Andy Reif:
My name is Andy Reif and I have been involved in the entertainment and sports industry for quite a long time. Preceding the CGS I was the chief operating officer with PBV, Pro Beach Volley Ball, and I was one of a group that acquired the PBV back in 2001 when the sport had very little media distribution and very little sponsorship. And in a matter of five to six year we were able to grow the PBV in one of the hottest sports properties in the United States.

Andy Reif:
Haha. Well, before I worked at a talent agency that worked with athletes, movie stars, writers, directors and such people.

So I was in the entertainment and film business, but I started out a long time ago in New York City. That’s kinda my background. So your next question will probably be; How did I get involved in e-Sports?

Andy Reif:
Well, the Championship Gaming Series is the first truly global e-Sports league where we pay professional athletes so that they can compete on a team basis rather then play individually in a tournament. And the teams themselves compete in a league, on top of that we have teams around the whole world. So we have teams in each region of the world we gather together to compete this December, with at the end of this month we’ll have European champion where the two teams from Europe will be selected to compete against each other at the world championship, and the same thing for the United Kingdom.

Andy Reif:
Oh sure, CGS is a partner of Sports Championship Gaming Series, BSkyB, Direct TV which is a media company in the United States, then there is Star which is NewsCorp’s media company in Asia, and the league pays all the players and the general managers, for all their travel, for the prize money that’s offered at all the championships. So really it’s the first real league in e-Sports.

Andy Reif:
Well, the hope is and we really think that we made a first step to accomplish it and that is to create a true sports league in the e-Sports industry that really hasn’t existed till now. So we want to create a league that’s just as powerful as the English premier league. Or what the NFL is for American Football in the United States and that’s really the goal and SkyTV, Star, and DirectTV are committed to see that this vision become real. And the long term objective is to create a true platform globally for the best gamers in the world to compete on the very highest level and to be seen as true athletes which what they are.

Andy Reif:
You know I have high expectations, I believe that we put together a great team. I think that our US season was incredibly successful. To create a new league and creating a new sport we’ve done a great job to elevate e-Sports to a new level. And I’m thrilled, and when you look at the hardcore gaming community, the media, or the sports industry and business industry and they’re all looking at and being very exciting about all the possibilities of the video gaming industry and creating an outlet for the most highly skilled and competitive gamers in the world to have a vehicle to perform at the highest level and become be compensated accordingly. And you can say that time was right for us to let the CGS to come about and I’m so fortunate to be part of it.

Andy Reif:
I think everything will be bigger and better and continue to grow. We always want to create a solid foundation, and we’re building that this year. Depending on how it grows in a measured and a prudent way and not growing to fast without a solid foundation and I think that a lot of businesses in sports try to grow to quickly and I don’t think that we should try to build it up fast and then sell it. We really don’t want to build a league that isn’t around for 5 years, 10 years but a 100 years.

Andy Reif:
Exactly. When you look at it all the successful sports property they've always had a very solid foundation had and grown methodically and they have a very long term view and you can’t go out there and quickly keep growing, growing, growing. For us we don’t want to be a short term, but looking at the long term.

Andy Reif:
The your first question, we’ve had a series of on-line tournaments in the United Kingdom, so that players could play on-line to establish themselves as quality gamers. Then we invited them to a Championship starting September 20th where they’ll all play competitions in each of these games. And as they’re eliminated and the top gamers that remain will be chosen by the general managers. We are going to have two teams who are going to be chosen by the general managers. The GM’s are Sujoy, and Michael O’Dell and they’ll be selecting the teams, and those two teams will be competing in the United Kingdom championships final.

Then getting to your second question; When they select the gamers, they become members of the teams and to be honest, we’re at the beginning stages and we don’t have any players to be sold yet. So right now we don’t have any answers on that for the first few years.

Andy Reif:
I don’t anticipate anything like that.

Andy Reif:
If players are already under a contractual relationship with a team or third party then we won’t interfere with those contracts. If they are able to get out of contracts or if the owner of the team allows the player to compete for his own benefit then that’s how it will happen.

Andy Reif:
I think that it’s in it’s nature different, there really hasn’t been so many leagues, there have been tournaments that have been taking place, counter-strike tournaments, Quake Tournaments, so the only people following that will be the people that actually play those games.

