fl0m on ECL: "It's just so confusing, how is a casual fan... supposed to follow that?"

Erik "fl0m" Flom has been a staple of the North American Counter-Strike scene since the games early days, initially as an AWPer he played for a number of teams during 2014 before getting his first big break on Luminosity in 2015. After moving away from pro competition he transitioned into becoming a full time streamer but still itches his competitive streak by playing ECL with Mythic, a stream team boasting the likes of former pro's Ryan "fREAKAZOID" Abadir and Austin "Cooper" Abadir. fl0m has been known to discuss in depth the North American landscape on his stream and sat down at IEM Cologne with Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore to discuss the North American scene, ECL and his transition from pro to streamer among other things.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

You have been one of the main NA streamers/personalities to stick with CS:GO in the ECL system instead of transitioning to other games. What keeps you streaming CS:GO instead of moving to any of the other titles?

I just like it, I just enjoy it. You play something else and it just doesn't give you the same itch or you watch or whatever it just doesn't fufill or satisfy you the same. It just doesn't hit the same really, there's no better way to put it.

There probably has been times that you thought about just being a streamer, but you have continued to be a competitor in the ESL Challenger League and in the qualifiers you play, even going so far as being one step away from playing in the Minors and the RMRs. Do you think you still have that competitive edge in you or what draws you to continue playing where otherwise you might be able to continue streaming FPL or Rank S or anything like that?

Well, even if I was never the best player, I always knew that I love competing. So as soon as I stepped away and started just focusing on the stream more, I knew that there would be a time where I'm watching an event, I'm watching a Cologne and I'd be like "damn, I really want to go do that", but I know that I won't be happy if I do that. If I go down that road again it's just not for me. I know that, but you can get sucked back in so Mythic was my way of fulfilling that need to compete without wanting to dive all the way in again. It's like my way of having my cake and eating it too and I love my cake as you can tell laughs. Basically, that's where it all started, that's what drives me to compete. I've always loved competing, I mean it's not even remotely close to my drive in competition and trying to be the best version of myself in Counter-Strike. I won't lie, I've not tried to be that person in about six or seven years when I stopped competing. However, it is a lot of fun to still scratch that itch, compete, and dive in even if I'm not putting in my best effort it's just nice. As messed up as it sounds, ECL is my adult league, my men's league, my beer league like in Hockey. It's really good yeah I like it.

I think something that isn't talked about a lot is how we can make ECL a better product for sponsors and even for viewers, do you think ECL is a compelling entertainment product and what can we do to make it more enjoyable and bring in more viewers and sponsors?

That's something I'm always looking at, that's something I do like what I have done with Mythic League and that. When we started doing the Mythic Cups no one was doing them. The biggest thing right now for Challenger is there is just no story, everyone looks to the players like you should stream more and they should, they should do more everyone can go down the line even at tier one and they can all be doing more but it doesn't matter. The bigger issue is the overall structure, there is just not much compelling stuff going on it feels convoluted and nothing really hits. You can't tell someone in one word how Challenger leagues works, and it changes all the time how are you supposed to understand what is going on in the scene if I can't even tell you how the qualification process is sometimes because it changes so much. We struggle a lot because it is constantly changing, every season it has different names, a different qualification process, and when the matches are there is no continuity at all. That is why I enjoyed the Cash Cup Circuit when I was working with ESEA/Faceit on that, and we still didn't completely get it. The idea of whenever there isn't a qualifier there will be a Cash Cup, I will be streaming it, the teams will be there and then it is leading to something bigger. It is easy to explain like 'Hey fl0m what is going on with this'' 60k playoff and a two week bootcamp in EU. What does Challenger League do? Well, this season it might be a promotion league. you might go to a global qualifier or you might play in Malta, maybe not this season because there is two seasons of Pro League and three of Challenger. It's just so confusing, how is a casual fan, how is anyone who is watching tier two Counter-Strike supposed to follow that? Everyone knows how many games in the NFL there are, when the games are and they know exactly what to expect when to expect it, and how it works, we don't have that.

You can listen to the rest of the interview below.