Interview with KellyMilkies: Who is Alliance's Manager and what does she do?

Hi Kelly, thanks for giving us some of your time! How are you and how excited are you to be travelling to Kiev for the StarLadder LAN Finals?

I'm feeling fantastic at the moment. I can't describe how happy I am that we won the tie-breakers, and this will be the 2nd time I am going to Kiev for the Starladder LAN playoffs. I had the plane tickets on hold because I believed that they would have won, and the moment they won the 2nd game I just booked it! Apart from that, the team has been doing very well recently so everything is [A]wesome!

As the manager of Alliance, what do you actually do for Alliance?

I manage the Dota2, SC2, and Fifa division on a day-to-day basis. I also scout for new players and divisions for the EG/Alliance brand names. For example, I personally scouted BorasLegend, he is the first ever FIFA player to play under the EG/Alliance umbrella.

I do standard managerial stuff like booking hotels and flights when attending tournaments. I also try to take care of ground transport as much as possible. When we live in a team house I also cook and clean for them. I do this completely because I want to, and it's not part of my job - so no worries if you are aspiring to be a manager.

I maintain relationships with current sponsors, and actively search for new sponsors/opportunities for us. There is some administrative work involved as well: for example, I do expenses accounting for the boys because they are terrible at it!

I am also the in-between for the players and our executive management who works in the HQ in SF.

Marcus Caramon schedules day to day match timings for our match schedule. I confirm competition invites and arrange the general "date frame schedule" - blocking dates on the calendar for our participation, while Marcus fills it in with exact time for games etc. In our team, our players schedule their training/scrimming partners themselves.

As Alliance's manager I also actively interact with our fans. I think I am one of the most pro-active managers in eSports when it comes to fan-interaction. I always think of fun stuff to do, and try to get as many freebies as possible for fans when we go on trips. And I host meet-and-greet sessions with fans whenever time allows. Usually I try to do a meet and greet for every tour we attend, no matter how small or big it is.

I also get a monthly salary from EG/Alliance.

So in that sense you're not so much like the traditional manager, who schedules scrims and the day-to-day game timings?

Most traditional managers do that sort of stuff: day-to-day tournament scheduling, practice etc. The way I run the Alliance divisions is very different - I'm more involved in their daily lives, and less focused on structuring their day around competitive play.

Do the members of Alliance permanently stay at the teamhouse, or do they travel back and forth from home as required?

Usually we have a house where we bootcamp at. Last year our house was in Stockholm. At this very current moment we are about to get a new place in Gothenburg. Usually we bootcamp before offline touraments, but this time I think 3 of us (BullDog, EGM, s4) are going to live in there permanently, while the other 3 of us will live there for a couple of days a week and go back home maybe 2 days a week. Akke and Loda already have apartments in Gothenburg, and the team house is pretty close to where our apartments are.

So before this, your team house was only really used for bootcamps?

Before TI3 we stayed in the team house together for about 4 weeks to bootcamp.

Before other offline events, like StarLadder, we bootcamp for a week. Our team is really so bonded that we don't actually need a bootcamp, but we do it because we genuinely enjoy living with each other.

What is your daily schedule like?

We all wake up at around noon, except for Bulldog. He sleeps and wakes earlier than the rest of us; he's more like a normal human being. :D After we wake up, we have some brunch.

They will start training at about 1500 if we are at bootcamp, and it typically lasts until 2200 or 2300. I will start making dinner (according to our schedule of online tournaments) at about 1730, and we try to eat dinner at 1830.

After that either Bummi (if she is there: she's better than me at desserts and meals, so if she's there I make her do it!) or I will make dessert. After training ends, we will sit and eat dessert while watching a movie together, have a team talk, or just destress. After that Bulldog will go to sleep or do whatever he is doing in his room... and the rest of us are bad at sleeping at normal times, so we end up goofing around until about 0300-0500 before we go to bed.

I try to make the guys exercise as often as time allows to keep their stamina and focus up, and I also force everyone in the team to go out at least once a week to either get dinner outside or a movie theater, or even just chilling in the sun if it is summer. I find it important to go out once a week at least.

Given the amount of effort you put in, I am sure you deeply care for the individual players of the team. Do you think your effort has translated into better results for them?

