Nicolas Estrup - Steel Series & Icemat

On the very beginning, please introduce Yourself to our readers.

My name is Nicolas Estrup, and I currently work for Soft Trading (SteelSeries & Icemat). My job consists of taking care of all team sponsorships that we have.

Could You tell us something about Your relationship with gaming in general? I don’t mean e-sports etc., but Your history of playing computer games.

I started playing CS back in 1.5, and have been playing since then. CS was the only computer game that ever kept my interest, all other games just annoy me after 10 minutes. I stopped playing when my daughter turned about 1 year old and I had too much work. I have played for some different teams in Denmark, but mostly been to events with mixteams and as a stand-in.

How did You find Your way into Steel Series?

Well, I quit my job in a clothing store because I wanted to do something that I actually love. So it felt naturally to contact Steelseries because I have been sponsored by them before and had known a lot of people at the office very well before I was hired, so it came naturally.

And what’s the look of a standard day at the work in Your case?

Uh, I meet in at nine in the morning, check my inbox, and take care of the skype meetings of the day. Besides that I look for new teams that could be interesting, and mostly use the day for staying in contact with the teams we sponsor at the moment. At five I go home! Besides that I do a lot of event work, attend the biggest events either working in one of our booths, or talk with the teams.

Before working in the company, did You ever think e-sport could evolve to such a world-sized phenomena?

Well, I never thought that I would end up working with something that I have spent so much time on. Especially because my closest friends and family thought that I spent way too much time in front of the computer. So it is nice to know that it finally paid off. It is even nicer to see e-sport growing on a daily basis. I think that in time e-sport will reach the level of other competitive sports, such as football etc. It’s only a matter of time.

Which product from Your gaming arsenal are You most fond of?

Uhh, I my self is a cloth person, I have always used cloth pads, been playing on SteelPad QcK+ and other cloth pads. But then the SteelPad QcK Heavy came out, and that was perfect for me. Also the new SteelSound 5H v2 really amazed me ingame, it has changed so much since the version one. Besides that I use our Icemat Headset and IN:Ears for office work and iPod listening.

Do You have any favorite e-sports teams/players?

Not really no, I just love to see some good CS. There have of course been teams through time that was my favourites, but at the moment I just love to see exciting matches, and see the entire scene evolve.

SteelKeys is l33t!

When did You first hear about the Pentagram G-Shock team?

That was pretty much from when they started the team, can’t remember when that was exactly.

Did the news of Pentagram G-Shock winning World Cyber Games 2006 shock You?

Not shock me, but I’m really happy for them. And of course it is always nice to see when one of our teams wins a big tournament. They played an amazing tournament and had a good final match against NiP. So all in all they deserved to win the event.

What are Your personal views on e-sports? If You had a son playing some online game very well, would You encourage him to aim at professionalism?

I have seen e-sport grow in the past couple of years, and feel that I can see where it is heading. If I had a son I would support him in what he liked to do. If he wanted to play computer on a daily basis I would not hold him back. As long as school is attended it would be fully up to him self. I think that it is important that parents get informed about what e-sport really is, and also open their eyes to what an social activity it really is. So instead of pulling the children away from the computer, they should support them and show interest in what their doing.

Most of us seem to understand why more and more companies will be willing to invest in e-sports teams, but please tell us why You decided to support Pentagram G-Shock (not mentioning other teams).

We started to support them because they where the best in their country. We have sponsored the organisation for as long as I can remember, pretty much from the beginning of the organisation. And they were already sponsored at the time I joined up here at SteelSeries. We recently renewed the contract for them, one of the main reasons for that is because they again have shown that they are the best team in Poland, and they have just shown at the WCG 2006 that they are one of the best teams in the world.

How far does Your view on gaming peripherals innovation go? Any details on what accessories could be awaited in the future?

We have a lot of new products coming up, I can’t tell you so much about them but I assure you that the end of 2006 and 2007 is going to be an amazing year regarding gaming gear. We always include our teams in the making and testing of products, we do that because the only way to make a good product is including the ones that are actually going to use them in the making of the product.

Could You give us any numbers on how the gaming peripherals market is expanding (basing on Your company)? I mean some overall data on market grow etc.

I don’t have the possibility of telling you the exact numbers from the company. But thanks to the big events that there have been and are coming up, the market has grown a lot, and will keep on growing for a long time.

Are You planning on expanding above the gaming market or are You only interested specifically in that market?

The company that I work for is Soft Trading, and at Soft Trading we have the two brands SteelSeries and Icemat. SteelSeries is our 110% gaming brand, and all products in the SteelSeries product line is made for gaming on all levels. Icemat is our “mainstream” brand, it is for audio listening and everyday audio use. So it will probably be Icemat that will be used for a larger market, and not SteelSeries.

Thanks for the interview. I hope You and Soft Trading will be doing well and keep on providing us with the best gaming peripherals :)

Thank you, that is what we are trying our hardest. Once again congratulations to the Pentagram G-Shock boys! And thank You for your help in making SteelSeries what it is today.