The European Championship for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, ESEC, brought us a lot of entertainment and the pleasure to watch the best players all across Europe playing together united under their national flags. Big rivals became teammates, fighting together for the same goals and putting aside their rivalry from the teams.
Today, I had a chance to talk to one of the creators of European Championship, Marko 'mak1' Milosevic from E-Frag. ESEC had two successful seasons so far where at the end of the second one the organizers announced a World Championship for 2015. It will include a prize pool boost and an increase of the number of teams playing at the LAN finals.
I first met mak1 at the ESEC 2014 LAN finals and I felt that we should make a story about the people who stay behind the scene at big events. People are used to watching those events and cheering for their favourites and in the end, that's how they judge how successful an event was. With this interview my primary goal was to show the community what it takes to run a big LAN event. We spoke about E-Frag, ESEC, World Championship, the cheating problem and tournament organization.
Hello mak1, thanks for sharing your time with us. Can you tell me how did you guys come up with the idea of creating ESEC - European Sports European Championship?
First of all, I want to thank you for doing this interview. We wanted to provide the CS:GO community an opportunity to watch the best players in the world fighting for their country and national pride. In 2013, ESEC was just a test project, but now, we can see what it has become.
Have you had any prior experience with running the events?
Before launching ESEC we successfully organized around ten smaller and bigger events in the Balkan. Also we have had a very successful CS:GO Legends 2014 season behind us.
How old is the e-Frag project and how many people are involved in it?
I can happily say that one month ago E-Frag entered its third year. Throughout its time many people have passed by, making E-Frag better and better. Today, we have around ten people who are actively working on a daily basis to improve our organization.
Is work at e-Frag your only job, or do you take it more like a part time gig while doing something outside of the eSports world?
I started E-Frag project while I was still a professional football player. Today, E-Frag is my only job and I am doing my best to make it even bigger together with the people from our organization.
You already ran two successful seasons of ESEC. How much effort and will did it take to run such an event?
That’s right, we’ve organized a two successful seasons of ESEC. As the event grows bigger you need to invest more effort in it accordingly. There are always some new problems that occur which have to be solved, as it’s not easy to organize a big event. You have to go through many difficulties and stress, but once the Finals come and you see the smiles on the players faces and of the crowd, the feeling is just priceless.
I remember you telling me at ESEC LAN Finals how you hadn’t slept for a few days prior and during the LAN Finals. Is it that intense only during the finals, or do you still have to invest a lot of time during the online portion as well?
Yes, I remember our conversation at ESEC LAN finals. Actually, I hadn’t slept for three days and two nights (I have to admit that that was the first time in my life doing it and I don’t recommend it to anyone!). A lot of time has to be dedicated for this kind of event, since it lasts for six months including online and offline part.
Mak1 on the left
"I didn't sleep for three days and two nights preparing the ESEC LAN Finals."
Were there any special requests by teams coming to Belgrade for the LAN playoffs?
No, no one asked for any specific requirements, we provided their travel costs, 5-star hotel rooms, and after-party.
How are the players in the national teams working together? Are there any issues between them?
We are not going to discuss the internal stuff between the national teams. Although, to be honest there hasn’t been any so far. If we can help someone we do that straight away. It is very interesting to watch players who are like a big rivals in their teams to play together at ESEC for the national teams.
Is it hard for someone new who wants to step into the waters of tournament organizers to run a LAN event with international teams?
Of course it’s not easy to make a big LAN event, but if you are surrounded with the right people and you have the experience I am sure that there won’t be major problems.
Can you give a few suggestions to someone new who plans on doing it and what to look for at the start?
Whoever decides to start with organizing tournaments must know that he will encounter a lot of good and bad comments, but what is the most important is that from all of these comments and suggestions people get the feedback and improve for their next tournaments.
With the help of ESEC we saw many top players playing together for their national teams. Some of those teams were called ‘dream teams’. The community feedback was all positive. Did you guys expect any of that at all?
We wished for something like that. That is one of the biggest motives that forced us to continue with organizing tournaments and to become even better.
At the final day of ESEC 2014 we heard about your announcement regarding the World Championship for 2015. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Unfortunately I can’t disclose any more information other what was said at the ESEC LAN Finals. But, the important thing is that at the end of the year we will see sixteen of the best nations fighting at the World Championship finals.
Do you guys have any other plans besides a World Championship? Have you maybe considered running an event for regular teams?
Yes, besides the World Championship we plan on running a few more tournaments for the teams from the Balkan, Europe, Asia and America.
What do you think about the current tournament scene in the CS:GO scene, is it a bit too crowded or no?
As the number of players and viewers grow, the number of tournaments also grows, and that’s the double edged sword. Players are getting tired with so many tournaments, but the quality of playing has drastically increased because of the fact that there is always some tournament running. Also, community can watch some of the best matches almost daily, similar to many other sports.
"As the number of players and viewers grow, the number of tournaments also grows, and that’s the double edged sword."
We don’t really see many ‘national events’. What is your opinion on this? Shall this become a regular practice or kept as a ‘special’ event like once a year?
I think it’s enough to have those kind of events only once per year, same as any other sport.
Can such a tournament grow into something more than a cool idea? We can say that eSports is not really a nationally-centric industry, especially knowing how big the fan clubs are of many eSports organizations. Is there a room for a running national league?
It would be ideal if each country would have its own league. I think that this moment will come at some point, but it won't be enough if sponsors doen’t invest some of their resources in such leagues and tournaments so everyone can get motivated.
We saw that some players were a bit surprised when they heard their national anthem at the ESEC 2014 venue. Do you think that there is enough motivation for them to fight for their national team the same as in any other sport?
The fact is that 90% of the pro players played at ESEC is enough proof that players have enough motivation to play for their countries even though the prize pool for our two years couldn’t compare with some big events such as ESL, DreamHack, FACEIT etc.
If you could change the CS:GO scene in any way, what would be the main thing in which you would change?
We are witnesses of the CS:GO’s fast growth and I am very glad because of it. The community and players can both contribute to improvement of the game itself which is very important. I think that Valve is doing a great job and for now I wouldn’t change anything.
"I wouldn't change anything in the CS:GO scene."
I must ask you about the cheating situation. We witnessed a lot of discussion regarding the ban wave of pro players. Did you guys raise any special measures during your LAN Finals to prevent any unwanted stuff?
We are doing our best to prevent players from cheating at our tournament. We didn’t have any problems with cheating so far at our LAN event and I hope that we wont have any in the future.
From your own experience, how hard it would be to catch a player cheating at a LAN event?
No matter how much we try there is always some new cheat or other program which counts as cheating, our job is to try to do everything to send person who cheats to a place where he belongs, a VACation. Honestly, I hope that Valve continues their work with banning the cheaters.
Do you think that the current approach of tournament organizers is enough to stop people from cheating at LAN events or do you think that there should be more stuff done?
I am sure that the tournament organizers are doing everything they can to make sure that the events go without any problems and cheating.
With the New Year just having started, do you have any special wishes for 2015?
I would wish to you, GosuGamers’ readers, and to the people around me, a lot of health because everything else we can get as long as we are healthy…
