NESL Head, Trevor ‘midway’ Schmidt, Speaks Out on the Playoffs and the Future

| December 20, 2011 | 2 Comments


In response to my latest editorial on the events that transpired this past weekend, NESL head Trevor ‘midway’ Schmidt stepped up and discussed the issues at hand in the article comments.  I would encourage readers to look at what he had to say, but I also wanted him to provide some further official statements, which you can see below.

I would also like to apologize to the NESL and ggChronicle readers for my off-the-cuff remark about NESL’s professionalism in relation to Reginald’s blog post of the TSM/Kara IM conversation.  I think that it crossed a line even for an editorial, and Mr. Schmidt was right to call me out.  However, I still stand by my remarks on TSM and the NESL’s lack of immediate, official response.

A Brief Chat with midway

[box]MonteCristo:  Would the NESL like to make an official comment in regards to its casters’ on-air behavior this past weekend during the NESL Premier League Playoffs?[/box]
midway:  NESL doesn’t condone the behavior on-air by our broadcasters involved with the ranting on TSM.  I know the entire issue spiraled out of control and was related to a much bigger issue from early in the day.  Still our broadcast team knows this is unacceptable and we have dealt harshly in the past with similar behavior.  In this case we will deal with it internally and I can’t comment on that because NESL has a very strict policy of keeping such matters private.

[box]MonteCristo:  Is the NESL planning on implementing new rules to upcoming online tournaments that will help ensure that fans get to see LoL stars playing at their best?[/box]

midway:  We have a lot of changes planned for 2012.  We have been very focused on finishing 2011 strong and we feel we accomplished that.  One big change we will do is the move to a very organized rulebook that will be more public and transparent.  This is something we feel has been lacking in our leagues and we will tackle this very early in the process for NESL Season 3 in 2012.

[box]MonteCristo:  What are the NESL’s goals in the upcoming year to help grow the League of Legends eSports scene?  [/box]

midway:  First off we need an online league for LoL.  Without a persistent league 365 days a year to help push interest of teams and increase fan exposure for eSports in between major LAN events, we won’t see the grow we need for LoL to become the top eSport game.  Obviously we feel that’s NESL’s place.  With that we have many goals from increasing prize money and increasing professionalism of the league and its players.

[box]MonteCristo:  Is the NESL planning to expand coverage, such as providing more consistent streams or additional content, to its rapidly rising fanbase?[/box]

midway:  Absolutely.  We have moved to Twitch and opened up two streams devoted to broadcasting events from Go4LoL, IEM Qualifiers, NESL Premier Leagues and much more.  It’s hard to find quality broadcasting to fill all of this content.  It’s a process we are going to continue to develop as we feel that’s just as important as having a good league.  I envision turning NESL into a similar location as NFL.com with video content, written content and more but still the official home for people devoted to LoL eSports competitions.

[box]MonteCristo:  Is there anything else that the NESL would like to say to the League of Legends community?[/box]

midway:  I think the community often gets focused on the smaller details.  I know those make or break things for the fans and we are committed to making them as good as we can.  But remember our goal here is to make LoL eSports bigger to have a vision of long term success.  With 32 million player base, the potential is beyond any game we have seen today.  Because of this LoL players and fans need to keep an eye down the road.  NESL sees that goal and wants to keep pushing towards that.  There are always bumps in the road but NESL has run 5 major IEM Qualifiers, two seasons of Premier/Open League, Riot Season 1 Dreamhack Qualifier, over 50 Go4LoL tournaments, Sound Blaster Nations Championship and many more events.  Have we had a few bumps in the road?  Sure, but I know our impact on this community is a very positive one and that’s our focus.
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Category: Interviews, Leagues, NESL

About the Author ()

Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles covers the League of Legends eSports scene as an editorialist, interviewer, video analyst, caster, and tournament producer. He hails from the Warcraft 3 scene, where he coached/managed Verge Gaming and served as one of the principal English-language casters. In what little spare time he has, he enjoys practicing Muay Thai, reading, and savoring the best beer and cocktails.

Comments (2)

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  1. Nilz says:
    December 20, 2011 at 5:57 pm

    Biggest bump in the road is twitch.tv which just lags like crazy or gives shitty quality when it’s more than 5k viewers, compared to own3d who handled 150k+ at DH

    Reply
  2. Trevor Schmidt says:
    December 21, 2011 at 10:50 am

    Twitch had two other events going on that weekend with a Street Fighter event (25k + viewers concurrent and NASL SC2 with 20k concurrent) not to mention their normal traffic.

    With that said I think the lagging was an issue with one of our casters machines, I think we have it fixed for the future.

    Reply

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