I hate e-sports. Computer games should be games, and nothing more. There have always been super competitive teenagers who alias and quit servers and make excuses and whine, but since the rise of e-sports, this has become the norm. All the same, I hate to see Ireland left behind, and this is exactly what has been happening for the past three years, as Ireland has lacked any semi-professional online gaming organisation since the downfall of clan dNC. I hated clan dNC, I hate Four Kings, and kick-esports, and all these queer organisations with “e-sports” or “gaming” tacked onto the end. Basically I want any clan that has a CEO to cop on and get a life.
Unfortunately, gone are the days when we could play our weekly league match against against a group of lads who play the game for fun. The entire European clan scene has sold their souls in return for a branded mousemat, and a fancy IRC bouncer. These days, a clan is more about a corporate identity, getting their name in the media, and sucking up to their sponsors.. As much as I hate all the lameness and lack of sportsmanship and 14-year old egos that this new competitive streak has brought to online gaming, I have to acknowledge that it is not going to go away, and its time that Ireland starts catching up.
Traditionally, Ireland has a good pedigree in internet gaming. Famously, we won the QuakeWorld four nations in Scotland at Rapture ‘99, beating England in the final. Since then, as a nation we have severely lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of our internet infrastructure, namely the shameful lack of availability of broadband, and our prowess as a gaming nation continually declined. We had some success in Counter Strike in the early days, with some great clans, most notably dNC winning major competitions at home and abroad, but this somehow fizzled out to the extent that we now have about one decent clan left. I was captain of the Irish Quake 3 team for several years, and despite our absolutely dire connections, we managed to hold our own against the second tier nations of Europe. We claimed many scalps, against the UK, Netherlands, Estonia, Portugal, Slovenia, Norway, among others, but we were still living off the talent that was produced in the early Quake days days, as we very rarely came across promising new faces.
In the early days of this century, we had clans in the ClanBase Eurocup in Counter Strike, Quake, and Unreal Tournament, which were the biggest arenas at the time. But by the time the wave of e-sports arrived, and the new generation of games – RTCW, Enemy Territory, Battlefield, Call of Duty, the number of clans and skilled players was at rock bottom, and we had very few national teams competing.
In the past four years since Ireland’s last participation in the Cyberathletes Professional League, we have had no representation at any of the major international events – the E-Sports World Cups, or the World Cyber Games. We have never participated in these tournaments – consider that the following countries, among others, are named as participants: Egypt, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea (South), Malaysia, Algeria, Angola, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Cyprus, Qatar, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Australia, New Zealand.
So why is it that the flags of Qatar and Moldova are proudly present, but our beloved tricolour is not? The answer is: because no organisation has stepped up to the plate and taken responsibility for the qualifiers. Now, the E-Sports Association of Ireland has been announced. In its current state, its a poorly designed PHP Nuke website, with no community and no resources, recycling the news from eSreality and ClanBase. But its the best attempt yet at bringing Irish internet gaming into the 21st century. My worry is that it could easily fall by the wayside. It has been very poorly promoted, there seems to be one guy behind it and he seems to be out of his depth. This will not be a problem, assuming the ball gets rolling.
Several months ago, as I pieced together a disaster of an Irish national Quake 4 team (disaster because we ended up with a total of 5 players, one of whom was on ISDN) in the hope that we would not concede another entire game to the void of Irish apathy, I considered organising an e-sports association like this myself. I looked at the success of e-Sports.lt, the Lithuanian E-sports community, and thought of how badly we needed a bridge between the different Irish gaming communities, to get all our shit together on one site that would open the door to sponsorship, and facilitate and encourage new players in all of the different games. But then I thought – why bother? I would be better off channeling my efforts into something more worthwhile – how about chess? How is it that half of the young people of Ireland don’t even know how to play chess? Or why not yodelling, or curling.
Nonetheless, I’m glad that somebody has assembled the fragments that I was never going to piece together. I hope to see this growing in stature – hosting leagues, organising WCG/ESWC qualifiers, maybe some LAN events. For now there is a long way to go, and this starts with a website and a community. The community is the hardest part.
17 Comments
As the one man behind it (originally) I would have to agree with what you say. The gamers you find on public servers and in proper matches who ditch with the first sign of effort on their part strike me as needing a very long break from society. And as for esports being money driven I would also agree that this is the worst way to go in any situation and really does take the fun out of all that gaming is supposed to be, a game.
However, I think of esports as being something different to what it seems from the view of ‘professional’ teams with a big wallet behind them and no sence in the bank. I think of it more as a way of getting those gamers who sit at home and play on the best machines that they can afford, go on to some terrible server and shoot everything that moves until its time for school or they get into a huff about being shot and being called the ultimate hurt word, noob! I think playing with yourself is all well and good but it makes poor people of us all if that is what we’re reduced to and that is exactly what is happening here in Ireland. Lans happen but most fall away like so many before them. And I’m tired of it.
