Prizes for the contests include copies of Ghost House Underground DVDs and Dead Space for the Xbox 360.

There are three contests, all beginning Oct. 6: Dare to Share (a video response contest), Lost Souls (a recruitment contest), and Scary Scenes and Sequels (a blog contest). The contest deadline is Oct. 18.

Hit the jump for more info on the contests and how to enter…

1) Dare to Share:

First, watch the movie trailers from any of the eight Ghost House Underground films.

Then create an original Video Response to the trailer, consisting of your reactions to the trailer, predictions about the plot, ideas for a sequel, or any other commentary related to the movie.

Next go to the Ghost House Underground Forum Page, find the forum for the trailer you watched and either embed your video response, or post links to the host URL.  Please make sure you tag the URL within your forum post so it appears as a clickable URL.

Each entry must be made as a separate forum post in specific forum dedicated to the movie you are responding to.
Remember, you can submit one entry per film, for a possible total of 8 entries.

Prizes:

Grand Prize (2): Two Grand Prize winners will be awarded two (2) DVDs from the Ghost House Underground Collection, to be determined by Lionsgate, (ARV $39.96) and one (1) copy of “Dead Space” for the Xbox 360 (ARV $59.95).

2) Lost Souls

During the contest period, fill out the “Invite a Friend” box located at http://ghu.ggl.com.

For each friend that you invite, who actually joins the Ghost House Underground group, you get 1 point.
Whoever has the most points by the end of the contest period wins.

In the event of a tie, the winner will be selected by random drawing, from the group members with the most points.

Prizes:

Grand Prize (1): One Grand Prize winner will be awarded the complete box set of Ghost House Underground DVDs, (ARV $159.84) and one (1) copy of “Dead Space” for the Xbox 360 (ARV $59.95).

3) Scary Scenes and Sequels

First, read the plot synopsis from any of the eight Ghost House Underground films.

Then write an original possible scene from the film, or an idea for a sequel.

Next go to the Ghost House Underground Forum Page, find the forum for the synopsis that you read and post your write-up.

Each entry must be made as a separate forum post in specific forum dedicated to the movie you are responding to.

Remember, you can submit one entry per film, for a possible total of 8 entries.

Prizes:

Grand Prize (2): Two Grand Prize winners will be awarded two (2) DVDs from the Ghost House Underground Collection, to be determined by Lionsgate, (ARV $39.96) and one (1) copy of “Dead Space” for the Xbox 360 (ARV $59.95)

Full rules are available at http://ghu.ggl.com!

GGL: So you’re back from Paris; how do you feel? What did you think of your play in the tournament?

Hendrixson: I am so glad to be back where I could eat some really good food; French food is bleh :o It’s going to take a few days to get back into the swing of things, and I’ll slowly start practicing again. I think I did well, despite all the problems I was having.

GGL: After already seeing much of the competitors at the Masters event, how do you feel about the upcoming finals event in San Jose?

Hendrixson: Gonna be a tough event but as I said before I’m looking forward to it. The gap isn’t real big between most of the players that’ll be going to the finals, there are going to be some fantastic games. I feel good going into it and I’m glad I still have a month to try and prepare for it.

GGL: You’ve played plenty of times on LAN in the US; what was it like playing in your first international event?

Hendrixson: Going into it I thought it would be a bit more difficult because of the jet lag and I was right but all in all it was a nice experience :)

GGL: What was your practice schedule like leading up to the Masters event?

Hendrixson: I played online when I could and then I went to LAN with zer04 about a week and a half before we had to leave. We got a lot of good practice in and seeing San Diego for the first time was really cool. Place is absolutely gorgeous :D.

It was cool to see all those players from different parts of the world around and it’s hard to take in that experience and being in another country because to do well you have to focus on the task at hand and that’s one game at a time just like any tournament.

GGL: Do you plan on attending more International events?

Hendrixson: It depends on if there would be any worthwhile tournaments to go to. If they are I would love to go overseas again to play. Just playing in big Quake 3/Quake Live tournaments to me is a blessing. The fact that quake3 is still being played today is a miracle alone.

GGL: There was talk that some of the players where having hardware problems at the event; were you one of the effected, and if so, do you think it affected your play at all?

Hendrixson: Yeah, I had major issues with my mouse during my matches. I think it was a driver issue with my logitech mouse to the quadcore I believe it was that they were using. I talked to some players back here in the states who have used logitech mice when they’ve upgraded to dual and or quad core systems and they stated they had that same issue.

The mouse would randomly drop Hertz, so during the course of the match there were periods of time I had no idea when I’d move the mouse exactly where it would go and what not. Or I’d be in a perfect situation to get a kill and obtain total control, yet I couldn’t go into the fight because I could feel the Hz drop dramatically. It affected how I wanted to approach a lot of situations. K1llsen had the same issue from what I heard and he said it got so bad he decided to forfeit.

I chose to continue to play and take all the experience in that I could and learn some new things from styles I’ve never played before. I knew regardless of whether I got out of the group or not with all those problems the event was going to be beneficial for me. I still stand by that thought right now preparing for the Finals.

GGL: For the most part of your gaming career, you’ve gone without any sponsors of any sort; how have you liked playing for a major team, like SK Gaming?

Hendrixson: What would there be to complain about, I’m getting sent around to play video games. I’m getting the chance to do something that I love. If anything has gone wrong it hasn’t been catastrophic so what’s there to complain about. The guys from SK are great, really nice guys who care about how you’re doing and try their best to make sure everything goes smoothly for you. They all have a good sense of humor too, helps when you can lighten up around people and you don’t have to be so tense :P.

GGL: Now that you’ve seen some of the other playstyles from across the world up-close-and-personal, how will you modify your practice for that competition?

Hendrixson: I’m going to play as much as I can, try new things and study the demos that are available. I don’t feel far off at all, there’s just those little things that are going to need adjusting. The Finals are going to be a big challenge but I don’t know why someone wouldn’t go with the mindset that they can win it, there’s no sense defeating yourself before you’ve even played. Regardless of how tough it’s going to be, I’m looking forward to it :).

GGL: With the exception of ESWC Finals and the Warfactory event in October, what do you have planned in the upcoming months? Will you continue to actively play some form of Quake?

Hendrixson: I’ll practice as often as I can and any tournaments I can make to I will. I’m going to try to stay as active as possible.

GGL: Where do you see deathmatch gaming headed in the next year or two? Is there anything you would like to see happen?

Hendrixson: Quite frankly I have no idea where it’s headed at all. Of course, I would love to see a bunch of Quake 3/Quake Live tournaments pop-up and have the opportunity to continue to get better and go to those events would be great. If the AGP takes off like it should, I think it’d be a great tournament series to watch with all the different styles in the separate games.

As long as they find a way to break it down to the average gamer who doesn’t completely understand the game will be the key reaching a wider audience. If they can do that it should be great. Other than my hopes I don’t have a clue where it’s headed :o

As for the community though, it will go as far as it allows itself to. The key is making sure players who are just starting realize getting really good isn’t impossible. It’s just that not enough people want to help anyone. I don’t know if it’s a fear of what if this player ends of getting better than me or what it is but it needs to stop for the community to actually grow and have a larger core of really good players.

GGL: After already seeing much of the competitors at the Masters event, how do you feel about the upcoming finals event in San Jose?

