CLGAMING.

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COUNTER LOGIC GAMING 2 / / MAY 15, 2013 3 / COUNTER LOGIC GAMING / MAY 15, 2013
THE ATMOSPHERE
in Staples Cen-
ter is electric.
Te crowd cant
seem to decide whether to be
stunned or ecstatic as they
witness a potential 3-0 sweep
by Koreas SK Telecom T1 K
over Chinas Royal Club. Ei-
ther way the energy in the air
pulls everyone to their feet
and cheering at the top of
their lungs. A fght breaks out.
Kennen goes down. Caitlyn
goes down. Sona goes down.
All Royal Club members. Te
players and the crowd know
its all over as play-byplay
commentator Leigh Deman
Smith shouts, Tis could be
a twenty minute game for SK
Telecom... they will be, the
Season Tree World Champi-
ons, here at the Staple Center!
In the midst of it all is
twenty-three year old retired
professional gamer, George
HotshotGG Georgallidis.
His hands are in the air, mim-
icking Lee Faker Sang-hy-
eok of SK Telecom on the big
screen. He can only congratu-
late Faker and the rest of SK
Telecom from the bottom of
his heart. He knows the sac-
rifces it took to get to where
they are now on the biggest
stage in the history of eSports,
confetti pouring down in cel-
ebration of their victory. It
isnt easy to be the best. He
himself was on a very simi-
lar stage only two years ago.
THE FIRST OF AN ERA
LEGACY
B Y C H R I S T O P H E R i t s S l i c e r H A N
GEORGE GEORGALLIDIS NEVER THOUGHT HE
WOULD BECOME THE OWNER OF ONE OF THE
PREMIER BRANDS IN ESPORTS. HE IS NOW ONE
OF THE LEADING FIGURES THAT STARTED THE
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS ESPORTS SCENE. THIS IS
HIS STORY, HIS TRIALS, HIS LEGACY...
CLG
+
BIG BRAND
Georgallidis, who played
games for fun, eventually
became the owner of one of
the most well known brands
in gaming.
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away. In one instance, the mod-
erator prank called Georges
mother. Sufce to say, his
mother was not happy. But for
George, the pranks and interac-
tions with the forum members
just meant he had friends whom
he could bond with, albeit nev-
er personally meeting them.
As much as George did not
enjoy school, he could not avoid
what was to come forever. Soon
he would be graduating and he
had to fgure out what he want-
ed to do for the future. Near
the end of high school, George
found himself taking a class to
pass the Cisco CCNA Certif-
cation. It dealt with computers,
and for George, that was as
close as he fgured he would get
to getting a job dealing with his
interests. I thought if I got all
my work done and the network
was operating proper, I could
jump online, read forums, and
play some games. I kind of
imagined that, said George. It
brought him back into reality.
For the frst time, George was
actually somewhat enjoying
school. His teacher, Mr. Pren-
tice, made school enjoyable
again. As long as he put in the
efort and got his work done, he
would get rewarded by getting
to eat a bowl of cereal in class,
going out to get a hamburger
at the local Harveys, or if the
whole class did well hook up
the PCs on LAN and play a
Starcraft tournament. It wasnt
his dream job, but George de-
cided to pursue a university de-
gree in computer networking.
As quickly as he found an
interest in networking, he hap-
pened to fnd an interest in an-
other. Living in a dorm flled
with students who were major-
ing in game design, George be-
came a little jealous. After all,
gaming was what he lived for
and what better way to make
a living than designing games
he thought to himself. At the
beginning, everything seemed
to be a dream come true. He
found classmates who liked
video games and his professors
were all people who had worked
in the industry designing games
that he played. But the facade
fell after a lecture given by one
professor who stated that only
ffty percent of the students in
the program would graduate.
George learned that game de-
signing constituted of multiple
elements, none of which was
taught at the university. He
learned programming, model-
ing, sound design, but nothing
to do with the actual design
of a game. I didnt really en-
joy what I was doing. I made
it through my classes, but I
wasnt doing well at all. I wasnt
happy. So I kind of abandoned
hope that I would get the job I
wanted through game design.
Lost as what to do once
again, George took a year of
from school to fnd out what
he wanted for his future. He
decided to continue to pursue
networking as a career, but only
as a backup. In his year of, his
grandfather found him a job
with a family friend. It was not
the easiest of jobs there was
no air conditioning in 30 de-
gree Celsius weather, involved
a lot of physical ftness, heavy
lifting, and packaging of food.
It gave him something to do
however and in that time he
found a relatively new game
known as League of Legends.
And he was hooked. Once
he got home he would imme-
diately turn on his computer to
play the game. After just three
months, he noticed he start-
ed to get matched with some
of the well-known players. He
began to stream his online play
on a platform known as XFire.
