Hello and thank you for finding the time for this interview. Can you introduce yourself for the readers?

"Absolutely! My name is Nick Allen. I am the League of Legends Operations Manager for the IGN Pro League."

When did you start working at IGN?

"I was the Backend Manager for Starcraft 2 during IPL3 and then started working full time in League of Legends in the beginning of January."

What exactly do you have to as a LoL operation manager at IGN?

"I'm actually responsible for a lot of aspects of the LoL team. During tournaments, I am responsible for maintaining the brackets, coordinating with players to ensure proper play time, administering rules and regulations, coordinating with our casters to ensure that they are informed and ready for casts.

During other times, I am our volunteer coordinator, I help to write and produce our youtube content alongside our production team, and am the main point of contact with all of the LoL players. I feel like I am leaving a lot out, but those are my main responsibilities."

How did you get to the position you are at now? Any tips for people who want to get into eSports?

"About a year ago the IGN Pro League posted some job openings. I was still in school and applied for a part time position in Starcraft 2. Being based out of Sacramento, they called me to come down to interview. They ended up not having the position I was being interviewed for, but it led me to being invited to work at IPL3 in the Sc2 division; a volunteer position.

Once I got there, I worked my tail off, trying to prove myself in case a job opened up. 3 months later I was contacted by IPL about a position in the newly forming League of Legends team. I interviewed and was offered the job!



For your second question, I actually get asked this question a lot by people, especially at live events. The key thing is to get your foot in the door somehow, and the prove yourself.

Make sure to contact every organization that interests you, and ask how you can get involved. Eventually you'll hear from someone and you'll have an opportunity to prove yourself."

You said you have to communicate with pro players a lot. Are there any players you really liked working with?

What are your personal highlights from IPL4?

"My favorite things from the event were seeing people line up to get in starting at 6 in the morning when the doors didnt open until 10, how star struck the fans were with some of the bigger name players--in some cases too shy to ask for autographs or pictures. But I think the best thing was how crazy the crowd was. At some points, it was crazier than any sporting event I had ever been to. You couldn't hear yourself think, just the crowd yelling and screaming."

I know that the crowd loved Cristina Vee, the host for IPL4, any idea if we’ll get to see her at IPL5 as well?

"I can’t say just yet, but I will say that we recognize how much the community enjoyed her as a host."

Are we going to see more voice actors as the hosts for IPL events? One of the reasons why the crowd loved Cristina Vee so much is because she’s the voice actress of Riven.

"With Cristina Vee, it was an excellent combination of her voice acting with her hosting skills. She had done Anime convention events previously, so she was a natural fit for the position.

If we came across someone with similar abilities who was a LoL voice actor, we would seriously consider having them work the event."

How satisfied are you with the viewer count of IPL4? Are you expecting to get more viewers on IPL5?

"We are really happy with the viewer count of IPL4, but just like any organization, you want everything to be better as you progress.

For IPL5, we are going to be stepping everything up and we are confident we'll have more viewership."

The crowd was amazing in viewer’s perspective; however as an operation manager do you feel that the crowd went a little overboard at some points?

"Not at all! The intensity of the crowd really made IPL4. Just like any live sporting event, the crowd is an integral part of the live viewing experience. I hope we can keep that same energy for IPL5."

Did you see any weaknesses in IPL4 that you would like to improve in the future events?

"I think our biggest room for improvement resides at the player soundproofing level. We didnt have adequate equipment to prevent the players from hearing the crowd or the commentators. As a result, we had to increase the spectator delay from 30 second to 120 seconds. In order to achieve the best live viewing experience, we want to reduce that delay as much as possible so we are actively investigating soundproof booths."

IPL4 was in Las Vegas, the Sin City. It was an amazing event in terms of production value. How are you going to top that with IPL5?

"We're going to top IPL4 by improving in every aspect. The production value will be better, there will be more teams, there will be more casters, there will be more prize money, and there will be more Kpop."

Who came up with the Kpop idea by the way? Was it some sponsorship thing or just a unique idea from the staff?

"It was a result of our partnership with GomTV. They run Kpop before the start of their live broadcasts, and together decided that we would also do run the videos as a symbol of our partnership with them. We didn't expect the communities reaction, but we're all really happy with whats happening."

Only one European team participated in IPL4, which was against All authority , the main reason for this was because the time zones in US and EU are really different and that the qualifiers for the event were held only on the US server. Are you planning to have qualifiers in EU server as well for the IPL5?

"Absolutely. We're going to be running regional qualifiers. EU teams will be playing against EU teams on the EU server. We had a lot of negative feedback from participating players about lag issues during the IPL4 qualifiers, so this is how we are remedying it!"

Thank you for this interview, really glad you had the time to answer. Any shout outs you would like to make?



Also, we're always looking for volunteers here at the IPL, so feel free to hit me up on twitter at "Thanks to the community for your support of IPL! We're working hard to improve our content at every level! Thanks for the chance for this interview!Also, we're always looking for volunteers here at the IPL, so feel free to hit me up on twitter at @DnaAllenIGN if you'd like to get involved!"

I believe many of you who are reading this definitely watched IPL4 just a few weeks ago. Today I will interview one of the people who made the event happen, Nick Allen, the League of Legends Operation Manager for IGN eSports.You can also follow IPL on