Hendrixson: It’s going to be a tough event but as I said before, I’m looking forward to it. The gap isn’t really too big between most of the players that’ll be going to the finals, but there are going to be some fantastic games. I feel good going into it and I’m glad I still have a month to try and prepare for it.

GGL: QuakeCon announced that it will be using Quake Live, which is still in beta stages. What are you opinions of the game and what do you think about a tournament using a game that not everyone has played or much less had access to?

Hendrixson: So far, I think the game is headed in the right direction and to be honest, I didn’t expect them to be as far as they are right now. That being said I feel the game has a lot of potential once all the kinks are worked out.

GGL: Taking a step back, before this resurgence of Quake 3, you were playing Quake 4 in both 1v1 and 4v4 CTF. What were your thoughts on the game as it virtually died alongside the World Series of Video Games? Would you like to see the game make a comeback?

Hendrixson: I didn’t enjoy Quake 4 as much as I have Quake 3, and I really wouldn’t want to see it as a standalone game for a world tour or anything. However, I do think it belongs in the format that AGP is going to use. It’s a very exciting game to watch in my opinion, with the elite core that it’s had but it just doesn’t seem like a game that could get outside of those boundaries. But having that core group of players playing it for a season seems like a good idea for Quake 4.

GGL: I think this is a question many have wondered about as they watched you play; You seem to have a fascination with the Russian play style, where did this come from. Do you think you will ever play in one of the ASUS cups in the near future?

Hendrixson: Ha, I had had severe wrist pains about 2 years ago, so I decided to try and sit how some of the Russians sit and what not and see how that would help seeing as how it involves more arm motion than wrist and I’ve stuck with that sitting position since and there’s not really a reason to go back so it’s going to stay for now.

As for the style, when I didn’t have a connection I would watch a lot of their demos so it’s no surprise that maybe some of the style has rubbed off on me. I don’t have a definite answer on whether I’d be able to go play at an ASUS cup. There’s so many factors that would go into whether I’d be able to go or not. Would I love to go; sure I would.

It would be awesome to go up against all those different styles with so many good players from that region of the world. Especially to play players like evil or nobap, who havent really been to the international tournaments. Even players as of late like killmas, question, and nike whose skill has gone up considerably in the past year. Fortunately for nike, he’s going to get to go to the ESWC Finals, it’d be an interesting match if I had to play him :P

GGL: Got any shoutouts, Shane?

Hendrixson: I’d like to thank SK-Gaming for being well….. SK-Gaming. And thanks for the interview Joe :P

GGL’s David Taylor conducted this interview prior to recent CGS results (MEGA spoilers!).

Mark Dolven is no stranger to a hard fight. The general manager of the Carolina Core made his mark on the pro-gaming community as the leader of Team Pandemic before leaving his post to join the Championship Gaming Series (CGS). During the 2007 season, Dolven led Carolina to second place finishes in both the North American and World Finals. His franchise suffered defeat on both occasions to the Chicago Chimera.

The Carolina Core’s 2008 season started out well. Gradually, however, the franchise fell into a slump. As the season progressed, it seemed increasingly unlikely that the Core would make it back to the play-offs. Toward the end of the season their fortunes began to improve and with a little luck, the Core made it into the play-offs by the skin of their teeth. With the slate wiped clean, the team found new confidence and vigorously fought its way to the semi-finals with a victory over the Wuhan Dragon.

GGL spoke with Mark Dolven the weekend before Carolina’s semi-final match against the Birmingham Salvo. The winner of this match would go on to compete in the 2008 World Final. Dolven spoke about his team’s comeback, the influence of traditional sports on his management style, and expressed some criticisms of the CGS draft.

GGL: You must be riding high these past few days. How does it feel now that the Core made it back to the semi-finals?

Mark Dolven: It’s great to be back in the semi-finals. Last year we had an amazing match against Berlin in the semi-finals and we expect nothing less against Birmingham. The match-up with Wuhan was much more of a blowout than we expected. They are a great team with great players. They have a lot of respect for everyone they play. We thought that they were going to play a little bit better, but I think our team was just on its game.

GGL: What are your expectations going up against Birmingham in the semi-finals?

MD: Birmingham is going to be a really tough match. They’ve circled us as the team that they wanted to play the entire tournament. They got their wish. I think that the main game against Birmingham will be Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) female. SarahLou (Sarah Harrison) is a great player. She’s held a close score with Vanessa (San Francisco’s Vanessa Arteaga) in every match they’ve played. Mystik (Katherine Gunn) is either hit or miss. If she’s hitting we should have an easy time with Birmingham. If she misses it’s going to be a long, probably up-hill road.

GGL: How do you explain the Core’s lackluster performance earlier in the season compared to its dramatic comeback in the last few weeks?

MD: We had a weird performance during the regular season. We started off the season with two huge wins. We were 2-0 and riding high. Then we lost to New York and all of the sudden things started to slip. We only won about two out of our last nine games. I don’t know if it was necessarily that we weren’t respecting the regular season, but I think that had a lot to do with it. The regular season is very taxing and last year we stepped up at the play-offs and then again at the World Finals. We were just looking forward to that and we kind of caught ourselves looking too far ahead. It almost cost us our season. Luckily we got into the play-offs by a fluke, a miracle, or whatever you want to call it. We’re glad we got in, but we probably didn’t deserve it.

GGL: Did you expect that last year’s world champions, the Chicago Chimera, would perform so poorly this season? In your opinion, what were the reasons for their poor performance?

MD: Coming into the season I thought that Chicago was going to be a wild card team. I knew that they weren’t going to be as strong as they were in 2007, but I didn’t expect them to fall as far as we did as well. I thought that we would both make it to the play-offs.

In DOA4 they had the 2007 World MVP, Black Mamba (Jeremy Florence), and then a strong player in Kasumi Chan (Marjorie Bartell). Neither of them really stepped up to the plate for them this year. I think Kasumi Chan was second to last and Black Mamba was at the bottom as well. In the CGS you really need to be strong in the two console games, both DOA4 and Forza 2, if you want to have any chance at winning. Their DOA4 team just let them down this year.

GGL: Did it take you by surprise that some of the other teams that were behind last season, like the Dallas Venom, achieved such success in season two?

MD: We expected all the other teams to get better. The draft system was set-up so that the Chimera and us got the second to last two picks every round. We were forced to give up half of our amazing teams from last year. We expected, just as a product of the situation, that the other teams were going to get better. I think Alex Conroy of the Dallas Venom took the most advantage of that. He got a great racer (Justin “Muffinman” Anderson), he got Phoenix (Michelle Pleet), and he got Counter-Strike players. He was drafting first every round. Slowly the math is going to catch up to the other teams no matter how good we are.

GGL: You’ve been a critic of the draft process. What would you like to change about it?

MD: I think that the draft process might be a little broken. They make us give up 50 percent of our team, which is a lot. Right now, if I had to choose 50 percent of my team to keep, I couldn’t do it. It’s going to take an entire off-season to make those decisions. Then, on top of giving away half of your team, you have to suffer all five rounds of the draft on how you did the previous year. If they were letting us keep seven or eight of our players, then I’d be okay with that. But they’re making us give away the majority of our team, and then get slowly get beaten up round by round in the draft.

