Lets face it, who doesn’t like a good cup every now and again. Whether this is one of Auric’s one night fun cups, or a huge online cup on eSport Heaven for five hundred euros. The great thing about these cups is the vast variety of people you can see there. From all over Europe, people come together to sit down at their PC, to compete and to win their favorite cup. I can remember back in my demise eSports days where we could constantly play cup after cup to try and boost our gaming cv, so that eventually, we might stand a chance of gaining access into pre-inv. Throughout the weeks that followed our first cup we met hundreds of teams, it was quite rare in some cups we would see the same faces, but in others you’d soon be welcomed by someone you know. The vast amount of admins crews out there who spend an evening a week of their own free time, to provide a service to help support their favorite game is staggering, it truly is.
We have with us now Tom ‘tomzki’ Churchman who is Esport Heaven’s Lead Game Admin,
alongwith being “The Don” within Vita Nova (his words not mine). He has been responsible for many successful cups over the past years, but more noticeably the recent PowerCooler Cup and Cyborg Challenge. I’ve asked him to shed a bit of light in the form of an interview, as to what the lower end teams are really like in cups.
Hey there Tom, could you quickly describe your role within Esports Heaven so we can fully understand your position?Hi Peter, my role within Esports Heaven is the Lead Game Admin for CoD4, this means everything you see is what I setup. The average cup will consist of News, Teams, Brackets, Rules, Results and a Sponsor page. I ensure the cup is run on time and that all matches are complete within the schedule. The first two rounds of the cup are usually extremely hectic and most of the time very stressful - especially if it's a 64 or 128 team cup. Having to deal with multiple teams/players on my own can be very time consuming. The main work is done by Heaven Media, they bring in the sponsors & prizes - I simply put them on offer to win through the tournaments.
Over the time of you running cups, have you ever seen any negative behavior from the lower echelons of the COD4 scene, that you feel may be stopping them from progressing further up in the skill brackets?Of course, see it near enough every cup we host. Each cup is seeded and therefore each lower end team will get the chance to compete against a top team either in the first or second round of a cup. The only downside to that is those lower end teams will see - for example - Power Gaming and will either not show up or attempt to play and just get 13-0'd. Another downside is that if a team does well or gets more than expected rounds against a top team they're classed as a cheat because they're unknown. The majority of the time they're right, although you do get those that aren't cheating.
Overall, what would you say the benefits of joining one night cups are for developing teams?For upcoming teams, they get the chance to compete either against the top teams or at least preinvite. They get to try various things and learn from there mistakes, having a prize would be a bonus as it gives teams something to play for or that little bit more motivation to keep on playing to win. From an organization point of view, it shows there's interest for potential sponsors and that the activity is there, this can then develop into future prized tournaments for upcoming teams to get a chance of winning.
Have you ever been either disappointed by the behavior of a lower team, or, in contrast been overwhelmed with what they achieved?The first and second round of a tournament is a nightmare for me, most lower end teams seem to be immature and in some cases try to lame others. The difference between a lower end team and a top team participating in a tournament is that a lower end team complain/whine 24/7, this is the reason the first and second rounds are more work for an admin. With a top team, they understand what I do and that I can be very busy, they also usually sort it out themselves which makes my job so much easier. It's the teams that get to the third round or further that understand how things are run, I guess it's down to the maturity and experience in playing in the later stages of a tournament.
There have been some complaints that there aren’t enough opportunities to play top level teams, would you agree with this? If so, what do you feel teams can do to counter this?As stated before, each cup is seeded and therefore each lower end team will get the chance to compete against a top team either in the first or second round of a cup. There will always be an opportunity for a team to compete against the top, ESH is the way forward for that.
Is there anything in the works at Esports Heaven currently that will affect the lower teams in a positive way?We have a new feature called 'User Generated Cups', this enables teams/players to create cups themselves and run the show! Although public users cannot see it, the site has gone under various updates which enable admins like myself to host the best possible tournament. The main updates are a complete admin interface revamp as well as greater control for sub-admins, a full list of updates can be seen here:
http://www.esportsheaven.net/?page=news&action=view&news_id=256 Finally, is there anything you would like to add?Shout out to the YoYoTech lads and hybrid lot :)
Also on a side note, if anyone is interested in becoming an admin then don't hesitate to contact myself or another admin over at
www.esportsheaven.net.
