Carmac: "We need to build a world where top 10 is not an old gentlemen's club"

The eSports world is already preparing for the upcoming IEM World Championship Hanover. We from GosuGamers begin our pre-event coverage by talking to the man behind it all - IEM Production Manager Michal "Carmac" Blicharz.

Carmac has been a major driving force of the Intel Extreme Masters and is undoubtedly one of the most renowned figures on the eSports scene. We caught up with him to hear what he has to say about the World Championship in March, his thoughts on other eSports disciplines and why does he think that all leagues in this sphere should grow some balls.

GosuGamers: You are on the rim of closing the sixth season of Intel Extreme Masters and you have been breaking records all year long. What brews in the kitchen of IEM? Do you have any specific goals for Hanover 2012?

Michal Blicharz: The goal is to always be better than previously and it’s a tall order this time. Last year’s Intel Extreme Masters World Championship was absolutely epic and there are just some aspects that we can’t beat. For example, our hall was filled over capacity last year and security stopped letting people in (a hall was closed like that for the first time in the history of CeBIT). To top it in that aspect, we’d have to have a larger hall. But we will have a stage and two big viewing areas – so not one but three places where you could watch the gamers compete. In that respect, the event will easily top the one from last year.

GG: Since the first Global Challenge in Cologne, IEM travelled to five countries on four continents. Which event did you like the best in terms of atmosphere and fans? And in terms of quality of games and player pool?

MB: I personally feel that the player pool at our events has always been better than we get credit for, but it’s a problem when you run open qualifiers. Many big names get beaten before they get to our events. The best playing field was, overall, in Kiev. I felt that all three tournaments were really great and interesting to follow.

As regards the fans, the best ones were definitely in Brazil and I blame Violet for it. You rarely ever see an audience which gets seduced by a player in the course of an event. Their passion for violet rose as he was progressing farther and farther. It was amazing to see.

GG: Can you disclose any details on Season VII? Are there new disciplines incoming, new format, more GC events, etc? DotA 2 for example?

MB: We aren’t ready to talk about the next season, but I have to say that I’m working very hard on what’s to come next. The first details of the next season will come from us directly and I can’t spill the beans to the press about it yet. I am quite sure we will go to a country which we haven’t gone to, though.

GG: We see many major tournaments organize off-season events to keep their fan-base’s stomach full of StarCraft 2 content through the year, examples include GomTV’s GSTL, the NASL’s team league, IGN’s IPL TAC 2, etc. Are there any plans for such an IEM production in the future?

MB: The ESL is hosting the Go4SC2 Cup series every single week and we’ve been doing that for a mighty long time. The goal isn’t to get the most attention out of it but to service a community of European players. I feel like there’s enough content “in between” in StarCraft II already. We don’t have to go there.

GG: What about the return of other shows, like “Rotterdam University” for example? Maybe even an “Uszat University of how to properly interview people”?

MB: That would be an ESL TV question… I do know ESL TV is planning a lot of new stuff, some of it you should see around next week!

As for me, I cannot commit to a show like RotterdaM University anymore. I am busy as is, unfortunately. Also, a tutorial on interviewing people would maybe have two episodes and that’s it :)



GG: Let’s talk some actual IEM competition. WC Hanover is bringing together the best SC2, LoL and CS 1.6 players in the world. On the StarCraft 2 front, Koreans have been the dominant force in all but one GC events, in LoL all regions had their fair share of success while CS was traditionally dominated by European teams. What do you expect to happen at the world finals of Season VI. Who are your favourites to win each of the three disciplines?

MB: For sure the most open question when it comes to winners is the League of Legends tournaments. You just don’t know who’s going to win it! You could name eight teams that win the event and it wouldn’t surprise me.

Our four Global Challenges were won by teams from four different geographical regions, from four different playing cultures. In Cologne it was CLG from North America, in China it was World Elite from China, in New York it was Fnatic from Europe and in Kiev it was the Russians from M5. On top of this there are a lot of teams that cannot be written off, like SK Gaming, Dignitas, TSM and others… I have no favourites in LoL. The game is too new for that.

