CEVO Articles

If you could start by introducing yourself…
My name is Michael Fleming. I’m the owner of Insider eSports, www.insideresports.com, a relatively new eSports coverage website.

What type of experience do you have that qualifies you to run this sort of project?
I worked with the Los Angeles CompLexity and Carolina Core during the CGS. I also was involved in a company called MainSports - another eSports coverage website several years ago - that never really got off the ground. I felt that the owner didn’t care and that I could do better. It was put off to the side for awhile, but during my time in CompLexity I decided to start planning for Insider eSports’ release, which was January this year. I have helped Team Vortex - a new Canadian team - from time to time. Working with Mark Dolven, Jason Lake and others has helped me get a lot of experience in the field, but I still have a lot to learn and am learning a lot every day.

What separates you from other E-Sports media outlets and makes you the site to go to?
I think we have a lot of dedication and commitment to our project. We are certainly new, but Insider eSports is dedicated and devoted to the community. I see people wanting change in how eSports media is done; coverage beyond what eSports has had thus far, features to help players improve their game and learn new things, and editorials to provide fans with strong opinions based on facts. We believe we are capable of that. We have spoken with many companies about working together to cover events, talked to players and teams, and just trying to build our reputation in the community.

Our staff is extremely devoted to the project and believes that by the end of the summer we will be one of the best North American eSport websites. Right now, I think our best assets are that we are very professional and dedicated, and not afraid to speak our minds. We have no one to answer to but the community, making us - in my opinion - one of the premier sites for unbiased, professional news. Our goals are certainly larger than what we have now, but we think that - overtime, of course - we will have features that few or none have ever implemented into eSports coverage.

In addition, our features and editorials are very thought provoking and insightful. Insider eSports has decided to redesign both our left and right sides of our current website to provide a much easier look on the eyes and easier navigation for the mind. We will include a new column section, where several staff members will express their thoughts on recent eSports happenings. We know we cannot compete – at this time – with some of the big name sites and want to do something to catch the readers’ eyes in a different way, and feel a column section might be the way to go.

Insider Esports has had somewhat of a lack luster launch, are there any upcoming projects we should look out for?
I disagree with that question; Insider eSports has not had a lackluster launch at all. One problem with the community today is that they expect everything immediately. Insider eSports is a small group of individuals; we cannot cover everything a larger website would. Contrary to what some people have said, we never expected the entire GotFrag community to “march over to Insider eSports waving a flag and cheering”. I didn’t expect to have the amount of users a website like SK-Gaming had for a long time.

I will admit, however, that we have had some problems. When we decided to launch in January, I believed I had picked the perfect time to release a new website. However, the new semester for many of our staff came, and some needed to focus clearly on school. That is the main reason why our StarCraft coverage has been poor. Soul Caliber 4 was a complete bust as well; I put confidence in the wrong games and decided to scratch off the game completely about a month after the website’s release.

As for HLTVs, demos, and match coverage, it can be difficult to maintain good coverage with a smaller amount of staff. HLTV demos cannot be stolen from a website like GotFrag.com or Esportsea.com without permission, and obviously GotFrag would not give us that right (we are a competitor). Fortunately, with us taking over much of the CEVO coverage and receiving a good partnership with NexGen Servers, we will hopefully be running the HLTV coverage for CEVO. It is still in the works, however, so I cannot say when we will be taking over that responsibility.

As for upcoming projects, Insider eSports management has begun designing and discussing Version 2 of our website. We feel that Version 1 has problems that can be fixed, but will be unable to compete in the long term. Version 2 will be taking on a much more traditional news coverage page, much like FoxNews.com or CNN.com with ESPN mixed in. We will be adding a column section for some of eSports best writers and analysts to express their opinions. We will be changing up games a bit as well, as well as improving staff coverage and features, among other things. Working with PwnageTV, E-Rev, and others has also been discussed.

I still am very confident in Insider eSports and our goals, but know and remind fans that this will take time. We cannot go from zero to hero overnight. I work endlessly on the website – sometimes upwards of ten hours a day – and have not had a full eight hours of sleep a night since December. Insider eSports has come before many things for me and while I cannot expect fans to love Insider eSports due to my level of dedication, I think that it does deserve some respect and “Good Lucks!” from the community.

