Mohan “launders” Govindasamy is not just one of the most beloved figures in North American Counter-Strike, but Counter-Strike as a whole. The Canadian is one of the finest casters in the world and etched his voice into the history books when he casted the grand final of the final CS:GO Major, the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.
But did you know that launders also organises events of his own? In the hope of recreating the classic Dreamhack and internet cafe LAN environment that he grew up loving, launders has begun to run events from his hometown of Toronto, attempting to bring back the magic of esports to the city after it was lost during the lockdowns of the pandemic.
In this interview, we spoke to launders about growing up in that environment, the loneliness of the online world, his dreams of Canadian CS and a Toronto Major, and the profitability of the events he is putting on, the aptly named, launders LAN.
The loneliness of online gaming
There are three points in the pipeline: the loneliness of LANs, producing a top 20 player, and a Toronto Major, and you've already achieved some of that, right?
launders: A little bit, yeah. I think you get two in one, and then a lead into the third. You've got the loneliness because anyone who has run a local LAN tournament anywhere in the world knows this, lots of people come and they meet a lot of people that they knew online for the first time. So that is already done by creating the LAN, you know? You make the LAN and people will find new friends, meet old friends, and most importantly, they'll meet people that they only knew online before that.
We did do that, but the really important part about it is to run as many events as possible. You just create all these small sparks and you never know which one is going to lead to people becoming teammates one day or long-time friends who meet up again in the future. If you build it, they will come.
Did you figure out the extra steps to fight any amount of social awkwardness people may have had when they came to the LAN?
launders: I always encourage people at the events to talk to each other and we set the tables up in a certain way where people might sit together more often. Then we have a lot of different areas you can stand in to watch games so people will hang out with friends and talk to new people there.
I saw a few times that people were hanging out that had only just met each other and that's all you can ask for. I think it's very hard to make a real connection between somebody and somebody else who have never met each other, but the best thing you can do is make it so people sit together on purpose and have something in common, which is Counter-Strike, and then just vocally encourage people to make friends. I kept saying that this is the point of the LAN.
The loneliness you've spoken about, is that something you have personal experience of or is it something you've observed from the sideline?
launders: I have never been lonely, I try really hard to keep my friendships as strong as possible even if I travel a lot. I have real-life friends that I don't know from gaming that I've known for a long time.
I've always had friends that aren't all from one place; they're not all from work, not all real life, not all online, and that's really important for me. But I make an effort to then keep those connections because they keep me sane. Friendships keep people sane, and keep them in check, and we all know that's important.
So no, I've never really struggled with it, but as somebody who has streamed and lived online building my career in CS as a streamer, creator, and caster, I've seen so much loneliness. I know, for example, two of my subscribers from eight years ago have now not only met each other in real life but are even moving in together and they met each other through my stream. You hear stories like that and you wonder how many people are making real-life friendships from online interactions and what is the next level to that?
I think that the reality is, your friends online are real friends but they aren't as good as real friends in real life. Making friends on Discord and playing games is a real community and it's good for you, but it isn't good for you if you don't also have people in real life that you can look to who can talk to you, call you you out on things, disagree with you in person, or help you move one day when you need to. Those things, your Discord friends aren't going to do for you in the same way.
Did you try to recreate the atmosphere of more classic, internet cafe LANs?
launders: Exactly that, I grew up playing in internet cafes in Toronto. We had internet cafes with two games StarCraft: Brood War and Diablo, so then everyone would come after school and play those games and then eventually 1.5, and 1.3, play against each other offline. One of those games is how we all grew up and that was the best environment because you made friends and all found common ground in doing that.
It was like that, but it felt closer to a Dreamhack I would say. A Dreamhack where there's an open tournament. The only thing that was missing was that we don't have other games yet. So it sort of felt like a Dreamhack because we had a booth, a fun area, a seating area, and we had food and drinks as well as the LAN, and then the next stage will be adding other games or increasing the size of the LAN for spectators.
Back in the day, those internet cafes always had a lot of beer and would end up with people accusing people of cheating. Things are a bit more wholesome now, so were there any particular interactions or stories you noticed during the event?
In terms of the attitude, when I was standing at the boxr booth I had a player come up to me because we haven't had any LANs in about four years in Toronto so there are a lot of players who, between the ages of 16 and 20, never got a LAN experience because everything shut down when the lockdowns happened. So that player came up to me and asked if it was okay for him to talk shit and I told him of course it was and that he could do it as much as he want.
We had a really good balance of people who it was their first LAN ever but they already had the idea that at local LANs where you can show emotions, and then older players who understood the culture from before, people I used to play in tournaments with before. So they set the bar, talking shit when the game was going on, and then the new players were getting used to it and wondering if they were allowed to as well.
I wanted to make sure that it was a fun environment where people are nice to each other when the game is over or they're not playing, but for the players, I want to make sure the culture is remembered and that you're supposed to be yourself, settle beef, be a little mean if you want to. It's a LAN, it's not an online match.
