Once upon a time he used to play RTCW for top UK side Lemmings, now he manages teams in almost every game on the competitive scene! With his Quakewars, ET and Call of Duty squads some might just say that Dignitas manager ODEE is the most powerful man on Crossfire! Lets see what he has to say;Hello ODEE, let me get rid of the stock question first! Please could you tell me a little bit about yourself and Dignitas:
Well I am 35 years old and I am married to MrsODEE and we have three young daughters. My daughters seem to have come along in between switching games I think. I am the full time Manager of Team Dignitas but I started off by being a player with the Battlefield 1942 team first. Team Dignitas was formed when the top two BF42 teams at the time merged. At the time our players were based mainly in Sweden and Germany but we had a token Dane and me from the UK too.
Team Dignitas at the start was a clan of friends trying to be the best and loving gaming. We are very lucky to have kept that vision throughout our development and it remains our goal and that is to get our guys to the events and show the world what we can do. Things have developed nicely for us and yes we are very fortunate to have some fantastic sponsors. We are of course fortunate too to have some of the best players in the world at many games.
Many people might not know that you and RTCW have quite the history! Could you tell us a little about your time in the Lemmings RTCW side.
I used to really enjoy RTCW; many hours I spent on publics especially beach just shooting anything that moved, it was great. I stopped playing top level Q3CTF and needed something else my friends from my Q3CTF team Acidbeard and Exp was playing the game. Those two eventually joined 4Kings and I felt well if they can do it I can too. I approached Lemmings and started playing with them, I got into the team
but I was never quite as I needed to be. I knew the team were carrying me a bit and with players like Ogdoad I did not mind. He also ended up at 4Kings. I went to the Intel masters and Lemmings did really well but I had already decided to move on. I think for me I joined the game too far in after it’s release so I was always playing catch-up. Infensus were awesome, random sentence but those that played the game know what I mean! As I stopped playing BF42 was released, I had found my new home.
Dignitas have squads in ET, CoD and Quakewars (not to mention a brief stint in RTCW). You might just be the most powerful man on Crossfire, how do you sleep at night knowing this?
I think most people know that Team Dignitas came from the so called smaller games, although those games generally have massive communities. I hadn’t thought about it like that but you are right we have some of the best games around in our portfolio. I sleep very well though as I love doing what we do, ET CoD and hopefully ET:QW have and will serve us very well.
Dignitas was formed with ET and Battlefield squads and true to this day, despite your new sponsors you’ve kept to your heritage. Why is this important to you?
When we started in BF42 we got so pissed off with the larger clans ignoring us, looking down on us and frankly dismissing us. We never wanted to be like them, we feel all games deserve to be looked at whatever it is. It is nice now though as it seems some of the other larger teams are starting to follow our lead. When we started on the Professional route though we came up with a plan and we have stuck to it since day 1. I feel our way of looking at things has also helped us to attract sponsors too.
How does Dignitas chose the games it supports? You must get alot of offers of teams wanting to become the next Dignitas.something, what makes you go yes?
Well the first part of that question is very hard I will come back to that. I receive at least 5-10 enquires everyday from teams asking to join us or be our next squad. I have to say we obviously turn away 99%, most of them because their way of asking is shit. Never ask me on IRC that is a tip, you must sell yourselves to us and that takes some effort. My favourite request is this one I get every week on IRC:
Someone: Wassup … . . . .!  homey!!
ODEE: Hello
Someone: You want high skilled squad in dignitas
ODEE: What game?
Someone: We are best Europe world universe we have our own teeth innit ..s.s.s.s  !!
ODEE: What game?
Someone: You want us or what we hot and skilled !...><  !
ODEE: What game?
Someone: 1.6 …………………………………………………
ODEE: We have a team, no thanks
Someone: But they UK we high skilled Swedish, Danish, Russian highbred ….!....!
ODEE: ODEE has quit IRC (Signed off)
With regards to actually taking squads and players we normally decide months before we take them and scout around to see who is doing well. Our FIFA team and a couple of players produced awesome presentations selling themselves to us and that gained our interest. A key thing though is teams and players must match our way of thinking, eSports is still in it’s youth and money does not grow on trees. We know exactly what players and teams want, we were in the same position when we were playing BF42. ET:QW is a no brainer however it brings the BF and ET communities together and that’s where we began.
In February you returned to ET by recruiting the Idle side, what motivated you at this time to return to the game?
