The Admins goals here at National ESL is to put together the best cup, tourney, ladder and league possible, that will give the players the challenge that they need and the games they want to play.

ESL has decided to give you a small glimpse of our Quake Admins and the goals that they have working here at ESL and the goals they had before they came to the league.

Steve "Xterm" Devaney and Guillem “Flame” Garcia are two of the lead Quake Admins here at National ESL and it was a pleasure to interview them and find out what they had to say.

Here is a brief introduction and background of them both and how they came to National ESL.

Steve: Well first off, "brief" is tough but I'll try. I started off playing Quake 2, "my neighbor had it and asked me to get it so we could LAN. This was over 10 years ago. I eventually got hooked on a mod called jailbreak. Then Quake 3 came out, and the mod came out for that, made by RXN, then a similar mod came out called Prisoners of War, made by BKP Productions. We merged the 2 mods into jbpow. I worked for BKP doing the PR. We released it successfully and DJWheat did a release show for us. It went very well. Soon after that GGL came to me and offered me a job running a ladder for it.

I worked for GGL for 6+ years before I left them

ESL approached me shortly after I left GGL and now I'm the head Quake supervisor of National ESL

Flame: My name is Guillermo Garcia, I started playing PC Games with Quake 2 when my neighbour introduced me to it, I got hooked after that. Since then I have played a lot of PC Games like Starcraft, Counter Strike, Quake 3, Doom, Painkiller and I have attended several events.

As an admin, I started helping with OGL, then I went to GGL when Steve invited me. I was with GGL for 2 years, when I left GGL, ESL also approached me and here I had the opportunity to work with the best admins I knew John “Alien” Clark (OGL) and Steve (GGL), so i obviously joined.

We were intersted in the goals they wanted when coming to National ESL.

Steve: Personally my goals for ESL were to make it as successful as it is in Europe.This will take time, I'm willing to put that time in through dedication and determination.

Flame: When I joined the ESL League and Steve told me ESL was going to pick Quake, I was happy. My goal is to get TDM back to the Quake scene with a lot of teams, it is a goal that we are working on for the future.

One of my other goals is to create a more competitive scene in duelling and to have "classic" games. This is now happening with the ESL Select, Premier and Main leagues.

Steve: To elaborate on that, we're really trying to bring TDM back, it's now up to the teams to recognize it and join up!

Time goes by and we see improvment. We asked what the admins thought they would see the Quake Division in 2 years.

Flame: Right now I see a lot of future in the Quake Division. From what I have heard, Quake will be used in several LAN events like WCG our own IEM, and other leagues such as MLG and ESEA. So I see a huge growth in the Quake PlayerBase, and I have huge expectations it will be played for a long, long time.

Steve: I can say this, I love quake, I'm a fanboy of anything that id software comes out with. I helped beta test Quake Live for close to 2 years. I will continue to to play any game id software comes out with and will promote it.

Steve had brought over his admins from other leagues when he decided to join us here at National ESL. We offered them a moment to comment on working with each other and if there was anything they could change.

Flame: I like working with Steve because he really knows what he wants to do and he puts a lot of his time to make it happen. Also, since he is a player, he can understand players POV when there is a dispute. So at the end, the final decision we make about the dispute, is accepted by players without contradiction or confusion.

He is very respected by players and that is why I think ESL QL got a lot of good players, they trust the admins. Being an admin that actually loves and plays the game and talk with the players, is the best if you want to run a community, Steve has that.

Steve: To answer your question, I would not change a thing. I'm very good friends with all the people I work with. That in fact is why I brought them with me when I came to ESL.

They had some final comments to encourage the Quake Community about the tournaments and cups coming up.

Steve: We're trying very hard to get some TDM going, We have a Freeze Tag Tournament next week, We also have some CTF coming up, JOIN UP! Help ESL grow! We need help from the players! Thanks and love ya Flame, "not in that way"

Flame: But yeah, we need help of the players
We are here so you have leagues, ladders and everything to play and to have a community.

So the players are the important key here. That is what makes ESL works.
WE WANT YOU!

We at National ESL appreciate all the work that our admins in ALL divisions do. We hope that National ESL is giving the community all they need to have great competitive play. We definitly hope that the Quake Community is pleased and keep returning for the upcoming events and the future of the division.

ESL|MizKitten