As Stephen Colbert might say, it’s time for the second part in our three part series, “Better Know a CAL Admin.” I hope you didn’t miss yesterday’s interview with CAL|Barry, and tomorrow I’ll release the final installment: an interview with CAL|Gancorz, the new Counter-Strike: Source Game Manager. But for now we have an Operations Manager and a QC Admin answering some questions. So without further ado, here's the interview with CAL|Daniel.
1)Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. As I understand it, you have two duties in CAL. You’re an Operations Manager, and you’re a QC admin. Let’s handle the Operations aspect first. I think the only thing most people know is that it has something to do with managing some kind of operations, which may or may not be medical in nature. So, if we had your job for a week, what are some things we could look forward to? What do you do?
CAL|Daniel: No problem, always happy to converse with the communities I serve! Really, the term “operations manager” is quite vague even to me. It encompasses QC as sub-responsibility among many other sub-responsibilities; QC is not a separate duty. To be fair, I did a lot of QC work before I became Operations so it is just something I tend to on a regular basis. My job for a week… do you know these so-called volunteers don’t even get paid! Heh, that was my cue that doing my “job” requires a good sense of humor because we are not, paid which means we can pick our own hours of operations and time schedule to get things done. However, this means that my daily and even weekly schedule for what I do for CAL varies by my real life.
A large part of what I do involves training, firing and hiring admins. Experienced admins will come to me for advice on a regular basis because I have been here for so long. Another part of my operations position involves making sure long term projects succeed as well as the games are getting what they need out of the present resources we can provide. I spend a lot of time conversing with the admins to see if there is something more I should be providing to them. For QC, I take complaints very seriously. Users will not always get what they desire out of a QC ticket, but the one promise I make to anyone that files one or contacts me is my full attention and investigation of the issues.
2) The list of games you preside over is impressive. ETQW, Warcraft 3, Warsow, Call of Duty, Dawn of War, Day of Defeat: 1.3, Day of Defeat: Source, Admin of Busy. (Okay, I made that last one up, but that’s how I’d feel.) Do you think seven games is enough, or are you looking to add a couple more just for fun?
CAL|Daniel: Well, seven games is a lot especially since it means I spend a lot of my time reading forums to make sure people are satisfied with our leagues. As far as more games, I am always willing to take on more responsibility if it helps CAL and another eager community. Operations divides responsibility; the other Operations Managers are just as busy as I am.
3) As for the QC portion of your duties, most people are familiar with that department. For anybody who isn’t, what is your job description there, and how big is the department?
CAL|Daniel: Right now the department is being reformed so we can better service the complaints and make sure there is less of a wait time. My job description more or less is to investigate any issues of consequence to their fullest extent. However, there are limits. For example, AC review matters have their own review process and forum stuff is less important than the normal complaints that come in so they have their own email for those issues (calforums@caleague.com). Basically, my job description when it comes to QC is to make sure everyone gets answered and heard because the goal of our QC department is to make sure you feel like your side has been thoroughly listened to. We want you to know that someone cares. QC serves as another check and balance for the league.
4) I think it’d help the community to have a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes. Could you describe the process of handling a dispute? How you get notified, how long each one usually takes, how many you get per day, that kind of thing.
CAL|Daniel: Boy that is a loaded question, but they all have been! How long a dispute takes and its’ process are largely determined by what kind of dispute it is. If the user has included everything I need in the first place in the QC ticket then the ticket will be done quite fast. Sometimes, I need to contact some users or admins for more information / their side of the events. We have a ticket handling system that assigns a QC number chronologically so the tickets are handled by the order in which they come in unless the ticket has some timestamp urgency on it (for instances a playoff match). The amount we receive varies by what point of the season it is in each game.
5) Are most of the tickets you handle straightforward, or do you sift through a lot of arguments and emotions to get to the facts?
CAL|Daniel: Sometimes there is a lot of emotion in the tickets, which makes it hard to sift out the facts of the situation. In general, we do not see many straightforward tickets. We very much appreciate the tickets that are straightforward though, proofread and organized. Imagine it just like your high school or college English paper! Having six fragments and a run on sentence (such as my responses in this interview) makes it hard for us to follow you!
6) In every league there are allegations of admin abuse and corruption. Without getting into too much detail, do you think that the QC department has helped CAL cut back on those things?
CAL|Daniel: Without getting into too much detail, there is not much admin abuse because QC and Operations deal with it swiftly and severely. Anything out of line is brought almost immediately to our attention.
7) Although CS isn’t listed under your long list of games, you’ve dropped by the forums before (and handled yourself very well, I might add). Do you play CS? What are some of the games you do play, and how long have you been a gamer?