Well, I would like to think so. The boys do appreciate me a lot, and they do know the difference between having me as a manager and another person as one. I don't want to come across as being arrogant but I think I definitely help them get better results purely because I eliminate all other distractions, they only have to play their best.

I remember reading a SEA team interview where they had to settle their trips personally and it was a mess, so I'm sure it does help a lot.

It's really not easy to to plan flights and hotels, it's much harder than you think. You have to get the cheapest one possible, but also plan for a good time. So I always get average good times, and I always look for at least 3 options. I'm conscious of the decisions I need to make as a manager: I try to book flights that are not at ridiculous timings, not at 8 am after a LAN event, for example. And also, I try to get the most reasonable layover for them so that they aren't tired out. I'm pretty sure I have never made a mistake on flights or hotels since I started working officially as their manager though.

I think one of the most important things I do for this team is to balance the chemistry between the team members. Most teams often have issues between players, be it in-game or out of game. At the start of Alliance, we were just like any other team, Akke and Loda were buddies, but the rest were just playing together to win. After I joined Alliance, and after we took in Doney (EGM) we decided to take a risk and grow it like a family.

Why is it a risk?

I had this interesting discussion with Loda once (we fight about work obviously, that's the hardest part of my job: managing my boyfriend.) He felt that sometimes I baby the guys too much and he doesn't want them to go "soft" or to be too comfortable. After the 6 of us stayed together as a team for a year, we have found a good balance of me not over-fussing over them, and still taking really good care of them.

To grow a team like a family also means that when as soon as any problem arises, it requires us to solve any issues or problems we have, as soon as we have it. We pretty much agreed to just tell each other the truth all the time, and I'm pretty sure the Alliance boys don't complain about each other to other people behind each other's back outside of trolling and stuff.

To grow a team like a family also means that there is no option for replacing a player unless it is extremely serious. To a player it means career security, which may cause them to get complacent. Compare this to higher management/ corporate management, it sometimes means that once a team goes into a slump, it may take a longer time to get back up because there is no roster change. With Alliance, we come back really fast from a slump because we force ourselves to talk out all our issues as a family.

After we won The International 3, other teams pretty much realised the power of friendship is above all. A couple of teams actually bonded a lot because they understood that they had to be friends outside of the game to really play their best. For Alliance, we became family, we became brothers. And the players want to win not only for themselves, but for the brothers fighting next to them as well.

Are there things you do for Alliance that we don't know about?

Sometimes I do stats for the team, very basic stats, and I also look at high tier pub games to see what heroes could be funny to try in a new draft.

I am not involved in the actual game play of the team, I am nowhere near as good as my boys, but I do give some pretty good ideas some time. (Example, S4's Timber at TI3)

Regarding this, did you know that Tang '71' Wenyi, manager of the legendary EHOME squad, was also involved in giving them suggestions back when he was managing EHOME through its golden era?

Yeah, I knew that. I apply sports psychology to my team: diet, sleep, and lifestyle. So one interesting thing is that I'm a mom to other teams as well, especially if Asian teams comes to EU/NA, I take care of them. If EU/NA teams attend Asian tournmanets, I take care of them as well, as much as I can.

My room is known to be a first aid room. If you have a cut, I have plasters; I have stomach ache pills, headache pills, jetlag pills, cancer pills (joke), and vitamins. I make sure to feed my boys and cook for them before big tournaments because with a good diet and vitamins during an event, - they are in the best physical condition to play in: they won't fall sick or get tired midway. So everything has to start at least 1 month before, that's why we bootcamp 1 month before TI, mostly because of body chemistry.

Why did you choose to be a manager?

I joined as a manager in Alliance because they had problems with their previous manager. After working in eSports for 10 years, I know that the traditional managers didn't have much power when it came to the welfare of the players.

A lot of the managers were also not "real" managers. They were not treated as actual staff - their remuneration was attending events with the team. Some of them didn't even have a real salary, which I can understand why they didn't treat it as a "real job".

I wanted to set a standard for the industry to highlight the effectiveness of a good manager for his/her players. I hoped that by being an exemplary manager, all other managers could take a leaf out of my book, and understand how succesful your team could be if you had a good manager. I also wanted the sponsors/team owners to realise how important a good manager is.

I know for a fact that my goal has already been achieved. A couple of teams have fired and hired new managers over the past year, and many team captains and managers have come to me for advice on managing relationships within the team.

So what do you think makes a good manager?