My suggestion was to do it the way they had it this year for the first two rounds. That way Alex Conroy would have still gotten first pick in the first and second rounds. Then, at the end of the second round, they would start snaking it the way they did the previous year. When I ran the math and averaged draft picks, in that situation everyone averaged a draft pick of three point something. It evened out but it gave the lower teams an opportunity to get a sixth and seventh superstar on their team as opposed to the rest of us falling behind. But on those eighth or tenth picks it would be a little more even. I don’t have a problem with rewarding the teams that did poorly the year before, but I think the reward was a little too strong this year.

GGL: I recently interviewed Jason Lake. One of his criticisms of the CGS was that it turned coaches into talent scouts and there was not enough time to build up talent before they were thrown to the wolves. I essence, there is not enough time to fix problems that arise with one’s players. Do you feel this is a legitimate criticism?

MD: I don’t really agree with that at all. I think the two months this year was more than enough time to fix your players if they had any issues. In his case he’d been working with his players for almost two years because he had almost the exact same team from last year. You would think that would be enough time. Personally I think that you’ve got to draft who is good on the day of the draft because there really isn’t enough time. Last year was even worse. I think they gave us a one-week window. This year they gave us two months. That’s plenty of time to get the most from your team.

GGL: When you started season two, in what areas did you feel the Core needed the most improvement?

MD: Heading into the draft this year, I knew I definitely wanted a stronger pretense in FIFA. Peekay’s (Nicholas Depalmer) 1-11 regular season record last year was too much for the team to bear. It really didn’t kill us during any matches, but I like going into any game knowing we have a chance to win. So we wanted to get better at FIFA and we did that by drafting probably one of the best professionals in the game and that’s Anomaly (Andrew Brock).

We used our first pick on General E Live (Eric Earley) for Forza 2 because just like in FIFA, I wanted to know we could beat anyone on any given day. Last year we knew we couldn’t beat Jason X (Jason Exelby) and Ch0mpr (Wesley Cwiklo) with Phantom (Joe Tackett) and Rex (Brent Dimapilis). Nothing against them, but Jason and Ch0mpr were just too good. So I invested heavily in the first round this year to get a racer that I knew if I put him together with Phantom we could take on anyone. Maybe they wouldn’t be first, but our goal was to be in the top three with an 8-4 record. We ended up in an 8-4 record and just happened to be good enough for first. But we could beat anyone and we did during the season. That was important.

GGL: What’s your take on the criticism levied against FIFA 08 this season? Many seem to feel that it is too difficult to score.

MD: FIFA 08 is kind of a difficult game to judge because on stage it is actually lagging a little bit since they are pulling video directly from the machines. So on stage it is a little bit more difficult for the players to control their team. If we could fix that problem then I think we could see more scoring right off the bat. I watch the players in practice and there is a lot more scoring because there is zero delay. On stage there is some kind of weird bug that we can’t figure out right now. That would be a good start. But we can do some crazy things with FIFA 08 to make it more score-friendly. Some people say we should lower the goal keeper, but I don’t think that is necessarily the way to do it. I know some of the players have fooled around with different camera angles. If you can see from top to bottom instead of from left to right, you can see the entire goal and score with greater ease. We can do that or maybe give the players a perfect 99 rating in every category so it’s a real fast based game and if there is a chance to score they will. Things like that might make the game more score-friendly and skill based. The way it is now, even when a top player plays a lower player it is not a sure victory. That’s not a competitive spirit. If a top player plays a lower player they should be able to rack up some points.

GGL: OffbeatNinja’s performance somewhat mirrored that of the franchise as a whole this season. He started off poorly but gradually improved as the season went forward. How do you explain this?

MD: It’s no secret that OffbeatNinja’s downward spiral began last year when he lost WCG to SkatanMilla (Niklas Lagerborg). For some reason that removed all of his confidence. He won a bazillion matches in a row and was riding an amazing winning streak, but for some reason that match just took it all out of him. When we got to the World Finals, he focused most of his energy on the Itagaki Challenge against Vanessa. There was a lot of personal stuff behind that match and he knew he had to win. Unfortunately it took a toll on his overall performance. He almost lost to SaraFan (Yong Hyeon Baek) from Seoul. He beat Paddaman (London’s Avtar Padda) pretty easily, but then he lost to TACTICAL (Berlin’s Rudolf Fischer), a player that he had beat 5-0 a couple days before in the individuals competition. He had lost his confidence and focus. That definitely carried over into this year.

He’ll be the first to admit that at the beginning of the year he just didn’t have it. I think it was the eleventh match of the season when we played L.A. and he defeated Perfect Legend (Carl White). I could see from watching him in that match that he was back. He was playing his style again instead of some weird style that other people were trying to force him to play. He was listening to too many people. I sat him down and was like, “Ryan, you’re the best player in the world, you have the best instincts in the world, why are you listening to other people?” It started to slowly sink in and then when he beat Carl it all turned around. He beat Master (Emmanuel Rodriguez) in the next game, then Cheppelle (New York’s Cardell Thomas), and then Master again. He’s back. He’s playing the way he knows how to play and with an insane confidence that he’s never had before. It’s just like anything else, if you’re not confident you’re not going to win and that’s basically what happened to him.

GGL: What was it about the Itagaki Challenge that was so stressful? Was it a rivalry? The prize itself (a trip to Japan)?

MD: Vanessa and OffbeatNinja dated before season one. They had broken up and that was kind of lurking over their heads. The whole male community was like, “Ryan you either win, or we’re going to hate you forever.” No one wanted the male community to lose to the female community. So that was a lot of pressure on him. The timing of the match was also very odd because it immediately followed our match against Berlin in the semi-finals. OffbeatNinja had to play TACTICAL before the Itagaki challenge, but his mind wasn’t even on that match. He was thinking about the Vanessa match that was about to happen in an hour and a half. It was just bad timing and Ryan at the time was a bit weaker mentally. It’s a lot of pressure for a young man to handle.

GGL: In a recent YouTube video you mentioned how you were reading a book called, “Built to Win.” How have traditional sports inspired you as a manager?

MD: I am a golfer by nature. I played golf in high school and I was the captain of my state champion team. I even went toward the PGA at one point in my life. Golf has done a lot for my gaming career because golf is all about psychology. It’s about positive thinking and visualization. It definitely applies to gaming at the highest level. It you don’t have a good attitude and aren’t confident you’re not going to be able to get a head shot, pull off a counter, or score a goal. My background in traditional sports has helped a lot because I’ve been able to educate my players on things that they might not know. Sports psychology is a very powerful thing and I believe that if you don’t have a really strong mind then you aren’t going to be good at all.

That book you are referring to, “Built to Win,” was an autobiography of John Schuerholz who was the general manager of the Atlanta Braves. He’s a good leader but he also knew how to pick talent. That’s why I read that book right before the draft last year. He had won a crazy amount of divisional championships with the Atlanta Braves, so he had to have known something. The book talked about how baseball wasn’t all stats and you had to trust people’s judgments. Finding yourself good scouts was a really big deal and I kind of applied that at the draft. It wasn’t just myself scouting. I had one of my really close friends and former Call of Duty teammates there. I also had another guy who I trusted with everything. The two of those guys each had distinct jobs. One followed around the other GMs and tried to figure out what they were doing. The other’s job was to scout out DOA4 female because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get Mystik back. I didn’t have to think twice about the scouting reports they gave me. You have to trust the people below you. That’s something that has been very difficult for me in the past and the book helped that.

