Hi. My name is Robert “Moyes” Haxton, member of Team Dignitas (professional team since 2003) and leader of our World in Conflict (WiC) squad. This is the first of my weekly columns that will give you an insight into professional gaming, which is often either misunderstood or shrouded in mystery. My objective is to break down some of the barriers around professional teams.

Part of our obligation as members of Dignitas is that we support the work of our sponsors. They are the pillars upon which our organisation rests, supplying equipment to aid our training and the resources to get us to events. Under these circumstances, it seems only right that we sacrifice a little of our own time to return the favour. Our support can take many forms, ranging from providing advice on websites, products and promotions, right through to promoting our sponsors directly to the general public.

It was the latter idea that recently led me to Germany for the legendary tradeshow, CeBIT. Two of our sponsors, Abit and Razer, had asked Dignitas to help raise their profiles at the event by putting on some entertainment -- and nothing draws a crowd quite like the opportunity to play games for prizes… or what we call ‘Show Matches’!

Fresh from CPL success, I had been asked to play Need for Speed Pro-Street in front of the vociferous German masses! Having twice been the UK’s World Cyber Games Champion (with previous NFS instalments) it seemed like a logical decision, but I hadn’t yet played Pro-Street and public humiliation on an epic scale was an ominous possibility. Fortunately I dodged the bullet. After a somewhat inauspicious first day (losing two of eight races), I kept an immaculate record (and with it my reputation) intact for the rest of the week.

Returning home, having done my promotional bit for the team, I was eagerly awaiting I33, the UK’s largest LAN event. A World in Conflict competition had been announced but no European teams would compete because of the small prize. This meant we were destined to win and sure enough, the four simultaneous nuclear weapons we deployed against our opponents in the final dispelled any notions they might have had of sneaking a victory.

Even if our World in Conflict victory had not been a foregone conclusion, the competition would still have been a minor component of the I33 experience. The event is incredibly well organised, but, more importantly, attracts large numbers of people who simply want to have a good time and are easy to get along with. Sure, you will find the odd obstreperous individual here and there - and it can be a little nerdy at times - but I would rate it as one of the best LANs in Europe.

I34 should be even better, since the event is moving to a new and bigger location - Stoneleigh Park. There will even be paintball at the new location and thoughts have already turned to a fight to the death with 4 Kings!

World in Conflict was the focus of each day leading to the CPL World Final. Just prior to the event I could even have sworn that the sights and sounds of World War III had been entering my dreams! Our success in the final dispelled these memories and gave way to the realisation that our achievement was thoroughly deserved after a ‘roller coaster’ year of hard work. In the aftermath of victory, however, a price had to be paid for these efforts.

Low-life and me, the sole survivors from the original line-up of April 2007, felt drained by the trials and tribulations of a year of intense gaming and have decided to take a break. While we both felt sanguine about our chances of dominating the online WiC scene after our thrilling CPL victory, our overwhelming desire is to pay greater attention to that little thing called ‘RL’… real life!

In the same way that an athlete may ‘up sticks’ and train on a mountain top for X number of months, I think a few of my friends had reconciled themselves to the fact that, due to my own training routine, I had become relegated to an MSN or phone contact. I also have the trifling matter of securing a new job, having stopped work just before the final in an additional bid to ensure victory. Until these factors are resolved, I simply can’t commit to a renewed practice schedule in a suitable frame of mind.

I believe I have made the right decision and, as I have alluded to before, it is vital to strike a balance between competitive gaming and your wider personal interests. Having competed at a professional level in E-sports for nigh on 8 years, I dare not suggest, quite yet, that my competitive days are over. If, however, that does prove to be the case, then CPL success will be a fitting and abiding finale to my e-sports career.

The team arrived in London two days early for the big event; Energetic, Cleric and Low-life flying in from Stockholm, Pureball travelling by train from Sunderland. Unlike the American leg of the World Tour, when we stayed in the Hilton hotel, our accommodation this time was to be an inner-city youth hostel. To say we had our doubts would be an understatement. A moment seldom passed that first night without someone speculating on the odds of being attacked.

The next morning, finding that we had, apparently, come through the long night unscathed, we headed to the venue. Situated inside the famous London Trocadero, Gamerbase wasn’t hard to find. What made the task even easier was spotting major rivals Reason and D/C patiently waiting outside. A day of preparations, strategising, and media interviews ensued, with only a smattering of Warcraft 3 and Call of Duty 4 to keep us sane.

