If you had to predict the six North American teams that will qualify for CGS, which six would they be and why?

EFG, Hyper, coL, Verge, 3D - I'm going to have to just go with those 5, beyond that I really don't know. All of the teams listed have the practice schedule and experience to make it into CGS.


ESWC, CPL, and the European WCG event will be using 1.6, while Source has CGS. Do you see the community in the future still split over the two games? Will we see teams attending both 1.6 and Source tournaments? Or do you see 1.6 eventually dying off?

I look at 1.6 pretty similarly to the reason George Bush is president. People have voted Republican their whole life, they decided to vote Republican again, even if the President is an idiot. This time around, though, I doubt as many people vote Republican just to vote Republican.

Same goes for 1.6. People have played 1.6, so they'll keep playing 1.6 until something happens. Something like CGS. Assuming the pattern continues, 1.6 will die out, no matter how much people complain.


Playing in a top team obviously requires time and dedication. Are you currently working and/or in school, and if so, how are you balancing your time between games and your other responsibilities? What is the Hyper practice schedule like?

We start practice at 10:30est, so I typically am done working by then. I work as a server at a restaurant so I can trade my shifts and hours pretty much at will and work or not work whenever I want to.

I also attend, as I mentioned earlier, Ball State University.

I'd say I balance them pretty well; I'll be going out tonight though and not practicing as it's my birthday.


What does a normal weekday look like for you? What do you do on weekends? How much time do you spend on gaming and how does that affect your outside life?

I usually spend about 4 nights a week for 4 hours on video games. I still have plenty of time after work and school to have a good time, but I just have to learn to manage my time well enough to get all that in.

I guess you'd say my normal weekday is working out either before or after work, depending my schedule, then getting home around 10:30est to practice. We practice for a few hours until 1 or 2, and then if anything is going on with my friends I head out for an hour or two before things close up.


You have been in the community for quite some time and have traveled to several tournaments. What did and do your parents think about your gaming life? What about your friends and other close family members?

Well at first my parents didn't like it. They felt I was wasting a lot of time on the computer, as I'm sure a lot of parents do. The fact is that they were right, the chances of me becoming a 'professional' gamer when I started playing were slim to none. The fact that it happens isn't something that I would bet on if it didn't already happen.

I didn't have a lot of trouble with friends and family growing up, I think that more than anything people were worried that I spent too much time gaming. I just kind of shrugged it off as them not understanding, because honestly most people have no idea how huge the gaming community is and how much social interaction there is in it.

After I grew older, however, I started focusing more on real life and developing relationships there, as your relationships online can only be so deep before you feel the need to reach out elsewhere. Now-a-days my parents understand that I'm fully capable of doing the gaming thing as well as school, work, and socializing. I just think at the time they were scared of where it might lead and I don't blame them, I'd be worried if it was my kid too.

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