That Interview with MLG…

Carlos: Thanks, I appreciate you reaching out to me after all. I’m sorry it took this long to get things worked out so we could do this interview but it seems we’re on the right track now. Anaheim was huge for us in a lot of different ways and it was the biggest event I have ever been to as a gamer – including Evo 2012. I have been working on figuring out a plan to have everyone play nice in the competitive gaming space since there are so many opportunities for all the players out there.

Carlos: My name is Carlos Arvelo I am from Long Island NY. I grew up in local arcades and later played atChinatown Fair like most guys my age (29) so I guess you could say I’m old enough to have seen the rise and fall of arcades lol but young enough to help the culture stay alive. I am the fighting game community manager for MLG in their partnership with the Sony PlayStation brand. I am sort of a liaison to both companies that MLG would consult before making final decisions on what directions to move with the league in regards to titles, event dates, and what would be the best way not to step on anyone’s toes. In other words I’m asked what games might currently be popular enough to be included in the season, or what the community might like to see in the way of exhibitions, online tournaments, Sony kiosk events, etc.

Carlos: Yea that was REALLY unfortunate because I love KOF with all my heart. It’s easily one of the best games in the past 15 years and that was easy to see if you watched the KOF tourny at EVO this year.

Arturo: Eyeah It was a blow up lol. Sorry I didn’t get back to you Gunsmith I was in esports limbo for a while lol. I’m sure later on it won’t be such a big deal to get back to you.

Carlos: My Fault! -___-

Carlos: Fighting game players get hype, it’s whatever. I get that way too when I was expecting to get some butt and it falls through lol. I definately play well with others so I think now that everything is straight I see a beautiful future for everyone!

Carlos: Well strangely enough a stream producer is exactly what it sounds like! Arturo was hired as a director to oversee the streams and communicate with the on air talent (yes they wear headsets for a reason). So in the case of Columbus we had Arturo glued to his streaming station with the rest of the team making sure that we had matches ready to keep the stream going with matches. Strangely enough that ended up with a few problems due to issues with commercials, and delays in matches. We were lucky that MLG was willing to adjust those things on the fly during the event and subsequently becoming more and more flexible as time has gone one. I think in the future the streams will get even tighter with the production values thanks to Art’s input. Art isn’t under any kind of contract that prohibits him streaming any games on his personal channel. Like most people Art plays the games he competes in or personally likes the most. Arturo really likes KOF but last time I checked his execution was ass and never played the game on any serious competitive level. This coupled with the netcode being notoriously difficult I can understand why he wouldn’t stream certain games. I doubt there is any malice involved in the decision.

Arturo: Yea so I was a director when first started, but recently I have been given a lot more freedom and moved into a producer role. It definately makes things easier since I get to work directly with guys like Chris Puckett who has been with MLG forever so I learn a lot, and try to put them on to what’s going on in the FGC. I never intended to give the impression that I didn’t like any of the games on the MLG circuit but I just don’t play all of them on a professional level. Like I’m not a KOF player so I wasn’t going to front on my stream with my low level gameplay the fans deserve better.

Carlos: If you would have asked me on Monday after Anaheim I would have said that not only wasn’t KOF 13 coming back, but KOF 25 would never be on the circuit either! It was really disappointing for everyone at MLG to see the turn out because we had such high hopes for the event considering it was held in the U..S. KOF communities’ backyard. With that said I believe that like any other tournament organizer the games that run are based on interest and I feel  the level of hype and competition surrounding KOF 13 is building after every event. So in this case I personally have not given up on KOF and if the opportunity ever comes up for games to recommend it’s always on my list. I have even taken it upon myself to attempt to throw a side tournament at our MLG Dallas event for people in that area, and anyone is welcome to come. People are saying it’s a good effort and they appreciate it, while hinting that they want a bigger pot, but the reality of the situation is I can’t throw 20K at it simply because I don’t have it.  Let’s not forget the initial pot MLG offered up – $16,700!!!  We’ll need to raise attendance before the company will raise figures like that again. I do think I can spare 500 bucks for top 3 though I guess. There is no entry fee so it’s not so much of a risk lol.

