As part of one of my regular articles over at Decerto.net I decided to write a blog on the years events. Happy reading.
Mellowing Out: My 2009 in Gaming wrote:
Having been a part of competitive gaming now for around 7 years. Every year gaming seems to be getting bigger, and I seem to be getting more and more involved. So to mark the turn of the year, I thought I'd try and recount the trials and tribulations of the year that has almost passed. I think I should warn you in advance that this is 5,500 words, enjoy.
2008 concluded with a bang. In November I attended the World Cyber Games grand finals as part of the UK team along with two other member of The Imperial, Dan 'Rayne' Read and George 'Monkey' Boothby who went on to become World Champion. A few weeks afterwards, we, The Imperial, were approached by an organisation called Mousetek who wished to become our PC team. We accepted and that's where 2008 ended.
January
The new year launched with an real element of excitement in the air. Firstly, there was beginning to be a real buzz around The Imperial. We had kind of arrived. On console, many were looking at us as a real force in the European community. Which, considering we had only formed about six months before, was a real achievement and something that we hoped to build on. With eSports in general, in the UK scene was looking up as a new league was looking to revolutionise the competitive scene by delivering everything people was looking for. The organisation was operating under the name UKeSA and was headed by a number of big names from various eSports website, and even TV channels.
People were quickly moving back to CoD 4 in favour of the newer release, World at War which had received a fairly disappointing reception for the fleets of hopeful fans. Near the end of the month the championship titles were released for UKeSA which gave great hope to the UK console scene and even though GoW was missing off the list, CoD 4 and Halo 3 made an appearance and anticipation began to build in what was touted as the biggest league in 2009 and the answer to many people's prayers.
In The Imperial, things were also moving quickly, especially on the PC side of things. We added a new CoD 4 line up and along with our highly rated Team Fortress 2 team, we were beginning to receive some coverage on the bigger PC sites including Cadred and Tek-9. Although initial community response was fairly dire, replies to news topics were often along the lines of, "Who?" or "**** org." On the console side of things, we added our Gears of War team to our line up, Romance.
February
February pretty much began as January ended, with everyone gearing up towards the highly anticipated launch of UKeSA. As our PC team continued to grow, we picked up teams for Counter Strike Source and Warcraft III. Midway through the month, we saw our first real disappointment in the PC scene with our CoD 4 team opting to leave us and join Team Infused. I have had many experiences with players leaving and normally it's easy to take on the chin, but this time it was a particularly bitter pill to swallow as we were so new to the PC scene and worse still, I had just recommended Infused to our sponsor, LIME. Still, teams have to go where is best for them, and with this, we just had to move on. And move on we did, quickly, perhaps to quickly, in what started a saga within CoD 4 PC I would much prefer to regret. We moved quickly to pick up another hotly rated UK CoD roster that brought with it more baggage than a Boeing 757. A team riddled with past cheaters and instability. In brighter news, with the release of the UKeSA premiership titles came the announcement that The Imperial's Team Fortress 2 team had been included as a Premiership team, and so had our FIFA player TI Sensation. We also added fellow premiership FIFA player, Klash to our roster, as well as picking up three time XL Pro Evo winner, NeoKubrick.
At the end of the month, UKeSA opened its doors and the competition got underway. Exciting times all round.
March
March started with making the decision to run for UKeSA council. The positions were advertised as a means to find community members who will help push UKeSA and the related games forward. A role I felt I could fill quite well so I decided to run despite facing impossible competition and blatant defeat before I'd even begun. During the process I was required to fill in a number of Q&A questions before finally participating in a Live Debate held on QuadV. I’m not entirely sure how many people tuned into this but it most definitely went badly for me as I choked and stuttered through each question that was thrown at me. Needless to say, I wasn’t voted into the position. In other news, after a month of struggling with our Call of Duty 4 PC team, we decided to release them. March also saw the launch of the new season of the UK ESL EPS where our CSS team were competing. The month ended on a high as we achieved our first podium finish in Warcraft III ESL EPS Benelux. We also added our first Trackmania player and once again recruited a new Call of Duty 4 PC team, this time in the form of the much more stable zeroPoint!
