcraft, but he does starcraft stuff for the community and enjoys it.
Also how can you not like a man who co-casted with MC?
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SirScoots ordered this interview to put distance between NASL and EG, called it ;-)
I really don't understand his broadside against Totalbiscuit however.. Geoff has time and time again said that the 'trolling' between Totalbiscuit and himself was just evil rumors and people looking for drama.. Well, if you make a comment like: "I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit" you are basicly going for the throat of the man.. Previous statements become quite hollow..
The EG-house sounds awesome, can't wait to see what kind of beast DeMuslim will turn into, once put into a training regiment.
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On July 15 2011 11:59 Kouda wrote:Show nested quote +I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit. I don't get this, I dont watch TotalBiscuit, but I do remember that he hosted a tourny in which the ad revenue went back into the prize pool for the next tourney. Granted, he's popular with the WoW folks and has a YouTube following, but is there like any evidence to back this? or could someone elaborate for me?
yeah surprising comment coming from Incontrol
TotalBiscuit is a tremendously popular youtube personality and his subscriber base covers a wide gamut of different gaming backgrounds & genres
kind of surprised that Incontrol does not see how someone like TotalBiscuit can and does help expand Starcraft 2, and like you've already mentioned, TotalBiscuit has already given something back to progamers with his 1 day tournament.
anyways, inb4 TotalBiscuit starts defending himself via twitter, TL posts, or other means of communication
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On July 15 2011 11:59 Kouda wrote:Show nested quote + I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit. I don't get this, I dont watch TotalBiscuit, but I do remember that he hosted a tourny in which the ad revenue went back into the prize pool for the next tourney. Granted, he's popular with the WoW folks and has a YouTube following, but is there like any evidence to back this? or could someone elaborate for me?
TotalBiscuit has addressed this...his other videos (he quit WoW content, mainly his WTF is? series which is first impressions content) get like 8 times the amount of views as his SC2 stuff does, and WoW content gets tons as well. I'm not saying his SC2 stuff isn't making him money, but to say he switched to make money is ludicrous.
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Yeah his comment about TB was lame. Nothing wrong with getting into something for cash otherwise why am I going to university? Skool sux. But studying a bunch of stuff I found accounting specifically tax accounting to be very interesting. Same goes for TB he obviously loves the game now whatever his intentions were for joining and is enthusiastic and gives back.
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Good interview but I have two issues. The totalbiscuit thing doesn't make a lot of sense, if he was in it just for the money he wouldn't be doing eSports broadcasting at all.
As far as the delays go, comparing them to Columbus and Homestory Cup is ludicrous, NASL delays were for worse and far more often. Saying he can take a nap between his matches at MLG has nothing to do with the spectators. We got pretty much constant games at Columbus, nobody cares if Incontrol was sleeping well we were watching them. I understand why it might not seem like the NASL delays were that bad to Incontrol though, he was actually at the event and was probably busy with work or being social during much of the downtime which would definitely make it pass faster. I think if he watched the uncut VODs especially from days 1 and 2 his perspective would be different.
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I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit.
Ya because he doesn't constantly promote starcraft on his channel, actively play to get better, and put his own money into hosting entertaining tournaments... oh wait he does...
I take less offense to someone like Lindsey, an actress and a model, getting hired for a gig and she says yes not because she’s looking to get rich but because it’s a good job doing what she enjoys and she’s dedicated to doing it well.
"doing what she enjoys and she's dedicated to doing it well" Replace the she's with he's and you are talking about TB. He has always been passionate about gaming and providing content for it.
I understand iNcontroL doesn't know much about TB or listen to any of his views and simply prefers to make statements based on his intuition of what kind of person he thinks TB is, but after I heard one of TB's dreamhack casts awhile ago and then looked into his channel... he actually has a very large interest in expanding esports and promoting games in general.
I guess that's why the response bothered me the most... I just highly doubt Geoff knows much about him, but he makes those kinds of statements anyway.
Other than that I thought it was a pretty good interview.
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Nice interview but I disagree with the part about lindsey sporrer being a brilliant decision. The girl tried her best and did a good job in the end, but the first day was terrible it was clear she had no idea what she was talking about. While no-one was expecting Artosis level knowledge and I agree bringing in "camera pretty" personalities is a good step, they really should have required her to sit down a day before play a couple of games and read about the scene so she didn't look like complete buffoon during the interviews. It might have been a good idea at its heart but it was terribly managed in my opinion, a lot of the backlash could easily have been avoided.