GGL: Are there any other sports-related books that you recommend?

MD: A lot of golf and sports psychology books. There is a book called, “Golf is Not a Game of Perfect.” It applies to golf but also to real life as well. It’s all about visualization and routines. Anomaly also recommended to me a book called, “Mind Gem.” It’s another book along those lines that tells professional athlete’s stories and how they got to where they are just by improving their mental game. It’s kind of a theme of professional athlete’s. They all have a lot of raw talent, but the difference between a starter and a super-star all-star is usually that they think a little bit differently. Reading books like that where there are a lot of real life examples are really important.

GGL: In the past you stated that you wanted to be an “evangelist for professional gaming?” How has your participation in the CGS helped you in this goal?

MD: Being an evangelist for professional gaming isn’t as easy as it sounds. I thought joining the CGS would put me at the forefront so I could convince people that pro-gaming was the thing to do and the place to be. But since joining the CGS, I’ve been fighting the war from within our own community. We have people that don’t like the CGS and we have people that do. So we’ve been fighting the war to be pro-CGS instead of pro-professional gaming. I wish we could change our focus from trying to win over people already in the community to winning over people outside of the community. Anyone who I’ve ever introduced to this, whether it’s a friend or just someone I randomly meet on the street, they are always converted. But it’s so hard to convert the 1.6 players or even the hardcore DOA players because our rules are a little bit different. That’s a war we probably shouldn’t have to fight. I’m surprised that the rest of the world doesn’t see that professional gaming is professional gaming whether it’s the way we’re doing it, or the way ESL is doing it. We’re all fighting the same war. We’re all trying to get gaming to the forefront. I’m hoping in the future that eventually the mini-war in our community will be over and we can fight the big war together. Until that’s over I just don’t see how that’s possible.

GGL: How do you think that the CGS has propelled professional gaming?

MD: I think in the two years we’ve been doing things with the CGS, professional gaming is starting to get the spotlight it deserves. I think the G4 distribution deal is huge. The CGS is more what G4 expected professional gaming to be and they’re excited about the show and the competitive aspect. G4 going back to their roots of hardcore gaming is a big move and that means the mainstream is moving in that direction as well. I think that with the potential sponsors we are looking to sign and the ones that we have now – it’s no secret that when Mountain Dew puts their name on something that it is going to be big. I think our television coverage and the broad media exposure we are getting through our strong public relations firm is something that these other leagues don’t have and when you have as good of a competition as we do combined with the infrastructure behind it, you can’t help but think it’s going to go mainstream really fast.

GGL: What would be your advice to a player who wanted to participate in the CGS?

MD: My recommendation to anyone who wants to be in the CGS is to start competing now. Don’t wait until three weeks before the draft and combine to pick your game. You have to go to the combine and you have to impress me or any of the five other North American GMs if you want to get on a team. Even if you are to win the combine, if you don’t impress us somehow, we’re not going to draft you. It’s all about getting your name out there. It’s amazing to me when I go to the combine how many gamers don’t have the guts to come up to me and introduce themselves. That’s a big thing. If they don’t have the guts to introduce themselves, they won’t be able to do the big stage. I’m not an intimidating person, and the other five GMs aren’t intimidating.

Overall the CGS is aiming to announce our games very early in 2009. People will have 4 or 5 months to get ready for the combine and draft. So when the games are announced I suggest you pick the game that suits your talent the most and then start playing in every league and every match you can. Then get to know the GMs and make sure you reach out to them.

GGL: Do you want to thank anyone out there who may be reading?

MD: Thank you to my fiancé who is very lenient when it comes to all my travels. I have lived in California now for 4-5 months in the two years that I have been in the CGS. That’s a long time away from home, and that doesn’t even count all the other traveling. A shout out to my team for doing an amazing job this year and really stepping up when they needed to do so. Also to my former team, Team Pandemic. I learned a lot working with them and I think they are doing really great things without me. I am really proud of the things they have done since I moved on.

The second season of the CGS did not go well for the Los Angeles-based team. Complexity finished the season in last place with a sobering 2-10 record. GGL sat down with Jason Lake after his team’s last match of the season to discuss where Complexity went wrong and his role in the franchise.

GGL: You recently moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles. How is the transition going for you?

Jason Lake: The last nine weeks of my life have been incredibly difficult. We had a 9,000 square foot house in Atlanta that we had to pack up ourselves. That took weeks to do. Then I drove across the country with my two dogs and cat. I had to fly back to Atlanta for a meeting, and then fly back to L.A. The moving truck showed up, dropped off our boxes, and then I came down to the CGS. So I’ve been in L.A. for around a month and I haven’t even lived in my house. The move is a positive thing. We’re really excited about it for Complexity and for my family, but it’s been a really difficult few months, especially considering our 2-10 record.

GGL: Was the decision to move to Los Angeles primarily based on the CGS?

JL: My wife is originally from L.A. and since the day we were married she has always wanted to come back. When I sold Complexity to the CGS, one of my requirements was that we’d become the L.A. Complexity. I always hoped and dreamed that I could move out of law and do this full time. Real estate started taking a downturn, so I took a gamble based on making my wife happy and moved to the west coast to run the L.A. Complexity. After going 2-10, I’d be lying if I wasn’t questioning myself and thinking it was a mistake. But I’m a long-term thinker and despite how horrible this summer was, I still believe in my heart it was the right move for my family and me. We’re going to try to make the most of it.

GGL: There was speculation after season one that you would be leaving Complexity. Is it safe to say you will remain as the head of the franchise for the foreseeable future?

JL: To be completely frank, I’ve received some very intriguing job offers since I arrived a few weeks ago. But number one, Complexity and the CGS have my loyalty. Number two; I would never leave the brand that I started on a 2-10 season. I can’t promise that I would have returned next year if we had won the World Finals. But we came in last place and unless the CGS throws me out I will never leave Complexity when we’re on the bottom.

GGL: Complexity had a bittersweet comeback with victories in its last two games of the season. Most notably your franchise triumphed over New York, which currently holds first place amongst the North American franchises. To what do you attribute these wins?

JL: If you study our season, especially the second half, we should have had four to five wins. A bad break here, a choke there, and we found ourselves with only two wins. The Carolina Core made the playoffs at 4-8. I strongly believe we could have had five wins, but we couldn’t get a break and nobody stepped up to the plate. The bottom line is that it was a very tough season, but there are no excuses. We should have done better. I need to do better and I accept 100 percent of the blame. At the end of the day it all rides on my shoulders and regardless of what excuses I may have, I give them zero credence. We’ll try to do better next year.

Our wins were not flukes or mistakes. It just happened to be that my team decided to be the team that I drafted during the last two games of the season. But to me it speaks to a team’s character when they never give up despite a horrific record. It speaks to the players that come out every day to battle and put their hearts on the line despite being so far behind it’s mathematically irrelevant. To me that speaks to the heart and soul of Complexity. Whether we’re in first place or last place, we play every match with everything we’ve got.

GGL: Why do you think Complexity placed last this season?