We spent the first hour of the following day setting up with the invaluable support of Massive Community Leader Emma Jones (Mir). Our first opponents, Lowerstroft, fell quickly. Having brushed them aside, the stage was set for a clash with D/C. It was a hard fought battle for Farmland but we emerged victors, securing a tight but reasonable points victory (approx 120 – 80). The real shock was the revelation that Inferno eSports had beaten Reason Gaming. The result meant D/C and Reason would be paired against one another in the loser’s bracket, which was a dream scenario for us.

Focus shifted to our next game, which would be a match against Inferno eSports. These guys had been one of our prime practice partners in the weeks leading up to the tournament and we knew it would be difficult to surprise them. As it turned out, they surprised us. Fortunately, well-drilled routines ensured our victory.

Several hours passed before we discovered that D/C would be our opponents in the final. We eliminated Farmland from the map pool and, after a few more eliminations, Hometown was the map settled upon. Playing as the USSR, we recorded a victory within the opening six minutes, which startled everyone, I think, ourselves included. And having produced such a quick victory, it was almost impossible to go into the turn-around thinking we could lose. For that to happen, D/C would have to defeat us in even less time.

However, our confidence was almost undone when our opponents mounted a very aggressive push which briefly threatened to achieve that almost impossible goal. Nevertheless, we managed to check their momentum and, while we went on to lose the map, we won by a considerable distance on time.

Our victory is the perfect tonic for a team that has experienced its fair share of knocks over recent months. The challenge now is to avoid becoming lackadaisical in our grand final preparations; it would be criminal to lurch from confidence to over-confidence at this point.

It would come as no surprise to me, if some people had detected a self-congratulatory note in my last report. I thought we deserved to give ourselves a pat on the back for the way our World in Conflict line-up had evolved. That assessment was suddenly looking a little hasty this month, however, when Apollo informed us that he would immediately stop playing World in Conflict.

With only three weeks to go before the London leg of the CPL would bring a prize of $20,000 within our grasp, this news was nothing short of disastrous. We had been pulling in excellent results and looked on course for a top two finish, at least. Given such circumstances, I have to admit that I was dumbstruck by the decision and particularly frustrated by the timing. Only a few weeks earlier, Zaccubus had left the team but that change had been reasonably well planned and was mutually beneficial. Now I couldn’t help feeling our CPL aspirations were spiralling away from us.

A week may be a long time in politics but two months is an eternity in e-sports.

Fate has been kind to us, however, and sent us salvation in the surprising form of two Swedes! To replace Zaccubus and Apollo, we have brought in Energetic and Cleric. Both of them are new to the competitive gaming scene but they certainly possess the required skills. Almost immediately, they settled into the team and helped our results to quickly surpass those achieved by our old line-up!

So our new line-up is ready, just in time. As I write this, only two days remain until CPL London. I will shortly leave to rendezvous with the rest of the team in the city. We intend to spend one day boot-camping, fine-tuning our strategies and getting comfortable with the venue; on the 30th we go into battle!

Over recent months I have touched upon various themes that I hope have shed some light on the allure of professional gaming, as well as the sacrifices required. Now is an appropriate time to discuss an issue that effects most teams, especially those challenging for top honours… the line-up!

When Dignitas first formed a World in Conflict team back in April, for the CPL World Tour in Italy, the game was so new (Alpha build) that our objective was to simply fill the ranks with professional gamers. We had hardly any experience of WiC, and some of us had never met before, but our combined experience ensured that we walked away with the win.

Since then, with more tournament success, web articles and videos under our belt, the composition of our team has been evolving subtly all the time. After both CPL World Tour stops in Sweden and America the decision was made to bring in new blood, as some members of the original line-up would be unable to commit to the team’s long-term objectives.

It takes time to integrate new players, especially into an already very successful side, so a period of rebuilding followed. Unusually, Pureball and Apollo were both given the opportunity to join the WiC squad without having had previous game experience. Their excellent track records and personalities were enough to give us the confidence that they would fit into the team quickly.

Such line-up changes can be a ‘sink or swim’ moment. The evolution of our team has been difficult but well managed overall. With a number of our ‘younger’ rival teams currently thinking about, or undergoing a similar process, it will be interesting to see how effectively they respond to the challenge.

i32 has drawn to a close, and after a magnificent effort Team Dignitas secured over £8000 in prize money across seven different events. And yes, we’re not ashamed to admit, one of those included the pub quiz!

The World in Conflict team, or rather teams, were at the forefront of this success. Our event was a 4 v 4 format and we decided weeks ago to split our main line-up and mix in a couple of ‘raw recruits’ for the weekend, all in a bid to secure 1st and 2nd.