When it comes to StarCraft II, there are over ten Koreans competing for the crown and the winner will likely be a Korean. The interesting part for me is that we will be seeing many of the “traveling Koreans” – those that go to live events a lot in Europe and America. The audiences know them very well and it’s important because it’s much more fun to cheer for someone you know very well as opposed to a winning machine you know nothing about.

As for CS, it will just be… epic. Impossible to say who’ll win.

GG: I recently read an article mentioning that StarCraft 2 fans have grown spoiled. Do you think that the rapid expansion of StarCraft 2 and eSports overall are having a negative recoil? If yes, what can be done to avoid it?

MB: I am not sure if it’s a negative thing that there’s so much good content in StarCraft II out there. I think for the most part it drives the industry forward because the standards are raised every time. The question is whether that forward motion is based on sustainable business models because if the production quality and the content is created with more money that comes in, then it might be gone overnight. And that would set us back a lot as an industry.



GG: StarCraft 2 was recently calculated as the best earning eSport of 2011. Do you see that changing in the coming years, i.e. SC2 players earning less or be outran by competitors in other disciplines?

MB: Have you missed the announcements that Riot’s Season 2 has 5,000,000 USD in prize money? :) For StarCraft II I am still afraid of the bubble – some tournaments will disappear sooner or later.

GG: In comparison to other premier tournaments, IEM has always focused on having a greater variety of players, at least in terms of popularity among the community. Although this has been a defining feature for IEM and has provided us with incredible upsets and from-zero-to-hero moments, do you think it's hurting the level of attention that IEM gets from the fans in any way? Do you feel threatened by events such as MLG, for example, that accent more heavily on the “show and stardom” ingredient, as it seems that is what is most preferred by the audience?

MB: We are not X-Factor. We are a sports league.

I know how to make sure that at every event we have the most famous players and we had enough money in the budget to make it happen, but I am simply not interested in this. If it hurts our attention, that’s fine. Our sponsors Intel have been with this league for six years (and for over 10 with ESL in general). They are in it for the long run and they trust us to do the right thing for esports. They like good numbers like any other sponsor but that’s not the primary target.

Our primary goal is to grow eSports and we won’t do that by stuffing piles of cash into the pockets of the players that are already rich and famous. We need to build a world where we see a totally new, unknown player breaking into the world’s top 10 every 12 months. We need to build a world where the world’s top 10 is not an old gentlemen’s club like it happened in Warcraft III.

All the leagues in this industry should grow some balls and run open qualifiers to look for the next 18 year old world champion from Europe or America. Otherwise sooner or later we’re in trouble.



GG: Speaking of MLG, the tournament recently took a brave step of making one of its events PPV. How do you judge this move by Mr. DiGiovanni, both in terms of its effect on eSports in general and the competition between tournaments? Are there any plans to alter the way people access IEM?

MB: I obviously have an opinion but I am not in a position to publicly discuss what MLG is doing. Intel Extreme Masters will remain free to access. At the start of the year we were actually talking of finding ways to give the community HD streaming for free at our events (and we are still looking), so we’re much closer to doing that than to going Pay-Per-View.

GG: You created the wonderful tradition of handing the unique Sick Nerd Baller hoodies to the community vote favorites of each tournament. If, for a second, you are to extend this practice to encompass every notable community figure, to which person would you award that prestige?

MB: I haven’t thought about that, but it’s a great idea! I am quite sure we’ll do it next season.

GG: You tweet a lot about playing LoL. Is that the only game you are spending time on currently?

MB: Right now yes, because once I like something I grind it out until I’m sick of it. You cannot run League of Legends events without being a decent player yourself. I am level 23 right now and rising in LoL and Platinum in StarCraft II. I wish I had the time to play both games…

GG: Any last words you might have for the IEM fans? Teasing, hype, promises, etc?

MB: I won’t tease or make promises. All I can do is say that we at ESL will continue to work our asses off to provide the best possible experience for the community. Also, I’ve made a promise to the LoL fans that if we break 333,333 concurrent viewers on all streams combined at any point during the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship, I will do LoL cosplay at the opening event of the next season.