Anyway, I’ve not been so busy since my last post, ESWC UK 2005/6 not sure which, but either way it was a while ago. I no longer work for Amped Esports, infact it no longer exists, the management decided to take the site in a different direction under a different name and it can now be found at www.gameriot.com. For those of you who care about my work in esports, I can tell you that I have not left it behind, I just don’t work as much as I used to now and for smaller organizations.

At the moment I am debating whether to work for 4Kings, the UK’s first professional gaming team and only of only a handful worldwide to have been competing since the inception of esports over ten years ago! On top of this, Fnatic are supposed to be “watching me” and waiting for a new budget but that is just word of mouth and I am yet to hear anything from Fnatic themselves.

For the time being I work for Inside Source alongside the likes of “Gonzo” who worked on the CGS UK broadcasts and recieved an esports award for the article of the year amongst other things.

Because my monitor is so shit and I can’t read a thing on here I’m going to fuck this off and finish later. Peace out!

A few weeks ago I was shipped out to London on behalf of Amped Esports to provide the world with coverage from the Electronic Sports World Cup UK Qualifiers – what the hell are those you ask? The ESWC is described as the “greatest sporting project in the 21st century” and centres around the professional gaming industry. The ESWC is ran by a French team and provides competitive video gamers from all around the world with a platform to showcase their talent and earn hundreds of thousands of pounds. The organizers hold qualifiers in over 50 countries in order to determine the individuals who will attend the grand finals in Paris and compete for a share of approximately 170,000 US dollars – not a bad prize for playing a game eh?

Anyway, I was down in London covering the UK Qualifiers which meant I was away for a weekend and busy writing pre-coverage, coverage and then post event articles, leaving me with very little determination to write something on my blog.

The majority of the rest of my time has been consumed by World of Warcraft, WoW as some of you might know it. I managed to level my druid from level 60 to level 64, respec to feral instead of resto… that’s enough of that, few of you will understand anyway!

So basically, my blog has been left idle thanks to a busy work schedule with Amped Esports and a re-energize addiction to World of Warcraft. However, I’ll try get some more stuff wrote up during the coming weeks. For now, I’ll hit the kitchen and do what I do best; eat!

Games Media Properties (GMP) are also the parent company of the world’s first international world gaming series, The World Series of Video Games (WSVG). The fact that they own, run and maintain such a series give an indication to the amount of cash they have available to them and in turn the amount of investment they put into Amped Esports. With several millions dollars being invested into electronic sports journalism I was more than happy to sign a contract with these guys. Although I’m not allowed to state the exact sum of mony I receive I can tell you that it is ten times that of what I was receiving before hand.

The move to the new site has also brought about a new style of writing. My previous employer had a mentality that meant we had to produce small, concise news before any other site had the chance to release the same information. This meant that the work we produced, although correct and well written was never much longer than a few hundred words. However, with Amped Esports they adopt a very American way of thinking and produce each piece of news in an article style. Each news piece is around a thousand words long and includes statements, Q&A’s, pictures and videos to improve the quality of the work. Although this method does not mean you are necessarily the fastest news releaser in the world, you do produce much better quality content for the user. It should be interesting to see how I can cope with this change!

With my new employer, you can expect to see me leaving the country for competitons such as the Electronic Sports World Cup in Paris and Dreamhack in Jonkoping Sweden!

Links: Amped Esports, WSVG, GMP

First Person Shooter: The Play, as it has been dubbed, takes this company and there game and continues to show the life of the company and game once it has been blamed for a tragic school yard shooting.

According to the plays writer, Aaron Loeb, the purpose of the show is to, “show the “controversy” to be the inhuman and immoral boondoggle that it is. That we respond to something so horrible as a school shooting by trying to figure out a quick and easy blame-based sound-bite (“videogames did it” or “bullying caused it”) is horrifying. In the face of these tragedies we need to talk more, not less.”

Loeb is a former journalist from IGN and is against the idea of games being blamed for such actions. He wants the play to show people that blaming the game is not that answer and that people should talk more about the cause.

“Ultimately, I hope people who see the play will, if they don’t already, start questioning Dr. Phil’s motives when he rushes out to say “videogames did it.” I hope that they will ask, “Is this really what we should be talking about now?” Aaron said to Kotaku today.

Hopefully the content which I hope to publish will become more and more interesting to you. I have a few blogs to write which should be rather philosophical and get some of you thinking, on the other hand you might just think, “What the fuck is this?”

As a final note, I’d just like to inform you that the About and Music pages of this blog have been updated and now include more information. As always, feedback is welcome!

I think this is the third week in a row that he’s fell asleep first and he still hasn’t got the message that it’s a bad idea. The YouTube video below shows what did to him to try get the message through:

Maybe now he will start to keep himself awake just that little bit longer. He even says he hates going to sleep first because he misses out on things…. O’RLY?

Below are images taken from the new headquarters.

Some of the staff from Regroup Esports have said they will release more pictures and videos of the new headquarters as soon as they get time to do so. For the mean time, this will have to do you!

To add insult to injury, the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone is Vodafone. I’ve never used Vodafone but I don’t like it, I don’t know why; thy just look lame! Sorry guys! I think the only positive thing about being on Vodafone is that the parents are on it so I can call them free or cheaper or something… not that I call them much.

Finally. Just release the fucking iPhone in Europe!!