April
April began with the shock recruitment of dignitas Leader and Manager, Rumsey. Meanwhile our TF2 team were ranked 8th in Europe in the regular European Ranking series on Cadred.
Nine days into the month saw my first LAN of the year in the form of i36. In attendance were our CSS, CoD 4 (PC) and Halo 3 team. This was my 3rd I-series event and also the 3rd time I was going to be camping. Bad times. The highlight of the event was undoubtedly Shinjuku’s impressive afro which Phaz got a big kick from patting. We rocked to the event with press passes which was also pretty good. Sitting among our “fellow” journalists made it far easier to produce Decerto content for the event. The Imperial’s CSS, CoD 4 (PC) and Halo 3 teams finished top 16, top 12 and 3rd respectively with our Halo 3 team taking 3rd for the second consecutive Halo 3 event held at I-series. A pleasing result on paper but highly disappointing for the players involved, with some of them clearly unable to hide their disappointment.
No sooner had I-series finished, we were onto the next LAN of the month; Gadget Show Live. This was an invite only CSS event in which four of Europe’s top CSS were featured, Team dignitas, CrackClan, VeryGames and Team Coolermaster. The star of the show though, was the Imperial’s World Champion Guitar Hero III player, Monkey, who attracted huge crowds to witness him perform exhibition songs or participate with fans in various give aways. This was undoubtedly one of my favourite events of 2009 with the trip being all expenses paid, as well as being put up in a top notch hotel. It was a great weekend, the highlight of which was skipping the 4,000 people in the queue with our pass which allowed us instant access.
At the end of April, we signed a new FIFA player, two new PES players, a host of new Trackmania players and of course, we began the Sublime saga by allowing a merger with newly formed Sublime, fronted by manager, Acid.
May
The month began with a renewed optimism as the pace once again increased in The Imperial. One of our FIFA players, AdamW was competing in the FIFA Inactive World Cup in Barcelona where he placed 5th-8th after losing to the eventual runner up in the quarter final. Our FIFA team were in fine form at this time with Sensation and Klash finishing 1st and 2nd respectively in the UKeSA FIFA Premiership, with AdamW qualifying for the PS3 UKeSA Championship LAN finals, and Sensation winning the ShopTo FIFA tournament. Things were far less rosey on other titles with our Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 (360) teams leaving to join CrackClan and TCM with the UKeSA LAN finals being the last event that each would play under The Imperial, while our Call of Duty 4 (PC) team decided to disband after their rather disappointing placement at i36.
With this brought a number of changes as we brought in a whole PS3 division, a new PC manager called Term and we took on our first contracted team, a Call of Duty 4 (PC) team based in the Netherlands.
May was also a huge mile stone for the Call of Duty 4 (360) community with the release of the Decerto v2 rules. The month ended with the news that our Team Fortress 2 team had moved up to ranked 7th in Europe in Cadred’s European ranking for May. The Imperial also registered as a Limited Company, Imperial Esports LTD.
June
June began as another very volatile month for our organisation. It was clear that the relationship between The Imperial and Sublime wasn’t going to work and with this came a split which I won’t go into too much detail about. Needless to say, we were far from happy. Elsewhere things were looking more optimistic; one of our Trackmania players qualified for the UK ESL EPS Finals. The Imperial announced our second sponsor, PW Computers. Our Playstation 3 team also won their first tournament on Killzone 2.
The main event of June was the UKeSA LAN Finals. The event, originally intended to be held as part of a huge consumer event, was now going to be held in the Xleague studio. Never-the-less, we headed down to London with optimistic hopes of a great weekend. Millo made his first appearance as the official TI driver, picking me up from Leicester which was nice of him. The Imperial attended the event in force competing in six different tournaments taking three 1st places, two 2nd places, and one 3rd place. Although a resounding success for our team, the cracks were beginning to show in a less than flawless UKeSA setup which saw sponsors disappearing and logos being covered up by masking tape with the entire event taking place in a room that doubled as the Babestation studio. Despite all the furniture being covered in velvet and the room having one seat which all the participants had to share; the event was enjoyable and with the help of QuadV and a number of budding volunteers, the whole thing ended on a semi decent level.
