In a shocking interview courtesy of Michael McGhee former EPS admin Chris "CHRiSEH" Berry lets us know why it is time for a change in UK ESL.

This column is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

Note from chriseh:

The last month or so I have been slowly losing the plot with ESL. I have tried numerous times to try to get my head around the way of thinking embodied by some of my colleagues. It's clear to me, at least, that they need to change their attitude... Maybe it has already happened and I just don't know it, or maybe I just don't care anymore because I know as soon as this hits the front page of Cadred I will have burned any bridge I had ever built within ESL. Is it the right move? Only time will tell.

I found myself getting stuck in the daily routine of playing matches, to be honest I wasn’t very good and was looking for a change of scenery. In all honesty I had forgotten I had applied as it took around 3 months for someone to contact me regarding my application!

My first duties involved checking EAS/EAS1 matches, setting reschedules and answering protests and then all of a sudden I was pushed in the deep end, admining matches, doing ESL news and license pages, a lot of trust suddenly put on my already busy shoulders.

I put my heart and soul into season 3 spending my spare evenings admining matches, sorting out tickets and just generally making the players happy. At the time of Season 3 I was working 8-7pm 5 days a week and some days the last thing I wanted to do was sit in front of a computer until pretty much babysitting ten people. Was I too caring? who knows but not once did I get a thank you from anyone at ESL, the only thanks I got from was the players, something which gave me the will to continue through the troubled times.

Anthony with his famed "Referee" shirt

After Season 3 was over the news came out about the new line-up rules. (http://www.cadred.org/News/Article/120619/) Being the main admin for UK EPS at the time this article was the first time I heard of the changes so I was slightly bemused so straight away I contacted Antony with my disapproval of them and after 3 days of discussion the rule was slightly changed where teams only had to use two of their previous players from last season. (http://www.cadred.org/News/Article/120951/) I still did not agree and pretty much every night was bombarded with pissed off players moaning. Later that year I attended Gamescom in Germany and spoke to Ant in person, we had a discussion about Season 4 and agreed that when we both got back home we would set a date to discuss ideas, rules and how to move the scene forward, none of this happened.

I would if I knew any more, I know just as much as the next person.

I’m not entirely sure, seeing the news and impact I previously had I thought I would go back and lend a hand. For the first few weeks everything seemed to go swimmingly, relegation matches being played on a regular basis and the announcement of EPL. Unfortunately my second honeymoon period was soon over and the storm started brewing once more while a mostly disinterested Antony watched from the sidelines.

The relegation part for the pro series used to be played on one day, something I found unfair on the teams involved so I convinced Antony over several complex and to the point emails that we should give teams two or three weeks to play all games, something which I later regretted as I was being constantly hounded to get the games sorted with little or no support from the teams. I was then informed that he wanted to start the EPL three days before the biggest LAN in the UK was due to start. It was another poorly thought out idea that shows the disconnection he has with the scene. Despite it being clearly ridiculous, I had to argue with him still about the pros and cons.

There will be no more of this unless something drastic happens

It's clear to me that Antony is more dedicated and geared towards StarCraft II, although it should be more towards the community given his official title at the ESL as the Community Manager. CS:S sometimes seems as though it gets in the way, more of a burden to him yet he refuses to stand down and let other people have their say in shaping the scene. He is jaded, a UK national having taken up residency in the e-sports utopia of Germany. I have lost count the amount of times I have told him to stop comparing us to the German scene, the German scene is developed, passionate about gaming; the whole country is. There seems little chance you would see a senior member from the UK government speaking about gaming at a big event such as the Gadget Show Live. Of course we need rules and procedures, but the same ones do not apply across all countries and the ones set for the UK seem to be doing more damage than good. I fear our good friend Antony has been spending too much time with everyone's favourite celebrity nut case and has been banging 7 gram rocks, otherwise I am not sure how you someone can get so delusional about the state of current affairs.

I am only aware of one, but I couldn't begin to tell you who the rest are because I'm not part of the fabled e-sports illuminati.

