Movement 19 April(Spanish: Movimiento 19 de Abril) better known as M-19- Colombian guerrilla movement (1970-80s), the main ideology of which, as a rebel anti-imperialist organization, was to establish social changes in an oligarchic and corrupt country.
Unlike other Colombian guerrilla groups, M-19 was not based on left-wing radical communist principles, but rather on democratic (more precisely, democratic-socialist) principles. Their main goal was to create true democracy in the country.
In the mid-80s. M-19 was the second largest guerrilla movement after (FARC-EP). The April 19 Movement effectively ceased to exist in 1990, having signed an agreement with the Colombian government led by the President on a complete ceasefire and reintegration into legitimate political activity and peaceful life.
Creation
The name of the group comes from the date of the 1970 presidential elections in Colombia. Then the Conservative Party candidate Misael Pastrana Borrero(Spanish: Misael Eduardo Pastrana Borrero) narrowly defeated the popular candidate from the National People's Alliance movement (ANAPO; orig. Alianza Nacional Popular, ANAPO) - General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla(Spanish: Gustavo Rojas Pinilla) (41.2% vs. 39.6%).
Among the founders of M-19 were:
- Jaime Bateman Cayón
- Alvaro Fayad
- Ivan Marino Ospina
- José Gregorio Lozano
- Carlos Pizarro Leongomez
- Luis Otero Cifuentes
- Carlos Toledo Plata
- Gustavo Petro
- Israel Santamaría
- Andrés Almarales
- Everth Bustamante García
- Ivan Jaramillo
- Alfonso Jacquin
- etc.
All of them were very literate and educated people (financiers, lawyers, etc.), many of them, like other members of the movement, subsequently became respected politicians (most of them are now members of the Alternative Democratic Pole political party).
Over time, the anti-oligarchic movement adopted the ideas of scientific socialism, based on the working class as the greatest force of the revolution. In addition, they understood the importance of creating an alliance with peasants also suffering from the same social problems.
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Bolivar's Sword
Advertising activity reached its peak phase with a very significant and extremely high-profile event. On January 17, 1974, a group of rebels organized a robbery of the National Museum in the center of the capital. The only stolen museum exhibit was the battle sword of himself (National Hero, liberator of Colombia and a number of South American countries from Spanish colonial oppression - editor's note). In place of the sword, the robbers left a note that read: "Bolivar, your sword returns to battle". Thus, the M-19 officially announced themselves and their upcoming armed struggle to the Colombian government.
1976-1980
In February 1976, members of the movement kidnapped the president of the Colombian Workers' Confederation (CTC) - Jose Raquel Mercado, who was accused of betraying the trade union of which he was the leader. On April 19, 1976, Mercado was executed, dumping his body on one of Bogota's busy road junctions. M-19 openly accepted responsibility for this crime.
Between 1976 and 1978 members of the April 19 Movement kidnapped more than 400 more victims. Among them were officials, journalists, relatives of high-ranking officials, etc.
In 1978, the group took a significant step in its future armed activities when several members of the movement dug an 80-meter tunnel to the main military base in Bogota, from where they stole more than 5,000 weapons and a huge amount of ammunition.
This weapon will be used 2 years later. On February 27, 1980, 16 M-19 members stormed the Dominican Republic embassy in Bogota, where the country's Independence Day celebrations were taking place that day. The hostages included diplomatic representatives from several countries, including the US ambassador Diego Ascencio. A total of 57 people were taken hostage. The attack on the embassy was prompted by the recent capture of one of the founders of M-19, Jaime Bateman. The seizure of the embassy lasted 61 days. The guerrillas agreed to release the hostages in exchange for safe passage to Cuba and the release of 320 political prisoners, including members of M-19.
War on drug cartels
A natural question is where M-19 received its funding. Particularly popular among the partisans were the kidnappings of relatives of local drug dealers, for whom the rebels received substantial ransoms. It was these funds that were used to support the activities of the movement. The rebels were not afraid to encroach even on the most powerful drug lords of that time - Medellin Cartel led by the legendary.
So, in 1980, M-19 tried to kidnap a high-ranking member, but he managed to escape from the raiders. And in December 1981, the sister of the “Ochoa clan” was kidnapped (one of the founders of the cartel are the brothers, and Ochoa Vasquez - editor's note) - 26-year-old Martha Nieves, whose kidnapping was organized by a guerrilla group, whose leaders demanded the Ochoa brothers $12 million for her release.
