The past week, we may have noticed silence in the e-Sports world, a sense of stillness in the air. However, most of us know that this eerie absence of action is the calm before the storm. The Intel Extreme Masters World Championships is just around the corner and as soon as the sun rises in Hannover, Germany, expect explosive action from start to finish. The world’s best will be congregating, egos will clash, skills will be tested and the gaming community can expect to see tactics and action they have never seen before.
As we await the opening of the IEM World Championships, we ask the insights and predictions of the PM of the Intel Extreme Masters. Enter Michal “Carmac” Bicharz. Having visited more than a dozen of e-sports events(WCG, EPS, ESWC, IEM), his exposure has given him in-depth knowledge about the industry. He is also known for his comedic alter-egos (Uszat and Sasha) which he uses to add a refreshing zest to the highly competitive e-sports scene. Despite this, there is no doubting his passion for e-sports and his devotion to improving the quality and community of gamers all around the globe.
We sat down with Michal “Carmac” Bicharz to talk for his IEM World Championship predictions, the games of e-sports and his future plans for the IEM.
===========================================================================================
Razer: Greetings Michal “Carmac” Bicharz. We appreciate you taking some time off despite your hectic schedule in preparing the IEM World Championship 2011.
Razer: Some of the world’s best will be at Hannover this March. How excited are you?
Carmac: You cannot describe how excited I am. I am also quadruple heart-broken. I am a major fan of all three games and I find all three competitions extremely interesting. But not only am I unable to follow all three as closely as I would like, but I also have to work during the event, so it is theoretically possible that I will not see a single game!
SC2: The IEM Euro Champi0n and the GamesCom Champion will battle it out
Razer: What are your predictions for the SC2 division in the IEM?
Carmac: I personally see Greg Fields as the favorite to win the entire event. He has got the composure needed to win major titles and he has a ton of experience taken from Korea and playing with the best there. I would be shocked not to see him in the semi final at least. As for the rest, it is really a very, very even playing field. If I were to predict a surprise in the event, I will predict that one of the Continental Champions not to go far. I will not say which one, though.
Razer: What are your predictions for the CS division in the IEM?
Carmac: The Counter-Strike event is probably one of the most contested events that I remember. We have at least five teams there that have everything it takes to win the title: mTw, FX, Fnatic, SK, Na’Vi, and several others that have the power and the potential to cause a major stir – for example the 2008 Intel Extreme Masters season runners up from Korea or our American Champions from Brazil, or Team EG who ended up 4th last season. I predict more drama than you can ever imagine for the CS tournament. It will be nothing short of epic, starting in the group stage already!
Razer: Which CS teams do you think will meet at the finals? Which team do you think will win?
Carmac: I most certainly hope that Frag eXecutors will be in the final – I had a front row seat back in 2004-2005 when they were unknown but rising and I would like to see them win one more major trophy. I am Polish as well as those guys, so I am obviously biased – but that team has everything needed to win an event like this. Whichever other team it is in the final – I really do not care. If you’re in the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship final, then you’ve gone a very long way and you obviously deserve it more than anyone else.
Razer: In terms of Counter-Strike, who do you think is the best player right now (attending the IEM)?
Carmac: It is really difficult to say, especially that I do not have time to watch all the matches. But I am personally very impressed by cArn, not just as a player but as a team leader. I also like what a role change in the team did for TaZ – he no longer is the strat caller and he has really stepped up, it seems.
The IEM European Quake Champion will now fight the world’s best Quake Duellers
Razer: What are your predictions for the Quake division in the IEM?
Carmac: As I said, quadruple heart-broken. The QL event is probably the toughest one in the history of the game if you ask me. We have got all of the old ‘gods’, every single one of them with championship credentials, and we have a very strong group of ‘outsiders’ that could easily pick up the gauntlet and challenge them. Cooller, Av3k, Cypher, rapha – those four are everyone’s bets to be in the semi finals like last year, but what about strenx, k1llsen, DaHanG, spart1e, or even czm? The only thing I can say is that I hope Dandaking pulls a Cinderella story. That would make the event epic!
Razer: Who do you think will meet at the finals? Who do you think will win?
Carmac: I honestly have no idea. I could give you a valid prediction after the group stage ends, but before that I do not know. I see five names in the list of participants that could end up going home with the gold medal, and almost all of those are equally rated. We will just have to wait and see.
Razer: Who do you think is the best Quake Live player of Asia? Of Europe? Of the World?
Carmac: The best player in Asia is uNleashed from Japan, unless you count Jibo who is Chinese and lives in Moscow, or proZaC who is Swedish but lives in Japan. The best European? Based on recent results, I would say Cooller, but that answer can be different after every event. The world’s best player? I will tell you on Saturday evening.
What can possibly topple the biggest e-sports RTS in the world?
Razer: SC2 has seen a meteoric rise over the past few months. Do you see any other RTS games matching the dominant e-Sports RTS?
Carmac: No, honestly, I don’t see it. StarCraft II is an amazing game which has everything in order to be the dominant game in RTS for years to come. Please do keep in mind that all major RTS esports have come from Blizzard, and no other RTS game came close to the success of StarCraft or WarCraft III. I do not see anyone creating an RTS game that could challenge early beta level Blizzard games, let alone the released versions.
Razer: Quake and CS are the premiere FPS games used in tournaments but one can say that they are pretty old. What new FPS games do you think has the potential to earn international acclaim and be a staple competitive e-sport game?
Carmac: I don’t see any game which could do that at the moment. I guess it would have to be a game which takes over the CS and Source communities and provides a modern replacement for CS 1.6, but I do not see it right now. Perhaps one game could prove me wrong, but that game would need to have blooming leagues, pro teams and coverage websites that do not rely on the current eports infrastructure. If a game proves itself outside of the current system, it means that it will be a massive esports title.
One of these spectators may be the next e-Sports star
Razer: Having been to a lot of E-sports even of late, have you seen any promising/upcoming stars?
Carmac: StarCraft II will produce dozens of major stars. Counter-Strike keeps producing talent and I am surprised so few teams are able to pick up players and build great lineups. Fnatic has been changing their roster for a very long time and stayed at the top – that just proves that there are enough fringe players out there to build a team close to Fnatic’s strength. For some reason it is hard for organisations to do. I do not expect any sudden rise to fame in Quake Live, though. That game definitely needs a major injection of fresh blood.
Razer: In the controversial finals of Quake Live in the IEM European Championships, what were the factors you took into consideration when you made the decision?
Carmac: I did not make the decision. The referees did. All I did was gather the right people in the right place, collected the facts and made sure that I can honestly say that nothing was overlooked. The factors that the referees used were: the rulebook. There is no rule in the book that stipulates a game replay due to lag, but there is one where there’s a disconnect. The referees simply followed the rulebook, that was it.
Razer: What are your future plans for the IEM? What is your vision with regard to the future of e-sports?
Carmac: We want to be more ambitious with how we do things next season. For this World Championship we are broadcasting on a countless number of channels, with 7 or 8 languages. I think that is simply phenomenal. I could talk for hours about possible improvements and plans for events in the next season, but I will just say that we would like to keep making the events a joy to play and a joy to watch for people. There will definitely be some changes to the structure of our online season, that is certain.
Don’t miss the action as the Extreme Masters World Championships is now live! Get the latest news and watch it live at the ESL Website.