Carlos: Yea that esports money!! HAHA I appreciate the respect but it’s not that big of a deal. It’s almost like I’m using this as an excuse to have all the great KOF guys I’ve met along the way to come out and play again. Although I do agree as always you can’t really secure people turning up which is why I decided to run it at MLG Dallas. As of right now we have NO conflicts with any other tournaments or events so everyone’s calander should be empty to come and take my money! I’ve mainly posted on Dreamcancel and Orochinagi simply because thats where the players are! I used to go on the forums at SRK but thats kindof a dice roll nowadays. I don’t mean that to say SRK is a terrible site by any means I just like to focus on the audience I’m trying to appeal to and I don’t feel I would get that with my experience with SRK from before I signed up with MLG (I’ve been banned from SRK twice lol). We always post up our events on SRK and respect their efforts for the community but this side tournament is mainly for the real KOF nerds..

Carlos: Easily the KOF 13 tournament, top 8 was a dream match if I’ve ever seen one. The hype was tangible in the ballroom, fans supported the players and the players gave everyone a fucking awesome show. I also personally enjoyed watching MAMESpider in UMVC3 but after he was eliminated I lost interest and pretty much went about my business with the people in Vegas.

Arturo: Yea the KOF 5 on 5 was super hype Korea on blast, then they come back and put Bala on notice during finals!

Carlos: Personally I’ve been attending multiple events a year since SF4 brought everyone back. I really don’t think that the Fri-Sun format is a problem at all. I think that if you take yourself seriously enough as a player then you should respect that it’s going to take a level of commitment that will ask 3 days out of your life per event and will 9 times out of 10 ask you to leave your comfort zone and, sometimes even your country. Looking at it strictly from a tournament organiser standpoint people have to remember those are community efforts. This means volunteers, expensive overages for ballrooms for late brackets, and little or no gratitude to the people busting their ass to run things on time. In MLG’s case you might comment that money, man power, and resources are infinite but thats obviously not realistic either. If anything it’s actually a compounded version of the grassroots problem. We pay our staff, we have a pre-determined show plan that tells each player who they are playing and at what time that match will happen. We have partners, sponsors, and a much bigger overage charges on our venues. To put things into perspective in the case of Anaheim if you had to work on Fri and wanted to participate, the 3 months notice should have been enough to swap a day at work, or request the day off. I am only mentioning it because it was a regular part of my work life before I got hired at MLG. The only reason it tends to depend on the game is simply because of what are considered “Poverty Games”. Those guys love their titles but usually dont have the funds to travel. The argument can be made that Capcom players travel more but thats not fair either. Anyone that pays attention sees the same consistent 50 top guys that regularly turn up and the rest are locals and semi local players that make it their priority to support local events. It really is just a matter of Capcom games penetrating the mainstream to the point where no matter where you have a tournament there are enough players willing to attend the event to fill out the bracket.

Arturo: Yea it’s hard because a lot of players aren’t sponsored so it’s harder to travel and make all the events you want in year. Obviously everyone wants to go to Evo so sometimes they sacrifice other events just to do that.

Desmond: How do you guys feel about the criticism from the players about the continuation rule for the losers bracket? Ever thought about changing to just fighting game community standard?

Carlos: I’ll answer that and I’m really glad you brought this up. The strange thing about continuation is before I understood the rule I was just like most people that criticise it. No matter how you look at the continuation rule it really is based only on player skill. Even if the winner is up 3-0 they still have to win another 3 games to defeat their opponent same as any grandfinals set with 3 out of 5. The loser must still win 6 games total with the biggest difference being no illusion of resetting a bracket in the middle. In total the same amount of games must be won so I really think it’s important to look at it that way. This also means you get the same situation without having to make it to grandfinals to get your additional 3 games against the person that beat you. If you lose 3-2 then the mountain isn’t so tough to climb and the person in winners better watch their ass. To use a real life example at MLG Anaheim: Tokido beat Romance by the skin of his teeth and sent him to losers. When they played again the continuation rule came into effect and Romance beat him 4 games straight. The better player clearly came out on top in that situation, as was intended with the rule. To put it as plainly as possible we as a league have built an entire company on a set of rules and standards that we feel set us apart from any other league. MLB, NBA and NFL don’t change their rules mid season or very much at all for that matter so I think players have to realize that the model for running our league has to be as consistent as possible. The idea for changing the rule has been around for a really really long time, but it’s one of those things that really comes down to maintaining the integrity of the league, and in the long run works just as well as the normal 2 out 3 format we are used to, while adding an extra game to all matches.

