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17 February, 2000 - (SEASON ONE/S1) Interviews SAS Executive Board SAS Managers [Jeet Padaruth] [Ant Coombes] [James Boothby] [Dean Birkett] [Jamie Newell] Other People From Around the Scene [Stuart Gibson] [Simon Godfrey]
Jeet Padaruth - SAS Manager (Derby County)
How
did you first get into the Fantasy Management scene and what made you
want to get into this sort of thing? It's been rumored that you've had
previous experience playing Play By Mail online management games.
Yeah, it all started about one year ago,
I was in yahoo.com chat room and a young man by the name of Ant
Coombes was publicizing his fantasy management game ISM, he kept
asking "if you have ICQ and like football management game go to
following URL" Naturally me loving fantasy football I
jumped at the chance and applied and got in, sadly a few months later
they closed down and I then joined two other fantasy football league's
in Footiwarp & Jamie Newell's UFL, sadly I left UFL as I felt it
was not fair to Footiwarp and it was against the rules ;-). Once again
a football management I was with closed down this was Footiwarp, who
closed for personal reason (and if your wondering UFL also closed
down, lol I am cursed). But joining those three league helped me gain
lots of experience in fantasy management and have benefited me in SAS.
Yeah before I discovered the Internet I
was playing fantasy football by post! lol two match per turn (post)
and each turn cost £2 and I actually got sticky tape and taped the £2
to the team sheet etc. Keeping in mind I was only 13/14 I played it
for 6months saving my lunch money and doing what I enjoy the most,
fantasy football!. I stopped because my parents found (Doh!) lol, but
I enjoyed it and was having fun!
When did you first hear about and come across Soccer All Stars? Had you previously heard of the site before it came back from it's ten month long break?
lol I only found out about SAS when
Footiwarp closed down and me and Jamie Newell were discussing what
leagues we were gonna join next, I said I would join TFM and he said
SAS, I then decided to check out SAS and what I saw was incredible (am
not sucking btw :) it was in its early stage but what I saw I liked! I
applied for both TFM & SAS somehow they both accepted me but it
was SAS who replied to me first and they offered me either Derby
County or Sheff Wed to manage, not knowing at the time that Derby were
in Division One & Wednesday in Division Three I accepted the Derby
job, which I have no regret of doing!
When I first saw the SAS site it said
something about "were back" lol that gave me some hint of
them having taken a long period out. I now know that they started this
craze of internet fantasy management's games. To me it will always be
Ant Coombes who introduced me to fantasy management.
Can you describe what it's like to be a manager in SAS... what makes SAS different from any other league out there on the internet today? Do you feel that SAS and other sites similar, are better than Play by Mail games?
SAS is awesome! its hard to describe what
makes them the best but it must be down in my opinion to SK, his
effort of coming online everyday to updated squads etc. is very time
consuming but he puts in that effort and we all (managers) do our best
by RP'ing to our best ability. SAS does its RP'ing via email, this is
different from other leagues who use a message board, I must say I
prefer the RP'ing via email, this way I can read all RP's sent. When
we use a message board for RP'ing I must admit I did not read them all
as it was not appealing to me unless it involved me. In SAS we can add
style to our RP'ing by using all sorts of fonts etc. and this makes
RP'ing appealing to the eye to read. SAS is one of a kind and I am
proud to be a member! its not like any other league, its unique!
What are the main strong points of Soccer All Stars... Is there anything that really stands out for you that you like?
The site design, the enthusiasm of other
managers, the friendliness of all people involved. A mixture of things
another thing is the way the teams are split into 4 equal divisions
with 6 teams per division, this is unique and something I have not
experienced in my fantasy management career.
Likewise, what are the main weak points of Soccer All Stars... Is there anything that really stands out for you that you dislike? What do you feel could be improved?
Main weak points? are there any?? lol.
Well let me think...perhaps...nope lol, cant think of one! maybe SK
could use more pictures of players? yeah that's one...more piccys :)
....and chicks lol j/k
The number of fantasy leagues are noticeably rising as each months pass, many of these due to the evolution of SAS - What do you feel is the right step into the future for Fantasy Football?