JL: We placed last because of the inability of very talented people to do their jobs. This includes myself because at the end of the day I take 100 percent responsibility. The three squads that were supposed to really carry us were actually our biggest problems. Counter-Strike, FIFA, and Perfect Legend (Complexity’s Dead or Alive 4 male player, Carl White) all didn’t show up this year. I’m proud of them for never quitting, but our biggest problem this year was that the people who needed to show up didn’t do so.

GGL: Do you feel that it was a mistake to retain such a large number of players from season one?

JL: I’d be a fool if I didn’t say yes, because we’re 2-10. But that leads to one of the most frustrating things about the CGS. I’m a coach and coaches draft players based on gut feeling and potential. Then they train that potential to become world champions. That’s exactly how I built Complexity. But the draft is the king in the CGS. You grab people with talent right now, because there is no time to develop them. You show up, and you’ve got four matches in five days. It’s so quick and you have no time to make adjustments. There’s no time to be a coach. With all due respect to my colleagues, general managers (GMs) are not coaches, we’re talent scouts. We just sit back and watch what happens. In the old school I could take potential talent make them into champions. In the new school, I’m just a talent scout. That’s the biggest thing I learned this year.

GGL: If you had to change something about the CGS, would that be it?

JL: I truly love the CGS and believe it’s the future of gaming. But having players compete in so many matches back to back is really tough, especially when you’re losing. There’s really no other sport that plays that many games so quickly except maybe baseball and basketball. The difference is that their seasons are so long that you still have time to make adjustments. As a GM in the CGS, you throw your kids into the fire and there’s no time to fix anything because every day you wake up you’re back on that stage playing. It’s tough to bring this many gamers out to California, pay for everything, and have a longer season. But in a perfect world, the season needs to be longer and more spread out so true talent and coaching can rise to the top.

GGL: How do you improve a team’s morale when they’re falling behind?

JL: This season has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced as a leader, coach, or business owner. Driving back in the van with my kids after getting our faces kicked in or losing by a fraction of an inch has been one of the most painful experiences of my life. I just did my best to keep them positive. I told them that if we are going to go 0-12 this year, we’re going to go into that twelfth match and fight like it’s worth a million dollars. When the scoreboard doesn’t favor your side, you display your character and your heart by how hard you fight. I tell my kids to never lie down, never give up, and never say quit. Fight, scratch, and claw for every square inch.

GGL: You keep saying that you bear 100 percent responsibility. What do you think your biggest mistake was this season?

JL: I honestly haven’t been able to absorb the situation enough to make an intelligent answer. Some of the people I expected to be weak actually did well, while some of the people I expected to be strong weren’t. I just failed as a manager and it’s going to take me some time away from the players’ village to figure out why. I pride myself in really caring about Complexity and E-Sports, but this season has really kicked me in the head. It’s been incredibly difficult, and quite frankly I may need to go home and cry for a few days to figure out where I screwed up. But I won’t quit. I’ll figure it out.

GGL: You said once that you believe we have different seasons in our lives. What season do you feel Complexity is in its life cycle?

JL: I believe we’re finishing the first one-third. We’ve got the most loyal fan base in the world and we just got dealt a giant dose of humility by the good Lord. Ironically I think nothing could have been better because this franchise needs to show people again why they love us. They don’t love us because we win world championships. They love us because we try every day to define the better traits that human beings strive for. We’ll keep trying to do that, win or lose, but obviously the goal is always to win.

GGL: Has the fan base been very supportive through this season?

JL: The 15-25 private messages I get a day on our website are, some days, the only reason that I can keep going. The real Complexity community members have stood by us through thick and thin. It’s almost refreshing to get rid of the bandwagon kids. It’s like taking a long, hot shower. We want our fans that live, bleed, and die with us because that is what we try to deliver to them. Good riddance to the bandwagon kids who like whoever is number one at that moment. You were never a real fan to begin with, you never understood what Complexity stands for, and we’re glad you’re following another team right now.

GGL: Complexity recently announced that it would be returning to Counter-Strike 1.6 competition. What is the impetus behind this decision?

JL: I’d be lying to the community if I didn’t say we always preferred 1.6. I’ve come out publicly and said point blank that it is a better game when it comes down to the game play. Unfortunately, the graphics don’t keep up and Valve refuses to update Source’s game play.

My guys love 1.6. They’ve come to really enjoy Source, but they love 1.6. Our loyalty as professional gamers will always be to the big show. The CGS is the big show and I believe it’s the future of gaming. So we’d much rather play Source, than not play Counter-Strike at all. But we’re very excited that the CGS gave us permission to play 1.6. As a manager I’m very worried our fan base will compare our 1.6 playing level to that of 2004-2006. In reality my players haven’t touched this game for a year and a half. We’re playing this because we love the game. I don’t think we can beat EG or X30 because our loyalty remains with Source, because we’re businessmen. My deepest fear is that our fan base will expect great things when we’re just playing for the love of the game.

GGL: In what future competitions might we see Complexity?

JL: We’re going to do the WCG online qualifiers. We’re also speaking with CEVO about playing both Source and 1.6. We’d also be happy to play in any events that GotFrag might have in the future. As long as we can afford to go, we will show up at any future qualifiers. We’re not LAN dodgers, but at some point when you’re playing a game for fun money does come into the equation. We’ll do out best to keep our fans entertained with as much Counter-Strike we can humanly provide. They need to understand that toward the end of the year we’ll have to stop playing 1.6 to get back to playing Source full-time because that’s our bread and butter.

GGL: This year you instituted the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) program with Complexity. Most recently your franchise visited the Ronald McDonald House here in Los Angeles. What was your inspiration for instituting this program?

JL: Being a businessman and running a company like Complexity on the Internet, I really don’t get into things like religion and politics. But I believe very strongly in the Christian religion. The impetus for the random acts of kindness comes straight from the Bible. When I was reading one day, I realized that Complexity had a global stage and perhaps we could make a little bit of a difference by starting a movement that helped people we’d never meet. That’s why I began RAK. I strongly believe that doing little things for people you don’t know is a way to make the planet better place. I volunteered in Israel for six months with orphans, I volunteered with Eskimos for a summer, but when I had my family my free time is so limited that it’s very rare that I get to volunteer. So when I had the team out here in L.A., I spent three months trying to organize something. I told my team we need to do something positive for the Los Angeles community because we’re the L.A. Complexity. We were blessed enough to stumble upon the Ronald McDonald House. Quite frankly what we did wasn’t a very big deal, but we tried to do our part. Today’s society is so driven by self-consumption, that if we just all look outside ourselves a little bit and try to do something positive for someone else I think the world would be a much better place. That’s why Complexity does it and will always do it.

GGL: What do your hope your players will get out of participating in charity work?

JL: The players were very supportive of the concept. You could tell they were tired that day and only going because the boss said so, but by the end of the day everyone had a smile on their face and swore it was the best day we had all summer. Often times you go somewhere to help someone in need thinking you’re going to help them, but when you walk away from your volunteer work it actually helps you just as much if not more so. It was the happiest day Complexity had all summer and we really bonded and it was one of those things its hard to put words on. It’s what everyone should do and all my players were thrilled and are super excited to do more volunteer work. It was a great day.

GGL: Mike Luxion recently wrote a feature about your team called, “Right the Ship.” In it he suggests the possibility of Complexity trading current players like Rambo to increase its strength in other areas. Would you be open to the idea of trading players?

