Nailes
12-21-2004, 09:50 PM
Reflections
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:5” I thought this would be an apt quote to begin with, by the end of this post you will understand the significance of those words. Paradoxx has asked me on many occasions to write about the history of local gaming, this will serve that role, but it is the hope that through the author’s recollection of events that everyone can take away some important lessons, be warned it is an exhaustive read but it was critical that nothing be left out, so that the reader can come to his own conclusions. A wise man once said “History always repeats itself”, this as is so often the case, is one of life’s ironies that always rings true.
The year is 1998, Blizzard has just released its revolutionary RTS blockbuster. Starcraft. is the new king of the block on the international gaming scene, pro gaming is in its early birthing stage as a sport. SC gains an immense international player and fan base, no small measure in part due to the Battle Net gaming system. My introduction to the international arena was anything less than brutal, I can remember being trounced over and over again. I met a player by the name of Acid_Rain, about 1month after the release of SC. It was ironic that we met in a custom SC map called Caves of Charuz. The story goes the map was never beaten on BNET since everyone always left or died before it could be completed. It took us around 14hrs to beat that map, but more importantly a friendship was formed that was to play an important role in Trinidad’s gaming future.
I was 25yrs old at the time and Acid was just 15, it turned out that he was extremely gosu at SC. He spent many nights and hours teaching and playing games against me to help me grasp the fundamentals of RTS and what was needed to compete and win at the top level. His efforts were not in vain because by the end of the initial season one ladder competition I was among the top 150 players on Battle Net. At that time we didn’t have 4 realms like there are now, so players from all over the world competed on one server.
In the months that followed we formed a clan called Generation X which went on to compete and earn respect in many different SC leagues including the infamous Case’s Ladder. Regarded by many as among the best SC clans in the world, Gen X was often heard in the same breath with the likes of Clan IN, Clan Nine, Clan DS, Clan The Feared & Clan Lizz. Acid and myself with a small group of players had great success both on Battle Net and on the smaller, but higher quality player base, gaming service called Kali. We played versus the legends of SC of the day like Zileas, Tillerman, Dudey, Maven, Chaplan, Shen, CrazyJim, Crazy Assassin and many others and could hold our own and defeat any of the best at the time.
Brood Wars enters the picture about 8 months after Starcraft, the transition is made flawlessly and Gen X continues to do well on the international arena, under the co-leadership of myself and Acid. As a 2v2 team on Battle Net and Kali we had a 90percent win rate, and to this day we have never been defeated as a team on the map known as dire straits. It is there where some of the most creative genius and team ideas were developed strategically by Acid and myself.
My little brother had a friend whose handle was Samsite, he had a love for SC and played among friends mostly, he had a rival whom he could never seem to beat that went by the handle Nijelian. He had heard from my brother that I played competitively on the international level, so he approached me for some help with his game. I spent about 3-4 hours teaching him the basics of RTS, it was more than enough since the next day he annihilated his rival game after game with consummate ease. Nijelian could not understand what caused such a dramatic turnaround in his rival’s level of skill, he was to find out later about the training Samsite received. Soon Nijelian too was a student, the only option available for these guys was through a gaming system called Kali since they did not have keys to access BNET. It started out with just Nijelian and Samsite, nightly on Kali I would log on with Acid , we played them and tutored them through hundreds of games , till one day they finally beat us as a team, of course they earned their bragging rights and had loads to say , I still look back at that and smile because it remains one of the moments I will cherish in local gaming.
In the weeks that followed through mostly word of mouth, the number of people interested in learning the game continued to grow, I now had 15 people that I tutored nightly on Kali, some of whom would even come to my house for personal training, whenever I had the time. I met a player called Slider around this time and for the first time there was another player on the local level who was at my level in SC. He was the leader of a local clan called CON (Confederation of the Nexus), and it was to be the start of a great friendship/rivalry. Together we put on the first National Starcraft & Quake Tourneys, established the first local FGS server, developed the first local Inter Clan Rivalry between Con & Gen X , encouraged & assisted in the development and growth of other local clans and pioneered the first local gaming Lan Parties, an entity we went on to call Sweat for a more local flavor.
As with all things in Trinidad there was a lot of buzz happening on the local scene about this new multiplayer gaming phenomena, more and more people were being drawn into the games SC & Quake. The alarming rate at which people were logging on to the server and the significant increase in numbers after every sweat made me realize there was a need for some semblance of organization and purpose to all that was happening. It was with this in mind that the concept of a local gaming governing body was born. I came up with an acronym for it called G@TT and its meaning and the goals and concepts behind the organization.
G@TT was born just 4 months after that initial training session with Samsite, this should give an idea of just how quickly things took off from the humble beginnings of one simple training session. It may be hard to imagine but the intensity, passion, commitment and zeal showed all around was nothing short of amazing, players worked hard at their game , attended sweats faithfully, logged on nightly to the server as a rule, clans were strong, active and fostered intense rivalries among themselves. Try to visualize a server hosting 12,000 plus games in one month , yes these things did happen, such was the passion. There were sweats that even went on for 3-4 days without stopping over long holiday weekends, not just a couple of hours like is done today & it seemed that the crew wanted to sweat anywhere and anytime.
From the middle of a mall to the centre of someone’s living room, even the middle of a food court, you name the place and sweat would come to you.
The server averaged 50 plus people nightly and there was a determination by all to become the best and get the ultimate prize back then, which was a simple thing called “respect”. Yes these were the days of the first local stars of gaming, names like Slider, Dry, Shark, Nijelian, Viper, Samsite and others became well known for their exploits in SC or Quake and inspired many up and coming gamers to strive for the level of respect and popularity these gamers had earned.
