Ian Olson

There have been some recent changes that I’ve gone through latley. I haven’t really been online to talk to anyone due to these changes. Most recently, I got laid off from my job. I was the low man on the totem pole, and due to that, I was one of the 6 people at the company that got laid off.

I’m looking at taking a break from the eSports scene for awhile. As much as I love being involved in eSports, at this point in time I think its more important to put 110% in finishing school and finding a new job. I don’t know whats going on with the whole Evil Geniuses thing, I’ve expressed what my plans are, and I’m awaiting to see if I will still be apart of EG being inactive, or I will be let go. There are no hard feelings towards anyone at EG, they are probably one of the best ran organizations in North America, and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon. I will always be a fan of EG and will be hoping for some great success coming up with their superstar rosters and divisions.

The Team Fortress 2 team will still be apart of EG, and they will not be breaking up. I don’t think there are any hard feelings towards me or the team for my recent decision. They understand that I’m in a tough decision and its something I gotta do. I do feel really bad though, since the Canadian Counter-Strike team that I came over with in the first EG acquisition had been let go, and I stayed on board with the addition of my old TF2 team. I don’t want any of them to feel like I don’t like them or doing stuff on purpose, it was just the bad luck of the draw.

When I do get everything figured out in my real life situation, I don’t know what I want to do. I love being an eSports manager, just don’t know where it will be at. I really hope that I can still have a posistion at EG, but if not, who knows I’ve had offers from different national and international organizations. I could even bring back Sway Gaming, which was my baby from the start with the help of Josh.

I have a version 2 of the Sway website that never got released, I might use that to bring it back, or even sell it. If you are interested in getting a site please email me at fuzzyhat@gmail.com for previews of it.

Well I think that is all for now, I will keep people updated on whats going on, for those who are interested.

FuzzyHat E-Sports, Evil Geniuses, Family, Life EG, Sway, TF2

With the release of the myEG.net Version 2. I decided to do a ‘Post-ETS’ blog, about my trip.

First off, my ride there wasn’t the greatest, to be honest. I went
with my friend Nick and his friend Mike from Chicago. Driving in his
G37-S Coupe, which I have to say wasn’t meant for anyone to sit in
the backseat. We left at 8pm CST on Thursday night, made it to Windsor
around 2am EST or so. The border was pretty funny. When the border
patrol asked us if we have ever been to Canada we all answered besides
Nick’s friend Mike. Who was starring out the passenger side window,
which pissed off the patrol guy, ’You not listening to my
questions?’. LOL, all I thought was oh god, here we go, cavity
search. I guess they don’t really like Americans coming to Canada, oh
well.

That’s just a snippet of the blog. Read it over at the EG Website, click here.

FuzzyHat E-Sports, Evil Geniuses adr, cyph, EG, ETS, heller, Momentum, NSU, skz, synt, tekn1kal, yayooo

Well its very hard to say this, but I think my time in eSports, for now, will be coming to a close soon, depending on some things that are going on in my life. With the way the economy is, right now eSports is not one of my main concerns as it used to be. When I took over Sway in 2007/2008, forgot which year lol, I was very motivated and happy to put all the time that I did into it. Then when I had the chance to join Team EG, that just made my career and hard work in eSports pay off. Such a high calibre organization, with some great management and teams. My time couldn’t of been happier working with everyone I have in the past year-year and half in my ‘behind the scenes’ you can say, since I was not playing.

As I said before, times are tough right now for both my parents, who are divorced. Right now my step-dad just got out of the hospital from a snow-mobiling accident and won’t be able to go back to work for the next 6 months, due to recovery. This is hurting my Mom a lot. I’m currently trying to get a new job to move back with her, and help her out as much as I can. My Dad and step-mom both work at the family buisness that I work at, www.flagpro.com, and times are tough for our business as well. We have been cutting down on hours and employees. There is hardly any work coming in so our company isn’t making any money right now.

I have been going through situations in my head about staying in eSports, and there are only a few that would allow me to stay. Which is very sad, because I finally got with an organization that has the support to be very successful this year. And all of the people I finally met at ETS, which was very fun besides me getting sick. So this isn’t a real good-bye, just a warning that I might be saying good-bye.