JL: I’m open to absolutely anything to getting us back on top. I’ve blatantly expressed to my players that Complexity is a blank chalkboard regardless of your reputation or who you are. We’re going to analyze the entire team starting from the bottom up and start over brand new and fresh. No one is safe, no one is sound everyone is up and they need to show me before next January what they can bring or I won’t look at them in the draft. That being said I have no hard feelings against any player. But they will have to compete in the open pool of talent to re-earn their place in the Complexity squad and I’ve made that clear to them.

GGL: Thank you for talking with us. Would you like to give any shout-outs or thanks to anyone?

JL: First and foremost I’d like to thank my wife and kids for putting up with this crazy dream of mine. Second I’d like to thank our fans because more than any other organization in the world, we think of you 24 hours a day and we’re doing our best. I apologize sincerely for this disaster of a season, but know in your hearts that 24 hours a day we’ll be working to get back on top to make you proud of us again. Thank you for your loyalty. Thank you to the CGS for the opportunity to play these great games, and thank you to our players for bringing everything they had each match. Thank you very much to GGL for the interview. We appreciate it. Peace out.

GGL: Please state your real name, age, and occupation.

My name is Artem Dragunov. I am 22. I am from Latvia. I study in the Riga Technical University on the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunations and I work in an insurance company as a database-support operator.

GGL: What attracted you to play in the Digital Games tournament?

I decided to take part in the Digital Games, because it was quite interesting for me to represent my country among the FIFA-players from all over the world in a competition, which is a part of the Olympic Games in China.

GGL: Why FIFA? Are you a huge futbol fan, did you grow up playing it?

Yes, you are right. I like football very much. I was playing football at the professional level for 5 years. Unfortunatelly, I had to give up football because of the intensive studies, but I always play football with my friends in my free time, so it is an essential part of my life. And FIFA is almost the only game I play.

GGL: How long have you been playing games competitively?

Well, concerning exactly FIFA-series - I`ve started playing FIFA when I had a Sony PlayStation - it was  1997 and FIFA 97 respectively :)) In the year 2000 my parents bought me a PC and starting from year 2000 I started playing FIFA on a PC. But my first online game experience was in 2004, when I found the Latvian Fifa Community over the internet.

GGL: What is your primary gaming focus? Is it just for fun, or something you hope to make a living off of?

Well, of course I have some goals and plans for this season. In July I will visit 2 big FIFA tournaments in Belgium and Denmark, where almost all the best world FIFA players will fight for quite a good prize. I hope to do my best there, and of course in WCG Latvia 2008 as well. And Digital Games is one my goals for this season as well, I will do my best here. So, it’s not just for fun :)

GGL: Who is your toughest opponent in the competition so far?

So far, the toughest opponent in this tournament for me was pavjke. He is one of the best players in Russia. (and a good person as well (: )
He is a very high-skilled player and being an ex-member of Dignitas for a long time just proves it. He is doing a very impressive 9-win streak, so I think he will be my number one opponent.

GGL: How often do you practice FIFA?

I play some 4-5 games per day. Not more.

GGL: FIFA has changed quite a bit over previous years’ iterations. Is it harder? What exactly has changed?

Yes, it definitely has. In my opinion, it is improving more and more with every year! Yes, it’s harder to play, but the harder it is, the more interesting is the gameplay process. But still, a lot of things schould be done, concerning the game process. Still, EVERY YEAR there are a large amount of bugs, and some of them are so serious, that they spoil the game process very much.

And it would be good, if more patches would be created by EA to fix these bugs. And one of the main things, which could increase the popularity of FIFA enormously - the videostream. I mean, like HLTV in Counter-Strike. Watching FIFA-matches LIVE would be a fantastic improovement of the game!

GGL: Spain recently won the UEFA championship. If the Spain vs. Germany final had played out in FIFA, would the result have been the same? Why or why not?

Well, it would depend on the FIFA-players, who would play with the mentioned teams. But overall, in FIFA, team Spain has better stats, then Team Germany, so most probably the result would be a win for Spain :)

GGL: If the Digital Games had a EuroCup style FIFA competition, which country would win?

I think France would be the winners.

Kat Hunter spoke with GGL recently at the CGS players’ village in Los Angeles. She covered a variety of topics including her team’s status, the management process, and the state of professional gaming.

GGL: Describe what it’s like managing your team on a daily basis. What sort of schedules and routines do you put the players through or ask them to undergo?

Kat Hunter: Every day is something completely different. You have to take into account what happened the day before and the day before that and where your players are mentally, emotionally, and physically. As a general rule, I wake up around 10 AM and start working with the other general managers on setting up our practice schedule for the Counter-Strike players. We set up the practice schedules amongst ourselves for at least Counter-Strike and then watch them practice. We also go into the consult rooms and watch our Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) players. Then we’re off to the matches at night. We usually get there about two hours before the matches start. We play and then come back and deal with the aftermath. We finish off our day with a team meeting at 11 pm.

GGL: Which North American franchise poses the greatest threat to the Optx in season 2?

KH: It’s funny because the most challenging franchise for us is not high in the standings right now. I know lost two matches to Dallas [recently]. But we shouldn’t have lost two matches to Dallas. We should have won at least one of those. However I think the most challenging franchise for us is Carolina. It always has been.

GGL: How many hours per week did your team practice during the off-season?

KH: Ironically they probably practice more than when they are here. They put in 6-8 hours days easily during the off-season. In the on-season they can get burned out after a solid six hours.

GGL: What games or areas did you feel your franchise needed to improve upon after season one?

KH: We needed to pick up points in Forza 2 and DOA4 male. Forza was easy for me because Besibol (Nolsen Perez) wasn’t able to come back. He decided to become a fireman, and I’m very proud of him. We definitely wanted Skittl3s (Erika Galegor) back on the team, but the transition from Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3) to Forza 2 is going to take her another year. She wasn’t quite as fast as the other racers. Give her another year and she will be back in the CGS.

GGL: How has your perspective of team management changed since last summer?

KH: Last summer I spent more time worrying about making sure that my team was practicing and there weren’t parties in their rooms at night. It was the first year and all the players were incredibly excited to be here. This year everyone’s serious and I can spend more of my energy on the things that actually matter. You can see that across the board with all the teams. You don’t have to worry about making sure your players are in bed at night or that they are up in the morning. They’re awake, they’re ready. All the CGS players this year are extremely self-motivated.

GGL: How have your experiences as a member of the Frag Dolls benefited you in the management process?

KH: With the Frag Dolls you had to consistently work with incredibly different personalities during stressful situations. You had seven very different women who were put together because a company said you had to be together. We had to make it work and win at the same time.

I don’t get discouraged as quickly as some people in the Counter-Strike community. They’re used to having such a wide variety of people to work with that they get picky. So when something doesn’t work and when one person doesn’t quite fit in, I take the approach of backing up and seeing what we can do to make it work rather than just giving up.

GGL: You could only retain half of your team members from season one. What factors weighed into your decision to keep certain team members and what qualities were you looking for in new players?

KH: I knew that PGR3 was going to be completely replaced. I wanted to support the Forza community seeing as it was a new game. There were several PGR3 racers that didn’t get picked up because they were not up to speed in Forza 2. I definitely wanted to embrace the Forza community because people like ComeBackDan (Dan Otto) are great to have in the league.