It was impossible for me to keep up with the demand for local training, so I used the existing clan infrastructure to assist. I would take 1 or 2 people from each clan under my wing, help them as much as I could and then let them retrain the other members of their clan. This method though not totally efficient did help to increase the overall level of gaming skill of the community, the mental aspect I could deal with a lot easier via discussions or answering questions on the server nightly. Later on I decided to write a strategy guide which dealt with both the game itself as well as the important aspects of mental preparedness required to play at the international level. I simply didn’t have the time to train any more and a strategy guide would prove to be the most efficient way of getting newbie players up to par quickly. G@TT continued to grow at a phenomenal rate, the membership base was well into the hundreds and with two successful tourneys that Slider and myself organized as part of the organization’s resume, and G@TT already celebrating its one year anniversary, things were just about right for a National Gaming Convention.
The idea of Gamecon 2000 was born, designed to be more than just a tourney, the event was to be used to showcase the local talent but more importantly to bring a greater national awareness to the four important groups: New Players, Spectators, The Media and Corporate Sponsors. This tournament was to be used as a launch to herald the arrival of Cyber Gaming as a new sport in Trinidad & Tobago as well as act as notification of G@TT being this country’s official gaming body for this new sport. A lot of planning , marketing and work went into trying to make this project a reality, but there was to be an unforeseen turn of events that would shake the very foundations of local gaming and drive a stake through its most prized resource “Unity”.
“Out of chaos God made a world, and out of high passions comes a people – Lord Byron” In hindsight it is a lot easier to understand the significance of the great English poet’s words quoted above, when putting it into the context of Trinidad gaming. What happened next was to be one of the darkest hours in local gaming history and at the time it seemed its purpose would be nothing short of destructive upon all the hard work that had been done up to this point. In spite of all the work on the local front I still maintained a presence on the international scene as a player and co leader of Gen X, the clan also had a local pool of players that represented it at sweats and Clan Wars.
At that point in my life I had recently married, God blessed me with a woman that was very patient and understanding and even assisted me tremendously with planning and hosting many gamers and events, we opened our home on many occasions weekend after weekend to many an avid young gamer thirsting for the experience called sweat. I also had a very demanding position at the bank at that time, as well as being owner of three small businesses to run, a fleet of taxis, a purebred dog business & my computer company. My father having died years before also left me with the responsibility of a sister, mother and little brother to take care of. Needless to say all of this was taking a toll on me since I barely could get enough done every day, it was not uncommon for me to get two hours of sleep or sometimes less on a daily basis, this went on for at least two years of my life. Something had to give and I made a decision to leave the international scene and focus solely on local gamers and gaming development as a whole. I knew that without consistent top class opposition that the skills I had worked hard to develop as a player would deteriorate over time. Love of country, the passion of my people, the great strides that had been made up to that point and the rampant growth of a new trend on the international arena known as Hacking made the choice an easy one.
As Cyber Gaming grew tremendously on the international scene, and players battled for glory and respect and ugly new trend took shape. Suddenly a new breed of player came of age “the cheater”, these were people looking for a shortcut to the top for a competitive edge. To me people of this nature showed a lack of respect for the game and their opponent, from day one I have always tried to instill a sense of the importance of fair play above all else among my people. In retrospect it was the hope even back then as it is today, that a TriniGamer would always distinguish himself not only for his skill, but more importantly his manner, fair play and respect for his opponent. Night after night I preached and tried to instill those very values into the up and coming young gamers.
It is impossible for me to convey the level of importance the standard of one’s personal skill in SC was to each and every gamer back then. The level of passion, hard work and dedication displayed by many of the time remains second to none even to this day, this was the time of the “Hardcore Gamer”. To many of these people gaming became as an integral part of their lives as a job or going to school. I often refer to the initial set of gamers that started everything off as the First Generation. The Second Generation was the new players coming into G@TT at the time, some of these players were Wolf,Limerboy, Chemfreak, Shaolin, Scorpion, Jaggoth, Hater, Bobo, Fallen Angel and many others to name a few.
One night on the server Scorpion asked me to play a game, the map was to be hunters, he chose zerg which he had become very good at in a short period of time, I chose random as always and spawned zerg also. The game went on to last over an hour in length, in the end I defeated him but by the end of it I was convinced that a map hack was in play. Having played thousands of games at international and local level, I am very careful in labeling anyone a hacker and I usually run through events in my head over and over again looking at it from all angles before making conclusions. Remember at this time SC had no replay feature so it was left to one’s in game recollections to come up with a conclusion. About halfway through that game I was about 70 percent sure that something was up and went about a series of small tests or traps to test my theory. He fell for all five of them flawlessly, this left me without any doubts in my mind after that point. When we returned to the channel I immediately confronted him, he denied it instantly..
Shaolin & Limerboy, two players whose development that I took a special interest in had formed a clan of their own called Plague, after encouragement from myself. The clan consisted of mostly Second Generation Gamers and was soon becoming a big power player in the local Clan Scene. Gen X & Con still stood at the top of the hierarchy, followed very closely by a clan called Indecided led by another First Generation Gamer known by the handle Credence, they comprised a mix of 1st & 2nd Gen gamers, Plague was right behind them followed by the 7 other local clans at the time. It was to follow that Dest cracked under pressure one night and revealed that Scorp did indeed use hacks at the time, but he pleaded innocence concerning himself. The level of comradery and brotherhood encouraged within clans was nothing short of amazing, they were taught that a clan that is together in life will always triumph on the battlefield. It was not uncommon to see Clannies going as far to help pay a comrade’s Internet Bill or even phone bill to assist, no cause was too great once a brother was in distress. Limer and Shaolin stood by Scorp in spite of my disapproval, I have nothing but respect for their actions because I know what their intentions were in their hearts.