I’m hoping everything pans out good in the end and I can still work on everything that is eSports and I will be able to help out anyone that I can. If I do end up leaving, I will still be on Ventrilo and IRC every now and then. For those who really need to get into contact with me can use my email and phone (if you have it). I will be able to give the little advice I have accumulated over the last year and some of this one to people who are looking into starting to manager organizations. This is something that I’ve loved to do, and at the end of the day if you don’t love working on an organization, I would just stop now, and not even try. There is no room for slackers in eSports, not in this day and age.

I think once the economy turns around it’ll help eSports out in so many ways. Sponsors would come back to top teir teams. I don’t see MYM coming back after this big fiasco.

I will post updates here on anything that I find out about my decision.

FuzzyHat E-Sports, Evil Geniuses, Family, Life Dad, EG, ETS, Family, Flagpro, IRC, Mom, Sway, Ventrilo

ESEA is proud to welcome back Sway Gaming in a Play with the Pro night which will provide you, the gamer, with the opportunity to compete alongside and against some high-caliber opponents in two hours of intense competition!

Make sure you mark your calendars and clear your schedules for this Thursday (April 2nd) from 8-10 PM EST for your opportunity to compete with Sway Gaming’s TF2 squad.

–

On a side note, I might be looking at supplying something for this event for a random user. I will keep you updated.

FuzzyHat E-Sports ESEA, Events, TF2

Well I’m sorry that I couldn’t of stuck around longer at ETS to keep the coverage going for everyone. My ride wanted to drive back to Chicago right after our loss, so I had to go. Got home around maybe 30 minutes to an hour ago after spending 14 hours in the back of an Infiniti G37S. I would have to say it was a semi-dissappointing weekend for the event due to the fact we got knocked out early, but what are ya gonna do. 1st LAN with this lineup, but I’m not here to make excuses. I had lots of fun meeting all of the people that I’ve talked to over the years while running Sway Gaming and making the move over to Evil Geniuises. Had a lot of fun meeting one of the TF2 guys I had while on Sway Gaming, Daniel ‘destro’ Schwartz. He helped me do coverageand blog about the event, for which I thank him for time and time again. I really enjoyed doing this type of coverage and hopefully I will be able to keep doing it for future events that I attend.

I want to thank everyone who visited my site this past weekend. I do not make any money off you guys visiting my site, and I just thought it was nice to see people interested in the coverage I was bringing. Since e-sports is my passion, I’m glad people enjoyed it. Hopefully I will be able to do coverages on different sites in the future with more features.

Thanks again everyone

FuzzyHat E-Sports, Evil Geniuses EG, ETS

Live Feed: http://live.lanets.ca
Brackets: http://lan.ticsh.ca/cs16double/
*All times are EST

2:59pm - EG.ca has been eliminated by Vortex on Dust2. Very good game to both teams. I might be sticking around to do some more coverage, but I do have to go back to the hotel with my team, if they decide to go back.

2:06pm - EG.ca vs. Vortex (Lower Brackets) - de_dust2 - gotfrag.electrifyservers.net:3102 - Scorebot: #EG on GameSurge.net

1:48pm - Well I just got back from eating Subway with the best demoman of TF2 in the entire galaxy! My boy destro who lives in Montreal has been hanging out with me since he used to be on Sway Gaming’s TF2 team. Anyways, we just got back and Vortex beat Ninjas or something, so now we are getting ready to play against Vortex on Dust2, I believe. I will update this with the info for the match when I get a chance to get everything setup. GRT has been talking shit to me while at ETS saying his blogs are better, you be the judge lol. How mad are you GRT?

1:18pm - EG.ca just lost to NSU 16-14 in a very close match. NSU now moves onto the Upper Bracket Finals, and EG.ca move down to lower brackets.

12:48pm - EG.ca 10 - 5 NSU, 2nd Half Starting, EG.ca is now on Terrorist

12:26pm - Server problems have delayed the match, I believe we are going live now.

12:03pm - NSU has joined the server and the match is about to go live! Good luck to both teams, Canadian Rivalry at its best.

11:48am - Winout has won their match vs Vortex 16-9, they play NoPression next. EG.ca vs. NSU is about to go live (hltv.winout.net:27023)

11:29am - Winout is winning 9-6 Half starting on CT side of Nuke vs. Vortex, I was just handed our server info for our next match vs NSU on Inferno. Getting Scorebot and HLTVs setup now.