Well to my knowledge no
fantasy league has ever completed a full season. I was disappointed
when league's such as Footiwarp closed down while I was there, you put
in an effort and they just decide to close down and not even giving us
a reason, yes I do understand that there is a lot of pressure on an
owner of a fantasy league but I feel we do deserve some say in the
matter as we are putting in an equal effort. So what a good step is
for fantasy leagues to complete a full season(s) this will enhance
there reputation and make them that close to being an SAS.
Your known to be quite an able user with computers and have many personal websites of your own, including a SAS website for your side Derby County, is there any possibility that Jeet Padaruth will make a league in the future?
I have a "couple" of web sites
:) and am learning HTML by teaching it to my self (Doh!) and as my
knowledge improves the chances of me creating my own league becomes
possible! (what's the point when SAS is around) lol, it will be hard
to compete with SAS but if I do open my own league it wont be
competing with SAS hopefully it will be working side by side with
them. For now I am happy with updating my Derby County site and
keeping my other web fans happy by updating my jeet.co.uk site.
Finally, anything
else you wish to add or say?
Rock on SAS! lol, I hope this league
stays open for a long time!! Well done SK, look at the enjoyment your
creating for others. Oh yah and I hope my curse does not effect SAS :)
Full
Name: Jeet Padaruth Ant Coombes aka Alain Borl - SAS Manager (Wimbledon) Fantasy Football management has seen a lot of Ant Coombes in recent months... A manager over a wide range of sites along with an attempt to even run one... Who and what has attracted you to this industry and why? ISM started out with a group of four of us, but for one reason or another, it didnt work out, and things fell apart just as we were to get things started. I kept at it tho, and re-did a lot of the stuff, done by the others, but kept the name. It was hard work! I persevered with it for a while, about a month I guess, but at the end of the day, I just couldn't cope. A minority of managers were complete arses, and I just thought "Why do I bother?". I missed management, which is a cushy life really, so I joined Joe's Footiwarp. Your currently in your second spell as a manager in
SAS... How did you find out about the site and what made you want to participate in the league? I think demanding is the word of them to use. Managers obviously want the results/reports up immediately, which isn't possible due to the standard set for reports. I had to do a few of these, but I couldn't combine all this with watching weekend football at the other end of the country, and work. James Boothby aka Top Gun - SAS Manager (Charlton) How
did you first get into the Fantasy Football Management scene and what
pulled you into participating in the fun and games? Soccer
All Stars was the site that started this trend of Online Management, how
did you find about SAS and what made you want to manage within the site? What
do you think about the general attitude and performance from managers in
SAS fair say to other leading online management sites? Is it any different
from SAS or is the game perceived in the same way across a large audience? Can
you describe in detail how fun it is to "pretend" to be a real
manager? What are the main elements that make fantasy football work well
for you? Not
much is known about James Boothby, but if possible, in the future, will
you ever attempt to run an online league like the ones you've managed in,
or do you feel managing is where the best fun is at? Finally,
is there anything else you would like to add to this interview? Dean Birkett aka Dr Olivier Cadin - SAS Manager (Ipswich) It's been known that you've been in the Fantasy Soccer Management industry a lot longer than many realised. It's known that you ran a league of your own before you came into SAS... what was the deal with this? Myself and a friend ran a play by mail company a number of years back, We ran it when we were between 15-18 years old. We had a number of games, but our most popular was our hand moderated American Football simulation, Endzone. Just before we decided to call it a day, we had started to break a number of European countries and started to get interest from America. A year later we were offered to run an American game in Europe, but although we were tempted we decided to pass on the offer, the two guys who did actually buy the European rights for this game ended up making a million from it, so that is one thing that you could say I regret! How did you find out about Soccer All Stars and what made you want to manage within the site? Due to my interest within PBM (which had vanished since I moved onto the Internet), I was just interested to see whether I could find any free play by email games, I had managed in a large number of football PBM games, having the joy of managing the likes of Rotherham, St. Johnstone, Nice, St. Etienne, Sport Boys (Peru), Marseille, Montpellier and Club Brugge to