I had suggested that Scorp be banned from the server for a period of time of about 3months for his actions. You may think it was harsh but you had to see the amount of effort and hardwork, people put into this game day after day, just to beat a rival or maybe get up the respect ladder or just for want of helping their clan be a stronger force. Nightly the server kept demanding answers to what would be done, I encouraged open discussion about it since the members were worried that if nothing was done, then it would be an open invitation for anyone to cheat. At the time Nijelian and shark had a business that sold computer parts and accessories, the popularity of G@TT in no small way helped to benefit these individuals on a personal level. Scorpion at the time was one of their best customers, I need not go into details but basically on many nights I was told not to encourage discussion about it, and to quote Nijelian’s now infamous line “The members are nothing but sheep, the less they know the better”. I have always as a leader looked at myself as servant rather than master, I have maintained without the people, nothing can be done or accomplished. I refused to shutup and many a night I was banned from the server accordingly for bringing up debate on the topic. Shark controlled the server at that time so there was little that could be done, rather than put the whole community through another server move, I dealt with the bannings and took them in stride daily. I could not hear the cries of members for justice night after night and simply stand aside and do nothing so I chose to speak out about it as much as was possible.
The hacking incident was the first event that was to eventually spark my departure away from the organization that I formed and led, at the time I entrusted Nijelian and some other people to handle most of G@TT’s day to day activities. I focused mostly on helping players, development wise, local clan growth, correspondence with corporate sponsors via meetings and letters as well as coming up with new ideas and policies that would keep the organization in an upward trend and always on the cutting edge. Even back then I knew that one day there would be a cyber Olympics and I wanted us to be prepared for the advent of that day. Slider was never an individual that you could assign a position too, he gave without question in many different capacities in anything that we did, try as I may I could not get him to co-lead G@TT with me but for all intents and purposes it is important to note that himself and DRY both played huge roles on the local gaming scene.
As a result Nijelian & Shark had almost free reign with regards to administration of the organization, they came up with the idea for a core to help them carry our their duties. I had told Nijelian I felt it was important that the members play a role in determining the path the organization should take, it was important to me that even the little new guy who might just be a peon in his clan, have a voice in everything and could express his ideas knowing that it would get to the top. My suggestion was to form a body consisting of all the Clan Leaders along with the important players in the organization, that is myself, slider, dry, Nijelian & shark. The clan leaders would play a key role in having to take new ideas and policies back to the members, as well as inform us of any suggestions, critiques and even ideas that their members may have had. What happened was nothing near that, Nijelian formed a core yes, but it was of people who seemed to share one common interest “Greed”.
Membership fees were introduced and with the advent of Gamecon 2000, financial assistance was needed to make this a reality, as always the members responded magnificently, the south chapter which handled its collections through Solutions Cyber Café in Gulf City collected close to $1800 in dues, north, east and west were not to be outdone either. All in all it is estimated nationwide that collections totaled around $5000. This was to be used for prizes, newspaper ads, clan jerseys and even keychains (yes I still have my Genx keychain). I had set up an account at FCB for G@TT with instructions for at least 2 people to sign at all times to ensure that no one person would be allowed total access to the organization’s funds. All monies collected were forwarded to Mr. Nigel Bellamus who would be responsible for ensuring it was put to the relevant said accounts. To this day not a single dollar was used towards Gamecon. Shortly thereafter Nijelian and many of his personal handpicked core, were brandishing new pagers, which at the time was akin to what is the cell phone hype of today. He claimed it was critical for the “important people of the organization” to be in contact with each other. This was to be the second of the four events leading up to my decision.
The clan Gen X had gained much notoriety locally as a result of its impressive accomplishments on the international arena, gamers across the nation even those who had not yet joined us had all heard the tales of the great clan and its leader. Nijelian used this as a big marketing tool for the server’s popularity and by extension the organization G@TT. Many a young gamer would log on eagerly trying to rub shoulders with their gaming icons, it was a powerful draw and it was maximized to its full potential. The leader of clan indecided – Credence had ambitions to make his clan number one locally, by any means necessary. In those days diplomacy was as critical an aspect for a clan’s influence as was its skill level, to sum it up wherever an opportunity presented itself to create chaos or division within Gen X arose he would maximize it to his potential. I do not fault his ambitions but rather his methods at the time, needless to say a situation exploded one faithful night on the local server.
