This week's 1on1 brings closer to you an esports mogul, one of the two heads of ESL, arguably the most powerful event organiser in the industry. This makes Griff one of the most powerful men in competitive gaming.
Power, esports, the downfall of deathmatch and the future of gaming, Angel Munoz and chasing criminals with Alexander "TheSlash" Mueller are the topics.
More 1on1 interviews (every Wednesday):
* Oskar "ins" Holm (CS player, Fnatic)
* Christian Linke (musician from Panik)
* Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski (CS player, MYM)
* Johan Liden (eSports League of Champions CEO)
* Alexander "TheSlaSH" Mueller (SK Gaming General Manager)
* June "SK.Lyn" Park (SK Gaming Warcraft 3 player)
* Sasha Tsapaev (new owner of CPL, April Fools)
* Mike Pasley (director of the "Frag" documentary)
* Christine "SK.Potter" Chi (SK Ladies CS player)
* Robert "RobbaN" Dahlstrom (SK Gaming CS player)
* Yoan "ToD" Merlo (Mousesports, WC3 player)
* Tomas "TeRRoR" Pilipiuk (Wicked, WC3 player)
* Jonas "whimp" Svendsen (mTw.dk, CS player)
* Jakub "kuben" Gurczynski (MYM, CS player)
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1on1 with Ralf "Griff" Reichert
Written by Carmac in video 4 months ago (22 comments) | Tagged in: 1on1 interview Carmac RalfReichert Griff

A new Wednesday - a new 1on1 interview, this time with one of the founders of SK Gaming and the Managing Director of ESL, Ralf "Griff" Reichert.
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edit: eh sry, wanted to use the reply button
one of the best interviews so far. keep the good work going :)
by the way, I think you've missed the 1on1 with kuben in the list
p.s. In the end of the day.
Why don't you use boxing as an analogy, seeing as it's possibly the most relative. Professional boxing, just like the CPL world tour (Painkiller) or WSVG had a small number of events per year. In fact, most professional boxers fight about three times a year, maybe less, maybe more depending where they're in the rankings.
Don't you dare say Quake III (or any deathmatch game) isn't good enough or suitable for the eSports market because you've issues creating a stable and profitable revenue stream. Every games player pool declines if the game isn't played competitively, that's fact.
You're horrifically naive if you think deathmatch as a genre is going to compete with a team based FPS in raw numbers, the genre is tough and the majority of 'players' aren't suited to it. That doesn't mean however that they can't or don't want to watch it, and it's partly countered by the fact the deathmatch community doesn't need a huge player base.
Your model is completely wrong, your ideas about generating revenue are as equally short sighted as is your reasoning behind deathmatches failure. If you stabilise the mechanisms behind eSports (competitions, organisations, wages), you can easily maintain a sizable player pool for the game when the stars retire etc. After all it's all relative.
You sir are nothing more than an advertising puppet. The ESL will happily line its own pockets by using titles like FIFA, C&C3: Tiberium Wars and World in Conflict, then quite happily say with a straight face, "the community made the decision" and "if you don't follow the trends you're going to fail in the long run".
I'm honestly beginning to think that Matthieu Dallon is the only eSports mogul with an ounce of honesty or self respect, how sad.
Since the rest of your post is equally arrogant, how about you just name one big league that has hosted several deathmatch competitions every year and still exists to prove your point.