Creating talent in Canada
In your speech, you spoke about having a top 20 player from Canada and I noticed that this section got the least amount of claps from the people you were speaking to. I wondered, is that because it's not ambitious enough to only have one player in the top 20?
launders: No, I think it's because most people there don't know what that means. I think a lot of people who were there as spectators were just flying in, maybe they were older now and don't even play CS anymore, so those people were more casual and maybe didn't even know what HLTV is but still play or watch Counter-Strike.
I'm sure that wouldn't be the culture in Europe, but in North America, we can attract audiences of just people who play games. Also, a lot of VALORANT people are coming to events in NA now because, for a while, that was the only game running LANs.
Some people definitely got it, but it also could've been that actually it was too ambitious, you know? They can't see how they can go from these local LANs to that point, but for people like me who have been going to LANs for ten years, I've seen people do that and go on to play in tier-one tournaments. In that sense, it's actually the only way that you can get into the top 20. It's a really important part of becoming a pro to play small tournaments before you go play in Pro League, Katowice, a Major, or anything like that, you have to get used to playing in front of crowds.
I think it's inevitable that if we do produce another top 20 player, that if our prize pools are big enough, they will have come through the launders LAN. It's only a matter of time, but people may not be able to see that, those of us who have been around for a long time can though.
You had an eight-team quarter-final bracket with a few veterans, but have any of the new players at the event filled you with confidence?
launders: Unfortunately, I think in the grand final, everyone already had a HLTV page. By the time the semi-finals came around, most of those players were already in ECL so they're very high level and just before the professional level. Many were salaried already even if it was smaller amounts. There were some good names.
In the grand final there were players like Lake, Fr3nk1e, brett, I was really impressed with them. And then PNDLM, I personally think he be a really important figure in the future because he can AWP, IGL, and he just got out of school and is going into engineering. He was going to quit the game but he's actually enjoying it again now after recent updates and he just won the LAN so he can be a really important figure.
I really think we need to create an IGL that will be someone special, a seangares type person. Then we can create lots of good players at the same time. So yeah, I think a lot of players on the winning team definitely have my attention.
Hosting events in Toronto
In terms of a Toronto Major, it's quite ambitious, but Valve can actually do it and it wouldn't be the first time a big Valve event came to Canada either. It's not like esports is unknown to Canada, and an esports arena is now being built, right?
launders: An esports arena is going to be built, yeah. But if we did a Major, we have the Scotiabank Arena which is 20,000 seats so we have an arena already and League of Legends has already used it.
We have the arena ready, and I want people to know that everyone will come to Toronto. So many people came to this LAN from everywhere, driving from Texas and Florida, we had three people who came from Norway. There were a lot of people who came very far to get there and if we raise the prize pool then it's more reason for people to fly in for the chance to cover their expenses.
I think that the idea that we can fill up a stadium for a Major is what we're trying to prove with these LANs. This is a big goal and it sounds like just a dream, but there's no reason you shouldn't be able to see it happening. It's a really good location for a Major because it's an East Coast timezone and if it's going to be in America, it's better for Europeans than somewhere like Seattle or California. It's better than Australia or Thailand or someone in that time zone, too. Then it's in Canada which is a novel because we haven't had a CS Major, and it would also solidify us as one of the biggest cities for CS in NA because, in my opinion, we're second only to Texas.
Toronto is a Major Counter-Strike hub, in 2018-2019 we had six LANs a year that we would all attend and take our computers to hang out and play at them. But they all closed during COVID. The place we held the launders LAN had never even held a LAN before, it's used for wedding receptions.
There's a new one being built, and this one was a good one to use, so maybe we get people looking at doing it again. We used to have a whole circuit though, so everyone in Toronto knows about CS, everyone grew up playing it.
Do you have any plans for the next event? Are there any challenges before that?
launders: We asked everyone while we were at the event how we could make their spectator experience better and everyone just said it was great and it was the best LAN they've ever been to. That's nice, but we have so many plans for the next one already.
launders LAN 3 is happening, I can tell you that. We have to pick the dates around my casting schedule, and it'll be in the same venue almost certainly. What I want to add is a stage game, so then players can play right in front of those 500 people who were there watching. I'd like to add more booths from sponsors or computer stores, get more sponsors so we can get more computers, have more activities like 1v1 tournaments, get some ping pong tables to have a relaxed area and make it filled out like a true Dreamhack.
Is the event profitable?
launders: Well, I paid out of pocket to fly in some of my friends. But having Rivalry as one of the main event sponsors and organisers, they're backing it but we're using the event now to find enough sponsors to cover it.
So, these events run at a loss, for now, but I really think that with this most recent one, we'll be able to change that. If I was a computer store in Canada or a peripheral company, I would be very interested in getting involved because there are 700 people who all play games there for the last two days. Even selling my clothes at the boxr booth, we had one of our best sales weekends ever just selling clothes there. I think it would be a very attractive opportunity for sponsors to be there.
When I talked to Rivalry, they said they don't care if it runs at a loss, it's the best event they've ever run and it's fun for them.
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