An argument arose between myself and Credence, recently he had invested into G@TT with money and official copies of Starcraft, this was to be used in helping out with Gamecon and he promised more. As a result of this during the course of the argument I was kicked from the channel by none other than my right hand Nijelian, now at the time there were four individuals with admin rights to the server. Shark, Nijelian, Dry and myself, Dry was mostly absent from the channel so the moderators were really the other three people. Shark was given the same access levels as Dry in the advent of a technical problem he would be able to get the server back up. Shark for his own reasons never got along well with me, mainly because of the many thrashings he received in SC, even though after every single game I would offer him tips and tell him what went wrong. People took this game very seriously and it was tied very closely to one’s pride, Nijelian and Shark were already close business partners so it doesn’t take a genius to realize it made no sense trying to ban or kick either of them. Apparently Nijelian found some of my comments offensive towards his new financial guinea pig, this was to be the beginnings of the end of the free speech policy and open debate that I had encouraged as an integral part of the server. Suddenly members could be kicked or banned for what they said or who they offended, either way during the course of the argument things became nasty and I was subject to a series of nasty racial slurs from a person I once called brother named Nijelian. It was the first time I ever heard this individual speak like this but the damage was done, to make matters worse it happened in front of all of the people present on the server that night. Aside from the obvious damage such remarks can do to unity within an organization, his conduct left much to be desired, especially in his capacity as one of the organization’s top men.
What happened next will probably astound some people but believe it or not this is how things panned out. Nijelian told me that I should publicly apologize to the organization for my actions and accept full responsibility for the incident. He threatened to leave the clan and take both neo and maniac with him, who were members of the local Gen X crew at the time. Fallen Angel and Bobo were from Siparia and had close ties to the family, he also maintained he would take those players with him when leaving. I am a man with as much pride as anyone else, and threats do not ever sway me, what did however was when a member of his family came to me and said “Vipes we don’t want to leave Gen X but Nijelian is family and the PC that we use for gaming he gave us most of the parts to build it”. He apparently threatened to take the said PC back from them, even though both Fallen and Bobo told me they would not leave, I took a decision and put my clan & the organization before my pride. I publicly went on record thereafter taking full blame for the events of the night. For me swallowing my pride for a moment in time, was a small price to pay, to keep my Clan together and more importantly avoid a nasty breakup of G@TT’s premier clan which would have sent a message of disunity towards the other members of the organization. This was to be event number three to leave a bitter taste within my heart.
Aside from the different responsibilities I had as leader of G@TT, I helped out gamers where I could in different ways. It was not uncommon for me to meet with parents of some of our younger members to provide assurances of their safety as well as the benefits of them being involved in this new sport. I personally assisted many gamers from my own funds to get to sweat by paying their way to get there as well as providing eats for the entire night, I have paid phone phone bills and internet bills of members who could not afford to do so at times. I will never forget the night that a mother with tears in her eyes thanked me for saving her son from a life of drugs and crime, he had no father and the environment of the area he lived in encouraged negative activities and criminal behavior, he could never afford to make the north based sweats, so whenever I attended I took him with me. His passion and involvement in gaming helped his life tremendously in a positive manner, kept him in school and ensured that he turned out to be a valuable member of his society rather than a menace. That mother’s thanks and tears of joy was another of the moments I look back at and will cherish for the rest of my life
The four events that heralded my departure have not been done in any chronological order and all of them panned out over a period of time, some even happening simultaneously. The actual time span the four events took place within was a matter of weeks, this is made clear so that everyone may understand the said factors above in such a short space of time, and the seriousness of them, all played a part in my final decision to leave. The fourth event is trivial in comparison to all the rest to sum it up Nijelian had met a business man who was into import of consoles and its accessories. He expressed an interest in becoming a sponsor for G@TT, this was fine but some of his demands were not. He apparently had his own ideas on how the organization should be run , and how some things should be done. I was a banker for many years and my family background allowed me to grow up in a business environment, I could see the bottom line or fine print in any deal without much thought. It didn’t take a genius to realize his intention’s were solely commercial and his interests did not lie in the players or the organization. I told Nijelian I was not prepared to sellout this organization and all the hardwork everyone had put into it to the highest bidder. I also made the point that in any governing body for example TTFA, if Carib makes a donation, does that give them the right to pick the team, or even the coach or tell them how to run their organization? The answer is obviously no, needless to say Nijelian continued to pursue this agreement with the said individual behind my back and did what he could to appease some of the business man’s demands.
All of these things, combined with personal attacks on my character, nightly bannings had helped me to quickly reach the limits of my perseverance. I told Nijelian that I was leaving the organization and going back to the international arena. I wished them all the best in their endeavours, I went on to say that my name or the clan Gen X would not be able to associate themselves with an organization that condoned unfair play and was riddled with corruption. I asked all the members of Gen X to detag themselves on the local server but they were free to continue to play there if they chose too. At this point Nijelian tried to convince me not to leave, the ramifications of losing his popularity magnet and the clan I led would obviously hurt the organization’s growth. I told him yet again that I was not prepared to continue and that my decision was final. Thereafter these are the events that transpired.
Publicly on the forums my character was assassinated mercilessly, Nijelian blamed all of the organization’s problems on Viper and his negative attitude, he even went on to say that after investigation it was found that I was the one who was hacking and that I confessed this to him. Among some of my business clients he used my real name to spread false rumors about my integrity as a person and my overall trustworthiness. He told the local members of Gen X to keep their tags on and that he was the new leader of the clan, anyone disobeying him would be banned from the organization and its server. Nijelian wanted to keep the image of the clan alive for the sake of growth, half of the clan left in disgust and followed me, while the remainder that stayed made up the clan that later was to be known as Just X. This was not to be all I received a phone call from Nijelian, who personally had a lot of things to say about me, none of which were pleasant what however made my blood boil was references to my wife which were vulgar and of a derogatory nature. This also manifested itself on the mailing list as my esteemed friend Shark jumped on the bandwagon and attacked my wife in a vulgar way. These same people who she played host too, welcomed into her house on many occasions, whom she never had a bad word to say about. Forgive me if at that point I truly had, had enough and turned my back on local gaming seemingly forever.
to be continued....
