
Most people know Paul 'Redeye' Chaloner as an esports commentator or host. He's a veteran of the esports industry, but he does a lot behind the scenes as well.

Especially during the last five years with Code Red Esports, an agency and consultancy company, Redeye has been working with a wide range of clients across a wide range of areas.

One of Code Red's most recent partnerships is with the London Spitfire, a team about to compete in the global Overwatch League, which starts on January 10.

Paul 'Redeye' Chaloner has been around the esports industry for 15 years, doing commentary, hosting, and consultancy

Redeye along with Code Red Esports have teamed up with the London Spitfire Overwatch team to help grow the local scene

The London Spitfire squad is entirely South Korean, leading some to question whether the team is representing Britain

London Spitfire have put together a very strong team, and are one of the favourites to win the first season alongside the likes of Seoul Dynasty. However, they have come under fire from some fans for not exactly representing England and the UK.

The team is owned by Cloud9, a predominantly American company, and the entire squad is made up of South Korean players.

'While it is an American investment team, and it's a Korean team in terms of personnel, the actual team behind it all are very keen that it is a very British, UK-based organisation,' Redeye told Mail Esports.

'We're not going to beat around the bush, we have a Korean team,' he said. 'The reason we have a Korean team is because they were the best players we could get hold of. I think we probably have the strongest overall lineup in the League, and if the number one goal for the team is to win, then we've given the players and the coaches the best opportunity to do that in Season 1.

'We want the same thing as the fans do, it's just that right now, the players that we could get were Korean. For some fans it'll be a thrill just if their local team wins, and I personally believe that even if we have a team of 12 Martians, if they win the Overwatch League that brings a good feeling back to London.

'We have some signature players like Hooreg [Dong-Eun Lee] and Birdring [Ji-Kyeok Kim]. When you watch Birdring on Tracer, it's mind blowing to watch him play. How can you not enjoy that regardless of what nationality they are?'

Redeye is known for his work on the commentary desk, but he also does a lot of work behind the scenes in the industry

British esports fans are able to celebrate some success in competitive games like FIFA and F1, but when it comes to the bigger esports, theyhaven't had much to cheer for.

'We've had probably two or three very big teams in the UK in the past 15 years, and all of them are international. Fnatic doesn't have many UK players. Dignitas have had more, but it's now an American owned team. So we're keen to try and not just succeed with Spitfire, but also turn it into something that's very powerful for UK esports.'

Esports in the UK has certainly been on the rise in recent years. Fnatic have opened the Bunkr, a place where people can go to play games and buy merchandise, while the team's professional players practice in the back rooms.

Companies like Multiplay and ESL UK have been expanding, and Faceit has come over from Italy to start putting on events.

Then you have Gfinity setting up a dedicated esports arena in Fulham Broadway and steadily growing the reach of the Elite Series, a league stretching across multiple games which has started attracting some big teams.

There's also the British Esports Association, which has been cutting through some of the red tape and bypassing some of the governmental blocks that the local esports industry has come up against in the past.

'We have an interest in helping to grow esports around the world, but predominantly we also want to help our home territory,' said Redeye. 'We want to make sure that we help the whole UK esports scene, from grassroots all the way up to professional, and we think we can do that with the Spitfire venue in London.'

All of the Season 1 matches will be at the Burbank, California Blizzard Studio, but after that Spitfire will be based in London

The first season of the Overwatch League will entirely take place in the Blizzard Studio in Burbank, California. However after that, the plan is for teams to be based in their own cities and play home and away matches.

As such, each of the teams will likely be building their own base, and Cloud9 and Spitfire are very much looking into what the London venue will be like.

'In the past three months we've been talking to probably a dozen different potential areas where we can set up somewhere big enough, bold enough, exciting enough, and accessible enough that people will come along and enjoy it,' said Redeye.

'The thing I'm most excited about is building an arena in London with all the associated extras. Having a shop where people can buy esports merchandise is fairly unusual right now. Fnatic are going a great job with Bunkr, but we want to spread that even bigger.

'Streamers for instance. We want to engage with all the local streamers and bring them in and entertain people. We want to make it a fun place to come. While Overwatch and London Spitfire are the focus, we want to do so much more.