11:13am - EG.ca wins over Grim 16-8. NSU is next on Inferno!

10:45am - EG.ca vs. Grim (hltv.winout.net:27023) , Winout vs. Vortex (hltv.winout.net:27022)

10:40am - EG.ca match is live, Scorebot in #EG on GameSurge.net and HLTV: hltv.winout.net:27023

10:28am - We are about to start our match vs Grim on Nuke. Scorebot will be in #EG, I’m trying to aquire what the HLTV will be.

9:48am - Admins just came up to me to let me know I won’t be able to run HLTVs since I’m part of a team playing here. They said they will have their own HLTVs so I will update you guys with the HLTV IPs when I get them.

9:21am - Just got to the LAN, we play Grim on Nuke. As well as Vortex plays Winout. I will be getting HLTV’s setup hopefully for EG.ca vs Grim and Vortex vs. Winout. I might be doing a scorebot for both as well, EG match will be in #EG, and Vortex’s will be in #WinOut both on GameSurge. The Live Feed will be having some upper bracket matches on there, and yours truly will be working the HLTV for the stream :), I hope everyone is loving this coverage so far! I’ll keep you guys updated!

FuzzyHat E-Sports, Evil Geniuses EG, ETS, Grim, NSU, Vortex, Winout

Live Video Feed: http://live.lanets.ca
Seeds/Groups: http://lan.ticsh.ca/ *UPDATED*
*All times are EST

1:40am - Well I forgot to update the blog when the team won. We won 16-5 for first Round of bracket play. Going to be playing Grim next on Inferno tomorrow morning at 9am. Going to bed now.

12:03am - 1st half just got done with a 10-5 advantage for EG.ca, who started on Counter-Terrorists. 2nd Half going live soon!

11:36pm - After several hours of delays, we are starting the first round of upper bracket play. EG.ca will be facing off against Nameless on Dust2. I am to damn tired to get HLTV’s working just for one match tonight, so I will be working hard to get them up for tomorrow. Match should be going live soon, Scorebot will be in #EG on GameSurge.net

9:05pm - EG. ca wins 16-0 against HighRise on Nuke. That was our last match for Group play, awaiting other teams to get done to start Double Elimination bracket play. I will be trying to get some WinOut.net HLTVs in as well. I’m sorry for the lack of pictures so far, I will be taking more of them tonight and tomorrow. We will have some video interviews of some teams as well as ourselves. Be sure to stay tuned! I think we are about to go out and eat for awhile till to wait for the brackets to be released.

6:19pm - EG. ca wins 16-11 against PAYPBACK on Dust2. Very good game to both teams. HighRise is next on Nuke.

4:29pm - Round 2 of Group F is about to start EG.ca vs. Payback, Scorebot: #EG on GameSurge.net

3:48pm - Just came back from the hotel, and the team has yet to play, actually no one has played round 2 of group stages yet. Sadly this is going to be a long night… In other news had my first poutine, and I have to say its pretty amazing if you want to have clogged arteries in the morning. We got it from ‘La Belle Province’ down a couple blocks. I think everyone should try it. I will update this when I figure out whats going on with Round 2.

2:04pm - EG.ca wins 16-3 versus LANormal on de_train, next match should be around 3pm.

1:43pm - Round 1 of Group F for EG.ca vs. LANormal is live, Scorebot: #EG on GameSurge.net, other groups are live also, but I don’t have rcon to those servers.

12:21pm - Just got word that group play will start in about 9mins at 12:30pm. Groups are up @ GotFrag.com

11:48am - Right now I’m sitting on one of the EG guys laptops posting this blog, waiting on when the Counter-Strike 1.6 matches will be announced to start. EG.ca is playing some scrims and such with some teams that are at the event. Vansilli just stopped by and said “Hi.” He is so cute. Anyways this kid named Stuart (Django) from EG is pretty awful at this game Call of Duty 4. Tried getting me to play in the tournament, but I’m pretty bad too, so I said no. I will keep adding to this blog when I get updates on the schedule and stuff. I will be trying to get some WinOut.net HLTVs in the Counter-Strike matches that are significant, not to sound mean or anything.