About two weeks ago I was contacted by Andrew Christoforou, the Marketing Manager for Tt eSports with interest of sponsoring EPS. I jumped at the chance to try and connect the two parties and spoke to Andrew into the early hours of the morning until he began asking questions which were way above my volunteer "pay" grade. We agreed that next time Antony comes online we would all have a chat together on how to go forward or at least that’s how we planned it.

what chat? The next morning I spoke to Antony as soon as I saw him online and he seemed to be on another planet. I was expecting a positive reaction, but I felt like he was giving me the cold shoulder and just linked me to the news post on the ESL site. A bit later that day I tried to convince him again to speak to Andrew but once more the response was solely linking me to a news post that he requested I pass on to Andrew. That evening I got back to Mr. Christoforou with little to show him and he was clearly unimpressed. I mean, it's the little things, the attention to detail, like how he even notices the obvious spelling mistake of “International” in the news post, the one scrap of evidence I had to show that anyone was interested. It was a pretty embarrassing affair and one that I shouldn't even have been feeling embarrassed about. Despite flushed cheeks I continue trying to salvage something.

Of Course! the next a different approach with Antony and try to convince him to have a chat with Andrew. He point blank refuses to, so I resort to short, sharp, shock tactics. After being informed any potential deal is on thin ice due to the party feeling brushed off and have a glaring spelling mistake hardly inspire them with confidence, I maybe expected Antony, who generally strikes me as a proud person, to at least try and make amends. Instead the meeting petered out as he is more interested in explaining how the news post was someone else's responsibility. It was an irrelevancy in the grand scheme of things but it was clear to me that he was more concerned with keeping his feet under the very cosy ESL table, rather than actually getting hands on and doing something positive for all of us.

Indeed, although admittedly I was most likely not in the best state to do so as if I can remember we had been drinking since about 4pm and I had only got round to seeing him about 1am in the morning. I still think Blanks was trying to take advantage of me.

The tone, well it felt like I am apologising the whole time. They stated in no uncertain terms that they weren't interested any more, and while they were a range of factors, their decision was heavily influenced by their initial treatment. It is beyond me, and I'm sure beyond any of you reading this how hard would it have been to have a polite discussion for a few minutes, even if the outcome is going to be largely the same. The TT brand is passionate about the scene and committed to moving it forward. It seems odd that an ESL employee, who have a history of a similar ethos, would refuse to even meet them despite openly inviting people to approach them.

A few days after I came back me, Antony and Graham began discussing ideas to keep teams interested in playing and I had the suggesting of adding our own money, something I was quite surprised by the response as Anthony as he also was happy to put some money aside, at last some positivity!

When the EPL was announced I agreed I would do most of the water carrying, the day to day admin, with Antony presiding over it and ensuring that all communication with the ESL itself is in place. Yet I can't even edit a user's e-mail address if they are struggling to log-in. Games were nearly delayed when the latest SCRDS update came out and Zblock needed updating. Despite being on the frontline and being the person who uses the servers daily I had to wait for Antony to come on Skype and when he did he was too busy with SC2, even though I had 3 relegation matches taking place in a few hours. Another problem which came along with the update was that the VeryGames SourceTV compressing tool became broken. Incredibly, I had to go through the same process as anyone else, creating a ticket that I then did not have suitable permissions to close.

Needless to say I can't do this any more. We all get jaded with the community from time to time, myself included as I sat there trying to keep my mind off the abuse that came my way as I attempted my first piece of event coverage at i42. Even so, to be in a position where you can actually strangle it, and prevent it from growing... I don't know how someone can have that sort of agenda against specific games but the sponsorship discussion mentioned earlier was the final straw. The job for me is voluntary and unfortunately that is all it will ever be, although I would be lying if I hadn't had dreams of working in the Turtle Entertainment offices, rocking back in Germany chewing on Frankfurters and slopping down carbonated beers. In reality this was never going to be the case. I was a stop gap measure, my enthusiasm exploited to put a believable face on the notion that whilst under Antony's supervision ESL UK genuinely care about CS:S.

I will not be giving up on admin work and will shortly be working on a big project with a few familiar faces.

Apparently the UK currently has three options either it gets a partner, Antony continues running things or the section is closed down completely. I personally prefer another option. Bring someone in who has the power to make changes, who won't be ignored and who will actually make time for conversation with sponsors. Finding a partner for the UK should be top priority and they should be contacting various companies, not waiting to be contacted, and maybe they are. But if they are it's not Antony doing it. He simply does not care, feeling happy and secure in his role within the company, a long track record of good work something he can always point to if anyone ever dares question his integrity. Those days are long gone and it's clear where his priorities lie.

My Springer-esque final thought has to be this - if the ESL is so big that it says it is and spent €500,000 on an anticheat yet cannot hire someone to work on a partnership for the UK then we should all be severely worried. Before I end all ties with ESL I do want to thank them for the time I have spent as an admin, they have taught me a lot, trusted me and that is something that can not easily be forgotten.