In the run up to the SAGE LAN event which will take place in Enschede in early July, I caught up with Seanza, the man behind the event itself, to find out more about him, how he got into gaming and future events he hopes to give to us.
Q: Hello Seanza, to people who don't personally know you please introduce yourself. Who are you and what are you currently doing outside of gaming?
Hey everybody, I'm Sean McDougall, aka Seanza. I'm a Scottish 23 year old who is passionate about bringing competitive gaming to the main stream. I’m currently working full time for Sky TV during the day and in the process of starting up my own events business. Outside of gaming I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, playing elaborate pranks on people and generally having a great time in life!
Q: How long have you been playing online games? Where did it all start for you?
I've been playing online games since around 2007, so quite a late bloomer compared to most of those who are reading this. When I worked for IBM, I had a few colleagues who were into playing Battlefield 2 at the weekends and another game called Joint Operations. They'd keep pushing me to try it because I'd always make fun of them being geeks and nerds. Eventually, I gave in to their begging, it took about a year or 2 for me to actually agree to play games, though. I tried those 2 titles out along with some add-on packs for them and kind of enjoyed it, especially Joint Operations. I didn't have a gaming PC at that time, so would only play it if I was at one of those guys' houses. Then came along Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1st beta. I know, I know, maaaaaaassive flame incoming hahaha! That was the game that really brought me into competitive gaming, I broke away from the handful of colleagues I was playing other shooters with and started to look for a clan. I ended up in some clan called Contract Killers, their tag was =CK= … so lame! I was a “stat padder” on ET:QW for a couple months when I was in this clan, basically I was whoring XP on empty servers. I was given an ultimatum by my clan leader; leave or re-start your trial period. I decided to leave… they were crap anyway!
And then on to the next thing: adminning. I got involved in running gathers in the game, and then eventually landed a job as ET:QW Game Supervisor for ClanBase. That's where I really got my taste for running leagues and grew to understand the ins and outs of tournament organisation. From there, I’ve just gone my own way and tried to improve myself in what I do.
I’m not playing any games at the minute, though. No time for that!
Q: You have also dabbled in management having been part of rockit and The Last Resort which most Enemy Territory players will know about, what was the main attraction for you in management? What other organisations have you been part of and what made you change your mind on being involved in team management?
As I mentioned earlier, I went inactive in ET:QW and then returned. At that time, I started my own team and started organising recruitment etc and opened some public promod servers to promote the competitive aspects of the game. I then started really getting into the in-game leader side of things in my team. Back then, I had a lot of time but had the hunger for more. I brought in an ET team (The only player I can remember from that lineup was destiny!!!) who I gave online support to, along with a Call of Duty 4 team and a second ET:QW team. I think I might have also become involved in CounterStrike: Source as well at one point!
Eventually, the “mini org” I had created, Explanation eSports, just seemed to phase out. I was then contacted by Team Hardwire, a Swedish organisation who seemed impressed with my work ethic and passion for the competitive gaming scene. The owner of that disappeared for a few months and his girlfriend said that the org was closing, I think they re-opened a year or so later.
After that, I didn't do any management roles or anything similar for quite some time. I posted news every so often on Crossfire, that was about as much as it went. Then, after CIC7, Rockit contacted me about joining them to write news as they wanted to make their site more appealing to the European community (they were German-speaking only shortly before this). It became clear, very quickly, that I'd be doing more than just writing news. I brought in a more known Call of Duty 4 team to the organisation (no offence Anderson bruv!) and started to build a good relationship with the other teams within the org. Sadly, there were some internal differences and I felt like I was the only one who had the time and motivation to take things forward in the org. And then came TLR…
I joined TLR as I had been asked to by a good friend (and my super pro web design guru) Josh Clarke aka pesteh. He had landed a design job for the org a year prior to me joining and found himself being more involved than he initially intended. Pretty much what happened to me! I don't really care to go into much detail about my departure of TLR, I just wasn't happy accelerating in the mud.
As for the attraction in management, I'd have to say I like the feeling of being organised. There is no greater feeling than accomplishment.
Q: The SAGE Event is just a week away, how long have you been planning to organise a LAN event?
Before announcing the event, I’d only been planning it for 2 weeks or something. It was a spur of the moment whilst on the Aero TeamSpeak 3 server one night. Paul (the owner of Aero) and I were just chatting away about places to play games in the UK and where there might be a LAN coming up soon. Then I joked about running a LAN event for ET, he said I should just do it. So, you could say I just took the plunge on an impulse idea.