name a few!, just upon searching the net I came across SAS and immediately after reading all about the league I was very tempted. As a manager within the league and obviously experience at running your own... What are the main strong and weak points of Soccer All Stars. Is there anything else you'd like to see changed? The interaction between managers is fantastic, all of them have different personalities and the roleplaying is of a very high standard. Also SAS is very well run, something which does tend to get unnoticed by the SAS players is the amount of work behind the scenes which goes into running a league, (or a company as was my case), there were some weeks when I would have to spend up to six hours a day working on my PBM (which was a nightmare as I was still at school etc.!). One thing which I'm not too keen on within the league, are the naming conventions of managers. I'd much prefer to have at least semi-realistic names in the league, rather than nicknames. The Fantasy Football Management industry has increasingly risen in reputation over the last two years. Many sites have come and gone and will continue to do so in the future. What are the best elements of fantasy football for you? Player interaction is very important, I have just left another online game due to a number of reasons, the main ones were the poor interaction between managers. Also SAS seems to be the only league that I've seen which is dominated by emails rather than online message boards. The email idea is definitely one which I feel should be adopted by more leagues, it is so much easier to find out what's going on rather than having to go online and sift through a load of messages. With the experience of running your own league added in with the fact that you have now had a taster of management over several different sites, is it possible that Dean Birkett will once again try his luck at running a league of his own? Not a chance at all, I'm not interested in the PBM business as online games will eventually make that extinct, also having a live in girlfriend doesn't help, as they are very time consuming!, a small note of interest for you here though, the name Olivier Cadin came from Olivier Dacourt (ex-Everton) and Cadin is my girlfriends surname (she's half French and half Swedish - and I've seen French and Swedish films before so I thought wahay!!!<G>) Finally, is there anything else you wish to say or add? Keep up the good work, this league is very well run and very well played. There must be a lot of pressure on ScreamKing to run this and I know how time consuming it can be, I remember when I stopped running Endzone, in a number of play by mail magazines there were letters from ex-players saying how missed it will be, and I even received letters from players wishing me the best for the future and thanks for running the league. It all makes it worthwhile. Unlike a lot of leagues that I have seen or come across, the amount of bad players or for want of a better word, arseholes, who play is very minimal, in fact I can't say that I know anybody who falls into the category in SAS, so that is always a good thing for a league. Full Name: Dean Birkett Jamie Newell aka Jamie Newell - SAS Manager (Southampton) How did you first get involved in the fantasy football management scene and why? Well I started off when I found a message left on the Aston Villa TeamTALK "Your Say" page
sent by Joe Al-Khayat. It was about a job working on FootiWarp, I can remember what it was but I didn't get it. Anyway, I liked the site, it was the best thing that I had ever seen on the net and I joined up as (my team) Aston Villa. That's a tough one, I learned that it is very hard and time consuming. Updating things like transfers is very hard. The hardest thing however is
definitely match reports. It takes ages and I am impressed by the way that some leagues get them done
so quickly. I got an Email saying about the site and how good it was, I looked at the site and was really impressed, it was even better than FootiWarp (which I was currently managing Bradford in) So I sent in my application and I was delighted when I got offered the Southampton job. New leagues need to be prepared, I was recently talking to someone who is thinking of starting a league and he thought he could get it to run itself. I soon told him how hard it will be. Second of all you need a good design, that is what impressed me about FootiWarp, SAS and EDL at first glance, people
aren't going to stay at your site if it doesn't look good. Its not really a larger step, its more of a step backwards, in FootiWarp I had too much
