Interview with Partik ''Raislin'' HellStrand, head of GosuGamers

Gaming communities are one of the most convenient ways on how to be updated on esports happenings. Today, there are more than a thousand of different gaming communities. One of the most visited is GosuGamers.net. Patrik HellStand also known as Raistlin is the head administrator of the famous gaming community site, GosuGamers.net, one of the most recognized and visited gaming communities in world. The site offers almost everything you need like news, updates, interviews, streams, betting system, profiles and more. It is surely the eSports place to be.

Today we bring you an interview with GosuGamers.net head administrator, Mr.Partik “Raislin” HellStrand.

RGN: How did you start GosuGamers.net?

Raislin: GosuGamers started out, actually, in 2002, as a Swedish site that would focus on the non-expansion part of StarCraft 1. It was then called StarCraftGamers. It quickly shifted attention to Brood War though. A couple of years later, the site launched in English, and that was when I hopped on board, and was promoted editor-in-chief by the founder Jonatan "Mazor" Littke. A couple of years later, we dove into another game, WarCraft 3, and came to the conclusion that our earlier name would not fit us anymore, so we altered it to GosuGamers, the prefix comes from the Korean word 'high hand', as in; the person who has the upper hand.

 

We started out as a hobby project, and some of our core members back then are still with us today in one way or the other. It's been 10 years, so obviously things have changed since the guys first opened up the servers, haha.

 

RGN: What is the idea behind GosuGamers?

Raislin: Our core aim when we set out to make the site, was to focus on high quality eSports news by picking up aces in the stack, as well as offering our userbase a platform to express themselves and take part in the community flow.

 

We were also in the forefront when it came to fair-play. Our vision is to induce sportsmanship, resepct and a mannered approach into the community. Over the years, we have done several movements to further push this. We all know that people are different, and come to GosuGamers for all purposes, so of course there will be some discrepancy between our visions and the community. But I think we have come a long way.

 

RGN: Why did you name it GosuGamers? Who picked the name? Is there a story behind the name?

Raislin: As years went by, we have also hosted a multitude of events in several game titles, such as GosuCups for StarCraft, StarCraft 2, Dota, the World Cup for Heroes of Newerth and much more. Since we were Swedish-based, we were also the partners of many larger scaled events out there. We organized events for World Cyber Games, ESWC, KODE5, and DreamHack to mention some. So while the idea was to give a community and our userbase high quality eSports news, we have also done the whole package; events, replays, match coverage, streams, VODs. So yeah, the main idea and our goals, ideas and ideals change, but the main idea is to be a place where people can feel welcome and enjoy eSports and gaming.

 

Yeah, as I mentioned, our original name was StarCraftGamers, which was a name of a clan formed by Jonatan Littke. Then over the years, as we expanded into more games than just StarCraft, we changed our prefix to 'Gosu', a saying we adapted from meaning just "a good player" into being what we wanted to establish: it describes a person who has superior gaming technique, good manners and displays great sportsmanship.

 

RGN: How did the community become popular?

Raislin: Well, I think we reached the point where we are now because of our consistency and the fact that we have something for everybody. We offer a virtual-money betting system, tournaments, VODs vault, top notch broadcasters of our own events, quick news, sharp analysis and opinion pieces, replays - all that for 8 eSports titles.

 

Of course we can't deny that our replay databases both for StarCraft and DOTA has been and is still widely popular, which helped us grow our userbase. That along with our continuous efforts giving the readers top notch coverage from events around the world, including SMM, The International and all the events in Kiev for example. Our strength lies in the crew and their tireless and passionate attitude.

 

RGN: Let’s go with the crew, how are they?

Raislin: Oh, they are terrific. Without the GosuCrew, we wouldn't have anything. I believe that GosuGamers is a platform for self-growth, education and having a great time working with others who are just as passionate as you are. I believe we have over 60 crew members who all take care of the site and managing it and making sure it's a well fed and maintained.

 

The guys behind GosuGamers are an awesome gang, with team and section leaders who have been in "the game" for so long. It is not hard to find the motivation and dedication to keep working with this.

 

The GosuCrew are all fathers and mothers of the GosuGamers baby. We feed it, it grows bigger. We educate it, it gets smarter. We give it challenges, it excels beyond our expectations.