From there, he was noticed by
Messiah of the popular League
of Legends fansite SoloMid and
given a streaming partnership.
George was dissatisfed with
his situation soon after. Andy
Reginald Dinh, the owner
of SoloMid, often would get
into arguments with George.
George is known to millions
as one of the greatest League of
Legends players in the world.
Tose millions have watched
him stream himself playing
the video game whether they
were from the United States,
Brazil, Germany, or Korea. He
is the owner of Counter Logic
Gaming, the team that he spent
his entire professional career
playing on and one of the most
well known brands in League
of Legends eSports. When I
talked with George he spoke
with the authority and conf-
dence of someone with years
of experience. But George was
not always known as Hotshot-
GG. If fate had its way, George
may have been a network tech-
nician in London, Ontario.
H
E WAS JUST LIKE any oth-
er elementary school
student he did as
well as an elementary
school student could
do in school and was well liked
by his classmates and peers.
But one day his father intro-
duced George to a game called
Diablo. George would spend
hours watching his father play
the game and playing the game
himself. Eventually, his father
stopped playing, but instilled
a newfound passion in his son.
When his father stopped
buying him games, George
would simply save up whatever
allowances he received to buy
new ones. Diablo, Warcraft,
Ragnarok Online, Harvest
Moon, Starcraft the list can
go on. Although his young-
er brother and cousin were
too young to play with him,
sometimes they would watch
him play. His passion for vid-
eo games never really translat-
ed into his social life at school
however. Once George got into
high school, things were dif-
ferent. Te friends that he had
that did play video games either
moved away or stopped playing.
School wasnt as interesting any-
more. Pretty much no one at
the school played video games.
Many teenagers go through
the experience of trying to fnd
where they ft in the world.
George somehow never really
found that niche throughout
the entirety of his high school
years. He hung out with the
jocks, native community,
preppy kids, and the nerds.
But even the nerds didnt play
video games. He could only
fnd one friend who shared the
same passion a closet-gamer
among the preppy students.
Wed be sitting at lunch with
all the preppy kids who were
talking about parties and stuf
teenagers do and then hed
pull me away and be like lets
go talk about Warcraft III. It
wasnt enough however, it was
just one student in his entire
high school. So George found
his social life elsewhere: online.
Online he would fnd the
forums and clans that matched
his interests and people that en-
gaged him. He has been a mem-
ber of one particular forum
for over nine years. Although
George would not disclose the
name of the forum, he stated
that he kind of grew up on
that forum. Te members were
close enough to pull pranks on
each other hundreds of miles
I DIDNT REALLY FIT IN ANY-
WHERE, BUT I WAS ACCEPTED
FOR WHO I WAS.
MAJOR
CHAMPIONSHIP
FINISHES
WCG 2010 - 1st
IEM Cologne - 1st
MLG Summer 2011 - 1st
IEM Guangzhou - 1st
IGN Proleague 3 - 1st
WCG 2011 - 3rd
IEM Worlds - 3rd
MLG Spring 2012 - 2nd
EARLY TRAINING
Georgallidis [left], 8 years old
and standing next to his rst
computer.
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George felt that Dinh was too
immature to lead the commu-
nity at the time. Reginalds
grown up a lot, but back then
he was much younger, he was
two years younger than me,
and a lot more immature.
He worked, played League,
worked, and played League.
Given time, he would start
making more money streaming
with ad revenue than he did
at his full-time job. Georges
mother set it up so that his cous-
in could replace him at work
so that he could start stream-
ing full-time. With a large
existing fanbase, he decided
to take the initiative and start
his own competing organiza-
tion Counter Logic Gaming.
Georges success story is
known to everyone who follows
the League of Legends eSports
scene. He and his team would
continue to fnish in the top of
nearly every tournament for the
next two years. With a steady
source of revenue from stream-
ing and sponsors, Counter
Logic Gaming would acquire
another two teams: a European
League of Legends counterpart
and a DotA 2 team. What is
not as obvious is how the transi-
tion from an average day gamer
to a professional player took its
toll on George over the years.
I
F THE AVERAGE FAN were to be
asked what they thought
were the darkest days for
CLG were, many would
point out the organiza-
tions time in Korea and they
would be right. Te team lost
a lot of its fan base, lost twice
to the eventual winners of the
tournament, and had issues
with the streaming organiza-
tion Own3d.tv. Tensions were
high and George could only
look back across the Pacifc
and watch as rival organization
Team SoloMid won consecutive
tournaments with an ever grow-
ing fan base. It was the start
to the downfall of CLG, they
were no longer an undisputable
top team in North America.