The month ended with the official departure of our Halo 3 and Call of Duty (360) teams, and with the addition of our new French Halo 3 roster.
July
July got off to a bang as we announced another sponsor, this time, PCO Group. A top supplier of custom made PCs. Four days into the month was the first LAN of July; the UK ESL EPS LAN finals. I won a VIP trip to the finals with Cadred, dignitas and ESL which involved getting some of my travel paid back which was quite handy. With this, I once again headed to London, this time, with The Imperial’s Trackmania Nations player, StevieM. Despite my best effort at getting lost in London, I eventually found the venue and boy, was it worth it. The event was exactly how gaming events should be run; with free entry because of the corporate sponsorship from Intel, the setup was immaculate. StevieM eventually placed 2nd in what seemed an extremely long day of gaming. We then headed to our hotel in London which we believed would be easy to find. I don’t think we could have been more wrong. Taking the tube at 12 is surprisingly difficult enough, but then having to get off miles from the hotel in basically the Ghetto and navigate your way to a hotel is no easy task; especially when the hotel receptionist cannot even provide directions. After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived in quite possibly the worst Travelodge of all time. With a party going on on the opposite rooftop, as well as the air conditioning being broken, we were destined for the worst night sleep in recorded history, thankfully we were knackered, and I eventually fell asleep in what I would describe as soup my bed was that sweaty.
Four days later was yet another LAN, this time MILK LAN with our French Halo 3 team competing for their first and only time under The Imperial banner. Their biggest competition, our former team, CrackClan. The team eventually placed 2nd. The French invasion of The Imperial continued as we also announced our new Rainbow Six squad comprised of three French and one Belgian player. Our promising Halo 3 team’s reign under The Imperial banner was unfortunately cut short though as they made a decision to miss I-series because of the possibility of catching swine flu. This news soon became widespread and quickly became considered as one of the greatest LAN dodging excuses of all time, cropping up on both PC and Console forums.
July also played host to two of the biggest PC events for CSS and CoD 4 (PC) of the Summer LAN season, Outpost On Fire and The eXperience. The latter of which was voted as THE PC event of the year in 2008. Our CoD 4 (PC) team attended both events, at OOF the team managed a draw in the groups against high flying Fnatic and eventually placed top 12. While at TeX the team managed a draw in the groups against purEsports, the only team at the event hailing from outside Europe. Sadly, a mix up of flight times meant that the team had to forfeit their Lower Bracket second round fixture against mTw.
July had more up its sleeve as the PES rankings UK Nationals were also held at Old Trafford this month. This was the first time I’d had any real interaction with the PES community and I was extremely impressed. The event was of the highest quality and could definitely rival the UK ESL EPS Finals for the best event so far of the year. With a free buffet lunch and free stadium tour, which I turned down being a Leeds fan. The Imperial had three players competing at the event, NeoKubrick, Azy and Footimaster, with Footimaster currently sitting rank one on PES rankings. The winner of the event would win the PESRankings 2009 title and represent the UK in the European Finals held in France. All three players qualified through the group stages and the first to be knocked out was NeoKubrick against last year’s champion, Wallace. Azy then got knocked out in the next round in a rather unfortunate game which saw him hitting the woodwork more times than a lumberjack. The event looked to be throwing up the final everyone was expecting, The Imperial’s Footimaster against Leng Jay. However, there was a spanner in the works, and in the semi final, in a game that Footimaster looked to be edging, the referee awarded a red card to one of Footimaster’s players and with 10 men, he was eliminated from the tournament in the semi finals. This meant that Footimaster had to settle for 2nd place in the PES Rankings and fortunately, the second UK spot for the European Championships.
The month ended as we added a new Halo 3 team ahead of i37 and also recruited a new Call of Duty 4 (360) team after a lengthy absence from the scene. The team quickly scooped 5th place in the Decerto European Rankings.
