[PiG]

Hello sc2sea!

Last weekend I was invited down to the ABC studios at Ultimo to do an interview regarding Starcraft and my career as a progamer. I was asked down by Nicholas Jordan and Vivien Lu two journalism students who did the story on Starcraft II in Australia for SBS online news several months back. I asked should I wear my uniform? Would I need to bring any gear or anything to show them and asked for a list of questions ahead of time (I've learnt that this helps alot so you don't get put on the spot and answer a question really stupidly only to realise 5 minutes later what you should have said) and also what program it was for.

Nick told me it was for ABC news 24 and that they'd email me the questions the night before and pay for my cab to and from the studio, also wearing my uniform would be great. Well I didn't get any questions but I guess busy news studios tend to forget stuff like this. So I rocked up in my uniform on the Sunday morning somewhat assuming we'd spend up to say an hour filming interview questions, perhaps doing several takes and then they'd edit it and chuck it in as a story segment.

So the guy (producer-organiser guy-not quite sure what his exact job is?) comes out shakes my hand, 'Bennet' I think was his name. Seemed really nice. and proceeded to explain that first they'd air Nick and Viv's story then me and Nick would just go on and sit down with the 2 presenters of the "weekend breakfast" show during a break and then do a live interview with some standard questions about the game, the money, career paths, growth in Australia etc etc.

"WAIT what I'm gunna be on live TV? "

That was the first thing that jumped into my head and I got pretty nervous! I quickly called Dot and woke her up once I found out and told her "turn on the TV to ABC 24, I have to go on live TV now, bye babe"

You Tube

You Tube

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You Tube

Luckily I think the experience with other interviews has served me well and I handled myself ok but was a little worried that I didn't really give SC2 or eSports the best representation I could as I wasn't prepared and just went on auto-pilot. I just received the vods and uploaded to my youtube and I feel I did a pretty good job.

Nonetheless I want feedback from you guys! When I and other players/casters/personalities have future media opportunities what do YOU think are the key things to talk about to give the best representation for esports?

What could help:

a) make esports seem interesting
b) Dispel images of antisocial people in basements
c) accurately describe and answer the questions that are asked, or even steer them towards better questions?


P.S. Why haven't I seen a thread about Stallion being on NZ news before WCS? I tried to find the vod but couldn't! could someone link it please?

Quick Comments

	Loach:
	Dox:
	Maynarde:	So professional!!
	Stallion:	i enjoyed it
	dee:
	Mox:
	ROOTPetraeus:	pig so gosu
	NDG.Stitch:
	MezjE:	you didn't seem nervous at all!
	TheGentleman:
	Baldie:
	AsylumofSouls:	You were absolutely brilliant PiG. Great work.
	xGKingdelete:
	ToRVenom:	Enjoyed every moment .. doing us proud pig!
	syfSoundwave:	epic work for esports.
	Hydroid:	Awesome work man!!!
	TABottles:	UR FAMAS
	Junho:
	VoiD:
	Blitz:	this is incredible!! :D
	nirvAnA:	How did i miss this, moved to news! Pig is the perfect ambassador for eSports
	Spore:	http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/ujrhb/australian_network_abc_24_news_interviews_ttpig/
	Xenomorph:
	Ben:
	sRDante:
	ToRDjvillian:
	ToRMaverick:	Well done PiG! You do us all proud...
	VoxMSI.Rogue:	dat jrod!
	Heady:
	sRAnti:

[Loach]

So cool under the pressure (= good practice for tournaments!

Proud of ya mate, doing wonders for the sc2 scene and esports in general in SEA (=

PiG fightiiiiiiiiiing

[Another]

Wow looks awesome, PiG is defenitely a great ambassador for SC2 in SEA.

and yes you did more than a pretty good job, was a good watch.

I can have a look for you, but i think itll be NZ only since its put up on a NZ television on demand site.

[Dox]

Holy shit dude that's freaking cool! Can't wait to watch it when I get home.