Behind the scenes, George
had issues with his personal
life as well. Te stress of play-
ing League of Legends profes-
sionally was getting to him and
he had no one really to share
and empathize with his experi-
ences. He pushed himself into
getting into a relationship, but
perhaps too quickly. Although
he really appreciated having
someone to understand him, he
added the additional compli-
cation of trying to balance the
responsibilities of a pro gamer
and those of being a signifcant
other. In the end, he was not
quite sure whether he found the
balance, admitting that it was
a difcult task to surmount.
Georges experience shaped
his belief on recruiting and de-
veloping players. When George
was looking into the challenger
scene one of the things he was
looking into was whether or not
a player had a girlfriend. I see
what their goals are, George
explained. [I look at them] and
some of the professional players
PHOTOGRAPH / ANDRE BUTLER / @ATB_FTW
+
TOP PLAYER
George was the rst person
to hold the top two positions
on the North American Solo
Queue Ladder. He has the
record for holding the #1 spot
for a period of time longer
than anyone else.
THE SECRET BEHIND THE NAME:
COUNTER LOGIC GAMING
I was actually looking at someones prole
and in that prole in Warcraft III he was ex-
plaining how counters work and how mind-
games work.
Say your enemy masses a whole bunch of
footmen, in retaliation you buy a bunch of
sorceresses, thats the counter to footmen -
you buy sorceresses.
And then so basically your opponent assumes
you know that counter so he doesnt build
footmen and he builds riemen. Your oppo-
nent goes, Im going to anticipate that hes
going to anticipate, that Im going to build
those units, so Im going to build the counter
to rieman which is footmen.
And its kind of a cycle which goes around,
and I came up with the name Counter Logic
from that. And I stuck with it ever since. I
actually had the name Counter Logic in my
head since I was thirteen. I didnt bring it into
fruition until ve years later, but I always had
the idea in my head.
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that have left the scene and not
succeeded [think], how can
I accommodate professional
gaming to my girlfriend? And
so that makes professional
gaming second. You cant have
a lot of these young players that
may never have had girlfriends
before have all these life is-
sues, heart breaks, and ups and
downs that relationships bring.
Its too mentally exhausting
and time consuming for some-
one that needs to be Faker.
Te one constant that kept
him stressed for the majority of
his career was the community.
A lot of the way the commu-
nity treated me at times, they
didnt really look at me as a
human being, George said. He
would get constantly criticized
and as a young player thrust
into the spotlight, he was not
sure quite how to deal with it.
Te volatility of community
perception was just too much,
One minute you could be
Madlife and a year from that
you could just not play well
and you could be Badlife. It
was hard to block the com-
munity criticism and every so
often he questioned himself
on whether he should retire.
Being a pro gamer is not
easy. Its not easy at all. If it
were a choice for me if I could
be Madlife or Phantomlord,
I would pick Phantomlord.
Hands down. Youre actually
surrounding yourself with fans,
you make more money, you
make your own schedule, your
own path. Being a pro gamer is
not an easy life, it is really hard.
George understood that not
everyone was against him. But
at times, it felt like it did and
showed during his arguments
with teammates and rants on
stream. He was famous for his
raging on stream and admits
that he sometimes stepped out
of line, but thinks that he has
changed for the better. It was
close friends, family, and some
self-refection that allowed
himself to change and take a
more positive approach to his
view on the world. In that light,
amongst all the negativity and
stress, he still values his time
spent as a professional gamer.
He was able to travel all over
the world, make connections
in the gaming industry, and
interact with fans on a daily
basis. Even now, the fans he
gained over his career brighten
up his day whether by recog-
nizing him at the supermarket
or having a game developer
ofer him a free copy of the
game he or she developed.
If his father had never
brought home Diablo; if he did
not have to go online to fnd
friends with common interests;
if being a network technician
really was his calling; if millions
of people around the world did
not fnd his stream engaging
and entertaining the past
few years of League of Legends
eSports may have looked very
diferent. But with a little luck
and the right pieces falling into
place in Georges life, he be-
came the professional gamer he
had never known he wanted to
be. He became one of the most
popular streamers at the time,
founded one of the biggest eS-
ports brands, celebrated early
tournament success, struggled
through difcult times, and
is still here today to watch his
team on the rise once again.
Overall, my experience as
a player was extremely valu-
able to me. I wont say I know
whats going to happen in the
future, but I do know that
for now, I have my eyes set on
the success of CLG.
IF I COULD BE MADLIFE OR
IF I COULD BE PHANTOM-
LORD I WOULD RATHER BE
PHANTOMLORD.
NOT EASY
Being a professional gamer is
not as easy as it sounds, it can
take a large toll.