John Aarson is one of the newer Tournament Organisers on CC, but he has already impressed a lot of people. He has 14 completed tournaments now, and 21 more on the go. I decided it would be interesting to have a word with him.
DK: John, what do you find attracts you to take on the task of organising tournaments?
JA: From a young age i've always been attracted by the various sports league systems. The more complex, the more I enjoyed them. Always tried to put in practice the crazy league schemes I've invented. Either in football (soccer, to my fellow americans
) with my friends or, being a long time fan of Championship/Football Manager, playing FM2010 and FM2011 (since the 2010 version you can create different league systems - and that's AWESOME
).
When I registered in CC, I realized immediately the potential to create the various types of tournaments. From then on, I realized this was "it". Conquer Club was the place where I could create at my own will my crazy tournaments and interact with the people within them. I've created more then 30 tournaments since February - if I'm not mistaken - and people actually joined, were almost always full of sportsmanship and very nice and many enjoyed them very much. That still astounds me to this day.
I saw your first few tournaments and they were all Freestyle, so for a long time I ignored you. But I notice that with your more recent endeavours you are using Sequential more often. Did you have an epiphany about that, or is it a response to popular demand?
Well, it depends. "The Random Battles", "Major League Feudal War", and "Doodle World Cup" were some of my first tournaments and were sequential. In my tournaments I like to use sequential to 1vs1 games and freestyle when there are more players involved. And I don't think I've made many n-player (being n>2) tournament games using sequential, to be honest.
I know most people don't like very much to play freestyle games. But the truth is I don't remember ever having complaints. And I like to play freestyle in games with many players. It's faster. And it's an amusing experience playing at the same time as the other players.
You've also managed to run a Speed tournament. How did that go?
"Managed to run a speed tournament"... hum.. my "management" of this tournament was very poor, I must admit. The Idea was to make 100 games that the players could join in each Sunday for four weeks. With only 20 people. Of course that couldn't go well - now I see that - but at the time it seemed a good idea. Also, adding to the effect, I couldn't be online on time to send the password of the games in the first 3 weeks. So: the games didn't start on time, there were very few players actually interested in competing and also I was getting my ass kicked in most of the games. Things were terrible. Luckily, in the last week of this game I had DJ Teflon's and your help, Dukasaur and, honestly if it weren't for you guys adding more people to the tournament and giving me advices, it would never reach at least 16 players. And that would have sucked big time.
I try to learn from my mistakes and I want to organize some day a good and successful speed tournament. But not for now. In the next few months I don't plan on making many tournaments and don't think any of them will be speed.
Personally, I'm glad you did it, and I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. These have historically been the most difficult tournaments to arrange.
Which of your tournaments has been your proudest achievement?
Oh, thank you! It's difficult to choose a tournament I'm more proud than any other. Mostly because my longest tournaments are still ongoing. But maybe Major League Feudal War was the one I liked the most in terms of structure. I asked the players to choose a sports team, randomly placed them in six divisions named after the six Feudal War castles and placed the divisions in an eastern and western conference. It was an amusing tournament to organize and when it was finished I looked at the results and really felt like a real sports competition was made. The only thing that sucked in that tournament were the settings. No fog + no spoils in Feudal War can produce a lot of very dull games. I was very n00b when I created the tournament. In the future, I hope to make a Major League Feudal War Season 2, but with different game settings.
You've got an interesting variety; tourneys of every different type. Do you see yourself as a Renaissance man of sorts?
"Renaissance man"... love that expression!
If I see myself as one? Not at all. I'm quite ignorant in most common fields of knowledge. I do have many interests. From the physical sciences (I'm a Sciences Bachelor in Astronomy), to history, philosophy, psychology, literature... but i'm also very, VERY lazy. And that can screw up the whole "I'd like to get a little bit more cultured today!" thing that I'd like to have.
I've got some basic knowledge about various issues, but I'm an expert (or even good enough) on absolutely nothing.
What are your major goals and aspirations on CC?
Well... as for "ultimate goals" in CC, I've never really gave it much thought. I'm aware that I'm very far from being a great player. Only two or three times I have crossed the 2000 point barrier. Never had a rank higher than Major. And if we're talking about my goals in tournaments... maybe in time I'll be one of the TOs with most tourneys. But I don't really mind if I do reach that level or don't. Quantity is nothing without quality. I would say my ultimate goal in CC is to keep having as much fun organizing tournaments and playing games 10 years from now as I have nowadays.
Hopes for the future? I would like to have time to keep logging on to CC everyday, make my turns and continuing to run my tournaments without making the participants wait several days or weeks between rounds. That is something that I don't know if it will be possible to do on a daily basis as from September/October. As many people nowadays, I'm planning to leave my country soon to work overseas and I won't be certain to have a reliable internet connection at all times. Hopefully yes.
What would you change in the tournament world, or on CC in general?
Things I would like to say about the tournament world? Actually, nothing comes to mind now.
**grabs a cigarette**
**poses like a douche-baggy pseudo-intellectual being interviewed and thinks for a while**
Firstly, I would say that there is nothing much to change in the tournament rules. I feel we, the TOs, have full liberty to project our vision of a great tournament here whenever we feel like it. And that's what really matters, in my opinion. The tournament participants are usually great and full of fair play and almost every time accept (and like) the crazy rules we sometimes apply. Who could ask for more?
**realizes that the keyboard is full of ashes from the cigarette**
I would not change much in CC. I'm still relatively new in the website, so I'm still a very n00b player. I don't feel that it is my place yet to complain about a game that I'm new to and that gave me so much fun over the last few months.
OK, maybe the possibility for the freemiums to play a little bit more games at the same time. I mean... come on! Only four slots?
Any closing thoughts?
My final thoughts in this interview: I'm still astonished that I was asked to do an interview, to be honest. I'm only one of many TOs and I think I'm far from being one of the best. But I'm glad I was. I thank you, Dukasaur, for giving me the chance to talk about myself and my projects to the CC community. I also apologise for some mistakes I must have given or expressions I misused during this interview. It's pretty clear by now that English is not my native language. Lastly, I must admit it was hard not to put a smiley after every single sentence, like I usually do (still used them some times during the interview, though - they're addictive, it's stronger than me!). It would not look very professional on my behalf.
Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me! (And there's nothing wrong with your English!! But then, modesty is one of your qualities! I chose you for an interview because I've seen a high degree of creativity in your tournaments, and I definitely was not disappointed in speaking to you!)
), I've seen a few rodeos here at Conquer Club (my favorite is when we made turtle soup out of Lack). I used to work for the 
). He hasn't been active for the past 3 years, but was active for about a 3 year span. Like with what happened to my old 
. As for my place in the candidate queue of interviewees, I guess being a new Admin might have something to do with it, or perhaps it's because I'm a robot...(Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto!). 
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