FuzzyHat E-Sports, Evil Geniuses EG, ETS, Grim, HighRise, LANormal, Nameless, Payback, Winout

On my way up to Montreal, I sat down with Matt ‘adr’ Caverly during our trip up. I decided it would be better to talk in person while we were driving up since it was a 14 hour drive for me and about 6 hour drive from after we pick up Matt. I’m sitting in our hotel room right now typing on the new 7G keyboard from Steelseries which is really nice.

Ian: Start off by introducing yourself to the readers.
Matt: Hey, I’m Matt ‘adr’ Caverly and I am one of the newest members of EG.ca. I’ve been playing Counter-Strike competitively for about 4 years with various teams such as Sway Gaming and Panacea. I am 20 years old and currently attend college.

Ian: What has your team done to prepare for the tournament?
Matt: Our team has been looking forward to this event for awhile and taken every step possible to ensure we do well. This includes an almost nightly practice schedule of 4-5 hours - we have also re-designed many of our strategies and created new ones for the specifically for the lan. Our teamwork, chemistry, and communication has been building tremendously since we were created and we have nothing but the highest expectations for this weekend.

Ian: What roles does each of  the players have on your team?
Matt: It’s very hard to classify specific roles of my teammates since they are all able to step up and fill any gap necessary but in general, our team consists of three more aggressive style players and two more reserved, passive players. Heller, Lalonde, and myself, I would consider, would be more aggressive types who usually go in for the entry kill without fear. While on the other hand, Yayo and Teknikal are more conservative players who like to outsmart the opposition.
Dave “heller” Marentette is the brains behind the team as he calls most of the strats and directs us in game. His knowledge of the game and one of a kind strategies are one of the main reasons for our success. You can usually find him going into a site first because he is one of the best entry fraggers in the game. I’ve played with Dave for awhile now and he has taught me pretty much everything I know and I have nothing but the highest respect for him.
Nicolas “Lalonde” Lalonde has a play style is unmatched to any player I’ve ever seen. His pure ability to kill amazes me as he is able to single handedly win our team a round at any given him. His fearless attitude and amazing in-game talent make him a one of a kind player and a great addition to our team. 
Halston “Tekn1kal” Bellintani plays more of a conservative role on the team as he is able to analyze any situation and figure out the best method to win the round. His ability to clutch 1v1 and 2v1 situations still astonishes me as he has earned the reputation of “king of 2v1” on our team. Don’t get me wrong though, at any given time he can explode and absolutely destroy the opposing team with his rifle or awp. With his in-game smarts and vast experience, Halston plays a crucial role on EG.ca.
Pedro “YaYooo-” Morim is our newest addition to the team and he brings with him a swift awp and the ability to win a round in any situation, no matter how dire it looks. Yayos passive style of play works out well for our team because he is able to secure the round after the entry fraggers do their job.

Ian: What are your goals for this tournament?
Matt: As for goals in this tournament, I would be selling my teammates short if I didn’t say first place. After winning ETS last year with Heller, I would say confidently that our current roster is stronger and more experienced then our previous one. Anything other than a first place finish would be a disappointment to all of us.

Ian: If you had to choose the Top 3 finishers for ETS 2009, who would it be?
Matt: Many notable teams are attending ETS this years and a lot of them carry fairly big names. If I had to guess, I would probably say the top 3 finishers would be EG, NSU, and Vortex. This is based off experience playing these teams though. I do not have much experience playing some of the other teams like NoPression and Grim but I know they have very talented players so anything could happen.

Ian: Thanks for the interview, any shoutouts to anyone?
Matt: I’d like to thank the EG organization for sending us to this event and all of our sponsors. Namely Intel, Steelseries and Kingston Memory, who make it possible for us to travel and provide us with the best gaming gear on the planet. Thanks B]

EG.ca ETS Roster
Dave ‘heller’ Marentette
Matt ‘adr’ Caverly
Pedro ‘YaYooo-’ Morim
Halston ‘Tekn1kal’ Bellintani
Nicolas ‘LanlondE’ Lalonde

FuzzyHat E-Sports adr, EG, ETS, heller, Intel, Kingston, lalonde, NSU, Steelseries, tekn1kal, Vortex, yayooo

Sorry about moving away from ETS 2009 coverage right now, but I had to talk about some recent happenings in E-Sports.