August
Three days into August we announced our forth sponsor, Games Basement. Games Basement is an online retailer of Video Games. Then a few days later came the biggest I-series of the year, i37 which also played host to the M-Festival, FIFA Meet Your Match LAN Finals and also the World Cyber Games 2009 UK Nationals. This was The Imperial’s biggest event of the year, with three of us defending our UK titles in the World Cyber Games official games, three of our FIFA players competing in the MYM LAN finals, while our Halo 3 and Counter Strike: Source competed in the M-Festival tournaments. The event had the makings of an epic. The Meet Your Match tournament kicked off first, and things didn’t go as hoped, two of our players losing in the first round and the other losing in the quarter finals. When things seemed like they couldn’t get worse for our FIFA players, two of our players were ejected from the event without being able to compete in the FIFA WCG event; one for stealing and the other for being too drunk. Both players were also removed from The Imperial organisation as a result of their behaviour.
The event picked up again as both our Halo 3 and CSS were putting in some decent results while  Monkey was doing what he does best by dominating the competition. A slightly apprehensive and Rayne surprised even himself by completely blowing the Virtua Fighter 5 competition away and being the first member of The Imperial to book his place in the grand final in Chengdu. Monkey wasn’t far behind after an emphatic final victory which once again looked all too easy. I qualified for the knock out stages of both the mobile phone titles, and after losing in the first round of Wise Star 2, I began to make my way through the knock out stages of Asphalt 4 until I once again found myself in the finals on main stage. I say I made my way through the knock out stages, I narrowly won one game and got a default win for the other. Anyway, I found myself on stage against now tournament favourite, Lethal. The winner would get a trip to Chengdu in China for the World Cyber Games final as well as win a cheap bottle of Champagne which some ****head stole anyway. I don’t know why but I get uncontrollable shaky when I’m competing and despite looking like I was operating a pneumatic drill and almost blowing a 2-0 lead, I managed to once again retain my UK title.
I37 concluded with our CSS team taking a 7th/8th place final, their highest ever I-series finish and a placement to be proud of. Our Halo 3 team once again placed 3rd at an i-series Halo 3 event, for the 3rd time in a row. All in all a successful event, except for the fact that I had slept in the boot of TrevVv’s car each night we were there, one of the nights we also witnessed some kid take a slash on Shinjuku’s car which was both amusing and annoying, especially for him. He was fuming in the end.
August concluded with The Imperial picking up one of the best racers in the world, WCG 2008 Project Gotham Silver Medalist, Live. Monkey also won a Guitar Hero tournament at the Bloodstock Music Festival. Sensation once again won a ShopTo FIFA tournament.
September
September started rather negatively with players going off to university and such, both our Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike: Source teams decided to call it a day and split. We also parted company with our Playstation 3 division after it was decided that the relationship was not working out. We once again welcomed back our former Call of Duty 4 (360) line up consisting of Hocka, Arsenal, Apache and Wardy.
The first LAN of the month was Frag-o-Matic taking place in Belgium where our Call of Duty 4 (PC) team would be in attendance; this time with the correct flights booked. After a bad game early on in the winner bracket, the fought their way through the lower bracket before eventually winning the event. A great result for the team who were slowly establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in Europe. But, less than a week after they returned, it was decided that we would cancel their contracts after a length feud between one of their members and our PC management team.
The month ended with LIVE competing in the Need for Speed: Shift UK LAN Final. For the winner... a Nissan 360z sports car! After qualifying in a regional event, LIVE looked like the favourite for the title after consistently setting solid lap times, until the final where he squared off against Stune of Team dignitas. I was not at the event to report the events which took place in the final, but from reports, the whole thing ended in fairly controversial fashion with LIVE losing after a cameo from Tinchy Stryder caused the crowd the erupt abruptly surprising LIVE and causing him to drive off the track on the corner. Quite unlucky given the prize and the circumstances.
October
October began with Footimaster representing the UK in the Pro Evolution Soccer European championships, an event that he’ll be hoping to forget and after a slow start, was unable to make it out of the group stages.
Four days later we made a huge decision to take on one of the top European CSS teams. Formally known as MoD. Financially, this was the most expensive team we had ever taken on. The team were soon competing at SLAP!, an event held in their home country, Denmark. They were seeded 5th for the event behind Dignitas , Vitrolic , mTw , and 4Kings. The weekend of the LAN was to be a big weekend for The Imperial with our teams competing at three different events in three different countries. Our CSS team at Slap!, our Vegas 2 team at The Ferry LAN and our Gears of War team competing at EGL.