Well after our first team stopped playing, we really needed something special to replace them and we kind of did that twice. The Idle team I do not think anyone can deny their achievements and talent. We felt the time was right to take ET again and we went for it helping to send the team to two LAN events, we couldn’t do that previously. The same goal comes back in most cases; get our teams to the events.
Currently the ET team is under performing in comparison to their history and Dignitas’ history, do you ever consider wielding the axe?
No! To be fair it would always be hard for the team not to underperform compared to their previous results. I think the players themselves would be more pissed off than anyone else with some of their losses. The team were unbeaten for a year, I have been in a team that has done that, the first loss is hard to take but I bet the guys were expecting it for at least six months before it happened. The teams that have caught up probably used the tactics our team used or spent that year coming up with anti dignitas tactics. We will never know for sure but one thing is for certain these guys will be in ET history forever.
Both your ET and CoD squads have slipped from their former glories, what is your role in trying to get them back to the number 1 spots? Obviously you must be very busy, but is apart of your job to manage each squad individually and try to help push them up the rankings, if so how?
I think with the ET team Frop and Urtier are major factors in the team’s success. For probably only this squad I cannot do too much mentoring. The guys have been there and done that, Frop knows the team better than I do. I trust him to do the job he was doing before they joined. For most of our other squads and players I do try and manage each player individually as it is important I know what makes them tick. Our CoD2 team I do take a daily interest in, I need to know what they are doing and how they are practicing.
The biggest pressure on our players is themselves, we try to remind them to focus and practice. But even though both squads have not performed as they are expected to (by the public not us) they still remain world class. It would be boring if we won everything; but I wouldn’t complain.
What is your assessment on the CoD division’s achievements, whilst they’ve not won a major tournament since September, they still command a large fanbase and have had some good results.
The fan base our team has is immense it is quite staggering how much attention they receive. When we do an Xfire event it is always full and we do try to talk to all fans that query our players. The team are disappointed with 5th place in Dallas at the WSVG but that is normal everyone wants to win. It is still 5th place in a world class field. We will now go to the TeK9 LAN and try again against all the best teams in Europe, it is going to be hard. You never know maybe like Real Madrid we have a dry patch after being the best then we come back and win a title.
The outlay for the CoD side to attend Dallas would have been rather large, do you feel it was money well spent in hindsight?
Yes we budgeted for it and we went for it, we wanted to go and beat the Americans, that is always a good motivation. Not only that though we wanted to represent European Gaming and we are fortunate to now be able to attend an event like that. I am pissed off however that there was little or no coverage for CoD2. I just hope WSVG noted how good the game is to watch, as in your earlier column I agree with you that CoD2 is a viable alternative to CS1.6 for major competitions.
You appear destined for big things in ET Quakewars in the not too distant future also, what are your feelings on the ET roster losing players to form the Quakewars roster?
I think even if we did not have a team that would happen, if Splash Damage get the game play right and we think they have well then it was inevitable. The game is still in the Beta and we still do not fully know how it will work out for us. Watch this space I guess! If ET players end up in the team I will not complain they are already proven team game winners, it will only be good for us. The Beta team we have already seem to be getting the hang of the game, they will be at Multiplay i31 as guests of Activision. There the team will play a show match against the Splash Damage game tests on the big stage!
How does an organisation like Dignitas fund so many squads? Some multigaming teams only have to send their CS and Warcraft teams around the world, you have so many more squads to send across the globe.
We have kept our feet firmly on the ground and spent the money we have had wisely. The first three years we were on a tiny budget but without that we could not have done anything. Some of our original members have been investing in the team including myself and that subsidised our income really. We have expanded only when we could afford it and this year has been fantastic for us signing 5 new sponsors. For European events it is not too bad now but the American ones are extremely costly. We also try to make our own money and you can buy the new Team Dignitas QPAD CT from the Scan Computers shop.
If you don’t have it you cannot spend it! That is the best financial tip you can have.
Thank you very much for your time ODEE, I hope to keep seeing more and more Dignitas squads. If you’ve any shoutouts or sponsor plugs, now is the time!
Of course we have to thank Scan Computers, Intel, Creative, abit, Corsair and XFX for their support we cannot do what we do without them. I must thank though the people behind the scenes as they are as vital to Team Dignitas, NewmaN, dc, SpadEs and Meph. Also of course our teams and players GO GO like a Rocket!!!!
