Well, please, introduce yourself, in case somebody still doesn’t know you.
Hello there! My name is Alexander Zavoloka, I’m 19. I live in Latvia and study at Baltic Russian University, faculty of Business Administration there. The year before this one I spent in Moscow, but after a series of tragic events I took a decision to move back to my native land.
As far as I know, until October of 2002, when you began writing for Unreal.ru, you had been an active Unreal Tournament player, and one of the best in Latvia. Could you tell us about this part of your career?
Actually, I was not one of the best, however I was the founder of the strongest UT team in Latvia - B.o.d. (later on known as cSport.ut). Back then the competition was extremely tough, but in spite of this fact, after 6 attended tournaments we became the best team in Latvia in the year of 2002. My gaming career began as far back as 1999, but at that time I was only into FFA and didn’t know anything about Shock and Sniper Rifle. In the middle of 2001 I started familiarization with the game and attended all occurred tournaments.
What match, out of your rather short gaming career, would you like to spotlight?
There is a tournament, which I attended as a player, that has stuck to my memory most of all – it is IEC 2x2 Tourney, held in May of 2004 in Riga. Back then I almost retired from UT2004, and in the evening before the entire event we (me and my friend, Werewolf^) decided to play in pair just for fun. Remarkable, that Werewolf’s UT experience was in sum about two weeks at that moment. And so happened, that despite all predictions we grabbed the first place, after bringing down all top Latvian UT2004 pairs. Naturally, 2x2 discipline is very hard to predict, but exactly at this event I enjoyed playing this game more than ever. And the most exciting game I’ve ever played… I guess it’s the game against Team Lithuania at OMS 2002 (back then the discipline was UT99). During the very decisive map, Deck16][, I made about 30 headshots, but in the upshot we lost a few frags and, as the result, the whole game… it is both a pity and a joy, isn’t it?
Maybe one more detail from your past would be interesting to our readers. Had you had experience of writing for an eSport resource, before you were to taken on CyberFight?
Before CyberFight I was the editor-in-chief of CyberSport.lv, but because of disagreement with my employer, I parted ways with the project. However, even before CyberSport.lv I had written for a gaming portal, but nowadays, when I’m looking at it through Arhive.org and reading that news… tears are welling up.
And now let’s talk about the period of your life, connected with c58 project. In November 2002 you wrote you first news post and at the same time moved to Russia to continue education. Was it hard to get used to the community, to the country, after all?
You’re completely right – my first post occurred in end 2002, back then d1monn was very angry with me, because I used too many tags :). As time went by, I mastered the basics of stylistics at c58 and began making news on my own. And what about moving to the new country, the entire idea had occurred in the beginning of 2003, but I managed to do it only in May. In March I came to Moscow to participate in UT2003 3x3 Click Click Boom tournament along with c58.ut2k3 (Hobbit, Polos and me). Actually I didn’t have to get used to the community, basically the responsibility was bigger, and that’s all.
What made you live and to study in Russia? How did you received the offer to work for CyberFight.Ru?
I moved to Russia with my mother and continued my school education there. And as regards the offer, I didn’t receive something like this at all. Simply since the end of 2003 I’ve been paid for my efforts.
What were your initial priorities of working at c58? In the very beginning you had participated in a few tournaments along with c58.ut line-up and then insensibly retired from the gaming scene. What are the main advantages of being a journalist and translator, which have attracted you most of all?
Well, from the very outset ÿ I planned to write news and articles for CyberFight. Later on I began to translate content at the Russian part into English and post it at CyberFight.Org. When a tournament occurred in Moscow I used to attend it under c58 tag. After WCG Baltic I decided to retire from intensive practice, because I had managed to hit only top 2 at the event, when the goal was to go to Korea as a player. As you know, I went to Korea as a journalist, and owing to this fact I decided to focus on making content for CyberFight and writing articles, as these affairs provided more benefits.
As a journalist of c58 you visited two WCG, AMD PG Challenge 2003, ESWC 2004, and various tournaments in Russia. Your service record is impressive, and I suppose each championship is reminiscent. Are there any vivid recollections of one of these events, which you would like to share?
Maybe AMD PG Challenge 03 – I placed 5th and covered this event. Actually this was my first international tournament, and because of nerves I put on rather poor performance. I could have done better. Ah, almost forgotten, my neighbors were Dutch TEAM MAGIC, who was screaming after each round so loudly, that I jumped up on my seat regularly. Among all other tourneys I’d like to mention WCG 2003 and ESWC 2004. The first one because of grandiosity and the second one because of players, who we were having loads of fun with. You could say, that I’m keeping busy myself with eSports only owing to tournaments – attending them as a journalist is easier :).
