Let us start with the formalities - Please explain your role within 4kings and when you joined

QuoteMy job role isn't defined really, currently going through a few changes in certain areas so hopefully I'll get a suitable job title. Currently I'm general manager of 4Kings, mainly interacting with the players and other management to ensure everything is being run accordingly like any other business would, but it varies, one week i can be at an event chatting to potential sponsors and media or be at home chatting on the phone to BBC, we all help each other out in every department. I've been in 4Kings since January 2004 slowly working my way up the ranks in responsibility, learning along the way


What is 4kings exactly, yes a clan, but what is the ideology behind 4kings and where does 4kings call home and in turn how does that affect decisions you make?

QuoteThis question is raised almost every time 4Kings is in the news, 4Kings UK LTD is a registered company in England and Wales and thus runs as a British company, we started out as a UK team and we'll always keep our roots despite what people say. Staying loyal we do try and keep the UK flavour in the team alive by having more people from the UK then any other.


What is the business model behind 4kings? How do you guys make money?

QuoteThis is something we've adressed in some detail over the last 6 months with the launch of our new site. We've explored several money making inititives and we're in the middle of signing deals to allow us to make money from it, i'd love to say what we have in the pipeline for it's really big and will be impressive :). In the past the company it self has made money from advertising and some from player cuts although this has been scaled back


But right now would it be fair to say the company is dependant upon handouts from organisations such as Intel?
QuoteThat's pretty much the case with most teams with SK and possibly NiP being the exceptions, both with popular VIP/Insider services and so on.
The aim is to build on what we have currently, we know we can do it and we're pretty upbeat about the challenge! Depending on if they take player cuts or not, and what games they support.


"Games they support" Lets take this opportunity to look at what 4kings support, Currently you have CS 1.6, Warcraft 3 and Quake 4, however in the past four kings has gone outside of these core games and supported RTCW, CoD and even SoF - Why currently are you not picking up teams in other games?

QuoteI'd say the Warcraft 3 team has a big part to play in this, they've put us on the map globally as one of the best teams around and we're trying to mould an image around that by trying to stick to what is currently the biggest games as far as tournaments go, and those that maybe aren't as popular but still have potential (I'm thinking of Q4 here). We don't want to turn into a multi gaming team that has a pro evolution team or project gotham for the one off event every year, we want to be in the limelight as much as possible and be the best at the most popular tournament games about.


What about a game like CoD which right now has an extremely large clan following, and a number of high prized LANs out there. Combined with a strong UK scene, would 4kings not be tempted in getting back involved in CoD?

QuoteCoD we know is a strong game, along with CoD2. But the way we (and 90% of professional teams see it) you have your set tournaments, the CPLs and ESWCs of this world, we want to be there. We want to be where the media coverage is, where the spectator value far outweighs any other event. Getting our name and brand publicity is the key. If we were ever to go back to CoD it would be on a non sponsored basis, and i can assure you the first thing any one would want off 4Kings would be sponsorship, equipment and so on, so the chances are pretty slim of us venturing back into CoD unfortunately


So what was the benefit to having both RTCW and CoD squads in the first place? You didn't gain the many LANs that receive huge media attention, however through the documentaries and the article in PCGamer both squads earned their keep for the 4kings name

QuoteAgain i cant comment too much on RTCW and CoD really, soon after i joined our CoD team disbanded. When i joined however our WC3 was steadily improving, with the signings of Grubby and ToD, then FoV we soon became dominant and our priorities changed


How dependant are you on the Warcraft squad for international success?

QuoteOur WC3 squad is definitely the backbone of our organisation, I'd be lying if i said otherwise. SK are well known for having the ever conquering CS team, Fnatic for vo0 and the world tour success, it's much like any other top team really. Regarding our CS team they've been plagued with some of the worst luck possible and half yearly roster changes for last 2-3 years or so, it's been very difficult to cement a world dominating roster


Lets move onto your CS team, I think it might be safe to call them the laughing stock of pro-counter strike, you've probably spent in excess of $100,000 in expenses and the team has rarely looked like returning on that. How can you justify this expense for such failure?

