When Michal ‚Carmac‘ Blicharz stepped down the stage on Saturday afternoon, he had every reason to smile. The fifth World Finals of Intel Extreme Masters had come to an end, it was the most successful tournament in the history of ESL – and he, Blicharz, was in charge. In a detailed conversation with readmore.de, Carmac drew his conclusions.
readmore.de: You just watched the CS final, frag eXecutors versus Na’Vi and were with the Polish guys a lot during the tournament. How is your relationship to the team and how could you cheer them up after this defeat against Na’Vi?
Michal ‚Carmac‘ Blicharz: After the match I walked up to them as I always go to the teams I know, to congratulate them or something. Obviously, I know them way better than most other teams. I’m the executive for the Intel Extreme Masters, but I wont lie, that I support them and clap and shout for them, when they make frags. Everybody knows who i was before and why would I not be myself, if everybody else knows it anyway. I told them that, in my personal view, they should be proud of themselves. Getting a silver medal here after defeating SK Gaming and after defeating fnatic in the playoffs is an absolutely epic achievement. Unfortunately they did not win the finals. But, look, they go home now and tomorrow they will be proud of themselves.
readmore.de: Except the CS final, where you as a fan probably had preferred frag eXecutors to win – how satisfied are you as executive with this tournament? Are there any numbers or figures compared to the last years?
Carmac: We have broken our all time records in pretty much everything. One thing I have to say: When I started this job, I gave an interview. I don’t remember who I told this to, but I said: If I see players crying, because they won or they lost a game in the Intel Extreme Masters, then it means we are going in the right direction, we are doing a good job. I can say, I have seen players cry and I can say after today, we are doing a good job.
It’s not only about numbers. Numbers are one thing. But the fact, how the players react to winning, what they do afterwards, how you see in their eyes that they care and that they would give everything to have their name on the trophy – that has way more value for me than any numbers.
readmore.de: So you were actually disappointed that there were three Koreans in the Starcraft II final and not some of the „more emotional“ Europeans or Americans?
Carmac: Well, if you saw Ace cheering, no American or European would cheer like that. I mean, he comes here, he hasn’t won any major event or anything and he behaves like he is a real champion. And that’s what i love to see: Win the game, raise his arms, walk to the trophy, and spot on it like „See, this baby is mine!“. I think that was a really, really epic moment.
readmore.de: You’re the ‚product manager‘ of the Intel Extreme Masters. That’s some kind of a fuzzy description. Whats you’re detailed task at Turtle Entertainment or what are you working on, concretely?
Carmac: Puuuh, okay. At Turtle we have several different teams with tasks. There is for instance ESL TV, there is League Operations, Sales, Graphics, and so on. Basically, I’m in touch with the boss of every department and I coordinate the work with all those bosses. Sometimes I can do it at home, because everything runs so smoothly, but sometimes I also go in and help out with these two hands.
Theoretically, nothing is my responsibility. On the other hand you can turn it around and say: Every single thing is my responsibility. I prefer to go with the ambitious site and say: I’m responsible for everything. If something is not right, it’s my fault.
readmore.de: So, how big is your actual part of the fact that you have broken all records?
Carmac: I think ESL in general – and you can say that’s just the usual „We love us so much, blablabla“, but I’m honest – is a wonderful company with a ton of very talented people. The show on ESL TV is absolutely amazing. I think these guys deserve the credit. See, for example: We had this three-way qualifiers in Starcraft II – and everyone overworked for two or three hours, without a single moment of complaints. We went out of the schedule and no one complained, all walked around with a huge smile and say „This is absolutely epic“. These guys should get the props. I don’t really like to talk about my work, because when I walk out in the end of the day, the tournament will still run without any problem. Today I could sit out in the hall and watch the final, step on stage and hand the medals, that’s it. The guys made a titanic effort in order to make this event absolutely great. .
readmore.de: You joined Turtle in 2009 and there were successful Intel Extreme Masters before that. So, what has been new with you, what has even changed?
Carmac: Hm, it’s a bit like „Felix Magath leaves and Louis van Gaal comes in“. Some things will change. It doesn’t mean that it’s just a philosophy question, though I do have a slightly different philosophy than my predecessors. The first basic thing I wanted to do, was: I don’t want to break anything. I was totally new on the job, I had not done anything like this before. So my main task I have done and still do, is not to break anything. As I said: If I disappear, this thing will still be running. But what’s important to me are the fans, that we deliever to them as much as possible. This season’s World Championship, we delivered streams in eight languages from our partners. We care for the fans, that’s my philosophy. We want to make sure that one hundred percent of the content, that we produce, the tournaments, is delivered to the fans. If you want to, you can watch every single game.
readmore.de: Do you consider to take in another game in the Intel Extreme Masters? Like CS:Source?
Carmac: We consider games all the time. You mentioned CS:S not by accident, I assume. But I’m not really ready to talk about the new season yet, that’s not the right time. We’re looking for new games all the time, but I’m not ready to talk about any details right now.
readmore.de: Okay, let’s stay in the present. Spiegel Online reported recently that the ESL is suffering a decreasing attention. The website visits in Germany went down from 4.5 million to 3.5 million during 2010 which is pretty huge for one single year. How do you see this process? Is it dangerous for the ESL?