In response, the Ochoas called an emergency meeting with 223 local drug traffickers and large landowners. At this meeting, the question was raised about creating an organization whose purpose was to counter the antics of partisans and other sabotage groups carrying out kidnappings of their associates. Thus, a paramilitary organization called " Death to the kidnappers"(MAS, Muerte a Secuestradores).
According to some reports, each member of the newly formed organization contributed 2 million pesos and 10 of the best people. Thus, MAS's own army immediately began to have a cash fund of 446 million pesos and 2,230 armed fighters. 92 days later, after a series of brutal reprisals against guerrillas and their loved ones, Marta Nieves was released.
Despite government persecution and wars with drug cartels, M-19 continued to grow rapidly. This was partly due to support from foreign guerrilla groups. Mainly due to the support of similar guerrilla movements Montonerosa(Argentina) and Tupamara(Uruguay).
"Crystal" truce
In early 1983, Jaime Bateman proposed that the government conduct a dialogue that would resolve the military conflict. However, on April 28 of the same year, Bateman died in a plane crash and negotiations were suspended.
They were resumed in 1984. Then-President of Colombia Belisario Betancourt(Spanish: Belisario Betancur Cuartas) granted a broad amnesty to the guerrilla group and raised the issue of a ceasefire and demobilization of the guerrilla group. It was Betancourt who first proposed that M-19 reorganize into a political party. Despite constant sabotage on both sides, in the same year a new party appeared on the political field - Democratic Alliance M-19(AD-M19), which consisted of certain factions of the movement. The other part of the partisans, who did not agree with the truce, also continued their rebel activities.
By mid-1985, the fragile truce was broken and the leader of the young party, Alvaro Fayyad, announced that the political wing was returning to the fight. That same year, the group became the protagonist of the most infamous episode of its existence and one of the main episodes of the Colombian Civil War.
Storming the Palace of Justice
On November 6, 1985, members of M-19 seized the Palace of Justice in Bogota. This high-profile event went down in history as Assault on the Palace of Justice(Spanish: Toma del Palacio de Justicia). The guerrillas' goal was to force judges to convict President Belasario Betancourt for violating the terms reached in the peace deal.
It was one of the largest and most daring events organized by the Colombian rebels in all 52 years of bloody war. It all happened in the capital's courthouse, which was captured by 35 heavily armed M-19 members who suddenly drove up to the palace and fired on the guards. Having penetrated inside, they organized a perimeter defense, occupying the entire perimeter of the building. They took 300 people hostage, incl. all the chief justices of Colombia. The government's response was lightning fast. Within half an hour, the entire area was cordoned off by police, two hundred military and special forces soldiers.
Military helicopters circled in the air, and battle tanks surrounded the building. The assault has begun...
The siege lasted more than 28 hours. The rebels, realizing that the end was near, began to burn all archival court documents. The palace was completely burned, turning into a huge ashes. The assault killed 33 guerrillas, 11 government soldiers, 13 judges and 58 civilians.
After 2 years, trials began in the case of the “seizure of the palace of justice”, during which many documents and evidence surfaced indicating that one of the customers of this event was Pablo Escobar himself, the purpose of which was to destroy some court papers incriminating the issue of his extradition to the USA. It is believed that the drug lord paid the guerrillas more than $1 million to seize the courthouse and destroy documents under the pretext of personal beliefs. This hardly seems true, because the Medellin cartel and M-19 were sworn enemies. However, this version still unofficially remains one of the main reasons for the seizure of the building.
Surrender of weapons
In 1989, the M-19 began the next stage of peace negotiations with the government led by President Cesar Gaviria. The talk was about the demobilization of M-19 as an armed guerrilla group and its full transition to legitimate political activity.
The group's leader, Carlos Pizarro, signed the historic peace treaty on March 9, 1990. The rebels laid down their arms and agreed to cease all military operations. Most of the group's members joined the revived AD-M19 political party.
Just 7 weeks later, Pizarro, who was his party's presidential candidate, was shot and killed.
In the early 2000s. AD-M19 disappeared from the political scene, ending a guerrilla political party that had existed for about 30 years.