[Flamga]

The Stallion vods wont be online for a bit but I will let you know when it does

Quick Comments

Satu:

I feel like you posted this in the wrong place. Have an upvote.

[dee]

Jared seems like an absolute stand up guy. Can't be prouder of someone like him representing us gamers

[Stallion]

a) make esports seem interesting
b) Dispel images of antisocial people in basements
c) accurately describe and answer the questions that are asked, or even steer them towards better questions?


P.S. Why haven't I seen a thread about Stallion being on NZ news before WCS? I tried to find the vod but couldn't! could someone link it please?

A) I think just by getting esports out there it grows interest and hopefully with enough exposure we can change the way esports is seen.
B) I think we all just need to keep fit and show people that hay that stereotypical image of a nerd like that is pretty far off and maybe even start having fun events between ourselfs to keep fit (such as myself and yoon are going to have a race when we meet up when im good enough for ACL)
C) I think you did well, it's hard to steer them towards good questions, what i ddi was i was trying to get across 3 things in my interview and i think if we just slowly get the image out there and keep evolving the image of esports we will get there.

As for me PJ and TheGoonSquad on tv we are waiting on the vod link so will share when it's emailed to me through PJ.

Overall i thought you looked nice friendly and happy and came across very well. Here come the PiG groupies. Dot needs to get some security for you :P

Quick Comments

PiG:

ty! great advice, can't wait to see that vod :)

[Dox]

Originally Posted by SQL.Stallion

myself and yoon are going to have a race when we meet up

I hope there's no random drug tests involved

Quick Comments

Blitz:

[Stallion]

Originally Posted by Dox

I hope there's no random drug tests involved

LOL i meant a running race we both used to be pretty good at outdoor sports :P although dq by drug test sounds fair to me

Quick Comments

Dox:

unfair dq!

[SLCN.Kez]

I thought you did a good job with the questions and tools they gave you. I'm generally not really a fan of any interview done by someone who isn't a gamer or knows a lot about the industry since they ask questions out of novelty and "oh isn't this so different and cool, you ACTUALLY do this?" Where as I think its getting to the stage now where it doesn't need to be such a big deal and they try to provide more information about e-sports than just herp derp i heard they have a subject on it at uni isnt that weird.
One Criticism I would give (and it's not even really directed at you) would be to be careful about what expressions and colloquialisms people use. Whilst in the community and e-sports everyone knows about barcrafts or starcraft 2, people in the mainstream wont know what these are, so I would preface bringing up such topics by providing information on them first. For eg. "For big televised events such as major league gaming finals where 256 competitors from around the world compete for the prize of xxx, games get streamed into bars such as any other sporting event. These events are called barcrafts, a hybrid of starcraft which is the game stramed, and bar which is the obvious venue of choice."
You get me?
But yeh cool interview and whilst i qq about how none of these mainstream interviews really do e-sports justice its still freakin cool that its starting to get more and more mainstream attention and will just take time I guess.

Quick Comments

	PiG:	absolutely agree wish the interviews were by gamers! good advice about colloquialisms too!
	Pox:

[mGGDrGooSe]

In addition to Stally's great response: You touched on something that is pretty interesting within the realm of e-sports, and that's the idea of the current revolution being based around the revolution of being able to spectate. I think this is a really important point to expand upon. I think we all agree that a sport can only be monetarily succesful with viewership, as this gives rise to sponsorship. So it's be always useful to assume that potential sponsors are in the audience, and to expand on how this is a new area that sponsors can get into on the ground floor, backed up with some stats on viewership trends and that kinda thing.

In regards to media preparation in general, I've found it really helpful when preparing for media interviews (I get interviewed from time to time about the research we are conducting) to have around 5 lines memorised, that clearly state a very important point in a succinct manner. When you have that arsenal, it becomes much easier to steer the answer to a question towards a particularly important topic (it also ensures that each interview is giving a consistant message, as few people actually pay attention to a single interview, but need to have the message repeated to them from multiple sources). You have to remember that the vast majority of the time, the people asking questions may not have a clue about the questions they are asking, and so the responsibility of creating an interesting and informative broadcast/article/whatever, actually falls to you. Behind every good article is a great interviewee who understands their role in the process.