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:5” I thought this would be an apt quote to begin with, by the end of this post you will understand the significance of those words. Paradoxx has asked me on many occasions to write about the history of local gaming, this will serve that role, but it is the hope that through the author’s recollection of events that everyone can take away some important lessons, be warned it is an exhaustive read but it was critical that nothing be left out, so that the reader can come to his own conclusions. A wise man once said “History always repeats itself”, this as is so often the case, is one of life’s ironies that always rings true.
The year is 1998, Blizzard has just released its revolutionary RTS blockbuster. Starcraft. is the new king of the block on the international gaming scene, pro gaming is in its early birthing stage as a sport. SC gains an immense international player and fan base, no small measure in part due to the Battle Net gaming system. My introduction to the international arena was anything less than brutal, I can remember being trounced over and over again. I met a player by the name of Acid_Rain, about 1month after the release of SC. It was ironic that we met in a custom SC map called Caves of Charuz. The story goes the map was never beaten on BNET since everyone always left or died before it could be completed. It took us around 14hrs to beat that map, but more importantly a friendship was formed that was to play an important role in Trinidad’s gaming future.
I was 25yrs old at the time and Acid was just 15, it turned out that he was extremely gosu at SC. He spent many nights and hours teaching and playing games against me to help me grasp the fundamentals of RTS and what was needed to compete and win at the top level. His efforts were not in vain because by the end of the initial season one ladder competition I was among the top 150 players on Battle Net. At that time we didn’t have 4 realms like there are now, so players from all over the world competed on one server.
In the months that followed we formed a clan called Generation X which went on to compete and earn respect in many different SC leagues including the infamous Case’s Ladder. Regarded by many as among the best SC clans in the world, Gen X was often heard in the same breath with the likes of Clan IN, Clan Nine, Clan DS, Clan The Feared & Clan Lizz. Acid and myself with a small group of players had great success both on Battle Net and on the smaller, but higher quality player base, gaming service called Kali. We played versus the legends of SC of the day like Zileas, Tillerman, Dudey, Maven, Chaplan, Shen, CrazyJim, Crazy Assassin and many others and could hold our own and defeat any of the best at the time.
Brood Wars enters the picture about 8 months after Starcraft, the transition is made flawlessly and Gen X continues to do well on the international arena, under the co-leadership of myself and Acid. As a 2v2 team on Battle Net and Kali we had a 90percent win rate, and to this day we have never been defeated as a team on the map known as dire straits. It is there where some of the most creative genius and team ideas were developed strategically by Acid and myself.
My little brother had a friend whose handle was Samsite, he had a love for SC and played among friends mostly, he had a rival whom he could never seem to beat that went by the handle Nijelian. He had heard from my brother that I played competitively on the international level, so he approached me for some help with his game. I spent about 3-4 hours teaching him the basics of RTS, it was more than enough since the next day he annihilated his rival game after game with consummate ease. Nijelian could not understand what caused such a dramatic turnaround in his rival’s level of skill, he was to find out later about the training Samsite received. Soon Nijelian too was a student, the only option available for these guys was through a gaming system called Kali since they did not have keys to access BNET. It started out with just Nijelian and Samsite, nightly on Kali I would log on with Acid , we played them and tutored them through hundreds of games , till one day they finally beat us as a team, of course they earned their bragging rights and had loads to say , I still look back at that and smile because it remains one of the moments I will cherish in local gaming.
In the weeks that followed through mostly word of mouth, the number of people interested in learning the game continued to grow, I now had 15 people that I tutored nightly on Kali, some of whom would even come to my house for personal training, whenever I had the time. I met a player called Slider around this time and for the first time there was another player on the local level who was at my level in SC. He was the leader of a local clan called CON (Confederation of the Nexus), and it was to be the start of a great friendship/rivalry. Together we put on the first National Starcraft & Quake Tourneys, established the first local FGS server, developed the first local Inter Clan Rivalry between Con & Gen X , encouraged & assisted in the development and growth of other local clans and pioneered the first local gaming Lan Parties, an entity we went on to call Sweat for a more local flavor.
As with all things in Trinidad there was a lot of buzz happening on the local scene about this new multiplayer gaming phenomena, more and more people were being drawn into the games SC & Quake. The alarming rate at which people were logging on to the server and the significant increase in numbers after every sweat made me realize there was a need for some semblance of organization and purpose to all that was happening. It was with this in mind that the concept of a local gaming governing body was born. I came up with an acronym for it called G@TT and its meaning and the goals and concepts behind the organization.
G@TT was born just 4 months after that initial training session with Samsite, this should give an idea of just how quickly things took off from the humble beginnings of one simple training session. It may be hard to imagine but the intensity, passion, commitment and zeal showed all around was nothing short of amazing, players worked hard at their game , attended sweats faithfully, logged on nightly to the server as a rule, clans were strong, active and fostered intense rivalries among themselves. Try to visualize a server hosting 12,000 plus games in one month , yes these things did happen, such was the passion. There were sweats that even went on for 3-4 days without stopping over long holiday weekends, not just a couple of hours like is done today & it seemed that the crew wanted to sweat anywhere and anytime.
From the middle of a mall to the centre of someone’s living room, even the middle of a food court, you name the place and sweat would come to you.
The server averaged 50 plus people nightly and there was a determination by all to become the best and get the ultimate prize back then, which was a simple thing called “respect”. Yes these were the days of the first local stars of gaming, names like Slider, Dry, Shark, Nijelian, Viper, Samsite and others became well known for their exploits in SC or Quake and inspired many up and coming gamers to strive for the level of respect and popularity these gamers had earned.
