[x5.Crescendo]

Behind the Username is an interview series where I ask some questions of regular players I meet in and around SC2SEA and our tournaments.

Today I have a chat with Bradley 'Baldie' Baldwin, the StarCraft II eSports Manager of ACLPro and WCS Oceania/SEA

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To ease us into things, how long have you been involved with Starcraft, and have you always played Terran?

Technically over 10 years but from a community side just over 4 years. I have always played Terran - no idea why. My prepubescent self decided it was a good choice?

I have an older brother and growing up I used to watch him play StarCraft I. I still remember the one and only online match I played on Battle.net was a 2v2. I spawned top right as Terran and was working away on my tech when I saw what looked like a million zealots fighting in the middle of the map. I had half a dozen marines at the time. I thought I was doing great but I got yelled at by my ally and was scared to ever return haha!


How did you decide upon your username?

My nickname was Baldie growing up because my last name is Baldwin so my gamertag followed suit!


Describe your playstyle in ten words or less.

Ancient and outdated
(I haven't played more than a game or two of ranked 1v1 in probably close to two years now - MY DIRTIEST SECRET NO PASSION)


I think it'd be hard to be involved in eSports within Australia and not be in some way aware of ACL Pro. However, I'd like to explore the history of ACL Pro with regards to its involvement with Starcraft 2. Could you please share with us when and how ACL Pro became involved in SC2?

Yeah so that's going back a bit! StarCraft II joined the pro circuit three years ago with its first event being ACL Gold Coast on January 21st and 22nd of 2012. Since then it has been present at every ACL circuit LAN up until this year. Dox managed StarCraft II for ACL back then and I took over from him in 2013.

I can't really comment on how ACL became involved with StarCraft II as I wasn't part of the management team back then. At ACL we want to be the most competitive eSports LAN circuit in Australia and to be that you need the most competitive eSport titles so I would have to assume this was the reason StarCraft II was introduced back in 2012.


When I first lurked my way into the SEA SC2 scene, around the time of the 2014 WCS Oceanic Qualifiers, the name 'Baldie' was synonymous with the ACL LANs and Oceanic WCS events. Please tell us a bit more about how ACL Pro's involvement with StarCraft 2 has evolved since you joined in 2013. Can you share a bit about your plans for the future in that regard?

The simple answer is it has helped me grow and develop into my current position as a full time event manager within the eSports industry. In saying that though it also forced me out of my previous line of eSports work on the community side.

I first joined SC2SEA back in March of 2012 and spent the next two years developing a brand for myself. I was a very active caster before my days at ACL - casted my fair share of international events and was a founding member of BaseTradeTV. I also took over and ran a popular weekly event called 'wT Weekly' for over a year. Working with ACL kind of forced my hand out of casting but I think I made the right decision.

In terms of the future - well for ACL who knows where StarCraft II will sit but I think we would be unlikely to take it out of our pro circuit before Legacy of the Void. We have some really exciting news to announce in a month. For me, I will just keep on establishing my experience within the industry.


Are you reading my notes?

My next question was actually regarding the wT Weekly. It was regrettably before my time but I'm curious to know if you ever still get the itch to cast events?


I sure do! I miss casting a lot. I just know if I casted now I wouldn't do justice to how it used to be. At the start of 2013 I had to make a choice between focusing on pursuing casting or event management. I decided on event management and I think I made the right choice as I'm now working full time in the industry. Doesn't mean I don't still get the itch though!

Shoutout to Mr'Zain. We had some fun times together most notably during the SEA Race Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbPq5aqqJ4


Shame I missed out on those days! That was a moving homage to fallen comrades On the topic of casting, from a technical aspect, what is your preferred set up? What kind of equipment and programs do you rely on when preparing an ACL event for casting and streaming?

I wont go into specific brands or names of equipment as we don't want to give away all our secrets but we use a hardware solution which allows us to see all our input sources (eg PCs, cameras, motion graphics) and allows us to mix and match inputs in a preview area and then push it live when we want to. It also allows us to push certain signals (eg production feed or observer PC) through to say a monitor which is how we have our casters see when they are live and what the observer is seeing.

Audio wise we use a mixer with sliders and all that fun stuff. We use xsplit or obs purely as a streaming source (we don't use scenes within each program) as everything is managed through our hardware and feeds it as a single signal into xsplit or obs. A typical setup we use would cost in the tens of thousands so it definitely isn't a viable home solution!