responsibility that I couldn't handle. I have a simple job at EDL which does not take up too much of my time. If I continued with FootiWarp then I would have had to quit my job at SAS, and I know you don't want that :) SAS has got to be the best, I have managed in some very impressive leagues, but they don't compare to SAS. The roleplaying in SAS is alot better than the other leagues and the managers are more involved. Something I dislike? The match reports are a bit late, but how much work can one man do?:) Yeah, SK, Ill give you a tenner if Saints win Division 2.(joke) :) Stuart Gibson - SAS Online Site Manager How did you first get into the Fantasy Internet Management Scene? Well a certain lad by the name of Joe Al-Khayat approached me in Yahoo chat and asked if I was interested in joining his league (FootiWarp). So I have Joe to thank for all of this fun I've had :o)... I'm still disappointed at the closure of FootiWarp I must say. At what time did you hear about Soccer All Stars and who informed you of them? I first heard of Soccer All Stars at the beginning of this season when they were taking in applications. It was Rory Gallery who told me of it. He said it only took the best of the best managers and I thought "This is what I want to be in." When Soccer All Stars returned from their ten month break, what was your first impressions of the Executive Board and the new site? Well I never saw the old site but the new one was good although too many links on the site for me to take in at first. I thought the game and board sounded very professional. As a manager within the game, can you describe what it's like to play in SAS? What makes it different from other sites? I had more confidence in SAS than any other game. It was a feeling that the game was professional and here to stay unlike other leagues I've been in which collapsed. Also the foreign transfer rule was better because come on would Roma really sell Totti or would Inter really sell Vieri?? I think not. As West Ham's manager, and building a good squad, did you ever dream that the Executive Board would offer you a higher position working within the site? No it took me totally by surprise when ScreamKing offered me the position. It was a really hard decision to leave West Ham because I had built up a superb squad worthy of a title challenge and I was really enjoying managing them. Now that your a major Board member, what does it feel like to be orchestrating from the very top at SAS? Different... very different. I now know a lot of things that managers would love to know and also exactly how big we are aiming to get SAS....I have the utmost confidence that the 3 of us can do it :o) How have you found the Board members to be, seeing as you now communicate with them behind the scenes. Are they any different from the views the managers get? Well when I first joined SAS and found out that ScreamKing was the chairman I thought god!!! LOL. This is because I thought ScreamKing was a big high profile name on the internet that controlled loads of sites and stuff LOL. I just treat the 2 of them as I treat anyone else though...that's just the way I am. I am not no arse licker who thinks they will get better results if they are mates with the board... oh how wrong can you get!! They're just normal lads like the rest of us... they like a laugh, they like a drink, they like girls (I hope LOL) etc etc. A short profile on Mr Stuart Gibson can be found below!
Simon Godfrey - SAS Online Site Manager What are your first memories of Soccer All Stars? It's believed you were the manager of Chelsea Football Club. I believe so, I found the SAS
link somewhere one day back in Jan 99 as I was surfing the net at College,
I applied for the Chelsea job and got it. I transformed Chelsea getting
rid of all the foreigners and buying British. I had a successful start but
left due to bad treatment of SK and the poor Chelsea fans. Can't remember, find of the
century I reckon. Speaking to him on ICQ, what
a top bloke! We talked a lot, about football and SAS, what else? Nope, I can't believe how
quickly this last year has gone, It's a shame that no fantasy football
site had lasted a full season so far (that I'm aware of), but I think with
hard work and dedication this time SAS will succeed. um.....damn good question
that....I think being asked to be involved in SAS was great, I also think
the whole experience of being involved in online footie management is
brilliant, be it as a manager or on the board, being able to participate
with other people rather than against a computer and for free is what
makes it so much fun. Yeah as you say when I joined
SAS it was the only site around, and come to mention it I remember how I
came about finding SAS, I was looking for something to do game's wise on
the net. But ever since SAS folded back in Feb? there have been so many
fantasy football sites born that it's amazing, it seems like every person
who joins a fantasy football game as a manager decides to start their own
site, then they realise how much hard work it is and decide to go back to
management. Hmmmm, in my view I would say it exploded in the summer, but obviously the more sites appear, the more the scene will grow, and with the growth of the internet I think Fantasy Internet Management will continue to grow and grow. As for the future of SAS, I'd like to think that with the commitment of the managers and the board the site will grow and grow and who knows the possibility's that will lead to....
ScreamKing - SAS Executive Producer Coming Soon........ This
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