It was impossible for me to keep up with the demand for local training, so I used the existing clan infrastructure to assist. I would take 1 or 2 people from each clan under my wing, help them as much as I could and then let them retrain the other members of their clan. This method though not totally efficient did help to increase the overall level of gaming skill of the community, the mental aspect I could deal with a lot easier via discussions or answering questions on the server nightly. Later on I decided to write a strategy guide which dealt with both the game itself as well as the important aspects of mental preparedness required to play at the international level. I simply didn’t have the time to train any more and a strategy guide would prove to be the most efficient way of getting newbie players up to par quickly. G@TT continued to grow at a phenomenal rate, the membership base was well into the hundreds and with two successful tourneys that Slider and myself organized as part of the organization’s resume, and G@TT already celebrating its one year anniversary, things were just about right for a National Gaming Convention.
The idea of Gamecon 2000 was born, designed to be more than just a tourney, the event was to be used to showcase the local talent but more importantly to bring a greater national awareness to the four important groups: New Players, Spectators, The Media and Corporate Sponsors. This tournament was to be used as a launch to herald the arrival of Cyber Gaming as a new sport in Trinidad & Tobago as well as act as notification of G@TT being this country’s official gaming body for this new sport. A lot of planning , marketing and work went into trying to make this project a reality, but there was to be an unforeseen turn of events that would shake the very foundations of local gaming and drive a stake through its most prized resource “Unity”.
“Out of chaos God made a world, and out of high passions comes a people – Lord Byron” In hindsight it is a lot easier to understand the significance of the great English poet’s words quoted above, when putting it into the context of Trinidad gaming. What happened next was to be one of the darkest hours in local gaming history and at the time it seemed its purpose would be nothing short of destructive upon all the hard work that had been done up to this point. In spite of all the work on the local front I still maintained a presence on the international scene as a player and co leader of Gen X, the clan also had a local pool of players that represented it at sweats and Clan Wars.
At that point in my life I had recently married, God blessed me with a woman that was very patient and understanding and even assisted me tremendously with planning and hosting many gamers and events, we opened our home on many occasions weekend after weekend to many an avid young gamer thirsting for the experience called sweat. I also had a very demanding position at the bank at that time, as well as being owner of three small businesses to run, a fleet of taxis, a purebred dog business & my computer company. My father having died years before also left me with the responsibility of a sister, mother and little brother to take care of. Needless to say all of this was taking a toll on me since I barely could get enough done every day, it was not uncommon for me to get two hours of sleep or sometimes less on a daily basis, this went on for at least two years of my life. Something had to give and I made a decision to leave the international scene and focus solely on local gamers and gaming development as a whole. I knew that without consistent top class opposition that the skills I had worked hard to develop as a player would deteriorate over time. Love of country, the passion of my people, the great strides that had been made up to that point and the rampant growth of a new trend on the international arena known as Hacking made the choice an easy one.
As Cyber Gaming grew tremendously on the international scene, and players battled for glory and respect and ugly new trend took shape. Suddenly a new breed of player came of age “the cheater”, these were people looking for a shortcut to the top for a competitive edge. To me people of this nature showed a lack of respect for the game and their opponent, from day one I have always tried to instill a sense of the importance of fair play above all else among my people. In retrospect it was the hope even back then as it is today, that a TriniGamer would always distinguish himself not only for his skill, but more importantly his manner, fair play and respect for his opponent. Night after night I preached and tried to instill those very values into the up and coming young gamers.
It is impossible for me to convey the level of importance the standard of one’s personal skill in SC was to each and every gamer back then. The level of passion, hard work and dedication displayed by many of the time remains second to none even to this day, this was the time of the “Hardcore Gamer”. To many of these people gaming became as an integral part of their lives as a job or going to school. I often refer to the initial set of gamers that started everything off as the First Generation. The Second Generation was the new players coming into G@TT at the time, some of these players were Wolf,Limerboy, Chemfreak, Shaolin, Scorpion, Jaggoth, Hater, Bobo, Fallen Angel and many others to name a few.
One night on the server Scorpion asked me to play a game, the map was to be hunters, he chose zerg which he had become very good at in a short period of time, I chose random as always and spawned zerg also. The game went on to last over an hour in length, in the end I defeated him but by the end of it I was convinced that a map hack was in play. Having played thousands of games at international and local level, I am very careful in labeling anyone a hacker and I usually run through events in my head over and over again looking at it from all angles before making conclusions. Remember at this time SC had no replay feature so it was left to one’s in game recollections to come up with a conclusion. About halfway through that game I was about 70 percent sure that something was up and went about a series of small tests or traps to test my theory. He fell for all five of them flawlessly, this left me without any doubts in my mind after that point. When we returned to the channel I immediately confronted him, he denied it instantly..
Shaolin & Limerboy, two players whose development that I took a special interest in had formed a clan of their own called Plague, after encouragement from myself. The clan consisted of mostly Second Generation Gamers and was soon becoming a big power player in the local Clan Scene. Gen X & Con still stood at the top of the hierarchy, followed very closely by a clan called Indecided led by another First Generation Gamer known by the handle Credence, they comprised a mix of 1st & 2nd Gen gamers, Plague was right behind them followed by the 7 other local clans at the time. It was to follow that Dest cracked under pressure one night and revealed that Scorp did indeed use hacks at the time, but he pleaded innocence concerning himself. The level of comradery and brotherhood encouraged within clans was nothing short of amazing, they were taught that a clan that is together in life will always triumph on the battlefield. It was not uncommon to see Clannies going as far to help pay a comrade’s Internet Bill or even phone bill to assist, no cause was too great once a brother was in distress. Limer and Shaolin stood by Scorp in spite of my disapproval, I have nothing but respect for their actions because I know what their intentions were in their hearts.
