Thomas Gribble: How does it feel to have three of your players up there?

Amber Dalton: It’s a great feeling; you know to see women making it to these events. Kasumi won second place here last year. We’re hoping to see a repeat of that, she proved her worthiness there. We have Vanessa making her debut here but actually Vanessa is a long standing community member who was actually referred to as actually the number one DOA player before Kasumi. We actually brought her out of retirement for this event and she got prepared for it. She’s been doing amazing and we can’t wait to see the outcome. Of course Venus competed on PGR this year, so we’re excited to see what happens.

Thomas Gribble: How do you feel the DirecTV event compares?

Amber Dalton: The Direct TV Champion gaming series is a very unique event. It’s like really nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s a production that’s made for television while still keeping on the pro gaming. I’m really excited to be with the game will be that they officially launched next year; I’m training on Gears of War myself. I’m hoping Gears of War will be in it, but you never know. This is like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” mixed with professional gaming. It’s a very exciting event, we’re very lucky to be here.

Thomas Gribble: Do you feel the WSVG overstepped their bounds when they asked the players to sign the TV rights contract?

Amber Dalton: Absolutely not. Those agreements are pretty standard across the board. Almost every event I’ve ever been to that’s been filmed for television we have signed those rights. That’s one of the things that with the tournaments that they do is ask you to make the television show. My understanding was that MLG was wanting their players to be compensated for that coverage, they’re there protecting their players, they are their players managers. They have the right essentially after that, however, I’d like to point out is that I’m not aware of MLG compensating any of the people that have been on the USA network for their coverage. As a matter of fact I saw on the MLG forum, “Were we featured, are we going to get paid?” So I think that it’s not right for them to say they’re going to protect players’ interests and then protect some and not the others. I think we’re in a new area right now, Direct TV is showing that as far as opportunities for players to make money. I don’t think that it’s a bad thing to pay players for TVtime, in fact its pretty standard in this tournament for you to walk in and sign your agreement, they’re handing you your pass for your rights, if they use you at all or for 30 minutes. I think MLG was concerned with how, in the contract, they would be able to put it on their website for everyone to see the tournament, but all tournaments have been doing that. If that’s going to change I don’t know but I’m certainly looking forward to MLG paying out, next to bringing people on their TV show. They seem concerned, but I’m sure they will be honorable and hold that out along their own circuit.

Thomas Gribble: On the flip side do you think MLG overstepped their bounds when they told their players not to sign?

Amber Dalton: With the contracted players with MLG, they did sign with them. MLG is their management, they should listen to their management if they’re going to stay with them and play with them. However I think some of your interviews pointed out that the players who weren’t in the top two or three teams that are being compensated, they they’re not making any money, so why should they prevent players from making money? I myself think its wrong for a team to manage players in that way, because how can a league run a player team when they are going to be looking out for their bottom line, they’re not looking for the best interest of the players, they’re looking for the best interests of their pocketbooks, as any business should do, that’s not a bad thing. They need an objective third party, that’s not tied in financially with the tournament or tied in financially with the players. We need to have someone to run a players’ union, to fight for all the players’ rights. I’m talking about the pay that they’re getting, things like this MLG, WSVG stuff; pay the players for the right to use their images. It’s very similar to what’s going on in the World Poker Tournament, where the poker players are suing the world poker tour for using their images in a broad way. What we need to do is figure out what is appropriate, what is not appropriate, on both sides. And tournaments need to work with the players, players need to work with the tournaments and tournaments need to work the tournaments. Straight up, that’s how it needs to be.