The P3 Spotlight is staying up in Canada, this time bringing you Matt "bl00dsh0t" Stevenson of Team Evil Geniuses.

Matt, or rather "the sword" as he is also known is one of the most recognized North American CS players, and one of the favorites among fans. He and his team have sat through it all, from triumph and success, to misery and inactiveness through all of their years in the scene.

Matt and EG have been together for an incredibly long time and have been the staple of Canadian CS, and one of the few constants in the country. Matt has been one of the biggest influences for his team in their successes, and has helped contribute to a 17th -24th placing at CPL Summer and Winter 2003, a 9th at CPL Summer 2004, a 2nd at CPL Summer 2005 and a 9th at CPL Winter 2005. Matt and EG have also played their part in WCG, where they have represented Canada into a 5th place in 2003, a 9th in 2004 and a 3rd in 2005.

Matt is a player that can steal a game for EG at any time. His play is usually indicative of his team's success, but also allows for his other teammates to have their own well-played matches. His strong rifles and keen game sense allow him to be one of the top players in North America.


Fast Facts

Date of Birth: 5/19/85
Current Residence: Quebec City/West Vancouver Canada
Favorite Food: Fajitas
Favorite Drink: Lemonade
Favorite Movies: Usual Suspects, The Game
Favorite Music: all genres
Favorite CS Map: Train
Favorite Gun: usp/colt

Q&A

Obviously we know you play Counter-Strike, but outside of CS what other things do you do for fun and do in your spare time?

As it is the summer time, I try to relax as much as possible and enjoy the break I have before school starts up again. That means, working as little as possible, spending time with my girlfriend, getting out and enjoying the sun. To be specific, I love playing and watching all types of sports. Right now is the best time for sports with all the playoffs going down. As for school, I am a student majoring in Business Administration and Psychology. I will be entering my second year this coming September and I am really looking forward to it.

Have you ever considered stopping your CS career to pursue something else? If so, what? And why have you continued to play CS?

Have I considered stopping? Yes, of course. Especially considering I have been playing this game since it came out, since I was 14 (I'm 21 now). The older I get, the more I feel like I shouldn't be playing so much. But then I think about how much I love playing. It drives my competitive side. I used to be really active with competitive sports, but since finishing high school the amount of leagues has really dropped, so CS has taken their place in terms of competitiveness. I know the same is true with other people on my team as well. If I were to leave the game and stop playing, I would really regret it and not have that part of my life, which I love.

Keeping with your prolonged stay in the scene, what has kept you a part of EG all these years? No doubt the friendship is strong, but have you ever considered joining another big team that can utilize your skills?

I think it's a part of my personality. I'm a pretty loyal guy and I enjoy playing the most with my friends. I find it more satisfying to win with people that I can call my friends than people who are in a sense "employed" to play together. This again, traces back to my younger years where I chose to continue playing sports with my friends for the fun of the game and having people to really share the same passion that I have. Have I ever considered other teams, of course. I'd be lying if I said I haven't. I have definitely considered the pros and cons of playing on a more .competitively driven. team, I guess you could say.

What is your take on the professionalism of teams currently? Do you think there is still an immaturity factor looming over some of the "Professional" teams in North America?

As a whole, as the game progresses and the community follows, the people who play this game mature as the game does. The Counter-Strike community has always been comprised of younger members, compared to the old Quake 3 community for example, which were made up of older and more mature individuals. Of course I still do see immaturity rearing its ugly head from time to time, but I think it's getting better. To be honest though, I don't really surround myself or concern myself too much with the community. I prefer to stay low-key, and just have fun playing with my friends.

With the surfacing of the Pro Mod being led by Drax, and with your manager Alex, having a front seat in its undertaking, what are your thoughts on it and are there any particular ideas you personally have for it?

The pro mod seems promising. Obviously when they set out to create the Pro Mod they began with a vision that was leading the right direction. If they have followed that to this date I do not know but I am hoping for the best. I know they have some talented staff members helping to bring this project alive and I am hoping it works out. Comparing it to Source, which was not created with the competitive gamer in mind. Similar to what OSP was for Q3, CSP could be the next big step. For personal ideas, I haven't really thought too much about it. Off the top of my head, the one thing I think would be really interesting would be gun accuracies.
Even with a scoreboard and menu system similar to OSP. One thing I loved about playing OSP, was knowing my accuracies for my various weapons, and everything about it. It would be similar to what Gamesense has done, but more in depth. The whole Gamesense issue is an interesting one to me, obviously when CS was first created and competitive CS began, none of these stats programs were even available. Now when you look at write ups or match reports, you see an article filled with statistical numbers and evaluations. Just another evolutionary step of the game.

A fairly recent Gotfrag article took a look at EG's successes of LAN versus online. Also, countless threads have discussed a .try. factor of teams in online settings versus a LAN setting. Do you think any team takes online any less serious then a LAN? How about EG?

Yes without a doubt in my mind I can say that teams do not take online as seriously as LAN. This has been a fall back excuse for quite some time now. The .do it on lan. or .well it doesn't really mean anything until X team does it on LAN.. Trying to organize five player.s lives around playing an online game for no benefits other than pride is not any easy thing to do. Especially when some of these teams have been playing for so long.

I believe what CEVO and GGL are doing are helping make online a more plausible and worthwhile experience for some. With the incentive of money, more people and teams are becoming focused again on online play. It's always nice to see. And it's always nice to have the LAN tournaments to fall back on.

If you could change two things associated with Counter-Strike, be it in-game or the way tournaments and leagues are handled, what would you change and why?

I'm fairly satisfied with the current state of the game. It hasn't progressed to the state that myself and many others have hoped for in terms of competitions, of course. I would love to see more tournaments and more progression. It isn't that I want to change the way tournaments are handled, but I would like to see more tournaments overall. I suppose if I could choose one thing, I would like to see more tournaments with group play format followed by the double elimination format. Or, in general, more similarities between the various tournaments. I realize it's really hard with the different time constraints, amount of teams, etc. but it's just my personal favorite style of tournament play.

And lastly, this may seem like a tough question to answer, but where can you see yourself in say five years down the road? Or perhaps what do you want to be doing in five years?

Further ahead of where I am right now in my life. Perhaps do more of the things I want to accomplish in my life. Check more things off my checklist. If that includes still playing CS then I will be very grateful. I don't imagine I will ever really stop playing computer games or games in general so in five years I'll still be gaming in one form or another I'm sure.

Matt, thank you for your time. Would you like to give any shout-outs?

To our sponsors, Zboard and Steel Series, for all the support they have provided us since they came on board with EG. To my girlfriend and her team in #burntpink, help support them on their way to ESWC for the female tournament. To all of my teammates, and an individual shout out to Kilo.


"You are now out of the spotlight"