Guest writer Humzah 'Akirah' Sherwani - the man behind the rise of the KGL - details what needs to be done for leagues such as his to survive and grow.

It's not very often we get people submitting articles to us and asking if we deem it worthy of publishing, most of you seem content to let us do all of the writing when, at the end of the day, it's your opinion that counts. Imagine our surprise when the man behind the growth of the KGL as a league to be taken seriously in the absence of the EPS threw us an email detailing his intentions to do so. For those of you unfamiliar with the KGL it started out as a small time community run and community focused league, offering a place for casual and amateur players to compete in cups and leagues without any incentive other than bragging rights.

When it was announced that the ESL would be losing its UK EPS sponsorship top level CS:S in the UK seemed to be at risk of having nowhere to show who was the best during the long stretches of LAN-less time. As such Humzah decided to step up to the plate and offer an invite league to the top teams in the UK, seeking out some small sponsorship and prize money to give a slight incentive for the big-name sides to play. Yet he has quickly learned that it's not all fun and games running a league that caters to the top and in a call to arms he gives his thoughts on the problems currently plaguing the UK scene.

This article is the sole opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinion of Heaven Media or any other affiliates.

The KGL has enjoyed a lot of success recently

About 3 months ago, ESL UK declared that the EPS had been cancelled and there were doubts about whether it would ever return. In the aftermath, many members of the “pro” clans expressed their disdain at the decision and how they needed a place to play.

Having been admining for almost 6 years now, I was quite curious about the announcement in general but more the response from the pro clans. When comparing the admining of events which house the lower clans to the events which house pro clans, most experienced admins will tell you the latter is complete pain in the arse.

Why? Well the majority of the “pro” clans think that they are above others and deserve special treatment, they rarely follow the rules and probably most importantly they take the game far too seriously. The lower clans may just be that, “low skilled” but they recognise that CSS is just a game at the end of the day and playing the game is what counts at the regardless of the result. It’s why I was pleasantly surprised by some of the responses from the “pro” clans; they appeared to have grasped the concept that CSS is just a game but if they wanted it to be more than that then they a lot of the responsibility relied on their own shoulders and perhaps even more surprisingly, they were almost begging for a league.

“Great!” I thought, the “pro” clans seem to have realised that they themselves need to play a big part in a league in order to make it successful so that sponsors maybe interested. They had realised that some admins put a shed load of effort in with little reward. They had realised that perhaps not everything lasts forever and they should almost cherish the opportunities certain leagues provide them with by throwing cash at them.

I set about speaking to a few sponsors who may be interested in providing a small but sustainable prize fund for a similar league to EPS but with some changes that we felt would improve the league as a whole. In the end RTL|Lee and I decided to put in £75 of our own cash in to create a small incentive for clans to play. Granted it’s not a lot but at that moment in time, it was a figure that we could sustain over a long period of time without much of an issue. Something that we could build on as time went along. Within a few weeks, after many discussions and PMs with some of the better clans out there, The KGL Pro-League was created. The truth is that I was quite enthusiastic about the project but sitting here now, I can tell you that the enthusiasm is now non-existent.

There are many problems within the UK scene

From Day 1, we have had to deal with abuse. Now any admin or forum mod in the gaming scene will tell you that abuse/threats are something which goes with the territory. It happens but here we were having put forward £150 of our own cash and having deliberately designed the event so that teams who were not invited could still play by simply signing-up to the site, we were still subject to racial and personal insults because their team wasn’t invited. As I said, this really didn’t bother me as these people were not the ones we were looking to cater for.

Week 1 came and again there were problems with clans rescheduling. Not a major problem as shit happens and sometimes stuff cannot be avoided. But when this happened in Week 2, again in Week 3 and the rest of the Weeks then it did become an issue. I do not think any clan leader can deny that they have not been PMed at least twice if not more about sorting dates for reschedules. The vast majority of times, these people would not reply and yet would join a match server 20 or 30 mins later.

Other clans would latch onto the fact that another clan wanted a reschedule. Suddenly they wanted a default, not because they couldn’t get on 5 for another night but just to pick up the easy win. These clans were the same ones who had rescheduled the week before or went onto to reschedule in later weeks. Incredibly one of the match servers that the league was hosted on was subject to a DoS attack. Last week, a match server was restarted and LO3 mid game because another “pro” clan had got their hands on the RCON for the server and decided to have a mess around.

If you have got this far, you’re probably asking yourself what is the point of this article? Is it just a random rant of someone we’ve never heard of? What genius flame can I write to show my contempt of this article? The point is that 3 months ago, “pro” clans appeared to stand united in requesting a home or even homes to continue to play what could be construed as professional gaming. These clans were adamant that they were still worthy of playing for cash at some in the future by showing their own professionalism in taking part in leagues.

Has this been displayed? In my personal opinion? No. Until the higher teams start playing like professional teams by showing up on time, making an effort to reschedule on time, cutting down on abuse, behaving sensibly and actually putting in some effort to play then they cannot justify the big online prize funds that they aspire for.

Like many others in the scene, I do hope to see a day when e-sports is the norm in the UK. I personally do not think that this will happen anytime soon, not only because of the aforementioned reasons but because of the mindset of the UK public towards gaming in general. Having said this, a lot of responsibility lies on the “pro” teams to lead from the front in order to speed up this process.

There are many problems within the UK scene

This article isn’t a particular rant towards “pro” clans (in fairness to some of them, they have behaved impeccably) but more of a call to arms to them. The next time you play in a league, put some extra effort in so that your team approaches it with a professional attitude. Not only will it help your team, it will help the league and ultimately it will help it being a more attractive prospect for the sponsorship money that teams dream about.

I hope to write my next piece on leagues/LAN (including my own in the recent Pro-League) and some of their deficiencies which need changed in order to help clans and the scene as a whole