You’ve the strangest accent in V Sports, why do people like your casts?

QuoteI'd hope people like my casts because I would like to consider myself slightly unique to other casters out there on the "professional" circuit. The accent is another thing, my gap year with the US Navy killed my posh north west London accent and left me with this. Not a day goes by here at uni when someone doesn’t crack a joke about me apparently sounding American, and yet when I go anywhere near an American they instantly assign me as British. Whatever the result of that is upon my casts, people appear to like so I'm not gonna complain!


Lets call a spade a spade, you’re a nerd, screaming at your monitor day after day, night after night - did you parents ever take action and try to make you “get a life”.

QuoteHaha, well actually its interesting. After I came back from Singapore my mum said something like "Maybe we were wrong for trying to stop you playing on the computer" In joke format of course, however yes like any parents they want their child studying not playing video games, especially in the UK where the internet is a big taboo of paedophilia and porn. But a life? Fortunately I don’t live in a house from the 1960's where anyone feels the need to dictate a normal lifestyle to me, if I wanna play a video game in my spare time then nobody has ever told me that is wrong and that I should be in a football team instead of a gaming team. Gauging a balance between nerd'ism and normal'ism is something I think any gamer struggles with, I’ve gone days where all I wanna do is game (and the world that comes with it), and others where I’ve wished I’d never entered that world. Right now I'm extremely happy with every aspect of life, in terms of a balance between the normal world and the online world


Shoutcasting, besides the obvious, what’s in it for you - do iTG pay you a wage?

QuoteA wage as in a monthly salary, No not at all. However when attending events with iTG there is a variety of setups for finance. It all based on an event by event basis, however In some cases I have come away with more money than I left home with. In others, I've come away with a large negative figure.


But you are contracted to iTG?

QuoteAt this moment in time, No. I have never signed any contract related to online video gaming.


During your time in Void it could be said you simply made up the numbers. Do you believe a top team could get away with having a visibly lower skilled player in their starting 6 nowadays?

QuoteI played in a team that was simply gifted with nearly the very best the UK has ever had to offer, Nudey could pull an airstrike out of a rabbit hole, Traducer could aim like only h!ve has ever done in UK ET history, Adreena combined both aim and medic'ing sublimely, Geemarc similarly and Snuggs was the king of the enigeer'ing role, clever, skilled and great on comms.

Then me...

What did I offer that team? Well I don’t know, I formed that team, I recruited all of the above, I lead comms, called strats, did i back that up with the natural ability of any of the others? Honestly, No. Yet I did not stand out as a weak link in our games, not in void. In void I was playing a shed load of ET, and as any WoW player can tell you (not that I play wow), if you play more you do better regardless of natural talent. I just played and that carried me, In Pink it was a completely different scenario. However, Could a lower skilled player get away with it...Yes they could, and they did last EC season. If you want the truth, I think the EC winners uQ had one or two players that rode on the ability of their stars.


How can iTG justify taking a European caster to an American event when there's perfectly capable American shoutcasters in the iTG crew?

QuoteThat’s pretty simple each event has to be taken individually, most recently Trans Atlantic Showdown? The flight from Copenhagen from New York was all sponsor paid as part of the huge promotion by Intel, SAS and Boeing, thus it was probably cheaper to send a European. Other Euro to USA trips, well that depends on the specific caster themselves, the games they cover, their availability, the availability of other iTG casters, the budget available, the weather. With each event comes a new challenge to get the right team. If you want to quote examples, I'll happily explain those scenarios to the best I can.


Recent trips to Asia?

QuoteThe trips to Asia are pretty simple, firstly the costs are very similar for Euro to Singapore and America to Singapore, and there for the financial question you ask iTG to justify is irrelevant, CIG - my attendance was at the request of the event organisers, with whom I am good friends, WWI - Well, why I don’t know, but again finance which is what you're questioning justification of is irrelevant.

WCG - firstly the costs are very similar for Euro to Sin. iTG is a volunteer organisation, within which are a group that try to fulfil their passion for commentary as best possible, but are forced to juggle this with their own real life commitments. Attendance to lans is often simply not viable due to real life commitments


How do iTG fund themselves? Are you bankrolled by some mystery investor…jet setting around the world - investing in new state of the art equipment. It doesn't make sense to the random outsider, how does iTG balance the books?

QuoteFinance for any online gaming organisation is a complicated matter, and in the most part it will always come down to the same thing, Sponsors, and then nearly always the same companies, i.e. Intel. So why don’t you see an Intel logo on our site? Why isn’t it iTG.Intel, well we are on an event by event basis, the Trans Atlantic Finals for example, was hosted within an Intel tradeshow, and the event received huge Intel backing. Thus part of the budget featured online coverage, that’s where we come in. When running a lan nowadays people feature in their online coverage as we reach a market that is unreachable elsewhere. How else are you going to reach tens of thousands of gamers? You could spend $200,000 on airtime on TV, and reach 10,000 gamers total in your 100 adverts. You could cover iTG's costs and reach 5 times that amount for 1% of the cost of a TV advert. Thus for any company running a LAN it makes financial sense to bring an organisation that is in touch with their core market. An example, on a number of sites I've read since the Trans Atlantic Finals I've seen comments like - WOW TosspoT really liked that Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology Laptop, he bored me to death with those constant plugs. - There possibly isn’t any other way other than TAS and iTG that intel could have emphasised the ability of those laptops. Especially to the very people they want to buy them.


