CommunityFortress

Got Frag thread unlocked apparently: Link

The following interview was conducted this afternoon (PST) between eXtine and Blight Gaming's owner BlackFoger over the span of two hours. The topic matter spawning this chat was the very contentious "blight gaming" Got Frag thread that RK- took upon himself to shut down after "private info" was posted. BlackFoger mentioned after the interview that his XFire account information was given out and the BlightGaming website was also hacked to erroneously display that Blight LLC was shutting down to lack of funds. There are currently multiple shenanigans going on at that site. Meanwhile on GotFrag there is a new thread going where people are re-posting their issues with BlackFoger. A lot of reading out there, and a lot of reading below.

We discuss the ESEA LAN results, how the player's trips got financed, the Blight Contract posted on GotFrag, and other facets of BlackFoger's Blight LLC. The transcript is edited of extraneous remarks and Black Fogers comments are left untouched. Everytime there is a new line it is from a different steam message.

 

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

2:46 PM - eXtine.Whale: Welcome everyone, this is eXtine from CommunityFortress.com and eXtv, I'm sitting down for an improptu interview with Blight.Blackfoger. Blackfoger would you like to introduce yourself an describe Blight.Gaming as an organization and your place with it?

2:48 PM - blight blackfoger: Im James

Ive started blight gaming since 2002 and been owner since then

we were a pub clan for sometime with 300 members and a very succesful competitive team within that

2:50 PM - eXtine.Whale: The Blight teams have indeed been very successful lately, with Blight.OWN (Mesr, Smaka, oPlaid, Platinum, Harbleu, BlackyMonster) and Blight.Fanom (Justin, Saber07, Orzo, TheFragile, ww-, TLR) taking 1st and 2nd place respectively. Did you go to the LAN yourself? Or just watch the matches online?

2:52 PM - blight blackfoger: I missed my flight this time as I was on stand bye last season I went and hung out with the two big S's seagull and sequel

our manager the whiz aka ben was there for me and he was there last time

2:55 PM - eXtine.Whale: Want to share your thoughts on the matches?

2:56 PM - blight blackfoger: i got to say emg was really much better then I thought I personally though they lose all matches and place last just because they seem to practice one map alot each week and thats how they really perform well bo3 format might hurt them but i was shocked

yz50 was amazing

mackey love the guy offclassed 6 times in one round during yukon

they were amazing

col idk what happened heard they didnt practice 6 days straight before the LAN?

my boy brad best medic in the game was amazing as usual

2:58 PM - eXtine.Whale: Were you surprised when Blight.OWN took coL out then?

2:58 PM - blight blackfoger: not really me and the whiz said before blight v blight finals

but we were being optimists

both teams oplaids team didnt make anywhere close to playoffs

1st time a week pug took col to finals

almost won

2nd time a team with chemsitry and sam's lan skills rocked all the teams

I missed all sunday matches was asleep usually sleep in to 1 or 4 pm

got up to 7 missed calls

and it ringing to seagull screaming to me LINGLE DID IT

OMG LINGLE DID IT

laughed pretty hard

3:00 PM - eXtine.Whale: Heheh :)

3:01 PM - eXtine.Whale: Yea, must have been a pretty good thing to wake up to on a Sunday afternoon. At least you can relive some of it through TGBF and the upcoming eXtv's (filling in the gaps of TGBF's VODs)... ...

3:01 PM - blight blackfoger: lol...

ESEA demo's

like the ability to roam

atch certain people

gave a lesson to a friend making a cevo-A team by watching blight.fanom vs emg and how to play solly on that map watching TLR was amazing learned so new tricks

3:04 PM - eXtine.Whale: Staying on the topic of the LAN, theres been a very active thread on Gotfrag with the thread titled blight gaming that is currently up to 173 posts. There are a bunch of stories in that thread, and you've mentioned in past discussions with me the unreliability of stories on the internet. I'd like to clarify those stories with you from your perspective bit by bit: Did you buy and pay for plane tickets for every memeber of your teams?

3:05 PM - blight blackfoger: Ok like to add yes I am not the perfect person we are working on issues dealing with competitive gamers is alot different then normal business me and ben have delt with

some are true yes some are really false.

as far as smaka we worked out a deal for me to reimburse him afterwords and its been working fine i just dont pick up my phone alot

as far as the hotel idk what the problem was exactly when I called the guy didnt know anything at that put it on a new card and paid the $500 bill on it np

3:06 PM - eXtine.Whale: "Afterwords"... so did you not pre-purchase the plane ticket? Why did Smaka need to be reimbursed and for what?

3:06 PM - blight blackfoger: I paid all of blight.fanoms tickets

umm we talked about it with plat for awhile which way we wanted to work I got blackys expensive ass ticket from NY they got some themselves harbs dad wanted to pay for his ticket wont let me reimburse him

and doing so I wouldnt take any winnings seeing how I felt they win 1st

3:10 PM - eXtine.Whale: How soon did the team know about this arrangment? Considering Blight.OWN slid into the 4th place spot were plane tickets never promised by Blight in the first place?

