Guest Post: ZiggyD Character Profile
Recently Simon ‘Mak’ Murrell interviewed me for a character profile, we talked about Starcraft 2, eSports and the future of the two. I wanted to post his write up to give you the chance to have bit more insight into my involvement and motivations in the world of SC2 and eSports. Please read on for Simon’s piece.
MORE THAN JUST CHILDS PLAY
In 2000 the Electronic Sports world or E-Sports as its known, held the first World Cyber Games in Soul, Korea.
The Asia-Pacific region has seen massive growth in this industry, with prize pools in the tens of thousands of dollars, however the rest of world has developed a lot slower.
One man striving to change this is Daniel ‘ZiggyD’ Coutts-Smith, his involvement in the E-Sports world has exploded over the last year.
Daniel has designed, developed and funded his own website dedicated to teaching people the basics of competition gaming and to promote the sport, “I’m hoping to become a bit of an E-Sports entrepreneur” he said.
He is out to get more people playing E-Sport games, spread the word that gaming is not a childish pursuit and promote E-Sports as a spectator form of entertainment.
“I’m excited for the future of E-Sports in the west, I think it’s going to be huge and I’m excited to be a part of it”
In the future he hopes to sponsor tournaments and even learn Korean to help break through the eastern and western language barrier.
Though he confessed he’s no match for the professionals, he is still an avid gamer, playing at least two practice matches each day and competing on a regular basis.
Daniel played a variety of games growing up, though having no internet access limited his exposure to the E-Sports world.
He always preferred more challenging games, and strategy games such as StarCraft have become his main interest. With the release of StarCraft 2 (July last year) he focused his involvement in the sport.
When I asked him what made StarCraft such a popular game, he said “balance”, the game forces people’s skill to be the deciding factor and not a particular aspect of the game that gives one player an advantage”.
Like a giant chess game? “Indeed”.
He does stress that E-Sports aren’t just about entertainment, “gaming can provide a lot of developmental benefits” he said.
“Professional gaming requires a great deal of skill and the ability to be strategically decisive.”
He referred to Sun Tzu and The Five Rings as avenues of study for skill development.
Daniel emphasised the spectator aspect of gaming as well. “It isn’t just a participant sport either, it is a great spectator sport as well. This is one aspect that I want to promote.”
There is no doubt that Daniel is dedicated to the E-Sports world and his involvement is certainly going to make a difference to the development of the sport.
By Simon ‘Mak’ Murrell
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