This week, I spoke to ESL UK Community Manager Rich Simms about his involvement with the upcoming Halo events.



Like many of those who have ended up in the games industry in some professional capacity, the obsession with gaming began at a very young age for Rich. “We never really used to have computers growing up - my family were quite old fashioned so electronics, gizmos, PCs: we didn’t really have them” he says. Unlike children these days who sport iPads from pushchairs. *sigh*. Rich’s Mother re-married and his new step-siblings were introduced into the family home, along with the first proper tech that Rich got his hands on. “I played ‘Alex Kidd’, the free one, on the Megadrive and then it was a mixture of whatever single player games I could play on what we had – it didn’t matter what it was” says Rich. And so, the seed is planted and the obsession grows. “As soon as we got our Xbox with ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’ – I’d say it’s been ‘Halo’ for the past fourteen years – maybe with a bit of Warcraft in the background.” That’s a whole lot of Halo. At this point though, Rich was still without one key piece of the puzzle of modern gaming: the internet. “When I was sixteen, I moved to my Dad’s and I started playing ‘Halo 2’ online - he had the internet. We didn’t have the internet back at my Mum’s house at the time” says Rich. Presumably, they were still using books and things to do their homework. “I just happened to get quite good at the game” says Rich modestly, “but I was smacking it every single night, six/seven days a week so…” And you know what they say about practice. “I met a couple of friends online, started playing with regulars – they used to watch the American Pro Scene and they kind of got me into watching that. Then we started looking, trying to find our own local LANs.” When Rich was about fifteen/sixteen he started travelling down to Birmingham to go to LAN events. “And yeah, it kind of bred from there really!”



The first ever esports event that Rich went to compete at was a TSG 3 Local 2v2 LAN event back in March 2005. “An extremely seedy little place in West Ham, underneath the motorway dark arches in this little…er…Cabin? I want to call it?” says Rich. I’m sure his mother was suitably worried. “It was a bit weird, at that age, travelling around on coaches, on my own, having no idea what’s really going on, meeting people I’ve never met before…” says Rich. His poor, poor mother. “But it was good fun! And it kind of spiraled from there!”



From seedy cabins under motorways to the dizzy heights of international ESL events. How does one make the leap? “I dropped out of the competitive scene for a while” says Rich, “getting married, getting a house, real life stuff…” Real life: also important. Just letting all you hard-core gamers know. “I was starting to move up the chain of command at my job as a printer-engineer. But then, when ‘Halo 4’ came out, I decided I wanted to have another go at competing again. But, it went horribly wrong. Well, I was alright, I could carry my own and I knew what I was doing but…” Alas, poor Rich no longer possessed the sharpness of his former, sixteen year old self. “The world’s moved on: new, young people competing at that level and completely trashing everybody – doing what I kind of used to do back in the day.” He got last place at the ‘Halo 4’ event. “I got completely trashed.” *sad face*



Silver lining: there was a microphone there. “I knew what I was talking about, so I started talking to people online whilst the game was going on in the background, because no one was really commentating” says Rich. From there, Rich started getting invited to other events; even events across the pond. “I got invited to go to America to do events for Halo and ESL.” So long cabins of West Ham. “I kept pushing myself to do more” says Rich, “and kept in touch with the right people – seeing if they needed anything doing for events and things like that. I reached out to ESL to see if they’d be covering ‘Halo’ – I got my foot in the door with them, or so to speak.”



The ‘Halo’ franchise is Rich’s favourite. “I love the online 4v4 – you never know what’s going to happen.” A metaphor for life really; one day you’re at home with the wife, the next you’re flying off to America to cast for ESL…You just never know.

The Halo world championships are imminent; in case you hadn’t heard. The EMEA Finals, which Rich will cast, are happening next weekend: the 6th/7th February. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had an event of this scale.” Says Rich. “A two-million dollar prize pool for the world championship.” Yikes. “Now we’re moving up to the EMEA Regional finals which will select four players to move on to the world finals.” Lives will be changed and hearts will be broken. Rich is ready: “I still treat it like a hobby.” This is a game he knows very well indeed. “I just go and have fun and make sure the viewers on the stream have fun!” Most of Rich’s preparation involves personal improvement; a little ‘Zen’ before the madness: “I trim my beard, get a fresh haircut and buy some new shirts. I try and go on a bit of a diet and go to the gym in the lead up to an event; have a bit of a refresh – because when you go to the events, they are hard on your body. Every time you go to an event you eat so much crap. It’s ridiculous.”