With many E-Sports media outlets being owned by sponsors or parent companies such as GotFrag-MLG and MYM now being a franchise formerly of ESN, and most other outlets being owned by team organizations, is there any sort of pressure to provide a non biased atmosphere at IE?
Definitely so; Insider eSports believes we are an unbiased website and will remain so. I do not think Insider eSports will ever be owned by a league, team, or company. I believe we can work with leagues and teams – in fact, we already do – but would not be pressured by them in any way.

Being on your own causes a lot of financial hardships, but it also gives you the freedom to do and say anything, do you find it easier being your own entity or would you prefer to be well funded?
I love being our own entity, but understand we need funding to produce quality content. However, I have contacted some companies with good business proposals and hope to reach advertisement and partnership deals with several companies. We recently partnered with MaxFrag, who will help fund Version 2. Insider eSports was built on a “we don’t give a f****” about what you as a corporation want. We provide the news and ask the hard hitting questions. We cover anything that wants to be covered and people will read and hopefully debate about. I don’t think Insider eSports can be owned by an entity, especially at this time.

I see you are covering the ESL, CEVO and a couple of other premier leagues/events, what made you choose your current selection over say larger leagues such as the NGL or the ESWC/WCG’s of the world?
Since we are based in North America, it is easiest to cover North American leagues. I wanted to build a strong relationship with ESEA, CEVO and CAL first and then build our worldwide coverage. It comes down to manpower, really. We simply do not have a large enough staff to cover every single league and match. We are based in North America, so – in my opinion – North American leagues and teams take precedent. As we grow, however, we will expand our reach.

With the North American scene all but dead, do you feel any pressure as a media outlet to provide the means of a resurrection for the community?
I don’t believe the American scene is dead or close to death. Many teams have come back and America is finally getting a face back in the international scene. Yes, we played terribly at Extreme Masters and I don’t think we will win KODE 5, but as players from CGS come back and get situated, we will start to improve. With the economy how it is, I expect companies to try to find new advertising outlets, and Insider eSports will be one of those.

As for resurrecting the community, I think we have an obligation to help restore what North American gaming was before CGS, before 2007 really. eSports is certainly in a changing time and I think Insider eSports will be a key part of its success in the future.

With new titles in the works such as SCII, and the introduction of SF4, will IE adopt them as titles to cover?
I cannot confirm that we will take on the games, because we have to see how the community reacts to their releases. Provided there are enough tournaments and we have the resources to cover those events, as well as actually receiving traffic from our coverage, we will cover those games.

What made IE decide to take on the game titles it did with, both CS and CSS, even though the CSS scene is virtually dead with all pro teams going back to 1.6?
First, I want to say we certainly made a mistake trying to take on so many games at once. It was my belief that we needed to broaden our perspective immediately so we didn’t become fixated on a game, such as Counter Strike 1.6. I thought we needed to make sure we kept our options open and reach the largest possible audience. It was somewhat of a mistake, however, as it has been taxing on me and the coverage staff to handle everything.

As for our selection of Source, we believe that there is no coverage for the game – especially in North America – and it was our opinion that the game needed some kind of support from a professional media outlet. Also, we had selected our games – with the exception of Soul Calibur – prior to the CGS’s closing because we felt the CGS was not receiving proper outside media coverage. When the CGS closed, we felt the Source community would shrink, and likewise we wouldn’t place a large emphasis on the game, but we certainly were not ready to pull out of the game just because many of the professional players were off to 1.6.

Now with SF4 out, will you replace SC4?
This has been discussed since we first picked up Soul Calibur, but I don’t believe that we have the resources to keep up with the fighting game community. The fighting game community is very grass rooted, meaning that the tournaments are there just not in the limelight, and it’s hard to find out about them all. If there are major events with them they could easily receive a news post and some coverage, but we have decided to not cover the fighting community as of this time.

And any last statement/words you may have for the community.
I wanted to thank CEVO for the opportunity to discuss our website. We thank NexGenServers, who will be providing us with all of our HLTVs and servers for coverage purposes and MaxFrag for their support as we move in to version two. I’d like to make a large thank you to the entire Insider eSports staff and supporters as well.

If you are interested in contributing to our website, please feel free to message me at #insideresports@irc.gamesurge.net or email mfleming@insideresports.com.

Finally, if you have not looked at our website yet or put us aside, I ask that you reconsider your actions. Insider eSports has goals that few others have ever put on themselves. Gamers want more, and Insider eSports will take on your call for more and for better. It will take time but I assure you we will be what you have wanted.

Interview conducted by CEVO|Carson. A big thank you goes out to Mr. Fleming for taking the time to participate in this interview.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Coverage Central. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.