With the re-opening of fnatic's Warcraft 3 division, myMYM.com decided to catch up with the manager himself, Elroy "Noname" Pinto.

Being at the helm for 11 months, Noname shares his thoughts on a spectrum of issues, ranging from the development and breakdown of professional gaming, fnatic's management and his tenure as the manager of the Warcraft 3 team.

Today we caught up Elroy Pinto, better known as NoName - fnatic manager. Hello Elroy, could you tell us the genesis of your nickname?

Hey! Well I first started with gogo (the mime character from FF) I then decided to switch it to "gogo_ne" because there were too many "gogo"s out there. I was elf back when I played RoC, then I decided to switch some names here and there but nothing stuck on (some of the names I tried were OnSlaughT) but I just decided one day to pick "Noname" and after going through the phase there you like to write your name in upper and lower case, I just switched to writing it from nOnAmE to Noname.

When and of course how did your esports career started? Was it an individual decision?

It was my choice, it all started at WCG 2003 India, when I tried my luck at playing and got so owned it was so funny, but the desire to meet new people who played this game and who believed in "esports" back then (for me at least it was all so new!) so I decided to stick with discovering this new area.

At that time I had some personal problems and I was more into gaming to sorta get out of it. In the end I realized its a personal decision to make if you want to run away or not. So I faced my problems and after that I didn't feel like getting out of esports because it was something I discovered I could really enjoy myself in. Meet new people and learn so much about things.

Getting to know flamers and shitkids exist around the world ! Yep! truly worth it. If you want shorter version it's FTGL (indian website I co-founded) -> WCR -> MYM -> fnatic.

So, do you think that esports is something more than just entertainment? It could be a way to get out of the harsh reality of real life and? Just two days ago we heard about a SC Korean star who was arrested (See - Former progamer resorts to crime), and some people die while playing WoW. Isn't it a little sick?

It's definitely quite addictive, I can imagine if you don't know what you are doing or you don't have the right support you could be in a lot of trouble. On the other hand if you know how to utilize it for your benefit there are rewards and the good thing with eSports is right now it's all so open, you can actually take your time to settle in and be the best if you can find the right path to that dedication.

Noname: "I went into gaming to sorta get out of it"

In your opinion, is it possible to make a living from e-Sports in every country in the world?

It's not possible that every country can be developed, if the current "strong" countries themselves are in their nascent stages then I don't see how it's possible to make a theory that eSports won't develop in any country.

Just look at the profile of an average gamer, there's a particular age, particular section that has access to it, certain factors like this that are involved in the making of people behind eSports. I mean as long as the internet grows and the horizon of eSports broadens, it will grow.

Playing games is very good to unwind after a stressful day or it can increase your frustration and make you upset. This reminds me of how gamers were blamed to be people who can kill, but there's been no conclusive evidence that _GAMING_ was the factor behind what they choose to do. Some can feel that gaming had something to do with it, but I personally feel it's more about the factors that are unique to the person.

Each of us are motivated to do things for a particular reason, classifying gamers as potential killers is silly. In conclusion I'd like to say that sometimes there are exceptions to everything, there could be someone who did kill because of a game, but that was because the situation was so unique for him.

We can't use that to judge the whole bunch can we ; - )?

Of course we can't, but some organisations do that. We want to have esport as a common sport like football, athletics or so. Now most people have bad opinions about games and in my opinion. What could we do to change it?

Well, I think we should try and include as many as we can, and really I know it's great to have a televised league but CGS got so much love from the community as you've seen and the recent ELC just about got a lukewarm response.

I think television matches are great, but there's something missing in it. I think being eSports we have to try and experiment with the internet medium mostly. Also the existing top teams or journalists should be focusing some of their energy towards positive reinforcement of gaming. I mean if you open a paper you read at least 7~8 articles a week across papers on how bad gaming is etc.

There's sometimes good articles too supporting eSports but there's something lacking here too. Lastly I'd like to say that when you're developing eSports, we have to also look at console gaming and understand their market. There's a sorta rivalry between console and PC gamers and that is needed to be solved so that we're all developing and making our way to a common goal.

If eSports has to be changed, change can only be brought on a subtle level, we have to constantly try and erode people's barriers and problems they might have with us but not in a whiplash effect, we have to be smart about this.

But how could we possibly do it? Aren't we too much focused at playing and managing and forgetting about public relations?

In a way, we're in a very tricky situation, because we have to develop and sustain our teams but we also have to make sure we end up looking like vigilantes! With my previous answer I said, change has to be subtle, starting a gaming magazine that only talks super super good about progamers isn't the solution.

We have to make ourselves visibile to the common man and that's the kind of people that society mostly comprises of. Acceptance isn't what we should seek, but we should seek recognition, the things we do as of today must be documented and this is our legacy.