3:10 PM - blight blackfoger: we knew weeks before the LAN?

err hold on

as soon as nexus said they were not able to go

3:11 PM - eXtine.Whale: Yes, but also going into the season itself you sponsored two teams and the possibility was always there that both teams would make it to the finals. Was that capability to expressely pay for Plane Tickets and to Hotels not in place at the start of the season? It is a large cost.

3:11 PM - blight blackfoger: we talked for a week and decided it

actually we were going to sponsor three teams nexus

paladin asked me to pay his $160 league fee's then didnt reply to me for days

then told me blights a pyramid scheme and hes not paying me back

3:15 PM - eXtine.Whale: after you paid?

3:15 PM - blight blackfoger: yup

didnt know?

yes we were but it was sort of an issue this season because fanoms team went ape shit when we said we would take  %% of winnings

then ruwin coculdnt go and that was $280 ticket

$380*

sorry

3:17 PM - eXtine.Whale: The aformentioned gotFrag thread actually kicked off with Droog releasing a copy of a Blight contractual document. Is that a real contract that you sent out to players for them to sign?

3:17 PM - blight blackfoger: no its an old one we gave to justin nearly 4 months ago

3:18 PM - eXtine.Whale: So did you have the players under a newer contract?

3:18 PM - blight blackfoger: you see VG has some vendetta against me

3:18 PM - eXtine.Whale: go on

3:18 PM - blight blackfoger: one time I rang with TLR and chupa and droog for two hours just shit talked how blights shady as fuck we arent going to LAN

ehfk same thing trolls me at every chance no wonder he got cut from ESEA admin even lpkane talked bad about him didnt know why at the time

daniel even wanted me to buy him $350 monitor another troll

tend not to laugh thing started from him

that is not our contract me and whiz were sitting in vent pretty obvoius moments after talking to droog this joe guy messages me wanting my contract to scout for us

so gave him a 3-4 month old copy thats really outdated I made for our lawyer to give a basis on before he actually made a nice one

Droog thinks because hes some top open player gives his right to be a troll on the internet and a dick to lower players I know

I feel like hes the type of person that say ahaha nice death to someones facebook after the commit suicide

this is first time ive EVER said anything bad about him mind you

3:23 PM - eXtine.Whale: You did threaten to sue him if it is leaked in civil court? are you actually seeking preceedings against anyone?

3:23 PM - blight blackfoger: We have last year against a 1.6 player in oregon that started posting some libel info.

and I wish to make an example of one person soon.

3:24 PM - eXtine.Whale: What was the result with the 1.6 player and what was he saying about you that was libel?

3:25 PM - blight blackfoger: drove down we wanted to settle and ill leave it at that

ended up well for us we didnt make any profit just gas and lawyer fee's

3:26 PM - eXtine.Whale: So do you have your Blight players under a current contract? Obviously I'm not asking you disclose the details of those contracts, just asking whether you have given your players an updated contract that they have signed and returned to you.

3:26 PM - blight blackfoger: We are managed by Klgates a local firm downtown seattle.none of our TF2 teams are atm

talked about it for awhile and they wish to shortly

http://www.klgates.com/practices/services.aspx if they wish to call for any class action suit against Hilda James LLC

I know someone on gotfrag wanted to

so giving him the chance

3:28 PM - eXtine.Whale: What is your response to the fact that Blight LLC cannot be found on the Washington State Business Registry?

3:28 PM - blight blackfoger: We are legally under Hilda James LLC

if you wish to check

Blight LLC is a subsidary.

sec do it for you

3:29 PM - eXtine.Whale: I got it

3:30 PM - eXtine.Whale: Rich and Sue are the governing members. This is public information btw (especially with blackfoger confirming the name Hilda James LLC). James is not a governing person. Are those your parents?

3:30 PM - blight blackfoger: http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_results.aspx?search_type=simple&criteria=all&name_type=starts_with&name=hilda+james+&ubi=

Richard is the governing member my father not really in contact with my mother to what some people believe

3:31 PM - eXtine.Whale: what are their roles in the business?

3:31 PM - blight blackfoger: none

I run it but legally if theres any problems the LLC has a team of laywers and several other people if we are ever in the black

and for a few people that think I love at home I don't *LINK REDACTED* (ed: read further for explanation) got my own house

3:32 PM - eXtine.Whale: ever in the black? or ever in the red?

3:33 PM - blight blackfoger: we are currently in the red with one sponsor and we put a large sum lately on a new site and another website.

of course all of this what do I  have to lie about all of it is public to see for anyone.

3:39 PM - eXtine.Whale: You mentioned true stories and false stories previously. I'm not the only eSports fan thats read multiple stories about players having issues with Blight Gaming. It is not just limited to the TF2 scene as there have been postings by CS:S players and a RTS player who left Fnatic for Blight. Would you like to address some of the stories that you consider fake that are out there?