EGL had risen out of the ashes of ESGN and was an event that we had had in the pipe line for quite some time; something that was suddenly rushed out with little time to prepare for. Unfortunately, I had just moved into a new house in Leeds and with being busy over the days leading up to EGL, I took a back seat in the logistics of the event which were handled by Loco and Rumsey. EGL quickly rolled around and thanks to the hard work from Loco, Rumsey and of course Chris from LIME, everything was set up to be a great event. There was still quite a lot to be worked out and it was fair to say over the weekend we winged it somewhat. We were especially unlucky with the unfortunate circumstances which surrounded Rumsey’s son who thankfully was OK. Despite broken arms and unexpected power cuts, everyone chipped in, with people who hadn’t even given a thought to refereeing during the event all pitching in to make sure the event ran smoothly and despite the schedule being long out the window, we pulled off what I would consider to be a pretty successful event. There is no doubt a lot that can be improved for next time around, an event that will be announced before the end of the month, but I believe there is a lot of good to be drawn on too. I was extremely proud of what we had pulled off and I for one had worked my tits off. I think overall I had had less than thirty minutes break over entire weekend despite being the first in and last out. And I wasn’t the only one. A select few had really given their all to make sure the event was as successful as it was. These people know who they are and without naming names they can pat themselves on the back. I will give a shout out though to Loco’s Dad who bought me a subway.
As for the results, well, our Gears of War team placed 2nd at EGL and gave the undisputed European champions, Team dignitas their tightest game since XL3 from a European team. Our Rainbow Six Vegas 2 team over came sea sickness (I’m not even joking, don’t hold LANs on a boat) to place top 2 with the final placement pending the result of an online game after the schedule over ran. Finally, our CSS team performed well above expectations, placing 3rd at SLAP! LAN and achieving a podium finish at the first time of asking. A very successful weekend all round.
The month was rounded off with The Imperial having a short lived stint with a Modern Warfare (PC) team, picking up a highly rated Battlefield 2 team and also acquiring a new sponsor, VeryGames. VeryGames are one of the leading providers of European Game servers. The Imperial.CSS were finally ranked 7th in October in the Cadred European Rankings.
November
November began like many other months, extremely hectic, firstly with a PES Rankings LAN where Footimaster placed 2nd. The Imperial CSS team were crowned champions of Denmark by winning the Danish Esports League season one. More success online followed with our Vegas 2 team winning the XS Semi Pro Ladder.
Meanwhile, WCG was getting nearer and nearer and we were beginning to sweat. The reason: we didn’t even have visas yet to get into China. The day drew ever nearer and it finally came to crunch time. If we didn’t have an invite from the Chinese government by the next day we were unable to attend the event. Luckily, we did receive the invite and a day in Manchester and £107.50 later, I was ready to go to China.
The UK team was 1/4 of the size that it had been one year ago which meant we were a much tighter group. Three flights later and a sprint through Amsterdam airport, we arrived in Chengdu. It’s fair to say we were quite tired but we were soon greeted by hyper WCG representatives who were keen for our autographs believe it or not. After signing a number of t-shirts, hats and notepads, as well as having a picture with everyone there, we boarded our bus to our hotel.
Our hotel was great, top notch. I saw Holiday Inn in the itinerary and thought it would be bog standard but it was one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. Upon arriving in our hotel we did some product placement with a Chinese brand of pot noodle; a video which to our horror showed up in the WCG 2009 summary video. Day two began with a tour of the Chengdu Panda reserve. All the players boarded buses and with the support of a police escort, we made our way across Chengdu to see one of their hottest tourist attractions.
The day was rounded off with a once again questionable opening ceremony and then quite possibly the worst meal of my life. I thought that bread dipped in Asda’s own Pot Noodle was an all time low but the offerings of stewed turtle, deer tongue and roasted chicken, served in its’ entirety including the roasted head, were too much for me and I decided to go hungry.
