[Alan Boiston]

More and more gamers are getting into Esports these days, and so I’m keen to learn more about your experience. What teams have you played for, what competitions have you competed in and what have you won?

I started my competitive gaming against arcade gamers in the 1980’s. Back then leader boards meant the world to everyone, competition with your local gaming community, there wasn’t the cheating that you can often encounter online, you were standing right beside your competitor, marvelling at their skills while sweating if they were going to beat your score. There was a certain honesty in the past in terms of high scores that became lost when everything moved online. Often you would make a high score, photograph the screen and send it into a magazine. Everybody would battle against it and thankfully the vast majority of the scores were bona-fide kick ass gameplay. This made it all worthwhile.

I then moved onto various competitions, comfortably beating the UK Wipeout Champion in 95’ at the UK finals by 3 seconds per lap (but not officially awarded the win, I was the 31st contestant and they only considered the top 30, one of days you go home feeling like it was a fix), winning the Colin McRae Rally Championships at ECTS in 98. Runner up in the UK Console Championships on Gran Tursimo 2 in ’99 (that one hurt), various competitions over the years up to the UK Forza Championships in ’05, finishing 5th, then creating Team VVV in 2006 and finishing 3rd at the World Cyber Games UK PGR 3 tournament. From there I won various competitions and small events but as Team VVV has grown, so my time became more limited as I focused on managing the Esports team rather than competing, I did consider having a go at iRacing but the negative stress of incidents and time require put me off.

From there its been a case of covering event rather than playing, what are your experiences?

[Earl]

It feels strange calling it “eSports” when I think of what kids are earning these days. I clearly got into competitive gaming at the wrong time!

I played as an Engineer for AK47, for Team Fortress Classic. We won the Wireplay UK Championship one year, that was pretty cool.

I also represented Finland for Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004. Yep, Finland. Despite not having Finnish blood or having ever been to Finland. Things were a bit more relaxed back then!

I have a career earnings of around $3000. I don’t want to think what it may have been today.

[Kevin Dooley]

Earl wrote:

I also represented Finland for Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004. Yep, Finland. Despite not having Finnish blood or having ever been to Finland.

Haha!

I used to make multiplayer maps using the Unreal Engine, although for Deus Ex, I’m sure I made my own version of 1 or 2 UT maps though.

[Earl]

It used to blow my mind when the community started to make maps for games. It felt like the possibilities were endless and that the game would last forever.

[Author]

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