3:45 PM - blight blackfoger: RTS team we had a disagreement I didnt get the money they wanted in time so they joined umm LOST

they paid me back the money I was owed

the team DDT

3:46 PM - eXtine.Whale: I know there was also some drama within CS:S surrounding one of the LANChamp tournaments, any comment on that?

3:47 PM - blight blackfoger: Yes another verbal agreement that went haywire

was my fault

3:48 PM - eXtine.Whale: It seems like there are a lot of agreement that have gone haywire, is it an organizational issue?

3:49 PM - blight blackfoger: partly yes sometimes im not the most forward person thats why I have the whiz

sometimes its the teams

3:49 PM - eXtine.Whale: and what is the whiz's role?

3:49 PM - blight blackfoger: yes I am saying ive made some mistakes

role hmm hard to put

clean up

DH ?

forward?

whatever you want to call them

3:50 PM - eXtine.Whale: With ESEA Season 7 looming, will you have your contract finished to offer to teams?

3:51 PM - blight blackfoger: yes

as far as Season 7 goes blight will be helping 5 open teams with fee's and a few EU teams

following on RK and killings nature

3:53 PM - eXtine.Whale: What was your opinion of the ESEA challenge?

3:53 PM - blight blackfoger: I feel its more of a scare tactic as RK has said to me

I don't like ESEA for dropping TF2 when they have never given the community time of day

first with the website you can't do 3/4 things CSS players do, pugs, scrims, aim, more servers, they dont even have a tf2 recuruitment center

and they bitch theres not enough teams

when we people post on gotfrag daily looking

3:54 PM - eXtine.Whale: Will Blight.OWN still be a Blight team next season? Are you looking to contract another invite team?

3:54 PM - blight blackfoger: yes they will and i cant say

3:55 PM - eXtine.Whale: Will all Invite teams be guaranteed that their Plane and Hotel tickets be covered in advance?

3:55 PM - blight blackfoger: yes.

our CSS team was at ESEA lan as well people forget

3:56 PM - eXtine.Whale: It appears the thread just got removed from GotFrag. Would you like to comment on this considering your reported comments that you were seeking for its removal?

3:57 PM - blight blackfoger: oh it did

well seeing how it had private info no wonder.

4:00 PM - eXtine.Whale: what private info was in there that necessitated closing the thread?

4:00 PM - blight blackfoger: ummm addresses our legal teams contact info

4:03 PM - eXtine.Whale: In what way was this information private? It was extracted from the contract that you sent to players. Without an NDA signed the players are pretty much free to distribute that information. Especially considering that said information is what your business is registered under and is public knowledge. Similarly, your legal team's contact information wouldn't fall under that category. Were you involved with the process of getting an Admin to remove the thread?

4:03 PM - blight blackfoger: second

getting massive pms

i said hey RK thread maybe delete?

he said and I quote "if I delete the thread they are just going to pots another one"

so he didnt delete it was hours ago

4:12 PM - eXtine.Whale: Generally speaking, throughout history scams, cons, and broken promises are always clouded over by the perpetrators with half-lies, obscurations, and suppressing the voices of one's opposition. Moving forward will blight be making an attempt to bandage their reputation by being more transparent and open?

4:16 PM - blight blackfoger: how do you wish us to be transparent

4:18 PM - eXtine.Whale: Answering the stories that come out about blight would help. Discusing these stories in the open instead of attempting to get the threads closed would be a more transparanet approach. These stories hurt Blight's image and how are you going to respond to them?

4:26 PM - blight blackfoger: one it hurt us more then anything with all the trolls in Tf2

second

i dont intent to get them closed

but people do it because A what ive done for TF2 B they know ive screwed up and been transperent to most of it

as far as TF2 community is concerned i see it going down the drains in USA

USA has 5x more prizepots but nearly 1/5 of EU teams

reason is?

they have morales and sort of a code within invite

almost no trolls

they play in a free league with no prize just for the honor of it

we have idiots that wish to spend hours a day harassing new players on gotfrag

4:36 PM - eXtine.Whale: Earlier in this interview you linked me to the house that you live in that is not your parents. Would you like me to redact that information even though you stated it to me in this interview you knew was going to be posted on CommmunityFortress?

4:39 PM - blight blackfoger: not my parents house correct

4:39 PM - eXtine.Whale: correct

4:39 PM - blight blackfoger: redact prob ya

4:40 PM (ed: msg shifted for clarity) - blight blackfoger: just post about it stating that i dont live with my family

4:39 PM - eXtine.Whale: Well BlackFoger, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions throughout this long interview. Anything more you'd like to say about Blight.Gaming and your plans for the future? Shoutouts?

4:41 PM - blight blackfoger: shoutout to Eoreality and we do have lots of plans for Tf2 in the future very soon here but if the community treats other people (dont care how they troll me but calling my mother is over the line) and new players so terribley we wont do anything and just stop all USA tf2 coverage