However, some of the group's former members now play important political roles in the country. For example, the former ideologist of M-19 Gustavo Petro(Spanish: Gustavo Petro) was one of the main presidential candidates in the 2018 elections, gaining 42% of the vote and losing the presidential race to a right-wing candidate
Rating 3.88 /5 - 8 votesLiterally in 2001, a lineup was formed in the Counter-Strike club, which took the modest name M19. The leadership position was taken by Lesha Kozlovsky, who became more famous under the pseudonym “NooK”, the captain of this association was Vitalik Pochinkin, Vyacheslav Khan, Sasha Gribov and Yura Terentyev also fought side by side with the guys. For the first time, the squad distinguished itself at the European Championship, which took place in 2001, directly in England, after a while the guys managed to win the all-Russian tournament, surpassing strong opponents from the c58 club. For the first time in the history of local eSports, we have received the right to participate in an international tournament in Counter-Strike. Unfortunately, in London they had to leave the group, since at first the guys could not resist their Finnish rivals from the All-Stars. But at the same time, they gained decent experience in international competitions and began to train even more actively.
At the end of March 2005, a message appeared on the official portal of the M19 club that the current squad was disbanding and new players would be recruited to represent the team in official competitions. During the development of the team, it consisted exclusively of Russian representatives. In total, there were about 15 people in M19, although the main tasks were performed by natural leaders, including Nook, his comrade MadFan, also KALbI4, Rider, the brilliant Rado, plus 400kg.
Team composition
Nook– this is Lesha Kozlovsky, born in St. Petersburg in 1983, he is an excellent shooter, in addition to virtual gaming, he also distinguished himself in poker.
MadFan- Vitalik Pochinkin, born in 1981, also from St. Petersburg, led the M19 team, and also wrote a personal column on a resource about e-sports. As soon as I finished the game, I independently opened a virtual cafe in my hometown.
KALbI4- Sasha Gribov, born in the northern capital of the Russian Federation in 1984, served as a sniper in the team, owned almost all types of weapons. Fought for different squads throughout his career, after a while he abandoned virtual world, and as a result went to live in Bali.
Rider- Vyacheslav Khan, originally from St. Petersburg, founded this composition, but always stood behind the backs of his partners. His peculiarity was that all the guy’s actions were extraordinary.
Rado- Anton Kapitanov, Russian, born in 1983, became part of the M19 team right before the qualifying sessions for WCG 2002. He is considered one of the leading players in the Russian Federation, because he acts cunningly and thoughtfully
400kg- Zhenya Gapchenko, from Chelyabinsk, born in 1981, is truly the leading player on the roster. At the end of his playing career, he returned to hometown, and is now engaged in web development.
Screenshot
Legendary Build Features
- Russian nickname and Russian chat built into the assembly from M19.
- Configs from professional players: Nook, Madfan, Rider, 400kg, Kalbl4, Rado are already built into the game.
- High-quality protection against malicious commands sent by the CS 1.6 server.
- The game assembly has been fully optimized.
- Reworked models of players and weapons for the M19 clan.
- There are no unnecessary models, weapons, sprites, etc., everything standard was developed by the players.
- Quick installation of the assembly with a choice of two languages ENG and RUS.
M19 (Russia)
History of the M19 team
2001 (team creation, debut in international tournaments)
First World Championship computer games WCG 2001
At the beginning of 2001, a Counter-Strike team called M19 was formed on the basis of the club. The game leader is Alexey Kozlovsky, known under the nickname “NooK”, who previously played for the Millenium (MLM) team, and the captain is Vitaly Pochinkin (“MadFan”, who previously played for SoBr). The team also includes Vyacheslav Khan (“Rider”), Yuri Terentyev (“Alarik”) and Alexander Gribov (“KaLagRib”)
The first international tournament for M19 was the 2001 European Championship, held in London (ELSA CPL London). In July 2001, the team won the qualifying tournament in Russia, confidently defeating opponents from the c58 club in the final, and for the first time in the history of Russian eSports received the right to participate in international tournament by Counter-Strike. In London, M19 leave the group, but in the 1/8 finals they lose to the Finnish All-Stars team. However, the team is gaining the necessary experience from international meetings and continues intensive training.
In October 2001, M19 received the right to participate in the first world championship in e-sports, the World Cyber Games. In the final of the qualifying tournament, M19 win a dry victory over the Moscow team ForZe - 7:0, and win the main prize - a trip to the finals in Seoul and $11,000 in prize money.
In the final part of the tournament, the M19 team, representing Russia, is placed in the same group with the best teams from Finland, the USA, Malaysia, Great Britain, Holland and South Africa. Having lost in the opening match to the future group winner (and bronze medalist of the tournament), the Finnish All-Stars team, M19 then won four victories in a row. Despite the technical defeat in the match with the South African xTc, the Russians from M19 score an equal number of points with the US and Malaysian teams, and after winning the replay they leave the group in second place.