In terms of organising this event, though, I’ve spent the last 6 or so months making sure I have everything covered as far as planning has gone, so I hope I haven’t missed anything!
Q: As you have not played games to an extremely high level, do you think not having first hand insight from the gamers side could be problematic when it comes to organising events in the future?
I know a lot of people who have played at the top level in a lot of games and do follow scenes quite closely in terms of rules and what tournaments are doing. It comes naturally to me now, everything is a business opportunity in my mind. I always consult with players and teams involved in the games I'm running tournaments for, just to gauge their feelings and thoughts on my projects before I bring them to the public. So, to answer your question; Yes, I think that not having a first-hand insight from the gamer's side could potentially be problematic, only if you don’t do your homework. In which case, you deserve to fail!
Q: Have you thought about future events after SAGE? What does the future hold in regard to "Seanza Amazing Gaming Events"?
I’m currently planning an event in August for Call of Duty 4 called the Adroit CoD Masters. Adroits is the company I've started in order to help people who want to run an event but just don't have the know-how or time to do it themselves. You could look at Adroits being gaming's answer to the wedding planner! The next event I'm looking to run is an event in StarCraft II as that game has a crazy amount of followers and seems to attract the big names and companies along with it. I'm really happy for the StarCraft II community and where they are just now. Another game I'd like to host an event for would be League of Legends, their community has done themselves proud and certainly surprised me during the DreamHack Summer 11 event a couple of weekends ago.
As for other events, I'm open for suggestions.
Q: Would a major event ever be something you would be interested in? maybe not on the scale of something like iSeries or Dreamhack but having a handful of the top games at a single event - League of Legends, Sc2, CoD4 and a few other titles all in one rather than split across smaller events?
Oh, most definitely. The Intel Extreme Masters is a huge inspiration to me, that and all the Major League Gaming live events. That's my goal one day, to be on that level of organisation – maybe even exceed it! I would love to work alongside the team that organise IEM, they work their asses off to make sure that event runs as professionally as possible. I tip my hat to them all.
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Q: Hello Seanza, to people who don't personally know you please introduce yourself. Who are you and what are you currently doing outside of gaming?
Hey everybody, I'm Sean McDougall, aka Seanza. I'm a Scottish 23 year old who is passionate about bringing competitive gaming to the main stream. I’m currently working full time for Sky TV during the day and in the process of starting up my own events business. Outside of gaming I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, playing elaborate pranks on people and generally having a great time in life!
Seanza, the man, the legend
~
Q: How long have you been playing online games? Where did it all start for you?
I've been playing online games since around 2007, so quite a late bloomer compared to most of those who are reading this. When I worked for IBM, I had a few colleagues who were into playing Battlefield 2 at the weekends and another game called Joint Operations. They'd keep pushing me to try it because I'd always make fun of them being geeks and nerds. Eventually, I gave in to their begging, it took about a year or 2 for me to actually agree to play games, though. I tried those 2 titles out along with some add-on packs for them and kind of enjoyed it, especially Joint Operations. I didn't have a gaming PC at that time, so would only play it if I was at one of those guys' houses. Then came along Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1st beta. I know, I know, maaaaaaassive flame incoming hahaha! That was the game that really brought me into competitive gaming, I broke away from the handful of colleagues I was playing other shooters with and started to look for a clan. I ended up in some clan called Contract Killers, their tag was =CK= … so lame! I was a “stat padder” on ET:QW for a couple months when I was in this clan, basically I was whoring XP on empty servers. I was given an ultimatum by my clan leader; leave or re-start your trial period. I decided to leave… they were crap anyway!
And then on to the next thing: adminning. I got involved in running gathers in the game, and then eventually landed a job as ET:QW Game Supervisor for ClanBase. That's where I really got my taste for running leagues and grew to understand the ins and outs of tournament organisation. From there, I’ve just gone my own way and tried to improve myself in what I do.
I’m not playing any games at the minute, though. No time for that!
Q: You have also dabbled in management having been part of rockit and The Last Resort which most Enemy Territory players will know about, what was the main attraction for you in management? What other organisations have you been part of and what made you change your mind on being involved in team management?
As I mentioned earlier, I went inactive in ET:QW and then returned. At that time, I started my own team and started organising recruitment etc and opened some public promod servers to promote the competitive aspects of the game. I then started really getting into the in-game leader side of things in my team. Back then, I had a lot of time but had the hunger for more. I brought in an ET team (The only player I can remember from that lineup was destiny!!!) who I gave online support to, along with a Call of Duty 4 team and a second ET:QW team. I think I might have also become involved in CounterStrike: Source as well at one point!