All went to plan and the final pitted Dignitas A (Apollo, Pureball, Flickstrr, Dogbert) against Dignitas B (Moyes, Lowlife, Odee, Zaccubus). We had already agreed to divvy up the prize money evenly, but with bragging rights and pride on the line, neither side wanted to trudge off losers! After a good contest, fortune ultimately favoured Dignitas B. We even managed to find just enough time to entertain the crowd with a carpet bomb (game 1) and a nuclear missile (game 2).

Unfortunately the final coincided with the first Intel InCup, and we missed the opportunity to compete. Needless to say we’ll be entering next week and looking to qualify for the grand final as quickly as possible.

As for the rest of i32, with the WiC trophy secured, I went about enjoying myself. This entailed plenty of celebratory drinks, a massage from some gorgeous XFX girls, a Dignitas poker bracelet (ok, no bracelet, just bragging rights!), ‘schooling’ World Cyber Games gold medallist Apollo in the art of Starcraft, and to top the event off, I even won a water-cooling kit as a raffle prize!

Roll on i33!

Only a few months to the CPL Grand Final for World in Conflict! So everything we do as a squad is judged on how it best prepares us for securing this prominent e-sports accolade.

The announcement of the Intel InCup will definitely benefit our preparation. By attracting the best teams from around the world on a weekly basis, it gives our squad additional ‘big game’ experience. Unfortunately the first weekend of the event coincides with I32, a major LAN here in the UK, we remain a team – Dignitas aims to juggle commitments and grasp the chance of qualifying for the InCup final at the first time of asking.

The ‘I’ series has an effect on Dignitas comparable to the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Team members are enticed away from their homes and families, and flock to the belly of the beast that is… Newbury Racecourse! In our rare moments away from the competitive aspect, the festival atmosphere of the event ranks amongst the very best in Europe and makes for a weekend that’s great all round.

The increasing number of tournaments held at Newbury is an important draw for a professional team such as ours; personally speaking, PC World has sponsored a very respectable prize fund of £2,500 for World in Conflict! So excuse me while I go and get together my Newbury survival kit: tent, sleeping bag and – most vital of all – a sock full of earplugs!

The 2007 Seattle World Cyber Games is now at an end and the UK has won its first-ever gold medal! Making WCG history, Shaun ‘Apollo’ Clark of Team Dignitas gave us a weekend of superb performances in Command and Conquer 3. Zaccubus, also of Team Dignitas, picked up the silver medal for Tony Hawks Project 8. And the Gears of War team secured a bronze! A most respectable medal haul and a sturdy platform to build on for the 2008 WCG, to be held in Cologne, Germany!

My own involvement was, as expected, brief! After demolishing the Bulgarian player in my Need for Speed Carbon group, I was brought down by the experienced Indian and Latvian – both from heavyweight e-sports nations, right! My knockout meant, by a scheduling quirk, I was out of the competition before the opening ceremony had even taken place!

So what does a dedicated gamer do when they have no event left to compete in? Find another one of course! I stumbled upon the standard mobile phone mini-tournament in the vicinity, The game was Rayman Kart ($6000 for top three), basically Mario Kart (random power-ups). Despite unrelenting practice, the racing gods once again decided not to smile on me (top eight finish).

Despite my weekend of frustration, the 2007 WCG was a great experience. Rooting for my team-mates and seeing them do so well was unmissable, and the WCG stands alone in its treatment of gamers. Meals, transport and accommodation are all impressively organised - a level of player support that far outstrips any other e-sports event.

A special mention should go to the UK team leader, Craig ‘Wizzo’ Fletcher. He helped generate a real team spirit, aided by his inimitable personality, regularly getting us all together for food and drinks, and endearing himself to everyone by picking up the tab.

It’s time to jet back to the States. In just a few hours time, Zaccubus, Apollo and I will be flying to Seattle, to compete in the World Cyber Games (WCG). The WCG is one of the largest and most prestigious competitions in the world of e-sports. It is always one of the highlights of the year and it’s great for Team Dignitas to be able to send three players. I have attempted to reach the grand final on almost every occasion since the year 2000. This is the third time I have succeeded.

Every year I am completely focused on preparation but my commitment to World in Conflict this time around has meant little meaningful practice for my WCG Need for Speed competition (see ‘Targets of opportunity’). Given the circumstances, I don’t expect to make it out of the group stage, but I hope to give myself a fighting chance by beating the Bulgarian and avoiding a spinout.

I’ll also be seeing WiC CPL World Tour rivals Hauntspy and Beta of Inferno E-sports over the course of the competition. They both qualified for Command and Conquer 3. They’ll be easy to find, working their quintessential Italian charm on the nearest pretty girl.