Furthermore it saddens me when I see a lot of people blaming the fan backlash on the community being a bunch of misogynistic assholes who can't accept a female. Sure there are probably some misogynists, but there are assholes that hate on every personality for the most trivial of reasons. While not only negative and wrong, it paints the community in a bad light and doesn't help starcraft to grow, especially among the female audience. I think the most of the hate came not because she was female but because she was clueless on the first day. From the view of the fan its somewhat insulting to have someone who doesn't know what they are doing and be told we have to to like it or we are sexist pigs if you voice a complaint. It insinuates that the fans are mindless idiots and as long as we are given a pretty face it doesn't matter how terrible they are we will love it. While I wasn't one of the people railing against the girl, I know she was simply trying her hardest, I can see where a lot of people were coming from and how they might take it too far.
I really think the management did a terrible job in not making sure she was orientated and knew the basics about starcraft 2. When you watch a professional female interviewer for other sports, you don't expect her to be an expert but they always atleast are knowledgeable enough about the game, its terminology and players to be able to ask relevant questions.
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Canada409 Posts
On July 15 2011 11:59 Kouda wrote:Show nested quote + I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit. I don't get this, I dont watch TotalBiscuit, but I do remember that he hosted a tourny in which the ad revenue went back into the prize pool for the next tourney. Granted, he's popular with the WoW folks and has a YouTube following, but is there like any evidence to back this? or could someone elaborate for me?
Yeah, I don't understand this comment either. TotalBiscuit has given way more to the StarCraft II community than he has taken from it. He has sponsored showmatches and tournaments out of his own pocket in the past and he plans on continuing this by using the money he is generating from his stream.to sponsor even more events.
Also, the comment after that about Lindsey doing the NASL event because she's "doing what she enjoys" and not because "she's looking to get rich" is equally as strange. It's pretty clear she did the event because she thought she could make a quick buck out of it. Isn't this exactly the type of thing that iNcontroL takes offense to? People coming from a non StarCraft related background and making money out of StarCraft II?
Such weird comments man...
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On July 15 2011 12:27 Chicane wrote:Show nested quote +I honestly take more offense at people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II--someone like TotalBiscuit. Ya because he doesn't constantly promote starcraft on his channel, actively play to get better, and put his own money into hosting entertaining tournaments... oh wait he does... Show nested quote +I take less offense to someone like Lindsey, an actress and a model, getting hired for a gig and she says yes not because she’s looking to get rich but because it’s a good job doing what she enjoys and she’s dedicated to doing it well. "doing what she enjoys and she's dedicated to doing it well" Replace the she's with he's and you are talking about TB. He has always been passionate about gaming and providing content for it. I understand iNcontroL doesn't know much about TB or listen to any of his views and simply prefers to make statements based on his intuition of what kind of person he thinks TB is, but after I heard one of TB's dreamhack casts awhile ago and then looked into his channel... he actually has a very large interest in expanding esports and promoting games in general. I guess that's why the response bothered me the most... I just highly doubt Geoff knows much about him, but he makes those kinds of statements anyway. Other than that I thought it was a pretty good interview.
also "people coming from other sports just to make money in Starcraft II". doesn't that sound a lot more like Lindsey?
Incontrol talks about how Russ' puts in his money in order to host a tournament. TB did the same thing.
Incontrol talks about expanding e-sports, breaking away from the mold,using the perspective of somebody from outside the starcraft scene, isn't that what TotalBiscuit was? and now that he's become a fan of the game. Isn't that the exact thing that Incontrol says he wants. The only thing that's different is TB isn't as hot as Lindsey
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I hope that someday esports, and competitive gaming in general, are big enough that we are in a position to make distinctions between casters/personalities/gamers based on what game/genre they play. "Oh.. Soandso? He's just carpet bagging SC3. He's totally a LoL2 devotee." Unfortunately we are not in a position where we can fracture our community into a bunch of niches. We, as gamers, are a niche demographic. Were we to do that now a lot of the people "in" this community would have to go. Wheat? Isn't a SC:BW/RTS guy. 2gd? Known for ego shooters and MMOs/arena. TotalBiscuit, while a bit defensive/reactionary on social media, is a professional. We need all of those on our side that we can get.
(edit before someone takes my comments the wrong way: I love djwheat and 2gd)
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The format of the EG site is really poor in my opinion the coloring is weird and the text is small. It's difficult to actually navigate and to read the interview.
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EPT