Andy Reif:
Exactly, so what we have done is that the team concept in general, is that you’ll be rooting for teams like you root for Manchester United or Real Madrid, and you may have a favourite individual player, but rooting for a team as whole is what we think we found that in the United States people are rooting for the teams, which are made up for Counter-Strike players, Fifa players and DOA players. And even if you generally follow Counter-Strike you’re going to have a certain team that you’re going to be rooting for but also you’re going to care about the results of the rest of the team as it impacts how the team results are, and I think that’s the first step.

Number two, we’re filming e-Sports in a way that has never been filmed before, we’re dedicating an incredible amount of capital to figure out how to film this for television that it’s entertaining. We brought in some of the top people in sports production programming, people that have worked for the Olympics, the NFL, NBA and they’re approaching this like they do at traditional sports events filming it in an incredibly compelling way. And we have to tools for these talented people to use, so for the first time you don’t see the gamer play the game but by using virtual in-game cameras, and the analogy I would make is poker. Poker has been around forever and at one point someone said; “Hey, lets use a camera so we can see what cards they’re holding” and suddenly it becomes appealing media and poker became a global television phenomenon. And I see the same thing happening with what we’re doing with virtual in-game cameras. And I think that a lot of different factors are coming together at once at the right time to have a large media company coming in and make it a global sport.

Andy Reif:
In terms of 1on1 we have Dead Or Alive which is incredibly exciting more so then a boxing match and it’s just like watching a live action animated film as you don’t know how it’s going to end this time. And then we have a game like Counter-Strike which is challenging from the television perspective but when done correctly it has certain attributes that a 1on1 game doesn’t have, 5 players have to play as a team, there’s a lot of teamwork involved as there are multiple players and multiple strategies. Having your team mates work as a team is compelling in it’s own right, and gives a totally different sports experience than a 1on1.

Andy Reif:
With game selection we look at the following; 1, is it a game that rewards the highest form of skill, if it’s played by high level player that there really is high level competition. 2, Is it a game that’s played by a great amount of people globally? And 3, Is it something that will translate well for television, or for another medium. So if it’s expectable to everybody, so that you do not necessarily have to play that game to understand what is going on.

We’ve chosen Counter-Strike, DOA4, PGR and Fifa because they reach these criteria. But every year we’ll evaluate these if they’re good games to include or if we should take other games. But I think we’ve picked four amazing games for this year that really meet each of those characteristics.

Andy Reif:
`Ya, after each season we’re going to look if the games met the criteria I mentioned.

Andy Reif:
Our goal is to obviously create a global mainstream scene, and our number one priority is “be true to gamers”. And I never want to lose sight of that, and I really want to grow this into a global mainstream sport and it will enrich all the gamers that are part of that sport while at the same time have a sport that you’re still proud of, that is respected by the people who play it. So that number one on my list always, so everything that we do we say; “is this true to gamers?” which is what keeps e-Sports a very respected endeavour by the people who play it and that is obviously something we look at every year.

Andy Reif:
It’s a good question, David Beckham helped popularised the sport. My answer to your question is that I think that Fifa is very compelling game worldwide and I think that the US audience is going to find it more exciting then traditional soccer to them because they really don’t understand the nuances and the rhythm of your football as much as a person from the United Kingdom or Europe, but Fifa video game has that fast pace action and I think that it will excite American audiences, mainly because it also excites audiences outside the United States. But to answer your question, the way we’re filming Fifa will be very exciting to a US audience and I expect the participation to increase every year.

Andy Reif:
I don’t want to get into the details of it, but I think it was an unfortunate situation where the acting general manager did some actions that in hindsight he’ll probably regret and it would probably be the best thing for him to no longer be the general manager for that team and we put an interim general manager who will select the team of the very best gamers and I’m really excited to see a team compete at the pan-Asian championships which are coming up in October.

Andy Reif:
We’re thrilled with Sujoy, we think he’s a highly qualified individual which really made us feel that the CGS is the right thing to come along with so many people that wanted to become general managers made us feel great. General manager is an incredibly challenging and exciting position if you’re passionate about gaming, not only do you select the right players but you also manage them and you have more of a coach function. But general manager is also the president of that team, so he’s responsible for helping building the brand, marketing the team and building a community of fans for that team, and helping advertisers and sponsors being part of that team, so for someone who’s an business person and really wants to help grow a brand then that team really becomes that brand that the general manager is primarily responsible for. I think it’s a great opportunity for all the managers to make a name not only for themselves but to create history and making a franchise that has millions of fans throughout the world, it’s like saying; “hey, how do you feel about creating the next Manchester United?” and I think it’s an exciting opportunity.

Andy Reif:
Thank you very much, I really appreciate your interest in CGS.