Speaking of special equipment, ACL Pro recently announced HyperX as a new sponsor for the 2015 season ACL Pro circuit. With ACL Pro's strong history of sponsorships and brand recognition, could you share with us some of the behind-the-scenes considerations with regards to the logistics of being able to organise events such as WCS and ACL LANs?

I wouldn't honestly know where to start. A lot of people can only really relate to event management from a party or a house warming perspective. Managing a multi platform, multi title, multi story, multi day event is a totally different beast to prepare and deliver than a party (but keep making parties they are important!). I was the "Project Manager" of ACL Sydney, accountable for all the elements coming together, not just StarCraft II. Basically if the event went to shit it would be my head on the chopping blocks.

I don't think I really could do the workload justice. I think people can't really appreciate how much work goes into events such as ACL unless they are involved from start to finish. Sure the event itself is a large resource and time drain but even the preparation in terms of venue choice, supplier management, logistics of equipment and everything in between takes time.

All this costs money so that's why sponsors are such an important part of the ACL culture because literally without them there would be no ACL. Player fees don't even cover the prize pool so there's a lot to cover! People often seem to forget or not realise how much it actually costs to run an event of ACLs scale and forget that the entire ACL family are volunteers because of this. So make sure you not only thank the sponsors for allowing these events to occur but also to everyone who is part of the ACL team for taking time out of their busy lives to bring you entertainment.


Everyone I've spoken to said it was a fantastic event! I was sad to miss going to the Sydney ACL in person, although I did get to watch a lot of the stream. It was fantastic to see the casting roster increased with Maru and Minix stepping in more. Are there any promising new observers also getting involved, or can we thank Insano's relentless stamina for all of this year's Sydney ACL observing?

I am really glad people enjoyed their time at ACL Sydney. It was "my event" so it's kind of a proud father moment to hear the feedback.

I can't say enough positive things about Insano. He has been a part of the ACL family for a while now and has always put his hand up to do what is needed. Insano not only observed the entire weekend but also operated a large portion of the StarCraft II stream. Unfortunately he had to leave after the Loser Bracket Finals to catch a plane so bar the finals it was all him. Shoutout to Pox for observing the grand finals!


Pox doesn't get enough love either for the amount of casting he does. I didn't even realise he'd observed the grand finals, that definitely deserves the shout out! Now, I know you probably get asked this all the time, but are the logistics for a Melbourne ACL potentially feasible sometime soon?

We wanted to go to Melbourne in 2014 but it just wasn't feasible with our event schedule both within and external to ACL. We definitely heard the voices of our friends down south! ACL Melbourne is definitely something which could become a reality this year - will just have to wait and see


I shall remain quietly optimistic I'd like to throw in some questions about the Oseanic Starcraft 2 Championship series now. Firstly, taking a look at the current rankings, what are your thoughts on them? Any favourites or early predictions for the grand finale this year?

I was really sorry to hear that EnDerr wasn't able to make it to ACL Sydney. I hope he can get his VISA in time to perhaps come down to our final ACL of the year. He is one of the most active online players I know and also one of the few ANZ/SEA active pro's who I have yet to meet.

I don't really think I am in a position to accurately give my 2c on how the finals will play out. The weekend really showed that there are a multitude of players who can knock down the heavy hitters and put up a fight so I think there's going to be some very close series regardless.

I do notice no Pigeon in here. Hopefully he can become more active in online play to earn a spot. It's kind of funny at ACL Sydney last year he arrived on the day and played in Open Bracket but didn't tell me he was going to get lunch. I tried calling him and was in the process of going to disqualify him when he showed back up. He ended up coming 3rd at the event and now came 1st at ACL Sydney on the weekend. So yeah who knows if he would have competed this year if I had disqualified him.


Seeing a comparatively unknown Protoss step out of the shadows with such results bodes well for the ongoing quality and matchup diversity of SEA events, I think. Now we just need some more of our Terrans crushing their way to victory more often. Not that I mind Iaguz getting the glory at present Of the various partnered OCS tournaments, which do you get a chance to keep up with/enjoy the most?

I'm going to be honest, I don't really have the time to keep up/enjoy global tournaments like GSL/WCS let alone OCS. Which is really unfortunate. The time I do get to myself outside of work is either spent with my partner or playing some games to unwind. I do miss the days where I ran Barcrafts in Adelaide and could watch every GSL religiously. The only real StarCraft action I get to see these days is ACL and WCS qualifiers.