Eventually, the “mini org” I had created, Explanation eSports, just seemed to phase out. I was then contacted by Team Hardwire, a Swedish organisation who seemed impressed with my work ethic and passion for the competitive gaming scene. The owner of that disappeared for a few months and his girlfriend said that the org was closing, I think they re-opened a year or so later.
After that, I didn't do any management roles or anything similar for quite some time. I posted news every so often on Crossfire, that was about as much as it went. Then, after CIC7, Rockit contacted me about joining them to write news as they wanted to make their site more appealing to the European community (they were German-speaking only shortly before this). It became clear, very quickly, that I'd be doing more than just writing news. I brought in a more known Call of Duty 4 team to the organisation (no offence Anderson bruv!) and started to build a good relationship with the other teams within the org. Sadly, there were some internal differences and I felt like I was the only one who had the time and motivation to take things forward in the org. And then came TLR…
I joined TLR as I had been asked to by a good friend (and my super pro web design guru) Josh Clarke aka pesteh. He had landed a design job for the org a year prior to me joining and found himself being more involved than he initially intended. Pretty much what happened to me! I don't really care to go into much detail about my departure of TLR, I just wasn't happy accelerating in the mud.
As for the attraction in management, I'd have to say I like the feeling of being organised. There is no greater feeling than accomplishment.
~
Q: The SAGE Event is just a week away, how long have you been planning to organise a LAN event?
Before announcing the event, I’d only been planning it for 2 weeks or something. It was a spur of the moment whilst on the Aero TeamSpeak 3 server one night. Paul (the owner of Aero) and I were just chatting away about places to play games in the UK and where there might be a LAN coming up soon. Then I joked about running a LAN event for ET, he said I should just do it. So, you could say I just took the plunge on an impulse idea.
In terms of organising this event, though, I’ve spent the last 6 or so months making sure I have everything covered as far as planning has gone, so I hope I haven’t missed anything!
The partnership with SAGE and SteelSeries was recently announced for the upcoming event
Q: As you have not played games to an extremely high level, do you think not having first hand insight from the gamers side could be problematic when it comes to organising events in the future?
I know a lot of people who have played at the top level in a lot of games and do follow scenes quite closely in terms of rules and what tournaments are doing. It comes naturally to me now, everything is a business opportunity in my mind. I always consult with players and teams involved in the games I'm running tournaments for, just to gauge their feelings and thoughts on my projects before I bring them to the public. So, to answer your question; Yes, I think that not having a first-hand insight from the gamer's side could potentially be problematic, only if you don’t do your homework. In which case, you deserve to fail!
~
Q: Have you thought about future events after SAGE? What does the future hold in regard to "Seanza Amazing Gaming Events"?
I’m currently planning an event in August for Call of Duty 4 called the Adroit CoD Masters. Adroits is the company I've started in order to help people who want to run an event but just don't have the know-how or time to do it themselves. You could look at Adroits being gaming's answer to the wedding planner! The next event I'm looking to run is an event in StarCraft II as that game has a crazy amount of followers and seems to attract the big names and companies along with it. I'm really happy for the StarCraft II community and where they are just now. Another game I'd like to host an event for would be League of Legends, their community has done themselves proud and certainly surprised me during the DreamHack Summer 11 event a couple of weekends ago.
As for other events, I'm open for suggestions.
Q: Would a major event ever be something you would be interested in? maybe not on the scale of something like iSeries or Dreamhack but having a handful of the top games at a single event - League of Legends, Sc2, CoD4 and a few other titles all in one rather than split across smaller events?
Oh, most definitely. The Intel Extreme Masters is a huge inspiration to me, that and all the Major League Gaming live events. That's my goal one day, to be on that level of organisation – maybe even exceed it! I would love to work alongside the team that organise IEM, they work their asses off to make sure that event runs as professionally as possible. I tip my hat to them all.
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Intel Extreme Masters on Eurosport
Q: The SAGE event is building up to be a very good Enemy Territory LAN event, which on paper could be one of the most competitive tournaments in the game's history - in future events do you still hope to support Enemy Territory by providing more LAN tournaments?
Agreed. Although only 16 teams for this event, I'd say it's a fantastic mix of teams in terms of unpredictability. We have the teams who have come to the event looking to win, and then we have the teams who are there to just have fun and enjoy the experience. It’s the latter who make this event what it is.