Carmac: I honestly don’t know. You should probably talk to David Hiltscher about that, I can not comment, I haven’t read it. I know nothing about it and to be honest…this might sound stupid, but aside from IEM I don’t get into too many other things. I don’t really know too many details, I’m not interested in too many details aside from IEM. I’m not aware of those things, all I know is that we keep moving forward.
I don’t really poke my nose outside of my office and I don’t really get into other people’s things. I just try to do my best at what I am supposed to do which is Intel Extreme Masters and, really, this is such an amount of work that I’m not really going to do anything else. You know, if I spend my time worrying about other people’s projects, the website, the ESL Pro Series, anything, then I would not do IEM with as much attention as I would like to.
readmore.de: You are more of a backstage worker nowadays, compared to your earlier projects like GGL or SK Gaming where you did a great part of your work in front of the camera – and had everyone saying „Hey, Carmac did an awesome interview again“. Do you miss this aspect?
Carmac: Of course I do. I mean, hey, it’s fun. It’s fun, being around the players, it’s fun describing the stories, it’s fun being out there with the fans, following, asking all the difficult questions. In Poland, we have a saying: Putting a stick into the ants‘ nest. That’s fun, that’s a lot of fun. But it’s also a lot of fun to create something which millions of people follow and millions of people actually enjoy. I’m really hoping that all the fans of any of these games had an absolutely magnificent time following this. It’s also totally different for me. You’re in the background for such a long time and then you see this huge amount of people, a hall that needs to be closed because there are too many people inside and there’s a huge queue of people at every entrance of people trying to get in. I mean, that is absolutely…“Wow“. It’s a long way, it’s a lot of work in the background. But, man, if you pull of a great event, is that enjoyable.
readmore.de: Better than ever before?
Carmac: Different, not better. It’s like this: Journalistic work, interviews, videos, is little bits of fun every day. And this here is like a great heel of enjoyment once every three months.
readmore.de: So is it like a compensation for your own „ego thing“ that you take part at ‚Rotterdam University‘? Or is it part of a process to personalize the ESL?
Carmac: Well, it wasn’t really any process of personalizing the ESL. I just thought of doing something fun. I do miss doing fun stuff. My fun is in fooling around and being dumb. I’m thirty years old and still dumb. So ‚Rotterdam University‘ is certainly a mixture of me trying to be better at Starcraft II and a mixture of me liking to do dumb stuff. I’m pretty sure, people can have some enjoyment making fun of me doing so bad at Starcraft II and, yeah, it’s just about the kick.
readmore.de: But you do it in your ESL time, not in your free time.
Carmac: No, I do it in my free time. The show starts at seven, I theoretically leave work at six. Well, theoretically. That’s never really the case, if I have to stay at work, I stay at work. But my working hours end at six, so I do it in my free time.
readmore.de: What’s the most difficult thing about learning Starcraft II for you?
Carmac: I guess, it’s to focus, being able to learn, to focus on so many things at the same time. For some reason, it’s a completely different part of my brain compared to UT. In UT I was able to focus to play really really well with organizing many different things at the same time. But in Starcraft 2, it’s a completely different style of focus altogether. Theoretically, all this is the same stuff, Quake, UT, Starcraft, but I dont know…you need to be able to produce while you still have to be in control of all the other stuff going on. It’s a hard learning process.
readmore.de: What’s harder? Learning Starcraft II or learning German?
Carmac: Mein Deutsch ist nicht so schlecht. Ich verstehe viel Deutsch, aber ich kann noch nicht viel sagen, mein Wortschatz ist viel zu begrenzt. Aber ich verstehe viel Deutsch und ich denke, mein Deutsch ist verbessert geworden…nein. Besser geworden. Aaah, I need to learn.
readmore.de: You’re thirty now and have been to eSport for a really long time. Did you ever get tired of this? Like „I close this chapter now and do something different?“
Carmac: I could do something else, but not for the reason of boredom. If I would consider, „hey this is bad stuff“ or for instance, somebody offered me a job to manage the champions league, whatever, then I might consider. Because managing the champions league of football is not a job you would turn down every day, right? But do I think about leaving eSport? No, it’s always a new story, always fascinating. To see people cry, to see people fall, to see people come up and replace the old champions, to see people make history. We’re a part of that history, that’s fascinating. I mean, I have seen these guys win (points at a banner of IEM 2007 with winner PGS, now frag eXecutors on it) and four years later, I stand behind them as they are beaten by Na’Vi who made history of their own. Nobody has ever won IEM twice, let alone twice in a row. These are stories. I’m not sure, if people realize, we should really feel privileged of being a part of this. It’s absolutely amazing and I would not trade it for anything else, no.
readmore.de thanks Carmac for the interview. Conducted by Christian ’stry‘ Bauer and Finn ‚pille‘ Friedrichs.