CommunityFortress

eXtine here with our very own Graham “Jinn” Clay, the head of Community Fortress but he’s also the head of TF2 for CEVO, aka CyberEvolution and is here today to speak with me about the upcoming Season 5 of TF2 for CEVO, and to discuss the Alienware Bigfoot Killer Edge Challenge.

Click read more to check out the lengthy, but very informative, interview... 

 eXtine: Thanks for joining me Graham. Can you tell me how the Alienware Bigfoot Killer Edge tournament came about and what is CEVO’s involvement with it?

 Graham “Jinn” Clay: Well first of all thanks for this opportunity to discuss competitive TF2.  It seems most of the time I am the one asking the questions for CommFT interviews or for CEVO event feedback.  As for the Alienware Killer Edge tournament, iGames and CEVO were hired by Dell to operate the Alienware Arena as part of a marketing push to spread the word about Alienware's pre-built gaming PCs.  iGames' specialty is with local LAN events and CEVO's specialty is with online events so CEVO is tasked with running all of the online events in the Arena.  Dell was open to CEVO's suggestions regarding the games to be played in the online side of the Arena and TF2 was on the drawing board from the start since both I and the executive team of CEVO love the game.  iGames' Wayne Ferguson, who is essentially the manager of both the offline and online events in the Arena, polled the community and found out that the game was definitely a good option for a tournament.  From there, Ferguson and I sorted out the schedule, maplist, rules, etc.  We opened registration a few weeks ago and turnout has been solid so far but we need more teams to get 6.  CEVO will be running the event so most of the decisions regarding the progression of the tournament will be made by me and my CEVO colleagues (in addition to Ferguson and a few other Alienware staff members).

 eXtine: It's good to know that this tourney is in the hands of experienced league administrators. It's also great that a sponsor is taking the initiative and putting up a significant prize pot and making a tournament happen. In terms of advertising, the costs of running this tournament must pale in comparison to large ad campaigns, and most likely will have a larger impact per dollar spent. Has there been any indication from Dell that they will follow this tournament with another? Or will that be decided based off of the reception towards the Killer Edge challenge?

 Jinn: The league administrators definitely know what they are doing and once you have that factor, it really comes down to the community expressing exactly what it wants to me and Ferguson.  We can make it happen if only we know what would be best for the players.  This tournament is definitely a tremendous opportunity for Dell/Alienware to target the people who are in the demographic that purchases gaming computers.  There's no doubt that the Arena at large has had a significant impact on Alienware sales; as such, they are very interested in sustaining the event.  As far as I know they are planning on continuing the hosting of both offline and online events indefinitely.  In terms of TF2, its future within the online Arena  certainly does depend on the reception of the Killer Edge tournament.  Ferguson has indicated that he is interested in getting more TF2 LAN events on the map but it really comes down to the community properly representing itself.

 eXtine: There was a little rumbling about the current map selection for the Killer Edge Challenge, is that still being debated or is what is written down set in stone?

 Jinn: As a TF2 league administrator for over two years, I have found that map disputes are ever present (and always an issue).  The community only consistently agrees on the quality of cp_badlands, cp_granary, and cp_gravelpit.  All of the other maps have been loved or hated at some point in the history in competitive TF2 and people still disagree on the quality of the gameplay they produce.  As much as I dislike using disputed maps at all, I feel that it would be monotonous to simply play those three previously mentioned maps all season long.  Among the disputed maps, I prefer to stick to the older ones so that at the very least, the maps' layouts are well-known.  I am wary to include maps that have been played by small segments of the community and we feel that even if these maps are better, they aren't ready for league play if they are obscure (no pun intended).  With that said, my philosophy towards scheduling is to get the disputed maps out of the way early.  We are running the Alienware event similar to how we ran the Season 4 CEVO Free playoffs in that we have cp_well, cp_follower, cp_freight, and cp_yukon in the early rounds and then the three top maps from there on out.  With this setup, the most promising teams will not have important matches on lower quality maps.   By the time EG is playing Loaded or MoB is playing Pandemic, this system guarantees it will be on one of the Big 3.  I would really like to get cp_well out of the rotation for future events but I have not heard of a solid replacement that everyone agrees on (but mind you, it WILL NOT be in the next CEVO or Alienware event - we will do some canvassing and once and for all get this bad boy out of competitive TF2).  cp_follower and cp_freight are accepted and known by most players so I keep them in despite their shortcomings.  The final double elimination bracket lacks maps at the moment but will be most likely played on cp_badlands, cp_granary, and cp_gravelpit.

 eXtine: Speaking of the next Cevo event, what are some of the plans for Cevo Season 5? Will there be a pre-season featuring some of those obscure maps you metnioned? And how will the divisions break down?

