Hi Emmanuel, first off could you please introduce yourself for us?

Hi, my name is Emmanuel “Manu(G.O)” Cotilleau, I’m 25 years old, married, have got one child and another one coming soon. I’m managing a computer shop (www.cdi79.info) and I’m the president of “la victoire est en nous” (victory is in us), founder of Lan79. My hobbies are soccer, computers, and everything regarding e-sport.

Now you’ve had a chance to recover from all the hard work you put into Lan79, how do you feel it went?

The event is over for the players, but not for us, we still have to work during 2month but not so intensively, hopefully. Well, I’m satisfied of the event that we made because it was hard to dare, we had to give a lot of personal investment, all that for the players. I think that we didn’t disappoint the hopes of the players :)

We organized a lot of services for players: buses coming from 3 towns, hotel reservations, no queuing, loans of screens and computers, free use of internet, Finals on a stage, 1000m² of arcade games for their pleasure, Qpad cup to have fun between their matches, snacks on the place, free computer support, previews of the video, and so on.

And for the remote coverage of the Source tournament: Source TV was available for 1500 people who watched it, there was live streaming for France, and IRC live coverage.

We had also some troubles, however: there were some internet speed problems, and also some server problems. I take the responsibility of those problems, as president of the LAN, I should have checked it and unfortunately, everybody paid for it, and I want to apologize to all the staff and the players because we almost made a perfect LAN and I am really sad. Gaming conditions were difficult but the same for everybody.

To finish, I’m really proud of my staff that made a huge work

Running an event that big for the first time must have been hard for you and your staff; How do you think you coped?

We worked on the project for a whole year; we created 10 areas of responsibility, directed by 10 people. Each of them had 10 people to help them during those 3 days, and each month we held a meeting which permitted us to be ready for the day event. There were also some online volunteers to prepare the website, they tournaments, and to find partners. It was very tiring, but enriching.

Are you please with the turn-up of teams? Did you expect more/less international teams compared to the turn-out of French teams?

I’m satisfied of the number of European teams who trusted me, but I can’t tell the same thing about the French teams who, obviously, were scared to face the reality. Hopefully, we opened the registration only for 64 teams, because with 6 hours late it would have been a big problem.

I’m sure that this won’t be your last event; do you have any plans for future events?

Yes, I have a lot of projects for the future, like an online championship starting after the summer, but I will send you a statement about it. My aim is still the same: to organize a world cup at Bocapole. The players know that my words are always true and I hope that nowadays, French and European players believe in me.

I can’t help but wonder if the next LAN will be called Lan79 again, or if it might move up to Lan80... can you give us an insight on that? :P

Lan79 is the number of my department (deux-sevres = 79), so there won’t be Lan80 but a Lan79: Mission.

Many thanks for taking the time to talk to me, its been a pleasure :)

Great talking to you Corin!

I think I speak for everyone when I say I think they did a great job, and I look forward to the next LAN they run

Huge thanks to Hedi of ESWC for translating - I look forward to seeing you at the finals in Paris ;)