1. Can you please introduce yourself?

Bill Jukes: I’m Bill Jukes, Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft Hardware’s PC gaming devices.  I get to take the products developed by our design teams to market.  This involves developing a lot of partnerships and working with sales and channel teams around the world.  I also work with our communications team for new product announcements and messaging.

Babak Sayyadi: My name is Babak and I am the Product Line Manager for gaming accessories at Microsoft Hardware. My role is to listen to and think about people playing games on the PC and come up with Microsoft products to improve their gaming enjoyment, experience, and competitiveness.

Bill Jukes: Of all time?  I would say Galaga.  It was an arcade game I could spend hours playing.  It even had a “cheat” bug where you let the last wasp fly by so many times without shooting it so all of the bugs would stop shooting in the game.  

Babak Sayyadi: I have a few different ones. As an arcade game I would have to say Galaga for the simplicity and quick fun . On the PC, I enjoy strategy games such as Age of Empires or Rise of Nations. On the console I really enjoy the NFL (like Madden NFL) and Soccer (like FIFA soccer) games but I also enjoy the FPS/Action games as well and one of my favorites is Star Wars Battlefront II.

3. When was the first time you became aware of eSports as a competitive sport?

Bill Jukes: I think about 4 or 5 years ago with some hype on a big FPS LAN tournament.  

Babak Sayyadi: About two years ago when I read an article about Korea and gaming.

4. What were your first impressions?

Bill Jukes: Honestly, I thought having sports in the title was over the top.  After learning so much more about serious gaming and the sheer physical “twitch” movements of shooter gamers the eSports moniker is pretty cool.   

Babak Sayyadi: I did not imagine it being so big and gaining momentum.

5. Have you ever played a video game competitively in some fashion?  If not, would you ever like to?

Bill Jukes: Back in college I participated in 2 LAN parties.  We played Doom.  It was serious game-play between us but I’ve never entered a competition.

Babak Sayyadi: I have only played competitively against friends (in the same room rather than on-line). I would like to play competitively if I feel I can be competitive against my opponents.

6. How has working on the IME changed your perspective of eSports?

Babak Sayyadi: Just seeing and reading the enthusiasm of PC FPS gamers and how they value their old IME3 and the confidence they get when using it in competition was very inspiring to me and made me want to help those players compete even better and bring back their old favorite.

7. Why is the IME so good for gaming?

Bill Jukes: The optical tracking performance and comfortable shape.  Only gamers could have discovered the insane engineering limits for optical tracking 5 - 6 years ago.  The optical tracking specs other than DPI/sensitivity are still ahead of their time compared with today’s optical tracking engines.  I’m pretty sure Microsoft hardware is the only mouse brand that actually designed an optical tracking chip.  Other brands purchase them off the shelf. 

Babak Sayyadi: It has perfect balance of form and function where the optical engine allows the competitive gamer to push it to the limit without the slightest degradation in performance all while providing a comfortable and familiar shape to play for long hours. At the end of the day a competitor in any sport wants to have maximum confidence in their gear and IME3 provides that beautifully.

8. How does it feel to see pro-gamers using the mouse you designed?

Bill Jukes: I get excited, why not, I’m a marketing guy.  From a marketing and messaging perspective, we overcame some risk to bring IME 3.0 back to the market.  Retail buyers thought it was a joke selling a model that was over 5 years old.  We had to show them forums from gamers that talked about how IME was simply a legendary mouse for gaming.

Babak Sayyadi: It brings a lot of satisfaction knowing we could bring back their favorite tool of their trade and help them win a few more competitions.

9. In your opinion, why do you think eSports has the ability to grow?

Babak Sayyadi: With the ever evolving gaming platforms such as the PC, as well as more and more refined and sophisticated games in all categories, gaming in general is gaining popularity and players of all levels rapidly. With a large number of players and the competitive nature of the games and players,  playing competitively is the natural extension and eSports should only grow as a result.

10. How do you see eSports evolving in the years to come?

Babak Sayyadi: I anticipate it to get bigger in numbers and gain more mass appeal in regions other than Korea. I anticipating it to grow proportionally to the growth in number of gamers in genres that are most suited for competition.