Arturo: I can’t say I’m a huge fan of continuation but I agree with Carlos on this one. It’s just like going to World Series of poker if you want to play for the million dollar pot you have to play by their rules. There is no way of players changing the format of the tournament simply because they dont like the style of poker being played. I think if people actually gave the rule a chance they would realize it’s actually a pretty playable format. Especially when compared to SBO that’s 1 game no losers bracket go home, meanwhile that is considered one of the highest skill tournaments in the world. No one complains about that as much as continuation which is 6 games- I find that funny.

Carlos: I believe anything that involves thousands of people watching others perform a task they probably couldn’t for lots of money could be considered a sport lol. I watch more competitve gaming streams than I do professional sports if that means anything. I’m sure you could think of a few exceptions but you get mydrift. FGC events pride themselves in being the “trenches” when it comes to competitive gaming. The top stars aren’t assholes that tell fans to wait on a line for an autograph and are willing to money match anyone with enough cash to cover the bet. This atmosphere is condusive to having casual setups and in this case it could even be considered our communities’ answer to actual arcades dying in the U.S. Taking away casual stations at a major is pretty much like closing down an arcade for all the local players that look forward to testing themselves against the best players in the world in their favorite games. There are a lot of misconceptions about what MLG is and what our goal is with our events but with that said I do want it to be known that the casual stations will be present at MLG Raleigh and should be there for the forseeable future as long as I have anything to do with it. It just makes sense especially when we are trying to effectively build on a community that already exists and has customs. Things like this are the main reasons Arturo and I were brought on board to sort out and comment on.

Carlos: It’s important to note that PlayStation as a brand is one of the driving forces in keeping fighting games alive in the competitive gaming space, and for them it was an easy choice to go with MLG in bringing it to the professional level that a company as large as Sony would need to justify the amount of capital going into this kind of project. Strangely the only thing Starcraft players want to know is “Where is Street Fighter?” (is that a pun on their accent?! careful!!) lol. All jokes aside I think the FGC has gotten so used to being outcasts in competitive gaming that they have this strange notion that people have no idea what these games arethat we are playing. It’s exactly the opposite! To put things into perspective how many people on your boards or on SRK know what SC2, DOTA 2, and LOL are? If you know the acronyms then you have already proven my point and our worlds aren’t that different after all. I never got a chance to speak to Korean SC players, I apparently wasn’t cool enough and their translators asked me to kindly allow the players to concentrate haha.

Arturo: MLG Carlos blown up by Starcraft monsters !!

Carlos: We have a lot of great things coming down the pipeline for MLG Raleigh. Obviously we touched on a few of the changes we are making to the broadcast for fans, casual setups, and exhibitions. In the way of games I have been actively been pursuing as many developers as possible. I was lucky enough to get to speak with the guys over at Tecmo for DOA5 and I hope we can come to an agreement with them. I recently began bothering Hector Sanchez over at Netherrealm studios about trying to get preview builds of Injustice, and we still have a strong relationship with Namco Bandai and they are preparing to release what I think will be the best game of this console generation with Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Currently we have 2 exhibitions lined up that will be at Raleigh that being Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown, and Skullgirls. My personal goal right now is to get Persona 4: Arena on our circuit but who knows ;-P Obviously all these things are subject to change but I think it’s fair to try give an accurate idea of exactly what we are trying to provide at our events for the fighting game monsters.

Arturo: Yea so we are also working on making sure the stream is better than ever with better ad runs, and tighter broadcasts overall. I think we even announced that HD stream will be free for everyone so thats definately a step up too.

Carlos: Yea I totally agree KOF deserves better, and so does their community. As a matter of fact I think fighting game players overall deserve some shine! Overall I think it’s most important to support your local community and try to make it to the events you feel will benefit your game the most whether you want to go pro, stay local, or be a NAH 4 Lyfe. Any fans interested in information on our events or league can get all their information from MLGPRO.COM, Follow us @MLG, Me @illanswerthat and Art @NYCfurby

Arturo: I feel like a weight was lifted off my chest now that this interview is finally done! Thanks for the run back on this Gunsmith maybe you can make it to one of our events soon.