After the group tournament, teams compete using the Double Elimination system (up to two defeats). M19 first lost to the Australian team Synergy, and in the lower bracket they lost to the Spaniards from CTF and were eliminated from the tournament. As a result, the Canadian team [:LnD:] becomes the winner of the first Counter-Strike World Championship.
After returning from Seoul, M19 leaders MadFan and Nook note the mediocre level of organization of the Counter-Strike tournament, and also recognize the team’s performance as unsatisfactory.
2002 (leadership in Russia, victory at WCG 2002)
In February 2002, on the initiative of the M19 captain, Alarik left the team; his place is taken by a well-known coMAR player in Moscow and St. Petersburg, a former classmate of Alexander Gribov (KaLagRib). With the updated lineup, M19 beat the Muscovites from ForZe and gain the right to participate in the Euro Cup 5 online Counter-Strike tournament. The team performs extremely poorly in the group tournament, winning only one game out of six and failing to qualify from the group. After the second match, lost to the Finnish team ewok, the captain of M19 in his column accused his opponents of cheating. The violation of the rules was not confirmed, and the Finns eventually took second place, losing in the final to the German team mTw.
Another international tournament in which the M19 team takes part is PG Challenge 2002, a LAN championship in the capital of the Czech Republic - Prague, held in July 2002. The prize pool for the tournament is $15,000, with the winner of the Counter-Strike tournament expected to receive the largest prize - $4,000. As a result, M19 took fourth place, winning only $500.
In September 2002, M19 confidently won a ticket to the WCG 2002 World Championship for the second time in a row, confirming its status as the strongest Russian team. In the final of the qualifying tournament, the St. Petersburg team Arctica*Queen was beaten, the winner gets $13,000. By this time, Anton Kapitanov (“Rado”) became the fifth member of M19, replacing coMAR, who was not playing very confidently.
The WCG 2002 finals take place in the South Korean city of Daejeon from October 28 to November 3, 2002. In the group tournament, M19 successively meets the teams of Japan, Holland, India and Canada. M19 confidently win the first three matches, and the last match with the Canadian team nerve ends in a draw.
After leaving the group, the tournament continues using the Double Elimination system (up to two defeats). As in the group stage, M19 wins the first three matches against Portugal, Belgium and Great Britain, and in the final of the upper bracket they again meet with the Canadians from Nerve. This time the Russians play more successfully than in the group tournament, and beat their opponent with a score of 17:7 on the de_nuke map, receiving a ticket to the super final. The Canadian team beats the German champions mousesports in the losers' final and also advances to the super final.
The super final between M19 and nerve takes place on the map de_dust2. This was already the third meeting of the teams at the tournament. To win the World Championship, nerve needed to win on two maps in a row (the second map could be de_prodigy), while M19 only needed one won map. The first half of the meeting ends with the victory of the counter-terrorists nerve - 4: 8. However, the second half is confidently won by M19 - 9: 1, winning in total with a score of 13: 9 and winning the championship. The prize for first place was $40,000.
The victory at WCG 2002 remains to this day highest achievement Russian teams for the game Counter-Strike. Of the teams in the post-Soviet space, only the Ukrainian team repeated and even surpassed the success of M19 Natus Vincere, who in 2010 won three world championships in the IEM, ESWC and WCG versions.
Back in September 2002, immediately after winning the qualifying tournament at WCG, M19 receives the right to participate in Euro Cup VI. In the final of the Russian qualification, Muscovites ForZe were beaten. However, as in the fifth season of the Euro Cup, M19 perform poorly and do not even make it out of the group. The first LAN tournament for M19 in the rank of world champions is the MindTrek LAN taking place in Helsinki. M19s are being prepared within three days and ultimately take fourth place.
2003 (defeats in all significant tournaments)
The third European Cup in a row - Euro Cup VII - ends in another failure for M19: the team loses all matches in the group tournament. According to the captain, the reason for this was outdated computers and low Internet connection speed. As the tournament progressed, in April 2003, Rado and Rider left the team, and their places were taken by players from the St. Petersburg team Arctica*Queen Hercules and Dumok. Rado leaves for Yekaterinburg and creates a team, and Rider moves to Arctica*Queen.