If you are checking this site and haven’t already heard about the tragic day for E-Sports, I’m very sorry to inform you that all lineups have left the Danish powerhouse,  Meet Your Makers (MYM). Two days ago, ESNation had put out a press release saying they are stopping all operations. After that  MYM.cs had been reported that they would be leaving the organization since their contracts ended in February, and no negotions have been going on.

It has been announced today that Frontspawn ApS, has terminated all operations with ESNation and the brand MYM. This is a very sad day to see such a brand name as Meet Your Makers go under. With this is a huge blow to E-Sports, since at one point in time MYM was one of the richest E-Sport organizations.

I myself was a big fan of  Mark Peter ‘Mercy’ Fries, the founder of MYM, and what he has done for E-Sports in a whole. He has posted on his blog, that he is looking for some work. Which then led to the announcement of ESNation bankruptcy, and then to MYM players leaving with FrontSpawn ApS.

Quote from FrontSpawn ApS:

“What will happen is still unsure, but alongside the players and teams we are certain that together we will come to the best conclusion on what is best for all of us.

All decisions will be made 100% with the teams involvement, and hopefully we will be able to overcome this hurdle and continue our cooperation into what could be a new e-sport venture.”

I’m sorry about ranting on about my feelings about this, but I thought I had to do it somewhere.

Former MYM Teams:
Counter-Strike 1.6
Filip ‘NEo‘ Kubski
Wiktor ‘TaZ‘ Wojtas
Mariusz ‘loord‘ Cybulski
Lukas ‘LUq‘ Wnek
Jakub ‘Kuben‘ Gurczy?ski

Warcraft 3
Manuel ‘Grubby‘ Schenkhuizen
Rene ‘Ciara‘ Krag
Dmitry ‘Happy‘ Kostin

DotA
Jacob ‘Maelk‘ Toft-Andersen
Brian ‘MaNia‘ Strandby
Martin ‘Pusher-Street‘ Mogensen
Amel ‘PlaymatE‘ Barudzija
Kai ‘H4nn1‘ Hanbückers
Jonathan ‘Loda‘ Berg
Ben ‘MeRLiNi‘ Wu

FuzzyHat E-Sports

I got the pleasure of talking to someone who has played for Sway Gaming for a short stint of time, Kevin ’sKz’ O’Connor from North Stars United. I believe he is the only one fluent in English, so I guess his weird answers will have to do.

Ian: Start off by intoducing yourself to the readers.
Kevin: My name is Kevin “sKz” O’Connor and I play for North Stars United.

Ian: What has your team been doing to prepare for this tournament?
Kevin: We haven’t done anything special to prepare for this event except scrim to prepare for league matches. We’re thinking about doing a bootcamp later this week to go over all the stuff but it’s not confirmed yet.

Ian: What roles does each of your players have on your team?
Kevin: David “Xp3″ Garrido is the strat caller of the team, unfortunately his French is kind of weird to us so sometimes we do the complete opposite of what he calls.
René “ronieh” Nepveu is the pure skill of the team, I’m looking forward to see if he’s as good on LAN.
Maxime “Parad1s” Paradis is the one who opens up the wallhack for us when we’re getting raped.
Philippe “kuby” Auclair is afk.
And I’m the bitch that answers interviews because people on my team can’t speak English for shit.

Ian: What is your goal for this tournament?
Kevin: Our goal for this tournament is to finish first of the top 10.

Ian: If you had to choose the Top 3 finishers for ETS 2009, who would it be?
Kevin: Above, Above and Above

Ian: Thank you for this interview, any shoutouts to anyone?
Kevin: Shoutouts to www.Quantum-Servers.com, Razer, AMD, Steelseries, QPAD, Sennheiser, Logitec, Creative, Redbull and our main sponsor Intel.

North Stars United ETS Roster:
Kevin ’sKz’ O’Connor
David ‘Xp3′ Garrido
Rene ‘ronieh’ Nepveu
Maxime ‘Parad1s’ Paradis
Philippe ‘kuby’ Auclair

FuzzyHat E-Sports ETS, kuby, NSU, parad1s, roneih, skz, xp3