So, pardon the expression - you whore yourself out to the highest bidder?

QuoteIs Chelsea not out to whore Samsung Mobile? Sponsors are sponsors, they pay the bills. If we did not require their money to operate in the way we do then maybe we could operate without the adverts, When companies support iTG, of course we support them back that’s just business. Without those very same companies we wouldn’t have V Sports as we know it today. - On a side note I am currently looking into purchasing one of the laptops used at TAS.


It's fair to assume you have contacts, why didn’t Saevus attend Quakecon ‘05?

QuoteSaevus signed contracts with a clan who agreed to cover their costs to to Quakecon, however that clan failed to deliver on their promises. Thats the online world for you, I consider it a personal failure that I as "manager" could not get that team to Dallas, however such is life


If I'm honest, you've a rampant ego rivalling that of Saintt. You've achieved little in your playing career yet are happy to judge and discredit clans around you. What makes your opinion so special?

QuoteIf I'm honest, your opinion of my persona is of little concern to me - That’s arrogant, but not egotistical. My playing career? Well this is something people often throw at me, people see me playing for fun clans and say wait you're shit how dare you tell me I did this wrong. Well firstly lets clear something up, I have not cared about an official I've played in since Pink Gorillas defeated iLlusion in the UnterElite cup final to once again claim UK #1 without even trying, that was April 2004. 2 Years ago.

Achieved? Well I played in Eurocup RTCW, I captained the UK nations cup team (all be it because nobody else would!), and have played at the highest level of ET in the old days with dh.

What makes my opinion special? Well, if you're tuning into iTG you want a show, you want match commentary. You don’t want to hear "Oh well, its a shame they lost, better luck next time eh?" If you're tuning into TosspoT on iTG casting ET, by now you know exactly what you're gonna get. If that means I'm overly critical, then so be it. My opinion is not special, my opinion is my job. I watch, I commentate on what happened - to suggest its special is "tard'ish", you tune into me Nellie, you tell me if there is anything special about it. If you think I’m arrogant? Then I say you don’t know ME. You've never met me, you've never played in a clan with me, you've not spent more than 10 minutes on vent with me in a situation that isn’t regarding a mix. Being TosspoT is being multiple different online personas at once, it’s like schizophrenia - There’s TosspoT to those I know and who know me and I consider my friends, There’s iTG`TosspoT wanting to be professional and customer service orientated, There’s TosspoT to the 10 pm's regarding ET a day I get from people who know me, but I don’t know. There’s TosspoT from xfire, there’s TosspoT from gamestv, the list goes on. Which TosspoT do you want to call arrogant? Because I assure you you've not met the real one. All in all I probably get some 30 pm's a day, and many more conversations in channels. Does the guy I help with a random question regarding his ET config think I'm arrogant? I doubt it. Or does the guy who meets me think I'm arrogant? No way. I'm actually an incredibly shy person when in locations and groups of people I am not familiar with. Arrogance within TosspoT is only derived from lack of time to answer every question in the fullest manner, not from someone that thinks he’s up himself. Many people pm me asking "Is it ok that I pm you?" Each time I come up with the same reply, why on earth wouldn’t it be? This is irc, there is no social hierarchy, you're not a lower class citizen, if I were egotistical that certainly wouldn’t be my reply.


In a previous answer you mentioned that you are not currently contracted to iTG, have any of their competitors - say TSN approached you?

QuoteOh I've been approached by alot of organisations (not going to name). The answer will always be No. iTG took a gamble on me and I wont forget that in a hurry. I listen to my old casts and they're simply awful, yet through working with numerous people in iTG I've become what I am now. That and the fact iTG is a family, you turn up at a lan event and you simply feel like you belong. Leaving iTG would be the worst thing I could do


What does iTG’s partnership with the GGL offer you, besides a video stream?

