Zalmah | |
---|---|
Personal information | |
Name | Matt Rider |
Nationality | British |
Career information | |
Games | World of Warcraft |
Matt Rider, also known by the pseudonym Zalmah, is a former professional electronic sports player and commentator.
Rider became European Champion of World of Warcraft at Blizzcon 2007 with 'Per 'Lykke' Nielsen'. He was signed by Championship Gaming Series (CGS) when DirectTV planned to broadcast World of Warcraft to a mainstream television audience. He placed second at the 2v2 World Finals at Sony Studios, Los Angeles and qualified for 5v5 European finals in Hamburg.
In 2008 he relocated to Cologne, Germany to work for Electronic Sports League as host and editor with James "2GD" Harding and Joe Miller (commentator). Broadcasting the Intel Extreme Masters, he provided commentary for World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike 1.6 tournaments, presenting live at CeBit and Gamescom.
In 2009 he produced the weekly internet World of Warcraft show WoW Wednesdays which attracted a regular viewership before the emergence of streaming platforms like Twitch.
In 2011 over 1.5 million unique viewers watched him present the esports finals live at DreamHack, the world's largest digital festival and LAN party.
In 2018 Rider founded Play Context, an independent publishing label for entertainment.
Matt Vasgersian is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is a play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, as well as a studio host for MLB Network and FOX Sports. In the past, he has served as an announcer for Fox Sports' National Football League and Major League Baseball coverage, ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball, NBC Sports' coverage of the Olympic Games, and NBC Sports' coverage of the original XFL. He formerly called play-by-play for the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres.
Ivan Peter de Prume is a heavy metal drummer whose music became famous in the groove metal band White Zombie.
Todd Grisham is an American sports reporter for DAZN and Glory kickboxing. Prior to his departure from ESPN at the end of 2016, his duties for the network included being the in-studio host for Friday Night Fights as well as a SportsCenter anchor. He was previously a sports reporter for UFC from 2017 to 2020.
Raymond Vincent Ferraro is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and current broadcaster for ESPN/ABC and select Vancouver Canucks games on Sportsnet. He played for 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Hartford Whalers (1984–1990), New York Islanders (1990–1995), New York Rangers (1995–1996), Los Angeles Kings (1996–1999), Atlanta Thrashers (1999–2002), and St. Louis Blues (2002).
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in Counter-Strike (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian CS team won the ESL One Cologne 2016 Major. SK currently has players and teams competing in League of Legends and Hearthstone. SK Gaming was founded in 1997 by a small group of Quake players in Oberhausen.
Patrick O'Neal is an American sportscaster and occasional actor.
Paul "Redeye" Chaloner is a British former esports broadcaster.
The Championship Gaming Series (CGS) was a professional esports league based in the United States, that operated from 2007 to 2008. It was a global league that featured teams representing cities from around the world. The CGS aimed to bring a traditional sports league format to competitive gaming, with teams, franchises, and a regular season leading to playoffs and a championship. The CGS was preceded by the 2006 Championship Gaming Invitational, a television pilot featuring several future CGS players. The league was founded in 2007 and was owned and operated by DirecTV in association with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and STAR TV. Games played in the CGS included titles such as Counter-Strike: Source, FIFA, Dead or Alive 4, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Forza Motorsport 2. The league had a television broadcast deal, and matches were aired on various networks. Despite initial hype and investment, the CGS faced financial challenges and eventually ceased operations in 2008.
Mouz, formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its CS:GO team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. MOUZ's League of Legends team currently competes in the ESL Pro Series, having formerly competed in the European Challenger Series.
Yoan "ToD" Merlo is a French former professional player of the real-time strategy games Warcraft III and Starcraft II. In WarCraft III he played as the Human race and in StarCraft he played as Protoss. he was signed to the top esports team in the United Kingdom, Four-Kings, until 7 November 2007, when he decided not to renew his contract for unspecified reasons. He later explained in an interview that the dissatisfying results of the Four Kings team were the reason for his departure. After much speculation, Merlo unexpectedly joined the team Mousesports on 1 December 2007.
In 2008, the Championship Gaming Series began its second season as a worldwide sports league for professional video gamers. A total of 18 teams representing cities in seven countries played in the league. The games supported included Counter-Strike: Source, Dead or Alive 4, FIFA 08, and Forza Motorsport 2.
Joe Miller or JOEE is a British commentator. He started his career as an esports caster at gaming tournaments, working his first event shoutcasting Battlefield 1942. The 3D World War II first-person shooter (FPS) video game was coincidentally also the first game Miller played at a competitive level. At age sixteen, he began to commentate BF1942 games at home in the UK, pushing out as many audio commentaries as he could. In an interview with JP McDaniel, Miller revealed that it was a "big jump" from the audio commentaries he initially produced to the audio-video commentaries we are accustomed to today.
Serious Gaming is a professional gaming team based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Bas Peeperkorn. Serious Gaming is known for their achievements in first-person shooter Deathmatch tournaments, most notably those by Quake series players Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski and Cypher.
The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, as of 2024 currently host events in Counter-Strike 2 and StarCraft II. Other game titles were hosted in the past. The body that owns the league is Savvy Games Group. The League has operated 17 seasons as of 2023. The highest tier of events, known as Masters Championships, are held in the summer in Cologne, Germany and in the new year in Katowice, Poland and offer the most prize money. Other events, known as Masters events, are held in numerous cities around the globe, which have included Dallas, Shanghai and Sydney.
Dennis Gehlen, also known as TaKe, is a German professional StarCraft II commentator and works as a freelancer for Turtle Entertainment which hosts ESL-TV as well as the Electronic Sports League.
Lu Weiliang, who also goes by the pseudonym Fly100%, is a Chinese professional esports player of the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. He previously been a member of Team Hacker, EHOME and Mousesports. He is considered one of the best Orc players. He had one of the longest playing careers of professional players of Warcraft III.
Wang Xuwen, who goes by the pseudonym Infi, is a Chinese professional esports player of the real-time strategy games Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and Starcraft II. He previously served in team World Elite, Tyloo and VICI GAMING. He is considered one of the best Human players in the world. In 2008, World Elite was the best team of the year and Wang Xuwen was the core member. In 2009, Wang Xuwen helped World Elite obtain the champion of Warcraft III Champions League Season XIV. Additionally, Wang Xuwen also has many individual champion titles from various Premier Tournaments such as World Cyber Games and World e-Sports Games. From 2008 to 2011, the Chinese competitive scene for Warcraft III was dominated by 4 players, Lu "Fly100%" Weiliang, Li "Sky" Xiaofeng, Wang "Infi" Xuwen and Huang "TH000"Xiang. Wang "Infi" Xuwen and the other three were considered the four kings in Chinese Warcraft III. He played Starcraft II for a few years before retiring from competitive gaming.