CAL|Daniel: I have proudly/sadly (day dependant!) been a gamer since 1995. I regularly pub a lot of games but have to a large extent dropped and minimized my competitive play to give that kind of time to CAL instead. I can be found pubbing most any game. Lately, I have been playing CoH & C&C3 but sometimes I can be found playing dods, wc3, ET, rtcw, guildwars, dow, aoe3, fear. I have not played cs since 1.3 or css since release (shadowids and awp make me a sad panda).
8) I’m sure you’ve heard about the changes in the CAL-Invite CS:Source division. What do you think about the changes that were made, and what’s your outlook on the upcoming season?
CAL|Daniel: I think that Shawn has done an amazing job looking out for the communities best interest and I think that because of that Shawn will bring the community what it deserves. The changes look promising but only time will tell of their success.
9) What are some of your interests outside of gaming? (Do you have a family, go to school, play sports, etc.)
CAL|Daniel: I am just a regular old Joe! I spend time with my family, friends, finishing off college. I have a wide variety of interests that eat at my time (and I am looking for work that will encompass them!)
10) The only CAL with a longer tenure than the online league is Ripken Jr. What does CAL need to do in order to stay on top of online gaming , and what are some of the biggest obstacles towards online leagues (admin abuse, hacking, lack of prize money, etc)? (I’m sure a lot of people would debate whether CAL is the premier online league, but considering the huge amount of games they offer and the massive player base, I think it’s fair to say they’re still the most popular league, by far.)
CAL|Daniel: Well I will try to answer that question in two parts, one I think leagues in general biggest problem will always be hacking. We all know the reasons why and we all wish we could wave a magic wand that will fix it. However, it just does not work that way. When it comes down to it, I think a league’s biggest worry is losing touch with the communities that it serves to the point that we can no longer service the community. As far as CAL’s specific problems go, it is hard to continue to service all these communities adequately without acquiring ways to compensate the admins and prize packages for teams participating in the long seasons. We are hoping the tournaments that are slowly coming to CAL will help alleviate these problems.
11) What are your thoughts on the recent news about Sierra becoming the lead sponsor for CPL and the World Tour featuring two non-traditional titles? Do you think it will have a big impact on the games played during the LAN as well, or do you expect it to stay with time-tested games?
CAL|Daniel: Fear has had several tournaments in the past, and has also been in a previous CPL and has also been in CAL before. Fear has the potential to go very far with teams like the Doctors showing interest, but the problem will be making sure that potential is realized.
12) You’ve been around CAL for a long time, I assume. What is one of your best memories of being an admin or gaming in general?
CAL|Daniel: 3 years! My best memories include just the diversity of people I have encountered and their different senses of humors. There are so many inside jokes between past and present staff that it makes me happy to know we share a hobby! As far as a specific memory, I love the way CAL does not mind playing April fools jokes on itself, the admins and the players.
13) If you had to pick, what’s the most humiliating way for a player to die in a game (not limited to CS)? Personally, I’d go with cratering. It’s pretty bad if you: a) can’t figure out how to work the ladder, or b) are in such a bad situation that you might as well take the plunge. What’s your take?
CAL|Daniel: Well I personally always loved a bug found in certain games that said “death by leaving map-clipping limits.” However, there is always the ever popular teabag death, knife death or of course the ‘goomba death.’
14) If there was one thing you could bring from professional sports in eSports, what would it be? (Some examples, but not limited to: farm systems, coaches, paid attendance, player unions, agents, drafts, hall of fame, all-star games/league awards, sabermetrics, designated “offseason”)
CAL|Daniel: We’ve attempted to bring, all star games, league awards, hall of fame, drafts before, and they’ve never worked but these are definitely things I would love to see happen.
Recap
If you have any questions spawned by the interview, you can e-mail Daniel at daniel.parmet@caleague.com.
Also, the CAL forums have an e-mail account? Why didn't I know this!? I could have been e-mailing them all kinds of ridiculous questions like, "how many offers for sexual enhancement do you get every day?", or, "Would you like free sexual enhancement?! It's free!"
On a more serious note, it seems like the Quality Control department is in good hands. It's sad to admit, but I was expecting all the admins to be a little brief with their answers. The last thing I would want to do after volunteering that many hours a day is sit down for another two or three to answer fifteen questions from some crazy eSports blogger. But to a man, they've all taken the extra step to not only provide excellent answers, but also offer advice and the opportunity for follow-up questions. I've been totally blown away, and I want to thank all three of them for not only the work they do with CAL, but for being so professional and thorough with the interviews.
And as a last reminder, up tomorrow is CAL|Gancorz. I hope you've enjoyed the first two, and have a good Sunday!
