Interview with Trigger - TEK9 Networks

Its been a while since my last interview, but this time I managed to catch up with former SPEED-LINK star player

Michael "Trigger" Sowa for a quick interview.

After retiring from competitive gaming earlier this year, Trigger found himself a job in the gaming industry and is currently working for Roccat, a manufacturer of gaming peripherals. As a part of his job, Michael will be travelling to Asia in the upcoming weeks and visit the production facilities in Hong Kong, Taipei and Singapore to test the latest products and features and fix any ongoing problems.

Heya Michael, it’s been a while since we last heard from you. How are you doing these days?

"Hey Camiel. I’m doing fine so far even if I’m pretty busy with working. I moved over to Hamburg 2 months ago and preparing to move into my new house next month. Overall it all couldn’t go better right now I would say."

Starting off with the old team SPEED-LINK, which shut down the end of March. What made the team decide to quit and did you ever regret not continuing?

"It’s a longer story at the end, but the main facts were surely the motivation to try it a third time after some massive setbacks since the release of CoD4. The biggest and over time most damaging setback was surely when Fuchsstute left the team to concentrate more on his personal life aswell as his job.

When losing such a great person and leading guy, I already knew it would need something special for the team to continue as a top team. But, even with top players from Germany as replacements, it didn’t work out in the end. After humm3l decided to quit gaming (even if he didn’t, that’s what he wanted) because of his health, we felt that another try would take too much energy, which we just didn’t have anymore.

We already had some harder times with the newly formed team, but always gave it another try but this was just the final blow for the team."

Joining another Call of Duty 4 team was not an option in this case?

"In the first days and weeks I really thought it wouldn’t be an option for me. But, shortly after I noticed that I’m not yet done with competitive gaming and that I could give it another personal try.

The question just was: which team could I fit in? I knew that I would rather join a fully German line-up and also that it had to be a team which is already on top and doesn’t need much work from me to get there. But there simple weren’t a lot of teams that could provide me with what I’m looking for. I had some talks with SK Gaming, TEK9 and later on also with the new SPEED-LINK / Komacrew team. After playing mostly with SK Gaming, where phY1 and spaR also tried their luck to get in, and even joining TEK9 for a week or two as a replacement for kammYz (who had exams to be done), it all looked pretty good for me.

In the end I felt that SK would be the perfect way to start again and when they offered me to join them, as I just needed to sign the contract, I had to refuse it a couple of days later, due to my new work getting fixed. As ROCCAT will be one of the leading gaming periphery companies it just wouldn’t have worked to play under the flag of SK Gaming, which have sponsors such as Sennheiser supporting them. At that time I had to make a decision regarding my personal future and gaming future, and I did. As you can see I’m not wearing a SK Tag ;)"

The team replacing you guys over at SPEED-LINK has impressed quite a few in the past months. What are your personal feelings about the new SL team and their recent results? Were they the perfect replacement?

"I’m really impressed and also proud about what these guys are bringing up lately. After it became clear that the old SPEED-LINK.CoD would fold it wasn’t even sure whether there would ever be a Call of Duty team in SPEED-LINK again. But, when the guys around smithz came to me and asked me if there would be a chance, I somehow felt that this could be THE boost to make the step to another level. Therefore I decided to “risk” it and told the CEO of Team SPEED-LINK that these guys should get the chance and after some discussions he agreed with me.

As you can see this was definitively worth it. These guys are working hard to get to the top and they already managed to be one of the finest teams in Europe. Not everyone thought that the old Komacrew team could step into the footsteps of the previous SPEED-LINK Squad of CoD1 and CoD2. In the end this is a perfect example that hard work, dedication and a stable company backing you can make of a team. As I said, I’m proud and impressed and I really think that these guys - if they stay on the ground - could be the new Team SPEED-LINK of the old days."

Shortly after you decided to focus more on your private life and work. Was this simply about setting your priorities straight?

"That’s right. If you have to make a decision between something you really love and have put in so much energy over the years (as i did it with eSports) and your personal future and business future, you have to set your priorities.

No matter the fun and the experience I had in the past years with gaming on a higher level, it was always clear to me that it’s just a hobby. When I started with gaming 'career' around the age of 13 or 14, I had 3 big goals in mind that I really wanted to become reality over the time.

Even if they maybe sound a bit immature, i will still write them down:

Goal #1: Travelling to the USA without spending a cent, just as a gamer. Status: passed, WSVG Dallas with SPEED-LINK paying over 8000 € for our trip.

Goal #2: Once playing under the flag of SK Gaming. I saw a WCG report of the German team, with SK hero winning the WCG in Singapore and I was totally impressed about what for me is the biggest organisation/clan in eSports. Status: passed, but refused to reach Goal #3.

Goal #3: Getting a job in the gaming industry, as gamer or because I am a gamer. Status: passed.

These goals I set myself years ago made me invest this huge amount of time and energy I put into eSports and my career as a gamer over years. And even if I enjoyed most of the time I did it, it wasn’t easy all the time. But with reaching these 3 goals it wasn’t too hard to make the decision between my gaming career and my personal/business career."

Do you regret quitting competitive gaming at all or miss certain moments?

"Sure I do. Especially the first weeks after it became clear that I quit gaming were really hard for me. After I had to lay down SK I played a bit with the new SPEED-LINK squad, as I thought it wouldn’t be a problem to play with/for them while working for ROCCAT.

It worked out pretty good aswell and as they needed a new player anyway, it seemed a perfect choice for both. But I also had to refuse this as soon as my work started. I wanted to fully concentrate on my new job and if you wake up at 7:30 and come back home around 8 pm, you also have other stuff to handle and can’t bring up the time to play 5 days a week for several hours.

