[dippa]

An interview with the Baller - Derek "Dox" Reball

Most of you guys know that I have a regular column on eSports with games.on.net, and for my most recent column I borrowed Derek "Dox" Reball for an interview on a side of eSports that we don't see often - running events.

After all, Dox is the man to talk to about these things - the guy has been running events since Brood War and until recently was the administrative equivalent of God for Southeast Asia. Since his new job doesn't afford him the opportunity to lend his administrative talents to our scene - for now, at least - I thought it'd be a wise move to pick his brain for a little.

GON: What was the first big lesson or mistake you made as an administrator?

Derek: There was an Australian qualifier for the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational back in 2004. Due to time restrictions, we only had 1 day to run the entire event, with players scheduled to fly back out at 7:00PM. So I made a decision to run groups, followed by a best-of-one single elimination bracket. Andrew “mOOnGLaDe” Pender went 6-0 in his group, whilst the rest of the people who made it to the next stage of the tournament went 4-2 or 3-3 at best.

In the first round of the Single Elimination Bracket, GLaDe got really unlucky against Bryan “SiZeMaTTeRs” Murphy – losing his entire army and hero in a bad creep jack. Because of this, an unknown player by the name of “SouLJaH” ended up taking out the tournament, and it left a really bad taste in the collective mouth of the community for a long time.

Funnily enough,SouLJaH went on to eliminate Wizard – one of the reigning champions from North America in the first round of the global finals before he was eventually knocked out of the tournament. But that was the day that I learned a very valuable lesson – never compromise the integrity of the event in order to meet a deadline.

You can read the rest of the very long interview over at games.on.net.

However, there's also a little surprise for all of you. Because Derek was kind enough to share so much of his wisdom, in a few days I'll be posting an unabridged version of the interview here on SC2SEA so that all of his thoughts can be enjoyed in full. Show your love for eSports and stop by games.on.net first though =D

(Also, you can follow my Twitter for more news and bits and pieces about eSports and stuff at @thedippaeffect!)