I knew that Vanessa (Vanessa Arteaga) is a huge benefit to our team and that DOA4 would be really important this year. When you have two strong DOA4 players together you have real point force. I wanted to make sure my DOA4 male talent was able to match up better with Vanessa this season. I did that and I think NinjaCW (Chris Harris) is an amazing player. I am very lucky to have him.

Outside of that we had Counter-Strike. It’s not a secret that switching two players from last year has not gelled as quickly as I had hoped. Our current record is not what I want it to be. We definitely had a lot of problems last year with our team in terms of internal fighting. My desire was to make our team more professional as opposed to what 2007 had been like. It’s just taking more time for the five of them to gel together.

GGL: Many people have been talking about Stermy’s (Alessandro Avallone) improved performance in FIFA 08 over last season. What qualities did you see in him that led you to retain him for the second season? What do you accredit for his improved performance?

KH: Stermy is an absolute dream to have on your team. He understands what it is to be a professional athlete and he relates to the other players on a real level. I’ve never hear him put anyone down on our team. He’s always buiding people up. He notices when someone is down and discouraged and he sees what he can do to help them out and give them advice. He’s also been through the ringer competitively. There is no one at the CGS who has the amount of competitive experience in the span of time that Alessandro has been playing. The team has really come to lean on him. He’s that nice guy that everyone wants to be around.

He’ll sit in front of his computer for eight hours and just practice one shot. He would get up, eat, and then sit back down and practice that same shot over and over again. When he played Quake he would run around the maps for hours without shooting because he wanted to learn how to run faster from point A to point B. How many gamers do you know that really take a game, break it down into each of its elements, master them all, and then build it back up again? He does that. Besides the fact that he is a role model to my team, he is 100% dedicated to his game. You can’t ask for anything more.

GGL: Has there been a big transition for him from the first season’s FIFA 07 to FIFA 08?

KH: Yes, FIFA 08 is a lot harder than FIFA 07. We have the goalies set to World Class this year which means scoring a goal in general is much harder. Then you have the fact that all the game play is largely manual whereas a lot of it was automatic in FIFA 07. It makes the game a lot harder, but that is better for Stermy. That is more suited to his skill set.

GGL: In the past you’ve involved Optx in charity work. What is your motivation for this? What non-CGS activities do you have planned this year?

KH: We didn’t do as much as we wanted in year one because to do events you have to fly players to the location. We didn’t have the operational budget for that, which was really disappointing for me. Last year we were involved in Penny Arcade’s childhood charity. We are talking right now to one of our sponsors who is a high school music teacher. We are hoping to do some in-school motivational work where we show students the beneficial side of gaming and tie all that into the inner city projects in San Francisco. That looks like its actually going to happen because we’ll be able to get them in town.

GGL: You’ve produced content for AT&T Blue Room in the past and have a history of creative work in advertising. If you weren’t involved in gaming, what would you be doing instead?

KH: I would probably go back to working at an advertising agency. I left the ad agency I worked for because I wasn’t passionate about it. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it. It’s been my career, and I’ve done it over and over again. I just wasn’t passionate about it. If I wasn’t in gaming, that’s where I’d be.

If I weren’t involved with the CGS and pro-gaming or E-Sports then I would probably start a video production company catering to lifestyle and small game sites that don’t have the resources to create game content.

GGL: You said in 2007 that we would look back ten years from now and see CGS as an important historical event in professional gaming. What effect has the CGS had on professional gaming to date?

KH: If professional gaming is going to make it, it will be because of what is happening here at the CGS. That is because the right people are behind, it, the right gamers are involved in it, there is actual funding, and we have television venues like G4 and DirecTV to put our content out there. We also have the right E-Sports sites like GGL and GotFrag. We’ve got people who have decided to take something that everyone said would never be entertaining and make it entertaining. I don’t know what else there needs to be in order for pro-gaming to work.

GGL: What advice would you give to a player who wanted to try out for the CGS?

KH: If someone wants to be a professional gamer I would start by asking them to really think about what that means. It doesn’t mean you want to play games and make money. These guys are athletes. They are incredibly smart and incredibly dedicated. It took them a long time with a lot of failures to get here. So if you want to be a professional gamer you need to stop and think if you are willing to give everything up and put in those eight hour days by spending time on a game that you would normally grow sick of playing.

If it’s a team-based sport, then put everything into your team and learn what it is that makes a team grow. If it’s an individual sport, ask yourself if you are willing to get a side job to make money and fly everywhere it takes to get noticed. People are not going to come to you. You’ll have to make it happen yourself. Getting started in gaming is hard and it costs a lot of money. You don’t have to be rich but you do need a job. If you are willing to give it everything then my advice would be to find online communities and play your heart out. If it’s a team-based sport then enter every single competition you can find. You need to be active in the community of which you want to be a part. If its CGS, then you should be active in the CGS community. By the time you get to the CGS Combine I should already know who you are.

Registration is open for the Digital Games ladders until July 27. Hit the registration link to sign up and get started! 

This morning I had a chance to catch up with current North American Trackmania Nations Forever leader G2_Wolf about his TMNF exploits, as well as some gaming history. Luckily for me, I ambushed him just before he was about to head into a game of Project Powder.

Real name: Dakota Watterson
Age: 16
Occupation: Student

GGL: So I see you’ve played a bunch of games competitively; what motivated you to join the Digital Games for Trackmania Nations Forever?

G2_Wolf: Actually, I was bored and looking for some competition in Trackmania :S. I haven’t been playing competitively in many games lately.

GGL: Why specifically Trackmania?

G2_Wolf: Well, why not Trackmania? I had tons of fun playing in TMN and have tons of fun playing in TMNF. (And because I’m good at it, unlike with my Warsow attempt).

GGL: Is there anything in particular that attracted you to TMN/TMNF in terms of features of the game?

G2_Wolf: It’s unique with jumps and wallrides and loops and all kinds of other crazy stuff, and it’s a fast game that takes a lot of skill for most tracks. And with no collision detection, no griefers :).

GGL: What’s your favorite track so far and why? 

G2_Wolf: I actually don’t have a favorite track (gasp!). Even if I did, I couldn’t tell you because I never look at the names of the tracks.

GGL: You mentioned a lack of collision detection being one of the things that drew you to the game. Do you suffer from a bad internet connection like many online players?

G2_Wolf: I suffer from a bad ISP (Comcast), but my internet connection is pretty awesome. The reason I mentioned the lack of collision detection is because there is no way for people to block your path and you don’t have to worry about passing slow traffic.

GGL: Okay, so your gaming history extends back to Warsow and other games. can you tell us a little bit about that?

G2_Wolf: Uh… play way too many games >_>.

GGL: All of them competitively?

G2_Wolf: No, but a lot of them. I’m actually looking at my Xfire games list to find the ones I played competitively. Played Battlefield 2 competitively for a few teams, still do. Obviously I play Trackmania Nations Forever, and played TMN competitively. As I said earlier, I played Warsow duels but I kinda sucked. I feel like I’m missing a few games, but I’m not sure…

GGL: Have you had any especially tough opponents so far in the Digital Games?