Somehow I’m still into eSports as ROCCAT is producing peripheries just for gamers and on that case its feeling great to not lose it all. But I will definitively miss the LAN Events.

I always loved to travel around to cities all over the world and meeting other/new guys on events. And you also meet the people you already know for ages and who always were present in your gaming career (for example dfb, <3 steven). But you can’t have it all and even if I might find some time to visit 1 or 2 events as spectator, I will probably never compete at a LAN again, which definitively makes me feel sad somehow."

Is there still a connection between you and CoD4, either by playing every now and then or simply following the scene?

"Right now there still is some sort of a connection. If there are any new products or updates to be tested, I mostly do it with CoD4 for the gaming experience. It doesn’t happen that often, but if it happens, there is always a smile on my face :P

Also I’m still doing my stuff for eSports4all.com and leading it together with Fuchsstute and Chefkoch, as it doesn’t take that much time of me. Due to this I also stay a bit up to date about what’s happening in the community. Such stories as H2k, CB, Micks ban, the EC happenings – I read them all and always came close to writing a long comment about each story. In the end I just had something else to do at that time and forgot about it afterwards."

You're currently 21 years old. Do you see yourself returning to
(competitive) gaming one day?

"You never know! But to be honest I don’t think that will happen again. 21 is already a number where most of the competitive gamers are going other ways and thinking about their jobs and future. So do or did I and as I don’t think and hope that I lose my job at ROCCAT within the next years, I honestly won’t find any time to start a comeback. Let’s speak again whenever Call of Duty 10 – Alien vs. Predator or something like that gets released ;)"

Switching over to your current job. We know you have some opportunities to work for Roccat as a product manager, how does that feel to make your passion your job?

"It’s a great feeling. As mentioned above it was one of my goals I set several years ago and whenever you can reach a goal you set yourself, it’s an amazing feeling. I’m also very happy to get this chance to work as Project Manager for a company which will definitively blow the gaming scene over the years with a lot of top notch products.

I think many gamers would like to have a job as game tester or periphery tester later on and even if I’m not working as a gamer or as someone testing new games, I still earn a lot experience from this job and also can give my experience as a gamer to help the development of new products. It is surely not an easy job and theres a lot of work waiting for me each day, but this is how it should work and I’m pleased to do it."

How did you get into contact with Roccat in the first place?

"My old teamleader Rene is working for SPEED-LINK and ROCCAT as a website programmer and he basically got me into contact with the CEO of ROCCAT.

The good thing in the end was that ROCCAT is not only a company producing gaming peripheries, but also full of dedicated gamers or ex-gamers who know about what they are doing. Due to this and my work for Team SPEED-LINK as manager and player, I had a good reputation for this job and that made them trust me and sign the contract in the end."

What does your job for Roccat entail?

"Well, I’m keeping an eye on every step a product is going through. From the first idea, the planning of resources for the testing of prototypes and clarifications of new features – you have to be sure of everything. That is also why there is simply no time for gaming or other bigger hobby's anymore. But, as I’m loving my work, it isn’t that much of a problem and I’m as dedicated on my job as I were as a gamer."

A little birdie also tells me you received an offer to go to Asia for your job, how did you handle this offer? Was it a hard decision to make?

You got some interesting birds over there in Belgium ;) (NOTE: I LIVE IN THE NETHERLANDS!!). But yes you're right. I will spend some time over in Asia so our products will be as good as they are supposed to be. In the first place I really thought “what the f**k”.

Secondly, I was pretty amazed about this offer and thought that it will give me a lot of experience and that it will be definitively worth the work. As I’m a person that loves to travel it wasn’t too hard to for me to decide to take this offer. As its also part of my general job at ROCCAT to do so, it’s just normal that I said yes.

Even if I won’t have that much time to see and visit the cities over there, it still will be a very good experience for me, also for further jobs and workouts in this category."

Could you tell us a little more about the trip to Asia, what places you're going to visit and what you'll be doing and for how long?

"That depends on what product and supplier the product has. But mostly you will be able to find me around Hong Kong, Taipei and Singapore I guess. As stated above I will take a look at the manufacturing of our products over at the suppliers and help them fix any problems or include and test new features live at the production company. How long I'll stay there depends on what I have to do there and which product is on demand. But it will mostly be between 2 and 6 weeks for each trip, around 6 or 7 times a year."

Exited to go there or mixed feelings, having to say goodbye to family and friends?

"Pretty exited yeah. I always see it as an experience, even if the climate and culture will be something special and maybe also a bit extreme. Whatever you can get as new information and experience will help you on further jobs, projects and in your life in general.

Surely it’s also hard to leave your friends and family behind for a longer period of time, but as I moved to Hamburg for my new job, I’m already over 500km away from my home and therefore I don’t see them a lot anymore anyway. But that’s life and I always try to have a free weekend to travel down to my friends and parents to relax a bit."

Thanks again for your time Michael. We would like to wish you the best of luck in Asia, keep us updated on the developments. Any shout outs or comments you would like to add?

"Thanks aswell mate. I would like to thank everybody I met in the past 7 years of gaming, over MoHAA, CoD1, CoD2 and CoD4. I enjoyed nearly every minute and it was a pleasure to meet such nice guys on events all over the world.

Special thanks goes to Enrico which lead me all the years and formed my personality in a positive way, dfb, crow, mintR, kickR, aisuru, jessy, aggi, nika, ifear, flie, turgut, mokaibär, my old MoHAA Team DRS/ZooM/Team-Germany, my old Teammates Messias, spaR, snartscho, Starlight, Nande, Mina, Nightwalker, phY1, kaZAAA from the good old CoD1 and CoD2 Times, the eSports4all Crew, Team SPEED-LINK (GoGo CoD guys) and simply to everybody out there reading this. Thanks everyone, for everything."