As far as supporting another ET event goes, I’d prefer to wait and see how SAGE pans out first of all before confirming any future events ran by Adroits. I certainly intend on hosting as many events as I possibly can, but the sad thing about ET is the lack of sponsorship opportunities. I like to think I can make endless offline tournament for the game, and will do it if I can.
Q: Is there anything else we should keep a look out for from yourself in the future?
As mentioned before, I'm in the process of starting my own events company – Adroits. The long-term plan is to have various divisions of Adroits from event planning to league systems to community support and even promotion of competitive gaming in mainstream media sources such as television channels and newspapers.
I want to take this on a global scale and have setup a page on Facebook as well as an account on Twitter, please like and follow to keep up with the latest from Adroits in the future.
Q: Any last comments or shoutouts?
I just want to say a huge thankyou to everybody who's helped with SAGE in some way, shape or form. Especially to yourself for effectively being my right-hand man! I'd also like to say a big thanks to all the players and teams who have been supportive of the event and I really hope you'll enjoy it wherever you are (at home or at the event!).
And finally, I'd like to say a massive thankyou to SteelSeries who have shown they believe in this event. And, of course, a huge thanks to YCN Hosting who will be on-site for server support along with running a special promotion on servers throughout the event! Finally, another big thanks to WZZRD and Kaos TV!
So it seems Seanza is a man with big ideas and has already got the ball rolling on some of them, time will tell how well the ideas unfold and if Enemy Territory will be involved in the future or not, hopefully for ET it will be.
~
Q: The SAGE event is building up to be a very good Enemy Territory LAN event, which on paper could be one of the most competitive tournaments in the game's history - in future events do you still hope to support Enemy Territory by providing more LAN tournaments?
Agreed. Although only 16 teams for this event, I'd say it's a fantastic mix of teams in terms of unpredictability. We have the teams who have come to the event looking to win, and then we have the teams who are there to just have fun and enjoy the experience. It’s the latter who make this event what it is.
As far as supporting another ET event goes, I’d prefer to wait and see how SAGE pans out first of all before confirming any future events ran by Adroits. I certainly intend on hosting as many events as I possibly can, but the sad thing about ET is the lack of sponsorship opportunities. I like to think I can make endless offline tournament for the game, and will do it if I can.
~
Q: Is there anything else we should keep a look out for from yourself in the future?
As mentioned before, I'm in the process of starting my own events company – Adroits. The long-term plan is to have various divisions of Adroits from event planning to league systems to community support and even promotion of competitive gaming in mainstream media sources such as television channels and newspapers.
I want to take this on a global scale and have setup a page on Facebook as well as an account on Twitter, please like and follow to keep up with the latest from Adroits in the future.
Q: Any last comments or shoutouts?
I just want to say a huge thankyou to everybody who's helped with SAGE in some way, shape or form. Especially to yourself for effectively being my right-hand man! I'd also like to say a big thanks to all the players and teams who have been supportive of the event and I really hope you'll enjoy it wherever you are (at home or at the event!).
And finally, I'd like to say a massive thankyou to SteelSeries who have shown they believe in this event. And, of course, a huge thanks to YCN Hosting who will be on-site for server support along with running a special promotion on servers throughout the event! Finally, another big thanks to WZZRD and Kaos TV!
~
So it seems Seanza is a man with big ideas and has already got the ball rolling on some of them, time will tell how well the ideas unfold and if Enemy Territory will be involved in the future or not, hopefully for ET it will be.
I tried my best
haha nice hidden message, thanks man
one has to appreciate him organizing the event and all but what it boils down to is that he is new to gaming, he has no high level experience, he played a game we all condemn, he ruined two great teams in ET scene and the only reason the event is going trough is because of the dedication of the ET community. and after all that is the only good part in his resumee so i dont see why you would call him a legend
the swedes died of after asking him.
rockit went bad after he joined.
TLR broke down completely after he joined...
he just isnt a good manager
The Swedes died? What Swedes? I'm assuming you mean Hardwire since they're mentioned in the interview, that had some guy do a runner, hardly my fault.
Rockit went bad after I joined? Many would argue differently, it improved greatly.
TLR broke down completely after I joined? Anybody will laugh at you for this comment. Everybody knows what chefinal from TLR is like, and all the teams were more than happy with my involvement, so were all the staff. So much so that I still manage the CoD4 team and I'm still working with pesteh and rellie, who were both part of TLR staff.
Potty asks, why you mad Herp the Derp?
imo you didnt deliver anything yet. and organizing an event isnt the same as clan management.
gl with ur stuff
Nah, nice stuff, Scotland. Was a good read. Should you ever need any help setting up a NA lan, lemme know :p