Graham "messioso" Pitt shares some of his thoughts on the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 event in a blog.

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.

So, I was sitting in the Cinestar at 3am on Saturday morning of the CIC7 event. I should have been tucked up in my bed awaiting the start of the Day 2 in 6 hours. But alas, the plague of LAN gaming, delays, struck once again. So there i was, awake since half 6 in morning, looking at 4 or so hours sleep before I had to get back into the fray in the morning. I should mention that I only had 3 hours of sleep the previous two nights due to late travelling and the setting up of the event. So as you can imagine by this point I was virtually a zombie.

I was not the only one there however, with well over 50 players still battling it out, or only just finishing their late night gaming sessions. Around 20 event staff and many spectators stuck it out to the bitter end, and you have to ask yourself why do they do it.

From a players point of view, you have the fact that the matches have to be played sometime, so it might aswell be now. The players playing late at night got a lie in till after midday so it wouldn't cause too much of a lack of sleep. The added motivation of prize money is always good too. The spectators get the fun of watching a good game of CoD4 or ET whilst having a drink and a social chat with other gamers. And they are choosing to be here, nobody is forcing them.

But what about the event staff? The WZZRD game cafe staff were still up running the bar, helping out with the computers where they can and generally being there. However with motivation of a paycheck at the end of the month, I'd gladly trade in my supermarket job for it. Then we have the volunteers, such as the tournament admins and technical staff. Working 12+ hour days from early morning till early morning. Why would anyone choose to put themselves through this?

There are little to no financial benefits to the job. Flights and accomodation are generally paid for by the event, and usually some food allowance. However if you eat as much as me, it doesn't always cover you. But you don't see me complaining, nor do you see any of the other event staff complaining about anything like that, we are here to do a job we enjoy. The livewire Kleineman was still cleaning up all the tables so we can get back to the hotel and get some sleep. As always he has a smile on his face, having a laugh and enjoying himself even though he probably feels like death.

So what other motivation do we use to fuel ourselves if it isn't financial? I beleive it is because we all share a common goal, and that is to see eSports continue to reach new heights. If we continue to build events like this into larger, more socially acceptable and better ran events, more money comes into the industry and we all grow together.

It's certainly how I got into the administration side of things back in 2005. I began admining to help the dying community of CoD:UO and sustained the lifespan of the game for over a year to help the community. I'm sure this is a similar situation to how most of us got into administration over playing.

For those who are interested in trying out event or league administration. Try it, you'd be surprised at how rewarding it feels to run a succesful event. But what you cannot do is think anything less than 100% effort is enough. You have to be commited to what you are doing, even when the teams are moaning, your tired and running out of time you have to keep going until the end.

For now, I am signing off to watch the CoD4 grand final between Reason and fnatic and see the end to what has been a truely epic event for me. And a final thank you to the players who have been great this weekend throughout the delays and technical problems encountered. And also to the Crossfire guys who really got this event running like Cash, Tosspot and co. And finally to Morg, Kleineman and Karko for being some great admin team mates!