CEVO INTERVIEW

Interview conducted with Wayne Ferguson (CEVO|Ferguson), Vice President Director of Public Relations.

TsN recently announced that CEVO has broken its agreement for exclusive Radio coverage of all of the CEVO divisions, can you give us a break down on what happened?

On February 26 2006, just prior to the start of our Counter-Strike 1.6 Season 3 event, we made an agreement with TsN stipulating: “CEVO LLC hereby agrees to engage Team Sportscast Network LLC to provide CEVO LLC with exclusive eSports coverage services for all CEVO LLC divisions, and other such services as CEVO LLC and Team Sportscast Network LLC agree upon from time to time, and Team Sportscast Network LLC hereby agrees to provide the requested eSports coverage services to CEVO LLC.”

Basically, in exchange for exclusive access to CEVO content, TsN agreed to cover all our content.

We entered into this agreement with the understanding that TsN would be significantly expanding its coverage of our matches, especially across all divisions. Specifically, we were expecting at least Match-of-the-Week coverage for the professional divisions of 1.6, Source, and CoD2 and for the main division of 1.6 every single week. In addition, we were expecting playoff coverage for all divisions. At the time, TsN assured us they were capable of providing that level of quality coverage.

As it turned out, for whatever reason, be it the continual loss of core casters and other personnel (Coltrane, Warwitch, Vradi, Vansilli, and others), or some other less obvious reason, TsN was never able to provide us with the level of coverage they originally promised.

Over the course of the agreement, TsN heavy-handedly prevented coverage by any other broadcast organization, even of the lower-tier division matches which TsN clearly had no intention of casting. We are in the business of providing services to our participants and in helping the development of the community. We feel that if other broadcast companies are able and willing to provide regular casting of these matches then it is beneficial to everyone for them to do so.

We first brought these concerns to the TsN Executive Staff in formal meetings during the early summer. They admitted that they had failed to provide their assured level of coverage, but were confident that they could resolve this by acquiring more staff and launching new initiatives. Several months later we saw very little improvement. Now that we are growing to include more games (DotA & DoD) and more events (KODE5 Qualifier & Intel iGames LANs), our needs have become even greater.

As of a result of these issues we informed TsN that we would be ending their exclusive access to all divisions and events. We proceeded to propose terms of a new agreement for them to cover the Professional division of Counter-Strike 1.6, Day of Defeat and DotA, with shared access to CS: Source and Call of Duty 2. In response to these efforts the TsN Executive Staff was highly confrontational and uncooperative. Negotiations continuously broke down to them threatening to contact their attorneys. As the last straw, they avoided our final confirmed meeting and then claimed it was our fault. At this point we felt we needed to move forward in a positive manner to acquire coverage for the aforementioned divisions as soon as possible and that further negotiations with TsN were no longer productive.

What is your response to TsN posting the private email between your organizations on their web site?

We are somewhat surprised that TsN posted the e-mail as a public issue. In the corporate world arrangements between business entities are normally kept private.

Will TsN be permitted to cast any of CEVO's divisions now or in the future?

Unfortunately, we feel that our relationship has deteriorated to the point where working together in a manner productive to all parties, CEVO, TsN, and the community, is currently not feasible. That being said, we greatly appreciate the efforts TsN has invested into the gaming community over the years and hope we can resolve our differences in the future.

What do you think, if anything, this says about the state of business relationships in eSports today?

Conflicts within business relationships do arise and certainly not all agreements end well. This is true within eSports and the business world as a whole.

We strongly believe that business relationships within eSports should exist for the betterment of the gamers and the industry as a whole. By moving forward with our plans to bring reliable coverage to all levels of competition, we feel we are pursuing exactly the type of community-focused business relationships this industry needs to flourish and grow.

What is the plan going forward for casting of CEVO matches?

We are currently arranging coverage of as many matches as possible across as many divisions as possible. Through partnerships with multiple broadcast organizations, we will strive to highlight at least a Match-of-the-Week for each division. Some divisions will have multiple matches covered every week. We will constantly be working to expand coverage as much as possible to bring the maximum amount of exposure and value to the participants of our league.

With these new agreements, all teams competing in CEVO, whether aspiring amateurs or established professionals, will have a chance to be covered or to watch their friends or competitors in the heat of battle. Needless to say, we are very excited as we move forward!

As a final comment, I would like to invite anyone to contact me if you have any remaining questions or concerns. As always, we are on the lookout for the best interests of the community, and are always willing to discuss with you our thoughts or yours. You can find me on GameSurge in #cevo, or you can e-mail me at wferguson@cevolved.com.

Thank you.