The event itself was amazing. The venue was the second best I’ve been to with the best being WCG 2008 in Germany. However, the crowd was absolutely amazing. At times, it was absolutely packed with tens of thousands of screaming fans packed in to see their favourite esports stars compete. Over the course of the five days I continued to sign autographs and have pictures taken with me. My competition didn’t exactly go to plan. I walked the group stages and going into the second day, I felt that I had what it would take to go one better than my 4th place the previous year, but once again I was humbled at the hands of a German competitor who overcame me in the presence of what seemed like the entire German team. I placed 5th-8th overall. I wasn’t the only one feeling the disappointment though. Rayne was knocked out in the group stages, and Money was beaten for the first time ever in a competitive tournament and ended up with the same placement as me. This was definitely a cue to let off some steam, and after visiting a decent bar the night before, we decided to go to a Chinese club this time. The club was an experience. Firstly, I’ve never been anywhere that busy, I’ve been too busy clubs in the UK but you can still move in areas, but not here. There was no dance floor and the club was mostly tables dotted around the room. Drinks were generally purchased in bulk or as entire bottles of spirits to mix yourself. The club even had a number of acts on including some strippers and a pretty talented singer. As well a kid who rapped along to a fairly cringe worthy rendition of Jay-Z’s Encore. Surprisingly, we were the weirdest people in there, especially myself and Chris Bullard. I am 6ft3 and Chris is two inches taller and needless to say, we were at least half a foot taller than the next tallest people in there until a few of the Italian players rocked in. Meanwhile the Kenyan national team were hitting the dance podiums and the US Virtua Fighter was so smooth he had wheels trying to slime with every girl in the venue.
The rest of the event was spent soaking in some of the culture or trying to find some food that we could trust. A very memorable event which finished with a very lengthy return journey.
As usual, the month was far from over. After some more online success in ESL and other tournaments, we welcomed our Modern Warfare 2 (360) team, Wonderbabes ahead of the GameStop $10K tournament. Footimaster also competed in a PES event which was also attended by a host of Premiership stars which he went on to win.
Dreamhack was the final port of call of the CSS scene for 2009, as some of the top team descended on Sweden for the winter leg of the largest Bring Your Own Computer LAN in the world. Ironically, our CSS team were attending a Turn Up and Play event, and therefore attended without a computer. The event itself was of a very weird format, and our team had to go through a qualifying event first; with the top 2 advancing to the semi finals of the overall tournament. After a horrendous start in the group stages, the team were back on track and managed a draw against the ever impressive Reason Gaming line up. The team managed to place 4th in the groups and advance to the knock out stages. The weird format meant that we eventually faced Power Gaming, the winning team advancing to the semi finals to take on Reason Gaming with the losers going home. We’d already lost to Power twice in the tournament but managed to pull the game out of the bag, defeating Power and setting up a game against Reason in the semis the next day. The semi final match didn’t go as well and an extremely strong Reason team proved their European dominance by bagging the win and going on to take the tournament. Our team had to settle for a 3rd place finish for the second even in a row.
December
And this brings us to now. In what is always a quiet month for gaming, little has happened this month. Online tournament are the order of the day with our teams continuing to perform in their various tournaments. Our CSS team are among the nominees for the Heaven’s Media CSS team of 2009 while wantz is a nominee for the Heaven’s Media Break Out Player of 2009.
A great year for myself and The Imperial which hasn’t even finished yet. Over the course of the year, we have achieved over 100 podium finishes in the many online and LAN events we have taken part in. We have competed in six invite only International tournaments; eleven invite only national tournaments, and attended many LANs throughout the UK, European and Asia competing in France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and China. With all things considered, it is my belief that we are the most successful team hailing from Console Gaming not only in 2009, but ever!
So this seems like the type of place to wrap this whole thing up. Thanks for reading and I’d finally like to give a shout out to each of our sponsors, LIME Interactive, Games Basement, PW Computers, PCO Computers and VeryGames. Also a big mention to the other managers of The Imperial, Phaz, oLi, and Term, as well as everyone else that has helped The Imperial achieve what they have this year. Finally to the other people who have made this such a memorable year in eSports and hopefully 2010 will be even more memorable.
Chris ‘Mellow’ Marsh |
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Power Gaming