My only regret this weekend will be missing the eXperience WiC competition in Norway. If eXperience had been any other weekend I would have been there. Fortunately, Dignitas will be represented. Pureball and No0bster, will be looking to bring home the honours.

A parcel arrived today and inside it was – wait for it – World in Conflict! It feels surreal now to have the full game when, from a competitive point of view, Team Dignitas has already achieved and experienced so much because of it.

With the vast array of new maps now available for online play there is plenty to get stuck into. It’s also going to be interesting to see which maps will be most suitable for tournament play. The maps used by competitors up until now have lent one side a slim advantage. Obviously, that benefits the team that gets to choose first which side to play, assuming they’ve identified the side with the tactical edge.

All games have balance issues, of course, and many are not that significant in the world of typical gamer. But teams like ours look for every conceivable advantage that we can use or that could be used against us. If the Garden of Eden was a multi-player map, we could probably find fault with it.

I’ve no doubt Massive Entertainment has a genuine interest in fostering an active community and that it will address contentious issues. Already news is circulating of an imminent update. Nevertheless, it will take time to identify every issue and make all the appropriate changes. Ask anyone from Blizzard’s StarCraft team how long you can keep fine tuning a major competitive title!

While others practise that dark art, I will be an advocate for the introduction of a Counter-Strike style scoring system in tournament games or at least a limit on the approved map pool. Counter-Strike style scoring involves teams playing both map factions. The winner is dictated by the performance measured over both factions. Timings can then be used in the event of a tie-break. The end result is an unambiguous victor, which is what everyone wants.

Having already experienced the frustration of losing an important coin toss on the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) World Tour, I have become convinced that teams should not be left to rue the flip of a coin.

The professional-gaming circuit only nibbles away a tiny proportion of the cash contained within the multi-billion pound video games industry. The expectation, however, is that once gaming secures a mainstream TV audience it will grow massively and become integral to the perception of the industry. This pivotal moment may be upon us right now, with the arrival of the worldwide Championship Gaming Series (CGS).

The ambition behind the CGS is matched by a huge level of investment and only time will tell if this is just another flash-in-the-pan for e-sports. The real risk is that big e-sports events can preoccupy gamers with short-term achievements, when they should always keep one eye on their longer-term interests. While becoming a recognised global e-sports champion is a major achievement, once the moment has passed - like most sporting successes - its significance fades quickly. With most serious competitive players seldom continuing into their late 20s, it’s important to make the most of your opportunities.

Making contact with players, organisers and sponsors at live events can not only help you in the short term, but can also open up industry opportunities further down the line. The same is true of self-promotion through writing, talking to the media (especially TV) or assuming a management position within a Clan. Such initiatives foster recognisable skills that benefit e-sports while also appealing to mainstream employers.

Following this logic, I travelled to Paris last week on behalf of Team Dignitas, discussing with French developer F4 their forthcoming MMORPG title Empire of Sports. The entire trip was paid for by the publisher, including a seat inside the Stade de France as England took on South Africa at the rugby World Cup. (Let’s skim over the result.) During this venture I made several new contacts and had a terrific time – crowned by speaking to Martin Johnson (2003 England rugby World Cup captain) at Charles de Gaulle airport on the way home. Brilliant!

In a few weeks time I will compete for the Need for Speed: Carbon (NFS) title at the World Cyber Games (WCG) in Seattle. In spite of the rapidly approaching date, I have barely practised the game. I remain instead totally focused on World in Conflict!

Don’t get me wrong; without doubt the WCG is a great event and it feels surreal not to be devoting my full attention to it. Travelling as part of a national squad is a real thrill, too. Having been to two previous events – South Korea in 2000 and Singapore 2005 – I can testify to this fact. So, how is it I can be buzzed about an event and still not train for it? The answer is simple: experience!

The world of e-sports is an unforgiving place for those pursuing the fleeting glory of fame and fortune. The recent cancellation of the World Series of Video Games (WSVG) illustrates perfectly the fickle and precarious nature of the industry. All too often an event declares itself the new standard for e-sports, only for it to then run aground. This means that a professional gamer must decide carefully how best to invest his time.

The demise of the WSVG damaged the whole of e-sports, especially those professional gamers who invested months, sometimes years, of their lives honing their skills. The lack of long term security faced by players is extremely detrimental to a sport that is desperately trying to break into the mainstream.

Under these circumstances, a professional gamer must be hard-nosed. I went into the UK WCG qualifier knowing I could win NFS (securing a prize of £1500). But the opposition I will face in Seattle will be of a different order from the UK. With my commitment to World in Conflict I simply don’t have the time to raise my NFS standard to a competitive WCG standard, so I shall invest only minimal time playing the game in the coming weeks.

