First tell me what your role in CXG is.
I am Chris "Recon" Hill Director of Operations and co-founder of Cyber X Gaming.
Which more or less puts you as equivalent to Angel in the CPL?
Yes.
As a gaming tournament organiser you seem to have no history (or there is little known about that). How did you manage to convince your sponsors to give you that much money?
Well CarMac, that is actually not true. I have run a serious of USA events that were very successful, but weren't on the level of The ATI Cyber X Games. You must also remember that I am the Director of Operations not the Director of Marketing and Business.
Still, it is quite surprising that in the first year you have so much money for prizes...
$600,000 is really not much in the way of money for a large event. Nascar recieved 170 million this year for a 8 race season. This was relatively easy to come by with the help of our great sponsors.
Are you implying that the CPL could give away a lot more?
I'm sure they could but they are thier own company. THey have the right to do anything they would like with it. Cyber X Gaming (CXG) thinks the money should go to the people who deserve it and that’s the players.
Where are you going to get your revenue if you give money to the gamers?
We are not interested in making money off this event this year. We are strictly looking to host the best event we can. We produce prize money through our great sponsors and some from the registration of players. Mostly it comes from our top of the line sponsors who are doing everything they can to help this sport grow.
How are you planning to promote CXG?
We are currently setting up many very big coverage contracts with some great online, Television and radio companies. As of now we are working with G4 TV, GotFrag, XtremeRadio and FoxSports. Many more are to follow.
ESReality?
We would like to work with ESReality.
What will the CXG structure be? More like WCG/ESWC with free accomodation etc. or more like the CPL?
We will not follow any suit of pervious events. We will be taking this event to a whole new level. Something unlike anything the community has seen before.
Could you say something a little bit more precise?
This tournament will be more focused around the gamers and there time with us. VIP parties, contests, games, theme parks, concerts, and more. Also the actual tournament will be set up in a most impressive manner. I cannot give away to much info but the show we have in store for you is one beyond compare.
From what I have seen on the website outside the US you will only have qualifiers in Sweden. Does it mean that most Europeans won't be able to participate?
Check the website again. Online qualifers, regional Lan events, and more are already released and more are in the final stages of approval for Isreal, Greece, Portugal and more.
You mentioned online qualifiers. Is it possible that ESR could get a berth or two as a prize for our ESo tournaments?
We could work something out for that as well, yes.
Let's talk about the game choice. Looking at the games list it seems like you are doing the game thing with AA as the CPL did with AvP2... "Good contacts" with the developer?
Yes, we are excited to be hosting the games that we are. America’s Army is one of the most out coming games in the world right now. We have set up very good relationships with Valve and the US Army to host these games.
I heard Halo is going to kick ass...
We are not hosting Halo, but other games are always a possiblity.
I have noticed that you don't seem to have a problem with id Software - do you have to pay royalties for using RTCW?
No, we do not have to pay royalties for RTCW.
Now that is some interesting info. Why don't you use Quake 3 then? ESWC was really good proof that the game is alive and kicking and definitely has a great spectator value.
Well Q3 is still a possiblity. We fear that QuakeCon will have a problem running a Q3 tourney. We are still trying to get some things worked out on that port.
Give me some kind of a number - what are the odds in this case? :)
Personally I would give it a 50 to 50 percent chance of it being added to the event. We would like to see some support from the community on this matter in our forums located at www.cyberxgaming.com/forums.
What is CXG's standpoint on tournament rules - maps, settings and visuals as well? How much are you willing to listen to the community in this field?
We are doing this entire event for the gamers. I myself am a gamer. I listen to other gamers’ opinions. I will give you my word on this. If people show up on our forums and there is a large demand for a rule or map or whatever change we will make it. Take the Counter-Strike MaxRounds subject of example. We went the community and asked them what they wanted and they said 15 maxrounds so we changed it to 15mr. This is very easy to do but must be done within enough time for people to compinsate for the change as well.
Last but not least - what happened at CPL Summer...?
LOL I knew this was coming. I was at CPL with some friends to take in the event and enjoy myself. I had permission to be there from Frank himself in email but it ended up not being ok with Frank and Angel in the end. They handled it a little harshly but it's over and we have moved on.
So it was only about your presence at the event? I read something about a CXG server.
The server issue is not verified and is still under investigation by CyberX.
Are you going to demand compensation for your expenses?
No, CXG feels that it's only going to hurt the Esports community but causing problems . We never wanted trouble and we still don't. That incident was brought upon us we never asked for that to happen.
Thank you for the interview.
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