To say I’m a gamer who lives for the frag would be far from the mark, I grew up without computer games of such levels. UT and AvP where my first real shoot em ups and I was reduced to playing by myself in 1 player mode due to a 56k modem (which is still there) and slowly but surely losing my taste for games, turnig then to music. Then, only 2 short years ago I did a networking course in fas, we set up a network the first day and the second came CS, and I was hooked. I’ve been gaming as much as possible since then but got sick of the attitude we previously mentioned of gamers online, sickining desplays of childish behavour and that was just the over 21’s!!
I started looking at match reports and demos, never having a sport I really felt comfortable with I had finally found it. I also found to my dismay that nothing like that was happening here and hoped one day that it would, then I came to my sences. Gaming will never happen in a big way here due to what is available and what is available will not improve untill it is forced so I decided to give it a shot. To say I was/am out of my depth is an understatement of the greatest level but what I do have is the drive to get others wanting the same thing and getting them involved, and that is what I’m trying to do. I want it to be right, not a half assed version of what it should be and to do that I require people who know what I do not to fill the gaps in this attempt at the near impossible.
To say esports is in some way a curse to gaming is a very closed view. It is how others feel it fits into gaming that usually causes the problems, feeling that in some way they are superior to others who play just for fun because they have a clan title with their name. Instead give new gamers the opertunity to see what it is like to play with others and learn skills that they can use in the real world like team work, cooperation and working towards or helping others to work toward a decent goal. That is what I want.
(p.s. Sorry for the large attmept at a comment)
Thanks for the comment – and I although my post might seem cynical in parts, I am fully behind the concept and wish you well with it. I totally agree that we have hundreds of Irish gamers playing a couple of hours a night on an ad-hoc basis without any real focus or goals, it would be better if we channeled our efforts towards something more worthwhile.
Shame about the 56k – I’m on ISDN myself, so I know how it feels, although I can play on Irish servers, it isn’t possible to be competitive online with such only 64k bandwidth – my clan FH had the distinction of being the only all-ISDN ctf clan in the world
We also had the worst connects to the UK-based Jolt League, despite being just a couple of hundred miles away we had higher pings than Hungarians, Croatians, Spanish, Polish and Icelandic clans. The poor connections have always hampered us, but now that Eircom has got rid of the crippling interleaving, low ping and good connects are widely available, so it is a good time to launch the ESAI.
I mention that the hardest part is getting the community behind you, and this is also the most important. A publicity blitz would be very valuable I think – a post on the unreal.ie forums, boards.ie, gamecon forums, 1st-IB forums for starters – try to get a load of idlers in your IRC channel on Quakenet (pester people to autojoin). Once everyone knows the ESAI is there, that is the main thing.
Keeping a list of servers and clans in all games at the very least would be a great service to Irish gamers. When someone gets broadband or a new PC, they can just log onto e-sports Ireland website or IRC channel and find out about where to go to play, or who to play with, and clans to join, etc.
funny you should say, I have actually done just that and in fact was part of the 1st-IB until just recently so it is known but what you say for having servers and contacts in all the games, I am attempting to do this but not knowing a number of the games I wouldn’t know which servers would be the right ones to add and that is one of the reasons I need people to help run different games featured and make sure I don’t put all my time into the ones I know. Have to cover all bases. There has been some results from having posts up with the fact that when I mention it I get a return of ‘oh, I’ve heard of that’ or ’should you be using their name?’ but as of yet we haven’t the members to reflect the general interest that I have been told is there. What I may or may not be doing wrong I’m not sure but finding the time at the moment to research it is difficult at the moment. As for the website, we have used different ones to avoid using the nuke style but in the end I came to the conclusion it was what we needed at this stage and it will be easy to convert to our own devices
{rubs hands in a suspicious way}
Cant believe I only discovered this page now.
Felt like I was reading my own thoughts almost.
I have tried to mention ESAI at every opportunity, I just wish more people would go there.
Perhaps we need to watch the new games come out. Like, when people buy a new game and they look for other Irish players in it they will probably check boards.ie for a forum for it, or the actual forums for the game.
E-Sports within Ireland is an un-tapped market. No question about it.
I would have to agree with Paul’s comment above:
E-Sports within Ireland is an un-tapped market. No question about it.
I’m the webmaster for the Irish gaming clan http://irish-esports.com/ and I’ve been watching how difficult it can be to get Irish gamers involved in the online gaming scene. At the moment there is no centralised location where everyone can get together and hear about upcoming news and post their own comments etc…
Unfortunately for ESAI I’ve just received an email directed for the Irish E-Sports clan advertising the introduction of ign.ie – Irigh Gaming Network. The site itself looks clean and easy to use, however it still has a low pagerank which won’t assist it for the moment (0/10 – ESAI is @ 3/10)
Regardless, at the moment the Irish E-Sports community is open to new members from any gaming background. At the moment out gaming community is limited to a few games like the battelfield series, counter strike source, and we’re looking forward to some of the new games that are coming out like Medal of Honour airborne etc… We are also opening up to Xbox 360 gamers soon too which should prove as another attraction to users. So if you’re interested check us out!