We must feel the pride and heck we must make people understand it. Sadly for that we require to be patient and we have to understand how the norms work. We can't demand respect we must earn it. If we can talk about ourselves in the simplest way that everyone understands then that's winning half the war.

Noname - Seeking recognition for now

Find a place where they meet, I think they have to meet somewhere, but where is that? A Multi-gaming professional team? How? It's really something I don't have an answer too, but I think, the teams are the ones that hold the key, by bringing teams together from different disciplines.

Another way would be (in theory) to have a 3rd platform where they would meet.

I hope it will change soon, but for now lets get back into Warcraft scene and of course your job. Some time ago Fnatic decided to disband their WC3 squad. What changed in the minds of the management that brought this division back?

I don't think much has changed in the minds of the Management of fnatic. For a long while in those 4months there were discussions but they felt the need to stay away from WC3, because of the huge investment needed to field a good team these days.

Things just suddenly fell into place and we decided to go for the team since the fnatic management has certain expections from every squad we have. We felt that Go would meet those and after trying out with a European squad we decided to focus on Asia and what better country than South Korea to have an RTS team from?

China for example. Why not wNv or some fresh blood?

We have Yange and Kei are fresh blood too! It's not like we're not giving talent a chance.

Like I said earlier, we debated a lot about where the team should originate from and China was definitely one of the countries that we talked about but there's more investment needed to support a good chinese team - there's a lot of factors like internet, location and group dynamics etc.

While we weren't too happy about China we talked about South Korea and as I said just at that time, things fell into place! People messaged, spoke and it all happened pretty quickly.

Noname - Not too happy with China's gaming scene

Weren't you a little ashamed that you had "stolen" MYM two players?

Ashamed? Strange, I think it was more than just business it went to friendship too. I won't comment on the personal relations in MYM due to the fact that, it's their issues.

I can say that Shy and FoCuS were happy to join us, I think on some level it also depends on what the player is looking for in a team, if his happiness lies in friendship or money or both the managers should understand this. There's no hard feelings between MYM and fnatic and Nordahl is still a good friend and I talk to Losemann too.

I didn't hear anyone asking the NWRS management if they felt ashamed that they took our fnatic players (Xyligan and Rob). After being very disappointed I realised that's their choice because their happiness lies there. Same with Satiini to mTw, I was upset earlier but a manager has to understand his players wishes.

So, I assume that Noname understand his players feelings and he's a good manager?

I don't know, I think it's not hard to see where a player wants to head. A person who understands a players feelings also doesn't become a good manager. It takes a lot of experience and many other things that make you a good manager.

I think I am far from being a good manager, but I always try to go that extra mile to see people happy in my team.

Success = achivements = Winning in tournaments. Will the new fnatic.wc3 get enough of them? What we could expect from this team? What are your future plans?

We aiming to be the best as all teams do, having said that there are at least 2 teams ahead of us and 3 more that are on our level I think. But all that can change with time. We have a good lineup and now we need to build on that, we have to base our games well and play together as a team.

I can't really say much about the team leagues but I think we will taste success in the solo arena. Aside from that, I am looking forward to the next 3 months, they are the most important in my mind.

Noname with mTw-PaTo at ESWC2007

What is the reason for that? What's happening in the following 3 months?

Well, the most important league is gonna get wrapped up (WC3L) we don't have NGL ONE so we have to play and win the WPL Season 8. There's also AWL, KODE5.Korea to watch out for, so yes these are important for us.

What if the current squad is unable to reach the management's expectations? Will it be disbanded again?

I doubt, our investment in the Koreans is that of faith and trust. We have to carefully nurture this and we're also taking this team with the view that they are all youngsters and they have a bright future ahead of them not just in eSports but also in fnatic.

We will pursue with this team for a long time and even now we know the WC3L finals might be out of reach but we want to build a relationship over time with them.

You lost your debut in WC3L 1-4. What were your feelings about that? Did you analyze the loss with your team?

Very hard luck, the only clear loss was in the 2on2, every other game was too close and could have been 4-1 for us too. It's fine though, we're not too worried, the next game will be very hard since we have to match up against BeT.

Without Shy and FoCuS it's a great task ahead. I am personally happy to see MinHyuk and Space develop so much, their play time in the WC3L has done them well.

In the future, MinHyuk will be excellent as a 4th soloist, and I am sure lookin at this even Kei and YanGe will come to the fore, I think Kei is just too nervous in WC3L and kinda unlucky too.

We wish team good luck then in upcoming matches. Now it's time to greet somebody.

Firstly, thanks to our sponsors - Razer, Everglide, UGAME and CoolerMaster. I would like to thank all my friends in eSports for their continued support. Thank you for this interview, I must say it kept me thinking, and all the players and management involved in fnatic. And to everyone who has supported us, Keep the love coming.