Trademark Gamers

The UK scene is currently thriving, we have the addition of the UKeSA to the British community which some are calling as big, if not bigger than the CGS – in UK terms at least. TmG currently have squads in Call of Duty 4, Fifa 09 and Counter-Strike 1.6 which all feature in the Season 1 tournament, which boasts a whopping £35,000 prize pot. The culmination of online league tournament EPS: UK occurred this weekend, which has restrictions as does the uKeSA does to promote gaming within the United Kingdom only.

However, of course anyone (lucky enough) to inhabit the United Kingdom – or that plays under an organisation that is registered by the same will be slightly biased. This format promotes scene growth in our country, which presents a clear, perhaps unfair barrier for other organisations that are not big enough to be registered, or are registered elsewhere in the world to overcome. Any team that is made up of 40% UK players will be looking to play within the EPS Season 2 league. Also, any team with an organisation that is either registered as a company in the UK or that has an owner which is a resident of the UK that controls at least 51% of the shares within said company will be looking to play within the UKeSA Season 1 league.

I’m aware of course, that from my point of view this is a fantastic opportunity for gaming talent to shine through, at least if organisations with proper backing are willing to take a risk. This could even see games that are internet-accessible on the Wii spawn reasonably active communities behind them, which former Game-Cube title Super Smash Brothers had, in America at least. I’ve had a lot of discussion with others about this topic, and what always appeared to come up in conversation, was - to put it bluntly; how long will it last?

Currently, the UKeSA has made no promises to push gaming into the mainstream, as the CGS formerly had-done. Merely the organisers and owners have mentioned their aspirations to give gaming a governing body, often comparing its self with league-control organisations such as the Football Association.

    The UKeSA Logo, currently looking to revolutionize UK Gaming.

I asked the opinions of a few relatively-known players/managers, for their opinions on the matter.

Leffa, you were recently part of GamingOrb – a Norwegian based organisation. However, you and a team-mate (Ovrum) have both left the team and organisation to join POW! A team formerly in the EPS and that also has enough UK members to participate in the up-and-coming Season 2. The two UK-only leagues have clearly influenced your decisions, are you actively seeking a UK organisation now, so that you can compete in both the UKeSA AND EPS Season 2 – or are your organisation choices in terms of nationality not restricted merely to the UK?

Well, basically we were asked if we wanted to join the 3 UK fellas in this season of uKeSa, so our choice of organisation will obviously be influenced by that. We won’t blindly decline any offer from a non-UK organisation, but i think all of the guys agree that UKeSa is one of the biggest leagues for CSS, so why miss out on it? It was hard for me and Ovrum to leave gmo, but we just couldn’t deny the fact that being in a UK team opens a lot of doors for us and our gaming.

Roychez, currently you are managing the TmG Call of Duty 4 squad, the line-up is made of four Swedes and a Norwegian player. Did your decision to leave Volt-Gaming (a Danish registered company) prompt you to look for a UK organisation? Do you feel the UKeSA was a near-crucial point in your search for an organisation to back your players?

We actually left Volt Gaming because we did not get what was offered. We started to look around and got some good offers, but the one that stood out, with head and shoulders was Trademark Gamers. At the current time when we were talking to the management the UKeSa wasn't even in the back of our mind, and weren't even sure the rules allowed us to enter. TmG just gave us the feeling of being home and that's the main reason we joined

Raisins, you are the team-captain of Veritas-Gaming; your line-up is a mixed European squad, with 4 British players and again, a Swede. Your team was created around the time UKeSA was announced, there were surely foreign organisations that you could have chosen over Veritas with the same/similar backing – did the concept of being a British team and not playing in uKeSA due to nationality issues cross your mind?

Well we’ve been the 4 UK and 1 SWE since I can remember, the only reason this current line up came about was to finish off the rest of EPS season, due to a couple of members leaving.  Then we just picked up 2 players from the UK and again we were left with the same old line up.  UKeSa wasn’t on our minds at all at the time, we just wanted to place high in the final placings of the season, and maybe even get to the LAN finals.  We chose veritas at the time because they offered so much for us, and to put it simply there were no other orgs at all that were taking any interest

  Birmingham Salvo,now Dignitas - in the peak of their career when they reigned havoc over Europe.

The opinions i received from the people I had asked didn’t particularly come as a shock. It is to be expected that when a league forms that offers such a bountiful prize pot that teams are going to give an arm and a leg to play within the tournament. However, the main positive that I can see from keeping up-to-date with the coverage of the recent EPS Finals is that it can often break stigmas that are attached to particular teams. Everyone had expected the FM!Toxic mix to completely annihilate FourKings in the final, however 4Kings seemed to win the game (arguably in a very panic-like fashion) without too much contention from their rivals, in fact they actually dropped more rounds over the three maps to Veritas in the Semi-Finals.

After committing these studies about the two events, I can understand the argument being put in place from foreign organisations positions, however being a UK resident I only see the positive sides of the two leagues, and there are procedures anyone can undertake, with the only downside of perhaps of roster changes – to be able to play in either the EPS or the UKeSA, it seems it’s just down to the team to decide whether one/two of the leagues are big enough for them to completely overhaul their organisation or team.

The way that the two leagues are ran is a key way to create gaming opportunities within the UK, which will benefit those not able to play in the leagues by the fact that they will have a more diverse pool of opponents to practice against, which – again, simply strengthens the scene and gives it more excitement than just anticipating a clear, unrivalled victory from team X (No, I don’t mean you Hamza). Personally, I cannot wait to see what unravels within all of the games in either competition, I’m sure 2009 will be a great year for gaming in both the UK, and Europe.