The performance of the updated M19 at the Russian qualifiers for the World Championship WCG RU Preliminaries 2003 ends in a sensation with a minus sign. The team loses the first two games to little-known teams Flash.LSD and Unitedteam and is one of the first to leave the tournament.
A month after the inglorious performance in the qualifying tournament, the team announces its return to the “golden” roster (Nook, KALbI4, Rado, MadFan and Rider) and announces the start of preparations for the international tournaments CPL Denmark and CyberXGaming. Unfortunately for Russian fans, M19 did not qualify from the group in Copenhagen. As for CyberXGaming, the CS tournament with an unprecedented prize pool of $200,000 was sensationally cancelled.
Overall, 2003 turns out to be a disastrous year for the M19. At the end of the year, the Virtus.pro team was created, which first took 3rd place (the best among Russian teams) at the unofficial CIS championship Flashback Open Cup 2003, and then won the representative tournament VIKA WEB CS Open Cup. It was Virtus.pro that was to take M19’s position as the leader of Russian Counter-Strike and maintain it for several years.
2004 (Virtus.pro dominance, roster changes, participation in WCG 2004)
In February, M19 took second place (after Virtus.pro) at the Arbalet CIS Cup tournament, which brought together large number teams from all over Russia, as well as Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Moldova and Kazakhstan. In addition, M19 is forced to refuse to take part in the prestigious ASUS Winter Cup 2004 tournament, since it takes place at the same time as the qualification for ESWC Russia 2004 in St. Petersburg, which causes dissatisfaction among the team members. They also failed to perform successfully at ESWC Russia 2004; the victory went to the Virtus.pro team.
From February to May, M19 competes in the European online league Counter-Strike Challenge. Compared to previous online tournaments, this one ended more successfully for M19: the team reached the semi-finals, losing to the future champion, the Finnish team z0lad. A few months after the victory, the Finnish team was disqualified by the ClanBase tournament organizers for using cheats.
In May, captain Vitaly Pochinkin (“MadFan”) leaves the team to focus on his studies and personal life. For some time he is replaced by Maharram Akhmedov (“mAger”), who previously played for lesser-known clans, but he also leaves M19 in connection with preparations for entrance exams to the institute. In June, Evgeniy Gapchenko (“400kg”), who previously competed in the Yekaterinburg mega team and the Moscow A-Line, comes to his place. With a new roster, the team begins preparations for the Russian World Cup qualifiers. WCG RU Preliminaries 2004, held in July, ends with the victory of M19, who receive the right to compete in the finals, as well as prize money in the amount of $14,400. Virtus.pro are not taking part in the qualifying tournament, as the team is currently competing at ESWC 2004.
A month after winning the qualifying tournament, Evgeniy Gapchenko (“400kg”) is denied a visa to travel to the USA, which makes it impossible for him to participate in final tournament. Instead for a while final games Vitaly Pochinkin (“MadFan”) returns to the team, which significantly reduces the chances of a successful performance.
At the WCG 2004 Grand Final, M19 is drawn into a group with the Canadian team TeamEG and the Turkish teamquash. The Russians play the first game with the Canadians in a draw (12:12), but due to claims from one of the sides, a replay of the second half is scheduled. As a result, M19 lose 11:13. However, after the victory of the Turks over the Canadians, the victory in last game against teamquash would take M19 out of the group. Unfortunately, the Russians lose the second game (5:13) and stop participating in the World Cup.
In the fall, M19 takes part in the ESL CounterStrike Champions League online league, where it plays in the same group with Virtus.pro, but does not advance from the group to the LAN finals.
In November, Vyacheslav Khan (“Rid3r”) and Anton Kapitanov (“Rado”) left the team, who, like Vitaly Pochinkin (“MadFan”) earlier, decided to concentrate on study and work. Their places are taken by Kirill Ilyashovich (“CaS”), who previously played for M19, as well as x0ma, who previously played for mega Toyotic and ended up in the reserve. The first serious tournament for the updated M19 roster was ASUS Autumn Cup 2004, where the team took second place, once again losing to Virtus.pro in the finals.
The year 2004 turned out to be more successful for the team than the previous one, as it won the Russian qualifiers for the WCG. In the remaining tournaments held in Russia, the team regularly remains behind Virtus.pro, who not only win more tournaments, but also occupy higher places in the rankings best players Russia. The team does not achieve any noticeable success at international tournaments.