'We might have a temporary home to start with, but I'm very keen that we get things up and running in 2018. The likelihood of us having a permanent base this year is probably unrealistic, but a lot of it is also down to Blizzard's decision of what they do.'

So far, Blizzard hasn't come to a decision on how exactly the home and away match structure will work for subsequent seasons of the Overwatch League.

'I'm very staunch about this internally,' insisted Redeye, 'I've told all the guys involved that I want the team based in Britain. I don't care if they're Korean, I don't care where they come from as long as they're successful and they're based in the UK so we can have access to them.'

The Overwatch League itself has plans for additional content beyond the match broadcasts, focusing on the players. Spitfire also has some ideas of its own.

'We have a fantastic announcement to come in the next few days in terms of content we've got planned,' said Redeye. 'The team have got some cool ideas of what they want to do with the players... tea and scones, teaching them some English phrases. Hopefully healthy phrases rather than rude ones. We want to have fun with them and generally introduce them to the UK fanbase.'

The London Spitfire team are currently having regular English lessons, and are planning to learn more about the country

The members of the London Spitfire are currently having regular English lessons. No doubt living in Los Angeles for the first season of the Overwatch League will accelerate that learning process. Redeye says their coach, Kim 'JeongFeel' Jeong-min is already fluent, and that the main language problem the team will have will be Redeye's attempts at learning Korean.

As for the future of the London Spitfire, Redeye would certainly like a more outward facing British presence. There will be a Spitfire Contenders Team, and the plan is for at least some of those players to be found through local tournaments.

'Once they're in Contenders, I'm not going to stop,' he said. 'I want them to carry on learning and playing alongside great players and then potentially move into the fully professional team. It's a dream, but it's also one I think is realistic and achievable over the next three to five years.'

As for the future of the Overwatch League, who knows whether they'll eventually impose a foreign player restriction, a bit like that found in traditional sports, and even the North American League of Legends Championship Series. NA LCS teams are only allowed a couple of players not from the region, a restriction which would scupper the majority of Overwatch League teams.

'I've always seen Blizzard as very open minded on things like that,' said Redeye. 'I don't know that they would necessarily want to put restrictions on it. We look at esports through sports-tinted glasses sometimes because they have some similarities, but I think our industry is very different.

'I don't think we necessarily have to follow the norms of other sports, especially as it's a very global industry, and it wasn't born out of the roots of local clubs. We're coming at things from a very different direction. Sports have grown from grassroots into professional, while we're doing it the other way around.

'I don't think it's necessary to have restrictions, but from my point of view, the best thing for me, Code Red, and Spitfire fans would be to have some British players on the team.

'There are British players in the league, but I'm not sure we have enough to fill a whole team yet and compete at the highest level. It galls me that one of my friends, Numlocked [Seb Barton], is playing for [Los Angeles] Valiant,' Redeye joked. 'That means I have to sort of cheer for them a little bit. Not much, but a little bit.'

Redeye wants to help grow the entire esports industry in the UK, and that starts with London Spitfire's success in the OWL

Redeye doesn't see having an all Korean team as a problem. He urges people to look towards equivalent situations in real sports. Some of the best Formula 1 teams in the world are based in Britain. The World Champion right now, Lewis Hamilton, is British, but he drives for a German team.

'Chelsea football club has Russian owners, Russian investors, and a team full of non-British players,' he said. 'When they do get British players they're loaned out. I would love to have a British player in the team, and I think when the time is right we will. If fans think we're anti-British in any way, they'd be wrong. Think of the possibilities we'd have with a British player on the team.

'It would be enormous from a marketing point of view, a sponsorship point of view, from a success point of view. It would be fantastic!'

For now, Redeye urges patience. 'A lot of it comes down to what we're going to do over the next 12 months. I think we should be judged a year from now on what we've done rather than looking at it right now and thinking "American company, Korean players, why are they in London?"'

The next 12 months will be big for London Spitfire, the Overwatch League, and esports in general. There's a lot going on this year, and only time will tell what the landscape looks like in 2019.