I had suggested that Scorp be banned from the server for a period of time of about 3months for his actions. You may think it was harsh but you had to see the amount of effort and hardwork, people put into this game day after day, just to beat a rival or maybe get up the respect ladder or just for want of helping their clan be a stronger force. Nightly the server kept demanding answers to what would be done, I encouraged open discussion about it since the members were worried that if nothing was done, then it would be an open invitation for anyone to cheat. At the time Nijelian and shark had a business that sold computer parts and accessories, the popularity of G@TT in no small way helped to benefit these individuals on a personal level. Scorpion at the time was one of their best customers, I need not go into details but basically on many nights I was told not to encourage discussion about it, and to quote Nijelian’s now infamous line “The members are nothing but sheep, the less they know the better”. I have always as a leader looked at myself as servant rather than master, I have maintained without the people, nothing can be done or accomplished. I refused to shutup and many a night I was banned from the server accordingly for bringing up debate on the topic. Shark controlled the server at that time so there was little that could be done, rather than put the whole community through another server move, I dealt with the bannings and took them in stride daily. I could not hear the cries of members for justice night after night and simply stand aside and do nothing so I chose to speak out about it as much as was possible.
The hacking incident was the first event that was to eventually spark my departure away from the organization that I formed and led, at the time I entrusted Nijelian and some other people to handle most of G@TT’s day to day activities. I focused mostly on helping players, development wise, local clan growth, correspondence with corporate sponsors via meetings and letters as well as coming up with new ideas and policies that would keep the organization in an upward trend and always on the cutting edge. Even back then I knew that one day there would be a cyber Olympics and I wanted us to be prepared for the advent of that day. Slider was never an individual that you could assign a position too, he gave without question in many different capacities in anything that we did, try as I may I could not get him to co-lead G@TT with me but for all intents and purposes it is important to note that himself and DRY both played huge roles on the local gaming scene.
As a result Nijelian & Shark had almost free reign with regards to administration of the organization, they came up with the idea for a core to help them carry our their duties. I had told Nijelian I felt it was important that the members play a role in determining the path the organization should take, it was important to me that even the little new guy who might just be a peon in his clan, have a voice in everything and could express his ideas knowing that it would get to the top. My suggestion was to form a body consisting of all the Clan Leaders along with the important players in the organization, that is myself, slider, dry, Nijelian & shark. The clan leaders would play a key role in having to take new ideas and policies back to the members, as well as inform us of any suggestions, critiques and even ideas that their members may have had. What happened was nothing near that, Nijelian formed a core yes, but it was of people who seemed to share one common interest “Greed”.
Membership fees were introduced and with the advent of Gamecon 2000, financial assistance was needed to make this a reality, as always the members responded magnificently, the south chapter which handled its collections through Solutions Cyber Café in Gulf City collected close to $1800 in dues, north, east and west were not to be outdone either. All in all it is estimated nationwide that collections totaled around $5000. This was to be used for prizes, newspaper ads, clan jerseys and even keychains (yes I still have my Genx keychain). I had set up an account at FCB for G@TT with instructions for at least 2 people to sign at all times to ensure that no one person would be allowed total access to the organization’s funds. All monies collected were forwarded to Mr. Nigel Bellamus who would be responsible for ensuring it was put to the relevant said accounts. To this day not a single dollar was used towards Gamecon. Shortly thereafter Nijelian and many of his personal handpicked core, were brandishing new pagers, which at the time was akin to what is the cell phone hype of today. He claimed it was critical for the “important people of the organization” to be in contact with each other. This was to be the second of the four events leading up to my decision.
The clan Gen X had gained much notoriety locally as a result of its impressive accomplishments on the international arena, gamers across the nation even those who had not yet joined us had all heard the tales of the great clan and its leader. Nijelian used this as a big marketing tool for the server’s popularity and by extension the organization G@TT. Many a young gamer would log on eagerly trying to rub shoulders with their gaming icons, it was a powerful draw and it was maximized to its full potential. The leader of clan indecided – Credence had ambitions to make his clan number one locally, by any means necessary. In those days diplomacy was as critical an aspect for a clan’s influence as was its skill level, to sum it up wherever an opportunity presented itself to create chaos or division within Gen X arose he would maximize it to his potential. I do not fault his ambitions but rather his methods at the time, needless to say a situation exploded one faithful night on the local server.
An argument arose between myself and Credence, recently he had invested into G@TT with money and official copies of Starcraft, this was to be used in helping out with Gamecon and he promised more. As a result of this during the course of the argument I was kicked from the channel by none other than my right hand Nijelian, now at the time there were four individuals with admin rights to the server. Shark, Nijelian, Dry and myself, Dry was mostly absent from the channel so the moderators were really the other three people. Shark was given the same access levels as Dry in the advent of a technical problem he would be able to get the server back up. Shark for his own reasons never got along well with me, mainly because of the many thrashings he received in SC, even though after every single game I would offer him tips and tell him what went wrong. People took this game very seriously and it was tied very closely to one’s pride, Nijelian and Shark were already close business partners so it doesn’t take a genius to realize it made no sense trying to ban or kick either of them. Apparently Nijelian found some of my comments offensive towards his new financial guinea pig, this was to be the beginnings of the end of the free speech policy and open debate that I had encouraged as an integral part of the server. Suddenly members could be kicked or banned for what they said or who they offended, either way during the course of the argument things became nasty and I was subject to a series of nasty racial slurs from a person I once called brother named Nijelian. It was the first time I ever heard this individual speak like this but the damage was done, to make matters worse it happened in front of all of the people present on the server that night. Aside from the obvious damage such remarks can do to unity within an organization, his conduct left much to be desired, especially in his capacity as one of the organization’s top men.