It sounds like Rich is ready to have a lot of fun with ‘Halo’ over the next few months. “We’re a close knit group and we’re all good friends” he says of the other casters and the players. “It’s a close community and everybody knows everybody. Especially for ‘Halo’; it’s a smaller community and Europe and America have kind of come together.” It was never in Rich’s ‘life plan’ that he’d be doing what he’s doing. “It’s still not really fully sunk in” he says. But he seems pretty chuffed with how well things are going. “ESL are just taking it up to that next level and, I can see this, they’re always challenging themselves to make something different and go the extra mile. Shows are looking like films. It’s incredible. Every single event that you see – just mind blowing.”



Don’t forget to watch Rich at the ESL EMEA Halo Finals this coming weekend over on



Written by: Lauren Slater At this point though, Rich was still without one key piece of the puzzle of modern gaming: the internet. “When I was sixteen, I moved to my Dad’s and I started playing ‘Halo 2’ online - he had the internet. We didn’t have the internet back at my Mum’s house at the time” says Rich. Presumably, they were still using books and things to do their homework. “I just happened to get quite good at the game” says Rich modestly, “but I was smacking it every single night, six/seven days a week so…” And you know what they say about practice. “I met a couple of friends online, started playing with regulars – they used to watch the American Pro Scene and they kind of got me into watching that. Then we started looking, trying to find our own local LANs.” When Rich was about fifteen/sixteen he started travelling down to Birmingham to go to LAN events. “And yeah, it kind of bred from there really!”The first ever esports event that Rich went to compete at was a TSG 3 Local 2v2 LAN event back in March 2005. “An extremely seedy little place in West Ham, underneath the motorway dark arches in this little…er…Cabin? I want to call it?” says Rich. I’m sure his mother was suitably worried. “It was a bit weird, at that age, travelling around on coaches, on my own, having no idea what’s really going on, meeting people I’ve never met before…” says Rich. His poor, poor mother. “But it was good fun! And it kind of spiraled from there!”From seedy cabins under motorways to the dizzy heights of international ESL events. How does one make the leap? “I dropped out of the competitive scene for a while” says Rich, “getting married, getting a house, real life stuff…” Real life: also important. Just letting all you hard-core gamers know. “I was starting to move up the chain of command at my job as a printer-engineer. But then, when ‘Halo 4’ came out, I decided I wanted to have another go at competing again. But, it went horribly wrong. Well, I was alright, I could carry my own and I knew what I was doing but…” Alas, poor Rich no longer possessed the sharpness of his former, sixteen year old self. “The world’s moved on: new, young people competing at that level and completely trashing everybody – doing what I kind of used to do back in the day.” He got last place at the ‘Halo 4’ event. “I got completely trashed.” *sad face*Silver lining: there was a microphone there. “I knew what I was talking about, so I started talking to people online whilst the game was going on in the background, because no one was really commentating” says Rich. From there, Rich started getting invited to other events; even events across the pond. “I got invited to go to America to do events for Halo and ESL.” So long cabins of West Ham. “I kept pushing myself to do more” says Rich, “and kept in touch with the right people – seeing if they needed anything doing for events and things like that. I reached out to ESL to see if they’d be covering ‘Halo’ – I got my foot in the door with them, or so to speak.”The ‘Halo’ franchise is Rich’s favourite. “I love the online 4v4 – you never know what’s going to happen.” A metaphor for life really; one day you’re at home with the wife, the next you’re flying off to America to cast for ESL…You just never know.The Halo world championships are imminent; in case you hadn’t heard. The EMEA Finals, which Rich will cast, are happening next weekend: the 6th/7th February. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had an event of this scale.” Says Rich. “A two-million dollar prize pool for the world championship.” Yikes. “Now we’re moving up to the EMEA Regional finals which will select four players to move on to the world finals.” Lives will be changed and hearts will be broken. Rich is ready: “I still treat it like a hobby.” This is a game he knows very well indeed. “I just go and have fun and make sure the viewers on the stream have fun!” Most of Rich’s preparation involves personal improvement; a little ‘Zen’ before the madness: “I trim my beard, get a fresh haircut and buy some new shirts. I try and go on a bit of a diet and go to the gym in the lead up to an event; have a bit of a refresh – because when you go to the events, they are hard on your body. Every time you go to an event you eat so much crap. It’s ridiculous.”It sounds like Rich is ready to have a lot of fun with ‘Halo’ over the next few months. “We’re a close knit group and we’re all good friends” he says of the other casters and the players. “It’s a close community and everybody knows everybody. Especially for ‘Halo’; it’s a smaller community and Europe and America have kind of come together.” It was never in Rich’s ‘life plan’ that he’d be doing what he’s doing. “It’s still not really fully sunk in” he says. But he seems pretty chuffed with how well things are going. “ESL are just taking it up to that next level and, I can see this, they’re always challenging themselves to make something different and go the extra mile. Shows are looking like films. It’s incredible. Every single event that you see – just mind blowing.”Don’t forget to watch Rich at the ESL EMEA Halo Finals this coming weekend over on twitch.tv/halo MattjA , Thursday, 04/02/16 04:15