I don’t mean to disrespect the competition. I compete because I love to. But in this game you have to be ruthless and exploit every opportunity. I have one target in my sight. That’s the one I’m aiming for.

Sitting in the lobby of the Hilton hotel, killing time before we jet back to the UK, I’m torn over how to judge this trip. We achieved a creditable 2nd place finish at the third World Tour stop for World in Conflict (securing $6,000). Our firm expectation, however, had been that another victory was within our grasp. Having failed to achieve it, the team’s disappointment is palpable.

Our grand final opponents, Frag Dominant, were worthy victors. They were a very sporting team who maintained a firm grasp on the WiC battlefield. Nevertheless, it has to be said that certain maps seem to consistently favour the side that picks first. I’m fairly sure that losing both coin tosses to decide that in the final contributed to us losing 2-1.

Nevertheless, this result shows that our competitors have narrowed the skill gap. No longer is the superiority of Team Dignitas so overwhelming that we can simply play in the belief that we will prevail no matter what. Meanwhile, the game has gone gold and will soon take up retail shelf space across the world. When a greater range of maps becomes available, it will be to the benefit of tournament play.

At least until all the maps have been tested under tournament conditions, I’m beginning to think that scoring Counter-Strike style may be a good idea. Each team would play both sides with victory being determined by domination percentage over time.

Enough ifs, buts and maybes. It was a pleasure and privilege to venture across the Atlantic and compete in Dallas. It was great to meet teams such as FragD, 20ID, Check Six and Cyber Sniper, and to catch up with our old friends from Italy, Inferno E-sports (one of the friendliest and most vocal squads you will ever encounter).

To share a little piece of Texas with these guys was great fun but we are professional competitors. We will not be satisfied until we have put this defeat behind us with a fresh CPL victory. We are already talking to our sponsors about making this happen at CPL Australia on October 12th.

This week the Team Dignitas World in Conflict squad jets off to America, to contest the third CPL World Tour stop in Dallas. An international e-sports trip is always a special event but a venture beyond Europe sets the heart pumping that little bit harder.

In Dallas, our objective is nothing less than to repeat our successes in Italy and Sweden; to win the event outright and secure a prize of $9,000! Were it not for those early successes, I doubt we would be packing our suitcases this week. The fact we are fills the team with a tangible sense of achievement and fuels our competitive drive.

But no matter how successful we are, the decision to send a squad to another continent is never taken lightly. A chain of emails, research, telephone conversations and a dollop of good fortune are still required to make all this happen. Part of the exercise is to economise where possible.

For Team Dignitas the priority is always to get our members to as many events as possible and we achieve this by avoiding unnecessary expense. For this reason two of the squad (Dogbert and Pureball) bravely bite the bullet and journey from Newcastle to London at midnight tonight via coach. Only then do they catch a train to Gatwick Airport!

For those of you unfamiliar with the United Kingdom (or football – Newcastle being a bastion of fervent footy fans), allow me to put this into context. This journey entails eight or nine hours of travelling, before even stepping foot onto the flight to Dallas that should – if all goes well – last ten hours.

Even though every member of our pro-gamer squad already possesses a respectable carbon footprint, none of us are confident fliers. We face our fears with a flurry of sardonic remarks about our imminent doom. Ah, how many times can you defy gravity and live to tell the tale? Listen to me; I’m not even the worst in the group!

Check back next week to see if we beat the odds and successfully land another CPL victory!

Dignitas Moyes

Jetting off regularly to compete for large sums of money was far from my mind when I competed in my first major tournament - the inaugural World Cyber Games Challenge (WCGC) in 2000. Having qualified at the Millennium Dome with Age of Empires, I trundled off to represent the UK in South Korea, totally unaware that it would be the first of many such journeys. Since 2000 I have travelled to France, Germany, America, Singapore, Italy and Sweden for E-sport events.

I'm now accustomed to the demands that professional gaming places on your life. The trip to South Korea in 2000 coincided with my first few weeks at university, and ever since I have had to reconcile my desire to compete at the highest level with the demands of achieving academic and (since 2004) professional success. It can be a tough balance, requiring discipline and sacrifice, but there's no denying the intense thrill of competing on the international stage.

I've now had seven years of intense gaming emotion, and I'm grateful to Intel for giving me this opportunity to share my knowledge and give you an insight into a team that is at the heart of a new competitive community. In the weeks and months to come, I'll be eager to read about what you think and I'll respond to any key issues or questions you raise by email.

Until next week!.

Dignitas/Moyes