What’s your opinion about eSport’s development both in Russia and in the world? You’ve attended the major event of the past two years, and your position is the one to be reckoned with. So what is the level of eSport in Russia as compared to the other countries? Is this rather new trend doing well all over the world?
It’s a complicated question, which will make people both concordant and discordant with my opinion comment on this interview. As to me, there are several successful projects in Russia, which can be rated as professional ones. These are Virtus.pro and c58. You might ask: “Why c58?”. In its time, c58 project had extremely strong Quake 3 line-up, which was supported by both the heads of the portal and the main sponsor - telephone.ru (later on ASUS). The project provided the players with free trips to various events and training base. Back then it was nearly the biggest support in Europe, nobody managed to achieve the same at that time. Nowadays such companies as Intel, nVidia, ATi, AMD, Steelpad provide professional teams with all needed equipment and free tickets to the most significant championships, because each of them has a definite interest in eSport. It is a great progress, and it seems not to be fading away. From year to year we will see, that the scene is actually getting bigger.
Once you had finished your school in Russia you moved back to Latvia. How did the time that you've spent in Russia affect your life? Or it was just another ordinary year of your life? Do you have a will to return back to Russia for some time?
Yeah, the time spent in Russia has influenced a lot of views on life. I want to come to Moscow for a short period of time and have some fun (i.e.: drink, party) with friends. But I do not want to stay here for a longer period. THere are several reasons for that, though I will not name them cause Russians will get offended. Russia has a lot of possibilities for development, but there are problems as well. I love Riga a lot more than Moscow, this is the city where I Was born and spent all my life. Riga is small, and I am used to it, unlike big Moscow thing...
Right now you are working on your own project which is related to e-sport scene in Latvia and outside it, Frag.lv. How does it feel to be in charge of a rapidly growing web-site? Is it hard to start the web-site which is aimed to be the best, even though you have experience which comes from Cyberfight?
After I moved back to Latvia I suddenly decided to open my own portal. I've found the person who was sharing my views and on the 17th of December we have opened Frag.lv. Before us there was one serious portal about e-Sport in Latvia, though it could not offer anything bigger than 2-3 news and forum posts per day. We have decided to offer our viewers huge amount of exclusive materials, which will bring the e-sport in Latvia on a whole new level. Our moto is: Bringing you to the next level, that's what we aim and came for. Soon we will open Estonian and Lithuanian parts. The experience which I gained at Cyberfight came in handy, here I have to thank d1monn and other people who were working on the portal during two years of my presence there, especially I would like to thank Polosatiy.
Since now you have the ability to look at Cyberfight from the side, tell us how it had changed since November 2002, when you came there?
The site has evolved, visitors and content had changed a lot. Those who were visiting the site in 2002 are no longer part of e-sport, well, at least part of them. In 2002 and in 2003 as well as in 2004 c58 remains the BEST portal about e-Sport in Russia and nearby countries. It's the choice of readers, and their choice makes the score for the site. However I believe that the content should become more formal than it is now. If a person is not very familiar with e-sport and he has a will to get acquainted with it, he will go to Cyberfight, since it is the best portal, and will notice that e-Sport is something similar to what Prodigy had been in 1991 for Russians - underground. If the portal will be more serious, the e-Sport will definately win from this.
What about your plans for future: will you ever return as a player, or you had decided to remain the journalist and owner of own portal? And since we are talking about the portal, what expectations do you have for it?
The plans are rather big, since I did not left cybersport, as it was planned and came back with new strength I have to do something big and something really nice. I will never play competitevly again, since the games at which I am good at are not mainstream (i.e. I don't play CS very good), and since there is no big challenge and community - there is no reason to practice practice practice and waste your time on it. I have the aim to become the best - and I will do everything to achieve it. There is only one expectation - sooner or later the time that I've spent at Farg.lv as well as the money will return in amazingly huge profit.
My list of questions has ended. Perhaps there is one question wchich you would like me to ask you?
Sure, ask me the following: "LEXER? OH MY GAWD! YOU ARE THA BEST, I WILL BeeT YUO, JOIN MY SERVOR!!" - I love this one.
And according to the tradition - say hello to someone you like and stuff like that...
Thanks to all c58 readers, I was working for you and it was joy for me. Thanks to Cyberfight for the priceless experience that I had gained while working there. Thanks to d1monn for all what all he had done for me. Alright, now let's move to the greetings: hello and good luck to everyone I know, to every other who knows me but I don't know them, to my real-life friends and those whom I've met at two wonderful events: ESWC and WCG. No personal greetings, sorry ^^. Have fun everyone! And thanks to you for this interview, the questions were nice!
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