All Work All Play

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1

Good luck.

I'm not known for...

Are you gonna get all teary?

You gonna get...

- Huh?

- You gonna get teary?

What do you think?

Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to the intel extreme

masters world championship!

To open the tournament,

it gives me great pleasure

to introduce you to the director

of pro gaming, Poland's

very own michal blicharz!

It's an emotional moment

for me,

because it's been

a dream of mine

to bring the intel

extreme masters here.

We are all here in this room

right now

because we all know

that at any given moment,

something special can happen,

something unforgettable,

something epic.

A moment that all of you

will take home with you.

If she destroys this on film,

10,000 nerds

will cry out in agony.

IT'S A LIMITED EDITION TOY

FROM BlizzCon.

Yes, you broke it.

Look.

This is my first true love.

It's a game.

"Unreal tournament."

And, by the way,

i haven't played this game

in quite some time,

so I'm horrible at it right now.

But I used to be good.

When he plays

and it's a really intense match,

whenever he jumps in-game,

he tends to do this...

He's gonna hate me so much

for doing it,

but this is what he does.

I started playing it in 1999,

and I organized tournaments

so I could compete myself,

because nobody

was doing it at the time.

WE USED TO COME:

INTO Internet CAFS

like hustlers

going to a pool hall.

Come in with as much swagger

as possible

to scare the opponents,

but that wasn't pro gaming.

I mean,

the first place prize was $50,

and I would actually have to win

that $50

not to starve for a week.

Most of us wouldn't break even,

but we played for the thrill

of it, for the love of it.

And, gradually, kind of,

you know, the sport grew.

People watch other people

play video games.

Yes, you heard me right.

Who would want to watch

teenagers just clicking away,

playing their video games

all night?

Sitting, watching other people

playing computer games all day.

Really?

It's hard for me

to bring anybody

just from the street,

sit that person on my couch,

and tell them

to be enjoying this,

but take them to a stadium,

and they will love

the experience.

I think you don't need

to use words then to translate

what this phenomenon

of esports is.

Imagine what they'd do today

if golf became a sport, right?

We'd never heard of it before,

and someone from Scotland

said we're gonna knock

a ball 500 yards into a hole,

and we're gonna put a tiny flag

in it so you can just about

see it and give you some hope.

And that's...

Then go to ESPN and say,

"do you want to cover it?"

And they'd be like,

"you must be mad."

When there were no video games,

kids played soccer,

they played football,

and they'd have these dreams,

"if I could do this

for a living, man!"

But now almost every kid

plays video games.

For the first time,

there's professional athletes

doing that.

And that dream's powerful.

You can look at

the prize-winning pools

for all the players.

They're all up

in the higher echelons

of getting close to

half a million now.

It's moved from this little kids

in a basement

to everybody celebrating what

has become an awesome sport.

intel extreme masters

is a tournament circuit

which is the oldest of them all.

The ones that were started

before it, they've died off

because their business model

hasn't been realistic.

We're into season nine,

and it started off

in the old bedroom-cast style.

Lounge giant crt monitors

with people tucked behind them.

I AM Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham,

broadcaster

for the global gaming league

and member of inside the game.

Right, so the first question

for you, how did you

get into shoutcasting?

Just tell us the full story.

Do you want the long vers...

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Wait a second!

Hold on!

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

I was a journalist

before joining esl.

I was writing stuff

and I was critical of a lot

of things

that happened in esports,

in the industry overall.

He was very critical

of intel extreme masters.

I remember he wrote a piece

explaining what he would do

if he were running it,

and then...

I offer him the job to run it.

You know, I had zero management

experience... none whatsoever.

Then, suddenly,

I'm running the most prestigious

tournament circuit.

Uh...

Stick around.

I'll be back in a quarter hour.

Ah!

Ah.

She's sleepy.

First thing you need to know

that michal

is completely different at home

than he is at work.

Hey.

What you got there?

We need to get her a dog.

It's a bit sad, don't you think?

She's star-struck, though.

She's like...

Wow.

- Oh, my god, Apollo.

- Yes.

- Look at her.

- Do you follow me on Twitter?

Yes, you do!

And now in the most stacked

qualifier

that we've ever seen

in the intel extreme masters,

we're gonna be opening up

with an absolutely amazing game.

And it's gonna be good.

Esl is the company behind

the intel extreme masters.

They are the guys that give the

production, the on-air talent.

You're dealing with 200 to 300

staff essentially.

And that's a lot of people to

pull together for one big event.

Everyone that works here

stems from being

hooked on video games.

Oh!

When my mom dropped me off

at my very first competition,

she looks around, she's like,

"it's all boys."

It's literally... it's all boys.

But that would

actually help me

interact with people

socially better,

which made me grow as a person

outside of video games as well.

I first started playing online

multiplayer with my brother.

We didn't live together.

We'd meet up on the Internet.

And this was the way that we

could still do things together.

- Oh, no!

- No.

- Yeah!

- Oh, my god!

Working with esl,

i have a purpose.

Like, we have a common goal,

if you like.

We want to make it big, we want

to make esports acceptable,

but we aren't there yet.

We're not ESPN, we're not BBC.

We don't have their experience

and their money

and their backing.

When we have

one of those huge events,

it is an opportunity

to show people

who not necessarily

know esports how awesome it is.

And that's why I think

so much stress comes with it

because it has to be perfect.

The intel extreme masters

this year features two games...

"League of legends"

and "starcraft ii."

"Starcraft ii"

is a one-versus-one game

and a successor

to "starcraft:
Brood war,"

which is the game that helped

launch esports in 2001.

New territory.

He has so much supply.

Oh, a big drop

in the main base here.

It's caught snute off guard!

Flash makes

the unbelievable recovery!

"League of legends" is

a five-versus-five

team-based game,

and by far the most

popular video game in the world.

Oh, Nick is through.

Is he gonna be the second?!

Yes, he will!

Normally,

"league of legends" teams

compete within

their own regions.

The intel extreme masters

gives the top teams

one of the few chances

to compete

against the rest of the world.

But to get to

the I.E.M. World championship

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