Offtopic/fun » get into a regional qualifier. Dyakonyuk says that P

Fifteen years ago may not seem like a long time, but in competitive video gaming, its a lifetime. An industry thats butterflied into its adolescence and exploded over the past two years was once tiny and in its infancy, despite the common belief that it only just begun. For Paul Chaloner, a 44-year-old man from Brighton, England who goes by the nickname ReDeYe, this is his playground and it has been for the past 15 years of his life.From South Korea to Poland to the United States, Chaloner has been at the forefront of esports since its inception. Hes hosted two of the first esports, Quake and Unreal Tournament, the rising Counter-Strike, and one of the worlds most popular esports franchises of all time, StarCraft. Chaloner has been the voice on the mic, as an announcer and commentator, for more than 59 esports titles in his tenure.Recently, he hosted Dota 2s The International 6, a $20.7 million tournament that houses 16 teams from around the world in its biggest event of the year at Seattles KeyArena. Chaloner is no stranger to the International, but this year he not only hosted the event, he was consulted by Dota 2s developer Valve to see what improvements could be made to up the ante for the event.The International is very challenging for me as a host, Chaloner says. Its very difficult, its a very tricky show, and this year were trying some new things. Ive been involved with Valve this year, and they asked me to come in and consult for them a couple of months ago and help them come up with ideas to make TI different and produce it very differently.While Chaloners career has been one of traveling the world and commentating on and hosting events, esports hasnt come without its price for him, he says. The traveling and time away, as well as the heavy workload, has made Chaloner make sacrifices in his personal life as well. Chaloner wishes, if he could go back in time 15 years ago, he could tell a younger version of himself that.Be prepared for sacrifice, he says. I havent really spoken too much about it, but esports has cost me, theres no doubt about it. Personally and financially. I had a very lovely woman in my life with my children, we were very set, very happy, she was very supportive at the time, but esports took its toll on us. I havent been with her for 7 years. Its caused all sorts of issues with my children, with my family, so this stuff doesnt come without a price. I think I wouldve told myself just be prepared for the sacrifice.Chaloners interest for video games came in the 1980s. He says his competitive drive, which he discovered while playing traditional sports, made single-player computer games, like Chuckie Egg on the Dragon 32 and The Hobbit on the Spectrum, enjoyable. While online gaming wasnt an option then, Chaloner says he always had one goal: I loved the computers and the challenge of beating the computer. It was the biggest thing I got a kick out of.As Chaloner got older, he witnessed the invention of the Internet. He says this truly fulfilled his competitive drive and mixed it with his love for video games. He was able to play online against others and compete against those better than him. The Internet came along and thats when a modem got installed in my PC and it allowed me to play QuakeWorld online and play against other human beings, he says. And I suddenly realized, I wasnt quite as good as I thought I was. Kicking the asses of my friends every Saturday with a few beers, that was fairly easy. Beating people online in deathmatch was like, Oh, some of these guys are quite good.From there, Chaloners unexpected journey began. His passion started with Quake and Unreal Tournament, which were released in 1996 and 1999 respectively. In 2002, Chaloner was given the opportunity to broadcast a Quake game online. If you told him hed be the worlds most popular esports host back then, hed probably tell you that you were crazy.It didnt take long for the esports industry to begin its early stages of development. More competitive video games, like StarCraft: Brood War and Counter-Strike 1.6, released and immediately took off in South Korea and Europe respectively as top games. Chaloner, who was becoming more involved in broadcasting at the time, realized that he would have to step out of his comfort zone and learn to broadcast other games if he wanted to make a career.That really hit him after a conversation with Twitch director of programming Marcus djWHEAT Graham, who at the time, was an up-and-coming broadcaster in the space.In 2004, we were all going to the World Cyber Games grand finals and back then, wed only take five or six commentators and you had to cover 14 or 15 games, right? Chaloner says. So I didnt get to go in 2004, but I went in 2005 because WHEAT said to me, Dude, basically, youre gonna need to learn more games than just Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike and Quake. Youre going to be more valuable, and you can be used more flexibly.While now, commentators the likes Anders Blume, Auguste Semmler Massonnat, Rivington Riv Bisland III, Christopher MonteCristo Mykles, make more than a fair living by casting primarily only one game, Chaloner says in the early days of the industry, that was just not possible. But now, 15 years into his career and unlike his peers, Chaloners covered 59 games, something no other broadcaster in the esports space even holds a candle too.I can pretty much do almost any game on stage without really knowing much about it, theres a certain set of skills that Ive picked up over the years that allow me to do main-stage for most games: hype a crowd, get them excited, he explains. I think its been easier for me to go and do that and transition over to those other games, because I did that very early on as a commentator. And as a commentator, switching games is really tough.Like Anders, Semmler, and Mykles, Chaloner is a freelancer and works with multiple companies in the space at any given time, something that continues to grow in appeal as the industry grows. Unlike standard employment in casting, most notably with Riot Games and its League of Legends casters, these voices of the games are allowed to do as they please, create their own work schedules, and negotiate their market value. Its grown to the point in esports where it doesnt just encapsulate casting, but writing, consulting, designing, and other industry trades.Chaloner says he believes this model is healthy in esports, as he runs his own consulting business in addition to his own casting and host career. Its [healthy] because at this time, a lot of companies want to come into this space, and they dont always know what they want. Theyve heard of esports, they like it, it has lots of money involved, and television viewing figures are really good, so they want in on it since the demographic suits them. Thats often the case.That push from non-endemic companies, those who did not originate in esports but want