 Jinn: One of the primary issues with CEVO Season 4 was that we lost the Professional division due to a lack of paying teams and had to resort to a community-requested Main division that was ulimately a failure from teams dropping.  Fundamentally the reasons for the problem were shared by both CEVO and the community; CEVO didn't get enough prizes together for the Professional division and the community didn't support Main like they promised.  Although Main had these problems all season long, FREE was one of the best divisions we have had for TF2 in quite some time.  After the season essentially concluded (the FREE finals will be played Sunday), I sat down with the CEVO executives and we started discussing Season 5.  We noted the issues with Season 4, the success of TWL's tiered system, and the promise of the Alienware event.  What we concluded was that we most likely want a tiered system for Season 5 with Professional, Main, and Open divisions; placement in these divisions will probably depend on teams' progress in the Alienware event since we are operating it per CEVO rules.  All divisions will have free entry and we are working on prizes for the Professional division.  So essentially we are mocking TWL's structure (except with 3 divisions) and having Alienware act as our qualifier.  The number of teams per division is TBA at this point along with the maps but I am contemplating a new way of approaching the map issue.  I think we will put some of the consistently disputed maps that I mentioned in my earlier answer in the preseason and give some quality community maps their time to shine in the regular season.  Formerly we would put community maps in the preseason but most of the top dogs would not play the preseason matches since they don't count and the maps wouldn't get tested.  The new system will put more emphasis on these community maps and will perhaps find us a new cp_badlands.  I am open to suggestions on what these quality community maps are but I need empirical evidence that the community wants them (survey data, other leagues' experiences, etc).

 eXtine: Sounds great! The Cevo league software is also getting updated correct?

 Jinn: If you mean the backend, yes, the CTO and his techies are working on a new one.  It has been implemented as the Alienware Arena backend and has some nice features that make the old system look archaic.  I am unsure as to when this new system will be launched on CEVO's site but it should be soon.  And as always, the CMN is under constant development to keep up with the latest cheats.

 eXtine: Prize pots are something that every TF2 player would like to see increase, but obviously the sustainablity of the Leagues are more important than rushing to increase prize pots. While TF2 players are still resistant to pay for entry which would lead to a larger prize pot, what is Cevo doing to work with advertisers to increase their visibility and therefore the amount of money they are willing to invest?

 Jinn: We have noticed that TF2 players are hesitant to pay for events and that's why we are going with a 100% free event this next season.  But the issue is that when CEVO has paying players, these players represent a much more potent assent to CEVO relative to sponsoring companies.  When a sponsoring company sees players willing to pay for an online video gaming league, they recognize that there is a market with these players in terms of their own products.  This is the reason that CEVO does not have prize pots unless players are paying for the division.  With the upcoming season (and no entry fees), CEVO is working with companies to provide prizes for the winning teams rather than cash.  Companies are unwilling to shell out cash for free events but are always ready to give product.  CEVO's business development team is always aggressively pursuing sponsorship and advertising opportunities.

 eXtine: Team stability is such a huge issue for the FPS esports community and the calamity of teams falling apart mid-season or in between seasons is hurtful to players, fans, and leagues. How is CEVO dealing with this issue, and as a league administrator do you think having teams that are stable in the long term is more important than a new mid/high team that falls apart?

 Jinn: Stability and longevity are definitely important issues for any gaming community.  They are especially problematic with games that have smaller playerbases, smaller events, smaller sponsorships, etc since individuals don't see the reason in staying around the games (much less a team) for an extended period of time.  Another issue is the demographic of competitive gamers - many of them are in school or are entering the job market and have odd or fluctuating schedules.  CEVO deals with this issue in all of our games by using divisions to separate the different tiers (and their associated levels of stability) within the game's community, by sweeping teams during events to check for inactivity, and by adjusting our event schedules for holidays, school schedules, etc.  As you can see we have a number of indirect methods of controlling the impacts of dropping teams but there is only so much we can do.  In the end, we hope for the best and prepare for the worst.  As a league administrator, I certainly prefer stable low teams over the constant shuffle in the upper tiers.  Of course I would prefer a dedicated and stable high team over a stable low team but the difference is neglible to me as long as the upper tier is as well represented as it needs to be.  One of my primary goals is to get the TF2 community to a point where it is more stable in terms of teams in the mid to upper tier.  I think we have recently gone through a substantial re-alignment period and some new teams are emerging in the upper tier with tons of low teams replacing them in the middle ranks.  It is just a matter of time, more competitive events, and LAN events to get this community to the place it needs to be for the long run.

 eXtine: Going back to the discussion about LANs, it can be difficult for teams to organize travel, especially if the LAN is taking place a long distance away from where a majority of a team might be based. LANs have a great potential to bring local gamers together. Do you think LANs, with perhaps the help of the leagues, should focus more on crowning regional champions than trying to draw the best teams from across North America?

 Jinn: I hadn't thought about that but it is definitely more viable than trying to crown a national champion in a game the size of TF2.  Local and regional events should be the focus because they should be easy to attend and operate.  ESEA is going ahead with its LAN playoffs for Invite next season and despite the positive nature of this news, it represents a fundamental problem in competitive gaming.  Many teams cannot afford travel expenses to fly across the country and must rely on multigaming organizations like Loaded, EG, and compLexity to foot the bill.  So as much as I think it is good to have events like the ESEA-I playoffs to show off the game to the rest of the wider gaming community, such events are merely marketing opportunities for the game and the event operators.  A solid regional / local LAN system will definitely help the community itself much more in the long run; I would definitely support such a system and I think Alienware is trying to help this cause across all of the games that it is hosting LAN events for.

 eXtine: Cool. Thanks so much for your detailed answers! Any last words you'd like to say?

 Jinn: If you are playing in Alienware, get six or I will be very sad... We need 128 solid teams in this event before the end of registration.