Looking to the future, with Legacy of the Void on the horizon, what are your thoughts on what you have seen of LoTV thus far?

Hahaha oh God these questions unveiling my true #sellout self from StarCraft II. I haven't even touched Legacy of the Void nor have I really seen much gameplay of it. So I really have no idea on the state of play. I am a bit of a single player fanboy so I really look forward to playing out the campaign. I am sure LotV will give a bit of breath back into the competitive StarCraft market and we will have to wait and see how long the hype train lasts.

If it makes anyone feel better while I don't play or keep up to date with much StarCraft these days, it's because I am doing a whole bunch of Blizzard projects! I am responsible for the WCS (http://wcs2015.aclpro.com.au/), WoW Arena (http://wowarena2015.aclpro.com.au/), Hearthstone (http://hearthstone2015.aclpro.com.au/) and Heroes of the Storm (http://heroes2015.aclpro.com.au/) campaigns which all activate in the next three months. So while my StarCraft activity is near non existant I still am heavily involved in Blizzard projects. Pls no pitchforks


There shall be no pitchforks from this direction Still, if I can plant some seeds, please consider archon mode tournaments alongside traditional 1v1 events. Redbull Battlegrounds showed that the format can be very entertaining, and I'd love to see some of SEA's best players teamed up in Archon Mode events.

For a bit of fun: if there were any people in the eSports industry you could have on board with ACL, who would it be, and why?

Archon modes and other fun tournaments are important to a competitive ecosystem in my opinion - to break up the repetitive day to day proceedings of 1v1 while also appealing to the more casual player. We wouldn't implement something like this into our pro circuit because it doesn't fit our model of producing the highest level of competitive play to see who is the best in our region. It also is hard enough to keep the competitive tournament to schedule let alone adding in fun tournaments as well! It may be something we look into for one of our Rival Nights or other weekly broadcasts if enough people express interest for it.

If I could have anybody on board with ACL from the industry it probably would be one of the broadcasting team at ESL US or EU. An obvious personality would be Apollo but to be honest we probably would get more value from a broadcasting director or someone more hands on with the studios themselves. I think we could learn a lot off what ESL do with their studio space and broadcasting tech to level ourselves up.


On a more personal note, is there a moment in your career which you consider particularly important or formative for who you are as a person now (in general life and/or eSports)?

I think WCS 2012 was an important moment for me in my eSports journey. It was the definitive point where any remaining doubt I had about pursuing a career in the eSports industry disappeared. I don't think I will ever forget the feelings I felt that weekend. It was also the first time working directly with the ACL team who I now call family.


Finally, feel free to self-promote and drop some links here if you want folks to follow you on the various social media/streaming sites. Feel free also to take a moment to give a shoutout to your sponsors!

If you want to follow me it's https://twitter.com/ACLBaldie (@ACLBaldie) on Twitter. Other than that if you see me at an event please don't hesitate to come say hello! There are few things I enjoy more than meeting members of the community. If you want to keep up to date with ACL then follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ACLPro (@ACLPro) and on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/aclpro). Thanks to everyone who supports ACL in one way or another, especially our sponsors: Plantronics, Astro, HyperX, Corsair and BenQ.

We originally wanted to announce something really significant at ACL Sydney but had to push it back for a few reasons so I am really looking forward to sharing with you all soon and hearing what you have to say. For now all I can do is just announce an announcement (ew).


Announcing an announcement is a grand old tradition . Baldie, it has been a pleasure. Thank you for taking time out of your hectic schedule to have a chat with me

You are most welcome. Thanks for doing what you do in the community!


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It was wonderful to get a chance to get some insights from Baldie about himself and ACL, and I look forward to whatever is coming up in the now-announced announcement. Those announcements always end up being worth the wait, in my experience.

Please give ACL and Baldie some love for the effort that goes into the ACL LANs. With any fortune, I'll be able to attend the next one myself

GLHF all!

[asdfSchnitzel]

Man Race Wars was such a good cast, I miss your casting

[Pox]

acl is ok I guess but i'm still waiting for episode 2

[Philosopher]

Great interview!!

[Eddie]

What a champion! No Baldie = no ACL's.
I do miss the early days when Baldie casted stuff - was quite good

Quick Comments

ToRSpartaz:

Ditto

[freeedom]

cool man, im kinda bad with twitter lately didn't realize he had an account... followed... anyone else I should follow on twitter? I guess I could start with whoever is interviewed