These are the important criteria for a manager: your pride and ego has to be lower than those of your players. Managers should also have some form of education when it comes to managing. Many teams hire ex-professional players - players who were not able to take care of themselves when they were playing - how are they expected to take care of and be responsible for players?

Sometimes it's good to invest in a manager who has studied business/sports, because ultimately, you are managing "staff" under you and you require people skills and other skills that you will not possess if you have not pursued it.

Look at Jack from Cloud 9. He's doing a fantastic job for all of his divisions because he has experience working in a corporate company and micro-managing people. In eSports you have to micro-manage a lot, and you also have to be very political and amicable because you are essentially the buffer between players and the sponsors/team owners/upper management.

Most managers end up being unable to balance this equilibrium, and either get fired for sticking up for their players too much or get resentment from their players because they become management-pandering managers.

As a manager, what do you think people fail to recognise about the importance of a good manager?

The most important point is: how much a good manager can motivate/push your team. Most managers require respect; I require love from my boys. If they don't believe in me, it's hard for me to believe in them: it's a 2-way thing for me personally. If they don't believe that I have their best interests at heart, it makes my job very hard. They will question every decision I make on their behalf, and this causes conflict within the team.

How hard is it as a manager to work through the schedules of the different players?

I largely deal with "schedule blocks" and Marcus deals with "time schedule". Our team works on a full schedule together, including personal life schedule.

Sometimes it is challenging to schedule: for example, some people might want to take a longer break than the others, or they want to take breaks at different times. The most important point here I would say is to reach compromises for each other as a team.

On to some more trivia/fun questions, which player is the hardest to mom around?

Well, everyone is awesome and they almost ALWAYS listen to me. If they don't, they know what will happen. ^_^_^_^ The exception is that sometimes they will whine but they will still do what they have to do.

In general, they are very hardworking when it comes to Dota2, but are very lazy IRL so I have to do everything else. But I love them a lot so it's ok.

Why is EGM called Doney?

[A]dmiralBulldongey can answer that question.

If you had to describe each of the Dota 2 squad in three words - adjective adjective Pokemon, how would you describe each of them?

Akke: Loyal, Handsome, Gengar

Loda: Intense, Driven, Psyduck

Bulldog: DongJuan, Burgers, Cubone

S4: Intelligent, G Y M B O Y, Dugtrio

EGM: Godlike, Favourite Son (sorry boys), Togepi <3

Are there people you would like to show your appreciation to?

There are so many people I am thankful to. Sorry, this will be long! This year is actually my 10th year in eSports!!! #decadeSports :D

To my mentors: SirScoots, Tasteless, Oleg Kogut, Stuart Saw, Alex Garfield, and Alex Kokhanovsky

Huge thanks, I would definitely not be where I am today without you listening to me whine everyday and yet still give me advice.

Especially SirScoots, he's been here for me since I started 10 years ago.

To my [A]* team: Loda, Akke, EGM, Bulldog, S4, BorasLegend, SortOf, DeMuslim, NaNiwa - Thanks for the #BELIEVE, let's all keep rocking.

To my [A]* supports: Caramon, AJ, Colin, AnnaProsser, Conrad, SeanGreen, Charlie, Alex G - You guys are god-tier, please stay awesome!

To all the pro-players, managers, event organisers, casters and journalists that I am friends with: you guys are amazing for choosing this path. Without you guys, the scene would not be such an awesome riot.

To all Alliance fans: You guys are simply [A]mazing. I want you to know that without your support, we would NEVER have gotten to where we are today. You keep us going every single day.

Special shoutout to my cykas: Anna Norlander, Clare, Bummi, Marie Inverno, Bubu, Flo, Maria Shishina, Eliza, Kani, and Mischa - 10 amazing girlfriends from all around the world who keep me going on a regular basis :D Without you girls to hang out with me wherever I am in the world, I would be so so lonely. #GRILLpower

I also want to thank my family, especially my dad who truly #BELIEVES in me. Without him, I wouldn't be in eSports. He ignited the love of videogames in me when I was 5, and my mom prolly hates him for that :D As well as Weiyang/aLtoxygen; my clique in Singapore: The Doom Kings. You know who you are!

Special shoutout as well to Loda, Jonathan Berg - The love of my life. Without you, I am nothing. It's us against the world.

All pictures are directly from Kelly. Follow her on Twitter and on Facebook!