2005 (CPL Turkey, team disbandment)
In January, a press release unexpectedly appears on the SK Gaming website, which talks about changes in the management and composition of the team. Fidel Lang (“Yesi”) is appointed manager of the Counter-Strike division, while Vladimir Khvostov, manager of the M19 club, remains the head of the project. The updated team composition is as follows: Nook, Gribov (better known as KALbI4), malish (aka CaS), 400kg, Medic.
The first tournament for the updated M19 was CPL Turkey, held in February 2005. The team barely makes it out of the group, losing to the Turkish Team quash (5:16), and then winning against their compatriots from the Rusher Team (16:11). In the M19 playoffs, more serious opponents await: the Poles TitaNs were beaten in the quarterfinals (16:14), and the Swedish team ICSU was beaten in the semifinals. In the finals, the Russians will have to fight with the best Norwegian team Catch Gamer, who knocked out the eternal rivals of M19 - Virtus.pro - from the tournament. M19 lose with a score of 16:13 and take second place, but this performance becomes one of the best in the years of the team’s existence. Even though the prize money was never paid out, M19 players call this tournament one of the most exciting in their careers.
At the end of February, M19 performs in the ASUS Winter 2005 tournament with the participation of best teams CIS. After leaving the group in first place, the Russians lose to the Ukrainians from NT-C and the Belarusians from Tarantul and finish their performance in the tournament. At the beginning of March, the team takes part in the next EuroCup XI, but does not overcome the first group stage, winning only two games out of four. This online tournament becomes the last for the Russian Counter-Strike legend.
On March 28, 2005, a statement appeared on the M19 club website:
Club M19 disbands the CS team:
NooK, KalbI4, Cas, 400 kg, Medic
And begins recruiting a new roster to represent the club at official competitions.
According to some team members, financial difficulties are the reason for the breakup. According to rumors, the team was not paid, so the leaders of M19 NooK and 400kg moved to another St. Petersburg team, x4team. In addition, a few weeks before this, the team parted ways with Medic. The official reason for the team's disbandment was never announced.
Compound
Outstanding Players
During the entire existence of the team, only Russian players played in it. In total, the team consisted of at least 15 people, but the greatest successes, including victories at WCG Russia and WCG Grand Final, were achieved by six: Nook, MadFan, KALbI4, Rider, Rado, 400kg. Two players - Nook and KALbI4 - played for M19 from the moment of its founding until the dissolution of the team.
Alexey Kozlovsky / “Nook”(born 06/05/1983, St. Petersburg) - one of the founders and playing leader of the team, who played in all M19 squads. Tactician, good shooter. After leaving M19, he played for x4team along with other former partners. In 2007, he finished his studies and became interested in poker.
Vitaly Pochinkin / “MadFan”(born June 28, 1981, St. Petersburg) - one of the founders and captain of the team. He wrote his own column on the cybersports website cyberfight.ru. After leaving the team, he gave up e-sports and opened an Internet cafe in St. Petersburg.
Alexander Gribov / “KALbI4”(also Kalych, Kalagrib, Gribov) (born 10/07/1984, St. Petersburg) - one of the founders of the team, who played in all M19 squads. Sniper, good shooter with all types of weapons. After the team disbanded, he played for Mighty44 (among his achievements was victory in ASUS Spring 2005 immediately after leaving M19, former partners from x4team were beaten in the final), x4team, Spb.Islanders, Virtus.pro (top eight at ESWC 2007), various mixes . In 2008, he ended his playing career, worked in Helsinki as a postman in the summer, and in the fall went to Bali, where he still lives. He surfs and works as a tour guide. In 2010, he starred in Valeria’s video for the song “Kapelkoyu”.
Vyacheslav Khan / “Rider”(St. Petersburg) - one of the founders of the team, who, however, usually remained in the shadow of his partners. As in life, in the game he was quite capable of acting independently, unexpectedly for his opponent.
Anton Kapitanov / "Rado"(born 09/20/1983, St. Petersburg) - came to M19 before the start of the qualifiers for WCG 2002. One of the best Russian players, gained fame thanks to his ingenious finds. In 2003, he left for Yekaterinburg and created a team with which he won the “Perm Period” tournament, and also took second place in the ESWC qualifiers (beating M19). Then he still returns to M19. He admitted that the collapse of the team was primarily due to financial reasons. Played for x4team, ClickMouse, from 2006 to 2007. was the coach of Spb.Islanders. Worked in a construction and investment company.