What happened next will probably astound some people but believe it or not this is how things panned out. Nijelian told me that I should publicly apologize to the organization for my actions and accept full responsibility for the incident. He threatened to leave the clan and take both neo and maniac with him, who were members of the local Gen X crew at the time. Fallen Angel and Bobo were from Siparia and had close ties to the family, he also maintained he would take those players with him when leaving. I am a man with as much pride as anyone else, and threats do not ever sway me, what did however was when a member of his family came to me and said “Vipes we don’t want to leave Gen X but Nijelian is family and the PC that we use for gaming he gave us most of the parts to build it”. He apparently threatened to take the said PC back from them, even though both Fallen and Bobo told me they would not leave, I took a decision and put my clan & the organization before my pride. I publicly went on record thereafter taking full blame for the events of the night. For me swallowing my pride for a moment in time, was a small price to pay, to keep my Clan together and more importantly avoid a nasty breakup of G@TT’s premier clan which would have sent a message of disunity towards the other members of the organization. This was to be event number three to leave a bitter taste within my heart.
Aside from the different responsibilities I had as leader of G@TT, I helped out gamers where I could in different ways. It was not uncommon for me to meet with parents of some of our younger members to provide assurances of their safety as well as the benefits of them being involved in this new sport. I personally assisted many gamers from my own funds to get to sweat by paying their way to get there as well as providing eats for the entire night, I have paid phone phone bills and internet bills of members who could not afford to do so at times. I will never forget the night that a mother with tears in her eyes thanked me for saving her son from a life of drugs and crime, he had no father and the environment of the area he lived in encouraged negative activities and criminal behavior, he could never afford to make the north based sweats, so whenever I attended I took him with me. His passion and involvement in gaming helped his life tremendously in a positive manner, kept him in school and ensured that he turned out to be a valuable member of his society rather than a menace. That mother’s thanks and tears of joy was another of the moments I look back at and will cherish for the rest of my life
The four events that heralded my departure have not been done in any chronological order and all of them panned out over a period of time, some even happening simultaneously. The actual time span the four events took place within was a matter of weeks, this is made clear so that everyone may understand the said factors above in such a short space of time, and the seriousness of them, all played a part in my final decision to leave. The fourth event is trivial in comparison to all the rest to sum it up Nijelian had met a business man who was into import of consoles and its accessories. He expressed an interest in becoming a sponsor for G@TT, this was fine but some of his demands were not. He apparently had his own ideas on how the organization should be run , and how some things should be done. I was a banker for many years and my family background allowed me to grow up in a business environment, I could see the bottom line or fine print in any deal without much thought. It didn’t take a genius to realize his intention’s were solely commercial and his interests did not lie in the players or the organization. I told Nijelian I was not prepared to sellout this organization and all the hardwork everyone had put into it to the highest bidder. I also made the point that in any governing body for example TTFA, if Carib makes a donation, does that give them the right to pick the team, or even the coach or tell them how to run their organization? The answer is obviously no, needless to say Nijelian continued to pursue this agreement with the said individual behind my back and did what he could to appease some of the business man’s demands.
All of these things, combined with personal attacks on my character, nightly bannings had helped me to quickly reach the limits of my perseverance. I told Nijelian that I was leaving the organization and going back to the international arena. I wished them all the best in their endeavours, I went on to say that my name or the clan Gen X would not be able to associate themselves with an organization that condoned unfair play and was riddled with corruption. I asked all the members of Gen X to detag themselves on the local server but they were free to continue to play there if they chose too. At this point Nijelian tried to convince me not to leave, the ramifications of losing his popularity magnet and the clan I led would obviously hurt the organization’s growth. I told him yet again that I was not prepared to continue and that my decision was final. Thereafter these are the events that transpired.
Publicly on the forums my character was assassinated mercilessly, Nijelian blamed all of the organization’s problems on Viper and his negative attitude, he even went on to say that after investigation it was found that I was the one who was hacking and that I confessed this to him. Among some of my business clients he used my real name to spread false rumors about my integrity as a person and my overall trustworthiness. He told the local members of Gen X to keep their tags on and that he was the new leader of the clan, anyone disobeying him would be banned from the organization and its server. Nijelian wanted to keep the image of the clan alive for the sake of growth, half of the clan left in disgust and followed me, while the remainder that stayed made up the clan that later was to be known as Just X. This was not to be all I received a phone call from Nijelian, who personally had a lot of things to say about me, none of which were pleasant what however made my blood boil was references to my wife which were vulgar and of a derogatory nature. This also manifested itself on the mailing list as my esteemed friend Shark jumped on the bandwagon and attacked my wife in a vulgar way. These same people who she played host too, welcomed into her house on many occasions, whom she never had a bad word to say about. Forgive me if at that point I truly had, had enough and turned my back on local gaming seemingly forever.
to be continued....