QuoteThe GGL is an incredible organisation, If anyone is going to push gaming into the mainstream it will be these people. What people may not realise is that they are an organisation of some 40 employees, all of whom with expertise in their field, however right at the top there are some very special cherries on this cake. Obviously, Marcus Graham (djwheat) would be one of them, I could sing his praises all day. However on the executive side of things, Firstly David Grant who pioneered Fox TV networks, whilst I'm yet to meet him a) his achievements speak for themselves and b) people talk so highly of him (it was his idea for me to talk to pigeons!) However the glazed cherry of the GGL is Fred Ordower who is the Winston Wolf of the GGL. Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction, comes to solve the "Dead nigger in the car" situation, with one of his opening lines "Ok its 30 minute drive, I'll be there in 10" - 9 minutes a 50 seconds later, he arrives. Not only does Fred have an incredible history in the music industry, but I've learnt so much from him with his simple ability to communicate and get any job done. Carmac is not an easy man to please, and yet he said to me in New York "There is nothing that man cannot do perfectly"

Our partnership with the GGL offers us the opportunity to work with the best of the best from the entertainment industry, experience: money simply cannot buy. If iTG and the GGL parted ways today, I would walk away with experience that would help me for the next 50 years


You where quick to take over once Warwitch left the scene, who is now a distant memory. Do you feel threatened by the increasingly popular FlyingDJ and feel the need to reclaim your stake as the number one ET shoutcaster? Or do you have contempt for your non-LAN attending counterpart, is FlyingDJ even competition?

QuoteInteresting, WarWitch is the reason I love shoutcasting. I listened to his RTCW casts religiously, and when he casted me I could recite it in my sleep! He left RTCW pre its demise, and that gave me the opportunity to "grow" as a caster, no longer in his shadow. Who wants bronze when you can have gold? Now some 3 years later do I feel like history is repeating itself? No. My inactivity is based on university term times and my desire for student priced alcohol, that somewhat came to an end about 17 hours ago and thus I am somewhat "back". WarWitch was a complete withdrawal, now with reference to FDJ. I think DJ is in a very similar position to what I was some 3 years ago, living in another casters shadow and taking the unwarranted criticism that comes with it, that criticism he received during the last EC was completely unwarranted and I hoped that I was vocal enough at that point to support him. DJ is a brilliant guy, I think anyone within the GamesTV crew will agree with my statement that he is a pleasure to work with, and I see absolutely no rivalry between the two of us and thus do not feel at all threatened.

But you're very right about his popularity, I connected to ETTV one of the last EC games on ice (think 141 vs. someone), and someone said hey toss when are you next casting, and somebody else chimed in with a right earful to me about how I should never cast ET again now DJ is casting so who knows maybe I have some to do to win over the community once again.


2006, is going to be…{an exciting success} {a massive flop} - Quake 4 is but a Painkiller imitation?

Quote2006 is going to be a transitional year as more diverse companies enter video gaming, and console gaming is realised as the real market for sponsors money not PC gaming. It is not however going to be a great year for professional death match players. Quake 4 is and alright game, Painkiller is not that. However Quake 4 lives in Quake 3's shadow, as Quake 3 OSP was the very best Deathmatch game ever produced. Maybe UT2007 can save the deathmatch genre.


Why is it necessary for a shoutcasting team to actually attend a LAN event, you stated the shoutcaster is there as the portal to the online community. Can they not do this from GTV in the comfort of their own home?

QuoteFirstly, allot of games do not have a functioning GTV (Quake 4, PK as examples). Secondly a shoutcaster is also a host, In Singapore whilst sitting in front of 3000 people with them staring at your face, you're hosting a show, you've gotta make it exciting for them too. When you've got an audience it instantly changes, you serve them before online, just like TV stand up shows talk to their audience not the camera. Shoutcasters, become hosts, and hosts are needed to make something spectator friendly. You could not sit those 3000 people down at WCG Singapore, and just let them watch 40 Feet screens, it just wouldn’t add excitement. To the same point you could not pipe an online audio feed to them either as it wouldn’t be personal.


It seems a wide spread phenomena that players aren’t actually receiving their prize money. To name but two, Quakecon and GGL - have they bitten off more than they can chew with the astronomical prize pots?

QuoteIt is industry standard for prize winners to wait at least six months for their prize money, winners of CPL and WCG experience the same delay, however the winners of these events are the same names, Team3D, NoA, Fatality, etc, the winners of Americup Age of Empires never get money their game never gets the attention and thus they don’t understand the delay, its something of an untold industry standard. Now, in the case of GGL - lets compare it to ESWC, ESWC pays out from people that win their tournament each July, GGL pays, 1st 2nd 3rd, in 10 tournaments in Europe and USA, TWICE a year so there is a huge workload of accounting that’s gotta happen at the end of each season, so its going to take time, no doubt at all, people should just be grateful that they're gonna get something for free. Gamers ungratefulness always astonishes me.


Just days after interviewing pigeons in the streets of New York we’ve had our first confirmed outbreak of bird flue in Britain! Was it you, pigeon fiddler?!

QuoteWell, Jose Mouriniho has gone on record to state that he is more concerned about bird flu than Manchester United, and as a Chelsea fan I find it impossible that I could bring concern to Jose


You are the special one.

Right, cheers for your time. Hopefully this wasn’t the usual mundane bab, anything else you want to add?

QuoteThank you for the interview, you're right it was different to the usual interview! Most of them don’t take place at 5AM when I'm a touch intoxicated. However! The theme of this has been rather up close and personal and that’s nice. I cant think of anything to add really, other than I hope people enjoyed reading this :)

Summary

  1. The Interview.