Evgeniy Gapchenko / “400kg”(born 1981, Chelyabinsk) - one of the leading players of the team, who replaced MadFan. Before M19, he performed in Chelyabinsk SC, Moscow A-Line and m5team, Ekaterinburg. After the collapse of M19, he moved to x4team, then to TRAP, where he took second place at the NPCL 2006. Eventually he returned to Chelyabinsk, played for the local team Lacerta and ended his career in 2007, after which he took up web development.
Nowadays, eSports and gaming are a hype topic, projects in this area are developing quite quickly. The Dota 2 final was watched by 106 million people worldwide, while the NHL final was watched by only 10 million, and the NBA final was watched by less than 30 million people. It is unlikely that this market will double every year, but the current audience is growing and getting richer. Teenagers turn into adults, but people who are passionate about games begin to earn money, and therefore spend more and more on games.
Andrey Mikheev. Photo: Alexander Karnyukhin/Inc.
A popular topic is streaming (broadcasting games). Streamers and video bloggers are opinion leaders among young audiences. I remember when we filmed a streamer known for the game Dota 2 for the first episode of a YouTube show about gamers Men With Mics, young people were sitting in the bushes with phones and taking pictures of him.
Esports in numbers
Sources: M19, NewZoo, Riot Games
$1,5
billion will exceed the size of the eSports market by 2020
18
million people- audience playing competitive eSports games
286
million people will reach the audience of spectators of eSports events by 2020
80
million unique viewers watched the final League games of Legends in 2017
Andrey Mikheev. Photo: Alexander Karnyukhin/Inc.
Brands in eSports
Just a year ago, trying to attract clients to esports required a lot of persuasion. Almost 90% asked: “What is this?” I had to explain that this was an audience of millions on computers. About the same as when SMM appeared: people offered companies placement on social networks, and they were answered: “Why? Let’s put up billboards instead.”
What is M19
M19 (LLC "Professional computer sports
club M19") - an e-sports organization founded in 2017 former hockey player and businessman Andrei Mikheev and entrepreneurs Alexander Shlemin and Vladislav Krieger. Today M19 is not only an esports team, but also a full-service digital agency that creates and places advertising in esports communities, integrates brands into events, hosts esports tournaments, and works with esports streamers and bloggers.
The company employs almost 60 people, including freelancers and outsourcers (some in Moscow, some remotely). Clients include Coffee House, Ozon.ru, Red Bull, etc. M19’s annual turnover exceeds $1 million.
M19 has four teams: League of Legends, Hearthstone, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and FIFA. In 2017, the founders of M19 created a bootcamp - a training base in the Kaluga region with infrastructure for training e-sports teams. One of the most successful tournaments organized by M19 was the Dota 2 tournament, which reached a total audience of 5 million people.
From game to business
We initially entered the market as an esports team playing League of Legends. But it’s hard to make money by participating in tournaments because it’s difficult to predict the results. Promising your sponsor that tomorrow you will become the best in your region and go to the World Championships is not a good idea. In addition, the popularity of certain players is an opaque story, so sponsors could not calculate future conversion and sales.
We began to increase our expertise in the field of eSports and evolved into a company that makes b2b products that are understandable to sponsors. One such product is video. Streamers and bloggers have measurable KPIs - for example, 1 million video views on YouTube costs from $5 thousand; These are understandable ones that you can build on. A comprehensive story - when you integrate the brand into the show, into the team and onto the website - costs more.
In this market, collaborations with traditional sports are also possible, which help reach a wider audience and gain long term value. Inc.). You are selling a product not to one generation, but to two at once: a child - a machine gun in Counter Strike, a father - a Lokomotiv scarf. Or a father takes his child to the stadium, watches football, and during a break a Dota tournament is broadcast on the big screen - and both are happy. We have already tried this approach - we are now creating joint media content (videos with players, competitions, etc.) for the FIFA game and merchandise with FC Lokomotiv.
Participation in tournaments also brings income. For example, (publisher of "League of Legends" - Inc.) pays money for the team’s performance in the league (according to Bloomberg, Riot Games plans to give 32.5% of the income to teams participating in tournaments - Inc.), and in the international tournament The International 2017 in Dota 2 prize fund- more than $24 million.
The specifics of business in eSports are related to the audience. If you are building an esports organization, then accountants and lawyers can be taken from anywhere, but SMM specialists and PR specialists must be in the know and be able to work with the younger generation.
Who in Russia invests in esports