PS: Don't hide your hands under the table or in pockets or whatever, REALLY hard to do but is very noticable xD.

Quick Comments

	PiG:	great advice this is what I'm looking for thnx man!
	Asrathiel:

[MezjE]

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this makes me sick to my stomach how much eSports is patronised here. They even appear to make the friendship appear homosexual, 'not a female in sight' 'coming out of the closet'... What the hell.

Quick Comments

	SLCN.Kez:	Terrible interview and example of e-sports, couldnt agree more!
	PiG:	yeah I don't think I'd agree to be on anything channel 7, 9 or 10 unless I saw the script
	Baldie:	I want to neg rep this so bad based on the content but it has nothing to do with you haha!
	Asrathiel:	I saw a female :P

[inFeZa]

Awesome! Go PiGUY

[SLCN.CautioN]

Boooooooooooommm here comes e-sports

[AusBox]

First interview was pretty good, but I think that "An Electronic Underground" was poorly researched. "If the scene keeps growing in Australia, you'll be watching esports too". "Invidia just opened first gaming house in Aus".

[Peleus]

Awesome job man, especially for being put on the spot you handled it really really well.

About the only thing I'd wish to get out there is explaining a little bit more about why esports is popular and increasing. For example we all know that with the advent of computers and gaming a lot of the younger people started playing video games along with other activities like sport. Now we're seeing that demographic become older and become the 'mainstream' audience yet still continue their gaming trends. As time goes on this is only going to increase as people who grew up with video games become an increasingly large portion of the demographics.

[nirvAnA]

Sooooo proud of you piggy So calm and professional! As for your question

What do YOU think are the key things to talk about to give the best representation for esports?

As stally said
b) Dispel images of antisocial people in basements

You freaking nailed this immediately at the start of the interview!!

My only suggestion for the masses is to make it easy for them to get started. Like you were talking about barcrafts, should have mentioned how they can find out more about the events, where to easily find out more information and how they have to experience it themselves!

And to learn more about Starcraft mention teamliquid, the gomtv streaming and of course sc2sea for SEA players! There was this complete newbie in the chatbox asking questions about Starcraft the other day, and everyone in the chatbox was being nice helping him out which was nice to see. Now thinking about it perhaps he saw that show and googled around till he found us. Its always great to see new blood and get more people playing.

Quick Comments

ToRMaverick:

I still remember when I first stumbeld across this site...

[fur]

The camera loves you baby

Very well handled!

[Ben]

PiG you are the boss of SC2 in Australia and a widely known person throughout the community, kudos to you for going on the news as well to speak about what is going on and to give a general outline of our competitive nature.

[rezyn8]

Jared, you did really well, specially being put on the spot for a live interview.

My only criticism would be the comment "I am only starting out honestly". It conflicted with the "Jared Krensel pro gamer" moniker you were introduced as. Just be more affirmative with who you are.

You did a great job dispelling the perception of the antisocial slob from the interviewer (who I think thought it was some sort of joke to be honest; he is a Karl Stefanovic wannabe imo).

I also believe that "video gaming" has a real stigma attached to it in the Australian psyche. It should be promoted as eSports, which should give the perception of serious competition, not some six year old playing Angry Birds. With this there are two sides to eSports: the pro gamers & the spectators.

One thing that annoyed me was that BarCraft was only talked about for Sydney (yes I am a little biased). Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne all have BarCrafts which are all quite successful. And it should be touted that there are these events in these cities around Australia whenever possible not just Sydney.

I think making a point of spectating eSports is like watching the AFL Grand Final or the World Series of Poker (and is somewhat better in my opinion if the last BarCraft Melbourne was anything to go by).

Great job though, you are truly Australia's ambassador for eSports. Keep up the great work!

Quick Comments

PiG:

yeah i wish i explained that only being a year into training fulltime for this is like playing pro soccer for a year!