Have I played any tough opponents yet, no. But I do play Iceman today, and that’s going to be a tough match (aka I’m going to lose).

GGL: How do you know?

G2_Wolf: Assuming it’s the Iceman I’m thinking of, he qualified for ESWC. Here’s someone I used to race a lot (and lose to) that got destroyed by Iceman :S

GGL: Well, good luck! Any shoutouts?

Guess I could make a shoutout to you for being awesome and keeping up with the nice articles. Could we not do interviews 45minutes after I wake up next time?

GGL: Tell us your experience in the tournament and how you feel about the entire competition.

Ryan “Epic” Rondo: I thought the overall competition was great! The whole experience of making a show out of the game is exciting. Rather than just having a quick 20 minute match and being done with it, it was fun to make a show about it.

GGL: Did you specifically pick up Soldier of Fortune Payback to play in GGL’s SOF Payback tourney?

Rondo: Yes, I did.

GGL: How often did you practice for this tournament?

Rondo: I played for about 1 week prior to the online ladder, played that out till a week before it ended, then went onto the Frontlines ladder, then played the Monday before we left.

GGL: In your opinion, how similar is SOF Payback compared to other popular shooter titles on consoles like Call of Duty 4, Halo, Gears of War, etc.?

Rondo: I think the only one it’s similar to is Call of Duty 4. The controls are very similar. The online was really sloppy and glitchy, but fun to an extent; overall I’d give it a fair rating.

GGL: What is your favorite weapon in the game?

Rondo: The G36C.

GGL: Now that the tournament is over, can you describe some of your favorite tactics to use against enemies in SOF Payback?

Rondo: I like to be sneaky in this game and catch them by surprise, because the runnin’ and gunnin’ is horrible.

GGL: What was your biggest challenge outside of the game in this tournament? Was it difficult to get your teammates to practice–were there many scheduling difficulties?

Rondo: No, we have a very dedicated team, always on time, and we play ’till we have our game down and then work on it some more. Scheduling wasn’t difficult; we can always find time to play a match.

GGL: Any shoutouts you want to send out?

Rondo: Yeah, thanks for putting my pic on GGL Wire for the airtime of the SOF tourney. And to the director of the GameplayHD show: You’re a kick a** guy, hope to see you on our next trip to NYC for GGL. And GGL, you guys are da sh*t!

The blinding truth spit from his mouth caused me to wear sunglasses when writing this. Here’s a lengthy excerpt that explains the dire situation mods find themselves in today:

From CPMA’s ‘Deathmatch Perfected’ gameplay detail-driven mindset, to Freeze Tag, Clan Arena gametype variations, to CS’s, more accurately, ‘Action Quake’s’, total conversion, these are the mods that matter, but they end up starved for assets because the artists are all off doing prettymods, so the newbies look at screenshots of them and go ‘durrr, looks the same, why play it?’ If those two groups could actually work together, the end results would be so much better for both of them, but it seems almost impossible to get that to happen. Every once in a while one does – and is invariably a success, duh – but it’s the exception rather than the norm, so overall there’s just a colossal waste of talent on both sides most of the time. The featureset mods like OSP, Q4MAX, PK++, HL2DMPro, and so on, are simply doing a job that should have been done by the company that sold you the game.

Visit eGames.de for the full interview.

GGL Wire: Is the EG UT3 team salaried?

Alex Garfield: No, however with this EG covers all travel, hardware, and competition costs. It also means that we do not take a percentage of the players’ winnings.

GGL Wire: What was the impetus for forming the EG squad? Do you (Alex) know something that the general gaming public doesn’t about next season’s CGS game picks?

Garfield: The reasoning behind EG’ venture into UT is extremely straightforward. First of all, it’s a very well-tenured brand of dueling game with an already-established community with its own stars and history. Secondly, it looks absolutely incredible, and serves any hardware company well (this, I believe, is proven by the fact that it’s already becoming a relatively popular “booth game”). Lastly, its cross-platform appeal is a huge plus. I believe the gap between PCs and consoles is quickly closing; in 5 or 10 years, there very well may be little to no difference between the two. And so I believe that cross-platform titles like UT3 are crucially important from a broader perspective.

As far as the CGS goes, I have absolutely no idea what they’re doing with their game selection for 2008. However, even if they were to pick UT3, I don’t see how that would be motivation for me to pick up a teeam. Having a player or team drafted into the CGS is great for that player, or group of players, but it poses little to no benefit to the non-CGS gaming organization. So, if the CGS picks up UT3, I’ll be happy for my players, but it would be a loss for EG as a business and an organization.

GGL Wire:  What’s the long-term outlook for the team? Forming such a high-profile squad only to have them play online would be a major waste of their marketable faces.

Garfield:  There are numerous offline events taking place this coming year in addition to the online competition the squad is currently taking place in. PDXLan, VanLan, i33: all events that we feel our players will do well at, and most importantly enjoy.

GGL Wire: What’s the thought process behind each squad member’s selection?
Ecstacy: Far beyond being a marketable face, Ecstasy and Stryfe have practiced together for a while now, and Ecstasy’s skill is undeniable ingame having placed very well in the online tournaments the UT3 community has organized thusfar.

Elix: Elix was the last addition to our UT3 roster and given his history with x6 and the other team members, a very easy choice to make.

Stryfe: Stryfe has beyond proven himself skill-wise in the previous iterations of Unreal Tournament dominating the North-American scene both online and offline with an incredible win record. Stryfe was the perfect choice to lead this squad.

CombatCarl: Sean has quite a history with Unreal Tournament along with Stryfe and Tex in x6, and even previously Kaizen. The combination of sheer skill, and teamwork with the other members are irresistable.

Tex: Tex, Tex, Tex… Possibly one of the most reciognized individuals in the UT 2k era, Tex’s experience with Kaizen, x6, and most importantly his other teammates make him the quntissential anchor for the team.

GGL Wire: Were Stryfe, CombatCarl and Tex a package deal? They’ve been clanmates in two separate squads before EG.

Garfield:  In short yes, the three wanted to play together, and their longtime synergy as a team coupled with their skills made it an easy choice to pick up all three.

GGL Wire: From a business perspective, why would a sponsor choose to back an Unreal Tournament 3 team? As of December, the game had sold a dismal 33,995 units on the PC in North America.

Garfield:  The UT series has a huge amount of potential. With CustomUT the community now has a solid competitive medium on which to play. From a sponsor’s perspective, UT3 is the sucessor to one of the most renowned deathmatch games we’ve ever seen. The visuals are gorgeous, and that shows off the muscle of Intel’s Core 2 Extreme processor line. The inclusion of UT3 at i33 shows it has a strong community globally despite lackluster sales in North America.

GGL Wire: For Tex: What prompted you to come back to competitive gaming from semi-retirement?
Nick “Tex” Borelli: Simple - A new installment in the Unreal Tournament series

GGL Wire: How long, on average, does the EG squad practice per week?

Garfield:  The EG UT squad has had a slow start due to a number of reasons, as a team the squad has a difficult time practicing, due to Tex’s currently frantic work schedule, and CombatCarl’s PC problems have put a hiatus on team time. Tex’s work schedule should clear up soon, and we’re sending CombatCarl a PC equipped with a Core 2 Duo processor from Intel to get him back in the game. Individually the players play in everything from pick-up games to ladder tournaments.