 

RGN: How did you pick the game titles?

Raislin: In the beginning, we were all about StarCraft. A couple of years later, we decided to move in to WarCraft 3, a passion game of mine and the correlation between the games, both being Blizzard titles and the scenes sort of intertwine in some cases, it was a natural step.

 

We also introduced World of WarCraft, and had it as a section for a couple of years. It was also a close game to the Blizzard series, so while it never hit the same eSports magnitute like the other titles, it was still a game close at heart.

 

I guess what’s most interesting for you, and the main audience of GosuGamers, is the DotA section. Why we came to add it is a pretty funny story, and it started with a little man, named Daniel "silas" Samuelsson, who reached out to us as we were planning the eSport tournament titles at DreamHack many many years back.

 

While we had little experience with DotA, he promised us that if we included DotA in the game titles we would get at least 50 teams signing up. We agreed, and we told him to lead the event together with us in Jönköping, Sweden. 90 teams signed up. That was when we understood the true potential of DotA, so in conjunction with us hosting the DotA tournaments for DreamHack. We also put a community together, and added the DotA section.

 

We then held on to those titles for quite a while, til Starcraft 2 came out. It was only a natural addition to the site, as the game's predecessor was our premiere game section, and then along came Heroes of Newerth. It was a game we had our eyes on for a while, due to its same style as DotA. We were approached by S2 Games to be the official tournament hosts and coverage partners for their bombardic tournament, the $40,000 USD World Cup.

 

We saw this as a great way to start off a game section, and made sure HoN would fit in well within the GosuGamers family. As you know, MOBA followers have a hard time with organizations and sites "cheating" on their own game. So sure, there were some badmouthing at the time, but it was a cool opportunity for us, for HoN, for partners, for our users, basically for everyone.
Sau đó chúng tôi vẫn tiếp tục các tựa game này trong một thời gian, cho đến khi Starcraft 2 ra mắt. 

 

Our latest addition was Diablo 3, a game that let us return to our roots as a Blizzard gaming site. While the eSports plans for the game is still shrouded in mystery with the delaying of PVP, it is still a cool game, close to heart, and something we think that our already existing readers would love to read more about.

 

RGN: Do you have plans on adding more game titles?

Raislin: Nothing in the pipeline right now. But who knows what happens in the future with other game titles gaining ground. CS: GO seems to become a cool game, but we have never touched any FPS game on GosuGamers, so it's not that likely. But all game titles are interesting for us to at least have a look at it. If it would fit in with the GosuGamers community, then we just might. But nothing right now. 

 

We are open to the idea of adding new titles, but nothing at this moment. I'm guessing your baiting me to mention League of Legends, so I just want to say that all these game titles, HoN, DOTA, LOL, are good for each other. The stronger one game becomes, the stronger the whole MOBA (or call it A-RTS) genre becomes. Competition drives things forward, and it's only good for the eSports business as a whole and for the respective games.

 

RGN: GosuGamers.net is one of the most recognized e sports communities in the world. How does it feel?

Raislin: It's flattering. It's a very cool feeling, as you get the amount of feedback that tells you you are doing a good job. And, as the numbers grow, we get more and more feedback and great ideas for us to realize. It's a very awesome feeling to know that the users appreciate what we do.

 

RGN: Can you give us some tips on how can we make a successful community?

Raislin: Just do what you love to do, and the passion and the drive will shine through. Find your niche, work hard, make sure people know you work hard and understand your niche.

 

RGN: What are the major problems you encounter?

Raislin: One of the problems we've encountered over the years are when people are not able to keep contributing to the site, and a big hole is left for us to fill up.We have that the opportunity to work with some of the best; Ragnar Birko, Lucas Bigham, Lasse Gabrielsen and Tom Hern to mention a few. Seeing them go was always tough, and it's obvious that we will have to tackle the void that comes with it. But we've managed to leverage from it and get a better work flow and not be so top heavy.

 

RGN: Do you have any message to your fans and all GosuGamers.net supporters?

Raislin: Just a big big thank you to the ones who follow GousGamers. Together we can make the eSport scenes a better place, so make sure to treat others as you wish to be treated!