Quote$100,000 is slightly over the top, the vast majority of events we don't end up having to pay for at all. ESWC is qualification only, same with WCG. WEG is invite only and fully paid for. The only significant expense for us are the CPL events which in recent times have given us some good results for the team. As far as laughing stock is concerned, as I've mentioned before we've been plagued with bad luck like no other team in the world, we've been constantly thrown off balance because of it


does 4kings refuse to go with an all foreign team for Counter Strike?

QuoteWe've always had English players in the team and we feel we'd like to keep the spine of the team from the UK. We support UK CS talent even though there aren't as many professional gamers in UK as other countries like Sweden, we still believe in supporting our own. The English players we have in our team have improved to world class players, and we're confident with international tournament experience our latest recruit AdY will step up his game and prove to be one of the worlds best.
We have the desire to win, in the last 12 months we've achieved more then we ever have, despite the problems. We believe in staying loyal and allowing the team to gel and improve. We could have a clearance sale and get rid of everyone, bring in 5 new players, but what would that achieve? we'd be back to square one again. We have faith in this lineup.


You'll have to excuse me for calling it blind faith, but results suggest that you're at Square 1 right now. How about the players that have been there for a long time, do you ever employ any form of scare tactics to try to get the best out of them?

QuoteIf your basing that on WEG Masters then we had some excellent results there, despite having a last minute stand-in for the event. Prior to that we achieved top 8 at CPL finishing higher then teams like complexity and team 3D who we beat. We are most definitely not back at Square 1 now, we do though have some work to be done and anything outside of top 8 at next months CPL event would be disappointing


However, what about players like Mangicapra, when is enough defeats enough?

QuoteMarc is very dedicated to the cause, one of the most loyal members in 4Kings and has been for a long time, his experience and knowledge of the game is valuable and we can rely on him when we need to. It's down to not having a team that has had the chance to gel together due to unfortunate roster changes, since I've been in 4Kings from one cpl to the next I'm certain we've ended up having to recruit a new player for whatever reason. Its like a football defence, constantly changing goalkeeper for every game and not being able to communicate properly, you cant play smooth fluent counter-strike without team play, that comes with time


Moving onto Quake 4, What about TooGood, he fits the bill for a 4kings player, English, Skilled, Charismatic, why did 4kings not pick him up?

QuoteWe were too late, and at the time we had 2 active quake 4 duellers, despite a now dilapidated Quake 4 schedule


What are your plans for Quake 4 at 4kings, you recently won covlan and proved that you've still a very skilled squad, but with Deus being inactive for 1on1 and the loss of Zacc, will you give up on 1 on 1?

QuoteDeus will continue to be inactive for the next week or so but he'll be back and will boot camp for at least a week prior to CPL Summer. He felt he had a new lease of life and really enjoyed playing again. Despite the loss of Zaccubus to inactivity(we think) we arn't going to give up on duelling this year however! As far as TDM goes we'll have to wait and see what events crop up


So with inactivity in one squad, and regular "bad luck" in another, how will 4kings improve on server over the coming year?

QuoteQuake 4 wasn't the world tour game every expected, much like PK, this has been a big factor in the inactivity of our duellers, Deus especially, he's got the backing of us however as we know what he's capable of, we'd like to make sure he qualifies for the WSVG grand finals. As far as CS is concerned we'll continue as we are, with boot camp time we expect top 8 again at CPL


What responsibility do you feel 4kings has to gaming in the UK?

QuoteWe have alot of respect for the UK community because of the loyal support we have within the community. We like to give back to the community as much as we can(expect more on this in the near future) and we aim on keeping the backbone of the team as British as possible, God save the queen!

Summary

  1. The Interview