Dallow: ''We have always stuck by CoD'' - The interview

TEK9 sits down with Ben "dallow" Dalloway, a former EuroCup Quake player currently managing one of the leading organisations from the United Kingdom: Reason Gaming. In the interview, Ben talks about all things Reason, including their brand new all-UK COD4 roster, their decision to take a step back from console gaming and why they've continued to support Call of Duty.

Hey there Ben, thanks for joining me. For starters, could you tell everyone a little about yourself, your own gaming experiences and how you got to where you are right now?

Hi guys, my name is Ben Dalloway and I'm 27 years young! I live and work in London and have been involved in gaming one way or another for about 10 years now. I am and always have been a Quake player and started with Quake 3 which I played back in good old days, before moving onto Quake 4 when it was released, which lead to my TDM team rB joining Reason-Gaming after we impressed in the first Q4 Eurocup. From there I was asked to step into the manager role at Reason after our previous manager decided to move away from gaming. I have been managing Reason for about 2-3 years now and play the odd bit of Quake Live here and there when revoltz or D1ablo want a few lessons :)

As someone with a full time job, how easy is it to combine everything?

Well I am lucky that our COD, CSS and BF2 teams are all experienced guys who pretty much take care of themselves and I don't have to step in that often, so I can take a back seat and watch to see how they are progressing which allows me to do stuff in my social life that I didn't have much time for when I first started managing at Reason. I am not usually online till about 11pm most evenings but any issues with Reason get dealt with during the day by my Co-manager and Reason owner Adam Godfrey. I always plan and book the lans so it can be quite stressful around that time but I tend to dedicate a day to it and try and book everything required for the lan on that day, so it doesn't interfere too much with work.


With your work at Reason Gaming, you’ve experienced what it’s like to manage teams and players from a variety of countries. How is it and did you ever have the intention of moving back to a fully UK based organisation, possibly due to costs or problems with communication, or do you just intend to keep UK teams as your base?

When I first started at Reason the idea was to keep a fully UK based organisation but what with the problems that were rife in the CSS scene at the time such as constant lineup changes we decided to dabble a bit in the European market and picked up a mixed nationality lineup including hudzG, warclown etc. When this lineup disbanded we took the former eSuba lan 79 winning team on who have been absolutely amazing ever since. The professionalism of these guys is second to none and I don't feel I could move back to an all UK CSS lineup again after working with these guys for so long. As for CoD, we have allways tried to keep a good solid UK base as there has always been a lot of talent from the UK in CoD games. Our new lineup is all UK which is something we haven't had for some time, and I plan on keeping it that way!

Having recently added a BF2 and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising team, what are the most important criteria you look at when judging whether to enter a new game or add a team. Is it purely based on results or also things like marketability?

For me results is the main thing, unless you have a bunch of supermodels playing in the team its not easy to market them any differently to any other team.

Reason Gaming has, in the past, had various teams active in console games. What made the organisation decide to take a step back from console gaming?

We felt the console market at the time wasn't ready for the support we were providing. They were not as mature as PC Gamers and this was evident at a couple of events where other teams tried to start fights with our players because they looked professional and were getting support, which was a new thing in the console scene at the time. I would imagine times have changed a little though and I will be keeping an eye out on games like FIFA in the future to possibly recruit a player or two, but I can't see us picking up an entire console division like we did previously.

Reason Gaming has been one of the few organisation’s who continued to support the CoD series, despite a number of setbacks in the past. Is there any particular reason behind this?

We have always stuck by CoD and CSS as our main two games and I personally enjoy watching both of those games. Add to the fact that there have always been regular lans meant there was no reason for us to change this.


With the recent changes in the CoD4 team, we’ve seen Jyri "kAMMYz" Hogman join the Reason Quake Live team. Is this a game you plan to expand in, up to the level of say .. SK, fnatic, Excello or Mousesports?

I definitely plan to expand our Quake Live division, but may wait for more lans to be announced before doing so. Being a Quake player myself the game is close to my heart so I want to wait for the right team to be available before we do take in a team. Jyri “arctic breeze” Hogman may not be at the level required to compete at the top level yet but he believes in himself and wants to improve hence I added him to the Quake Live roster as he is a good friend of mine.

Does your passion and previous experience in Quake have any influence on how you invest in players in the Quake series, or how you look at the game from a competitive point of view in comparison to Call of Duty or Counter-Strike: Source?

It does yes, in CSS and CoD I let the players decide on who they want to bring if if lineup changes are required, but in Quake due to my knowledge and experience I will be taking a more hands on approach. Having said that though there is a lot of new talent in Quake Live which I haven't competed against before so it wont be as easy as I first thought.

Unlike most other UK based organisations, Reason has never entered the Counterstrike 1.6 scene. Do you feel that having a Counterstrike: Source and 1.6 team would go against the interest of both games?

We did consider moving into the 1.6 scene but to support an international team is VERY expensive as most of them require salaries. I don't think having both a CSS and 1.6 team would be an issue as they are completely different games and the communities don't tend to mix with each other.

Is there any other game that recently caught your interest and that you are currently considering?

FIFA appears to be on the rise, and with the release of FIFA 2010 I would imagine there will be some nice tournaments in the future so I will be keeping an eye on this game.

With regards to yourself and the Reason Gaming organisation as a whole, what kind of goals have you set and what do the future plans look like?

We plan to keep on winning :)  The ideal goal is to run a professional organisation such as SK or fnatic and we won't stop trying until we have reached that level.

Do you ever expect to make a living out of it?

Me personally no, I have a full time job which I won't quit, but I would never turn down an extra salary if it was on offer :)

Switching over to Reason’s renewed roster for MW2. Other than being British, what does the addition of Danny & Ryan bring the the table which the team have potentially been missing for the past months?

I feel the chemistry in the team is a lot better now. The guys all get along really well with each other which definitely helps in game. They will obviously need some time to settle in but it helps that some of them have played together in previous teams such as MYM and the old Reason team. You would think being all British would help with communication but sadly duffer speaks a rare dialect of English that no one has heard before, so that will take some time for the guys to learn...

With the release of MW2 in November, what are your expectations? Do you expect the team to do well due to the similarities between CoD4 and MW2 or are you slightly more conservative, given that the initial CoD4 line-up (KarL, NiGGLE, benz1ne, dales, vasquez & rZE) also looked really great on paper but did not work out that well?

This lineup will definitely be competing at the top, I have no doubt about that. But that all depends on what happens with MW2 I guess.


How does having two very 'outspoken' players such as D1ablo and dUffER effect your job as a manager? Are they two players who you have to keep a close eye on, or are they actually two players which left to their own accord would give Reason a good name?

Tom and Ryan are both very passionate individuals who speak their mind, sometimes this may cause a few small problems on forums but it is also a positive in many ways such as at lan's when they are being vocal and shouting to encourage their team mates and rile the opposition.

In the past, the Reason Gaming CoD4 team seemed to have a bit of a negative attitude towards i-Series attendance. Did you share their opinion and how did it work out considering Multiplay is one of the organisation's main sponsors?

We never had a negative attitude towards I-Series, we only skipped i37 because the prize fund was lower than normal and kammyz didn't really want to spend 5 days away from  home. Multiplay do a great job at running tournaments and with ODEE on board adding tips from his experience with pro teams I can only see their events improving.

Thanks again Ben and the best of luck with Reason Gaming. Any last words?

Thanks for the interview Camiel, I don't tend to do many but for you it was a pleasure :) I would also like to thank our Sponsors Razer, Sapphire and Multiplay for their ongoing support.

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Special thanks to Joshua "twrs" Towers for his contribution to the interview.