to come into the space, has occurred for over a decade. Chaloner, for his part, was an integral piece in one of the first major expansions into the space by non-endemics: the Championship Gaming Series. This tournament series was owned by major satellite television company, DirecTV, with direct association to Mountain Dew, British Sky Broadcasting, and STAR TV.This league was the first of its kind and broadcasted Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 to television viewers around the world. Although its seen as a disaster by many of those involved or who covered it independently, the Championship Gaming Series took a leap to broadcast esports on television.The Championship Gaming Series and its affiliates learned one of esports hardest lessons by trial and failure: being genuine means almost everything. The league changed many in-game identifiers, such as the roles of terrorists and counter-terrorists, to suit television.Since the leagues dissolution in Nov. 2008, DirecTV has never attempted to work in the esports space again, and Mountain Dew only just recently returned this year. I think a lot of people are sold ideas, they can do this. They can spend $500,000 and can make this really cool tournament, and everyone will love them, Chaloner explains. But actually, theyre the people who get tarnished by it. They come in and do one thing and then are like, We didnt have a good experience in esports, no one told us it was this hard and then they go away and we dont want to do that anymore. We dont want to alienate companies from this.Chaloner says that he tries to do the exact opposite when he consults. He says that he warns his potential clients of challenges that might be ahead. When someone comes to me and says, I want to invest in esports, the first question I ask them is: Why? He says. What is it that has attracted you? And usually, its the demographic. Usually, its because they want to reach those kinds of people. But its not just that simple. You have to understand what mentality we have, who we are, were very picky, were very demanding, we want free stuff all the time, we want it to be bloody good when its free. Were a tough demographic to crack, so I will advise them on that.And for those who have been burned before, Chaloner is confident that they should give esports a second chance. But then again, theyll need to truly commit to producing the highest quality of product and work extremely hard at marketing their product. The esports audience only accepts the best, he says.Second chance is exactly what it is. [Esports] is a different world now, 10 years later, he says. I think companies will have a better experience now, but get the right person, get the right set of people around you. If youre gonna hire full-time, take the time, find the right guys. There are plenty of passionate and highly skilled people already.Among the names Chaloner mentions, he says that his moment with HeatoN at his recent Esports Hall of Fame was something spectacular.I had a fabulous moment with HeatoN before he went out and got his Hall of Fame award. ... HeatoN, Ive known for more than 10 years as a friend, Chaloner explains. Weve gone through a number of things together, CGS obviously being one of them. I dont know, we just shared a moment backstage, a very nice moment, sort of very nostalgic in a way. I suppose one day itd be quite nice to put together a book on that stuff. Maybe people would enjoy it.Angels Jerseys 2019 . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. Angels Jerseys 2020 . In what the team had called a retirement, Ryan said Thursday that he is resigning as chief executive of the Rangers in a move effective at the end of this month. https://www.cheapangels.com/ . Canada is now down to its 22-player limit, although but players wont be registered until Christmas Day. Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury. Angels Jerseys China . Jane Virtanen scored two, and Alex Roach and Elliott Peterson rounded out the offence for the Hitmen (40-15-6). Brady Brassart chipped in with three assists. Colton McCarthy scored twice, Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, and Jack Rodewald also scored for the Warriors (15-35-9), who were 2 for 5 on the power play. Wholesale Angels Jerseys .C. -- Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said after all of these years in the NBA hes still amazed at some of the things LeBron James does.The qualifiers for the Boston Major generated some controversy last week, when several European region teams competed and won the Americas open qualifier rounds.Several squads that are based out of European regions, including Prodota Gaming, Elements Pro Gaming, Kaipi, Power Rangers and Team Empire competed in the Americas open qualifier. The two teams that qualified from the Americas, Prodota and Elements, are both considered European squads, hailing from Russia and the CIS region.Despite the qualifiers being designated to four regions (Americas, Europe, China and Southeast Asia), no rule exists on the FACEIT admin page to prevent teams from competing in qualifiers outside their region, or competing in multiple open qualifiers for separate regions.When reached for comment, Prodota Gaming CEO Maxym Dyakonyuk pointed to the issue of stacked qualifiers. The Americas get two spots in regionals for open qualifiers, and two invites to Boston for first and second place in regionals, but have fewer teams to challenge than the European region, which has 10 regional participants to Americas eight.As you can see in EU for the last two years, we had very stacked open qualifier with over 20+ relatively strong teams and over 800 participating teams for each open qualifier, said Dyakonyuk. Thats why we made this choice to play NA and I think it waas worth it; however, we played bad in [regional] qualifier, but at least we tried.dddddddddddd I think current qualifier system needs to be changed or adjusted somehow to team quantity, and we also make this point by doing this.Though Prodota failed to seize a playoff spot within the regional and wont be attending Boston, it still allowed the team to get into a regional qualifier. Dyakonyuk says that Prodota wont be trying the same strategy again for the next major, however.Some tier 3-4 teams might do it in the future, Dyakonyuk told ESPN. But teams like [Prodota] and better wont do it anymore because, as you can see, both EU teams didnt reach playoffs anyway, so it makes no difference in the end.The issue becomes even more severe, though, when teams use other regions as a second, or even third, chance to make it into the regional playoffs. Several squads, like Kaipi and Team Empire, joined the Americas open qualifiers after failing to qualify in the European region.Many pro players and personalities took to Twitter to voice their concern over teams jumping between qualifiers to get through to regionals.ESPN.com reached out to Valve for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. ' ' '