There was an IGN ‘Irish Games Network’ with that exact same domain, ign.ie, active and sem-active for years in the 90’s until 2002 or so. It was very good, hosted lots of game servers, etc., sponsored by tinet/eircom iirc. Looks like they let the name expire and somebody capitalised on that. Any idea who is behind the new IGN?
By the way – good luck with Irish Esports, but I disagree with clans and communities being fused together like this… it is completely contrary to the nature of e-sports. My advice is that ye spawn a competitive clan with a different name, but keep the site/community aspect neutral and open to all. I hate to see a lot of small communities independently bound by their own politics.
I have seen the new irish-esports.com site and I have to say, I wish you luck in your go at what is a very difficult bolder to push up a cliff. I have worked for ages and spent many a coin trying to get it going but couldn’t get support from the community. Kinda made me wonder more than once why I was trying. I am currently trying to get a staff together again but now with two of us I’m not sure if there is any point but we shall see.
Thanks James and Black Thorn for the good luck!
At the moment we’re more looking at the community approach. The problem with clans is they usually have to remain a small close nit community of highly dedicated players – something like that can be really had to achieve and that’s why so many clans come and go. Your average clan formed today won’t be around this time next year because people fall out with eachother & other things come up.
What we’re trying to do with Irish E-Sports at the moment is to create an Irish community of gamers who can come on whenever they want & play with other like minded people. We do have a competitive aspect, but that’s kept separate and we don’t view it as serious competitive gaming (we don’t have a “match team”, it’s more if you want to play then play.) Originally when .:iE/ was setup about a year ago it was a competitive bf2142 clan which was quite successful, however that game has more or less died and as a result .:iE/ has changed.
Looking forward over the next year Irish E-Sports has invested in their own dedicated server which is due to come online in November. The unofficial details for the new server are as follows:
* Counter Strike Source 20 slot 100 tick public
* Counter Strike Source 26 slot GunGame server 66tick
* Counter Strike Source 12 slot match 100 tick match
* Call of Duty 2 20 player Rifles only
* Team Fortress 2 16 Player Server
* One other server from the following – QW:ET, UT3, Crysis
* 64 Person Teamspeak Server
The server is going to be hosted in Ireland allowing Irish players to get extremely low pings. Hopefully these servers will become a play for Irish (and other) players to come and play for fun.
If anyone has any recommendations please feel free to email me at polarice /at/ irish-esports /dot/ com
sounds good
Hopefully it should be a great resource for Irish gamers! I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.
On another note I just noticed on one of blacknights many forums a post about a new Irish clan. While this is all well and good you might come to question the wording: “im in the process of building a clan – eire only….. If ur in a clan and arent happy…..” (http://www.irishisptest.com/forum/gaming/1249-all-irish-gamers.html)
I’m just wondering what kinda of level has social gaming in Ireland stooped to? I know this is one isolated occurance, however it doesn’t paint a nice picture.
no it doesn’t. that was something people kept saying to me. to exclude non irish etc which a really BAD idea.
Agreed… look at the Irish Unreal Tournament community at http://www.unreal.ie – a good portion of their most active players are Dutch/English/Scandinavian. This is the case with all good communities, you have ‘blow-ins’ looking for some refuge from the llama-infested desert of random public servers. They may not be eligible to play for Ireland, but should be embraced by the community. Indeed, in my experience running the Irish Quake 3 team, I can think of a couple of foreign players who were not eligible to play, but were very important to the Irish community, and assisted with training, coaching, and organisation.
Clans are a little bit different, there is an advantage to having all your members in Ireland, or in one city, or ideally one house – it allows you to communicate more effectively, mostly through play together on LAN. However, the ‘clan’ referred to in the Irish ISP Test forum is more of a community of what we in the industry like to call ‘noobs’. While the Irish gaming scene hasn’t quite stooped to that entirely, like in all countries, this is an element that will always be present and cannot be ignored, because it is a reservoir of potential. Organisations blurring the distinction between clan and community, led by angry 13 year olds, usually with the word “Ireland or Celtic” in the name, spring up very regularly and usually don’t last long. That is why I like to see Irish e-Sports portals growing – it helps to direct the hordes of angry lost Xbox live heroes onto a more enlightened path.
I think I’ve been misunderstood – I wasn’t really referring to the Irish part, but more to the “If ur in a clan and arent happy” join us part.
Regardless, things are always coming and going, and I know from past experience that with online gaming for anything to last over a year is an accomplishment.
I fully agree with leaving a community open to whoever wants to join provided they’re not the “angry 13 year” types that James speaks of. Everyone in .:iE/ has great fun together with our mixture of Irish, English, German, and Dutch members. While the majority of people are Irish it always adds great diversity to a group when you get people from different backgrounds.
Very true. Although, my own clan, Fish Heads ran for nearly 7 years, probably played more competitive matches than any other Irish clan in history, because we kept it small and loyal to the players. The Irish Quake community at Quake.ie has been going for around 10 years now (albeit smaller than it used to be), because it has always been open, and politically neutral.
I have found most Irish players come from the’sounds good! help? no thank you’ pool. that isn’t a great place to work from.
Post a Comment