Hello sapphiRe, could you introduce yourself and tell us your role in the world of Counter-Strike?

My name is Heather - currently based out of Los Angeles, California. I’ve played Counter-Strike since 1999, competed since 2001 and most recently have become a professional CS:GO Observer.

You have a strong past as a player, can you come back on this part of your life, what you did, your main teams, etc.

I’ve played on a variety of teams over the years. My earliest, most notable team was Texas Area Untouchables, followed by PowersGaming, Team Pandemic, Evil Geniuses, Hold My Purse, Ubinited, Team Karma and now Selfless Gaming.

I’ve played with a handful of teams beyond the listed, but those were the most notable.

World Champion with Ubinited at the ESWC 2012

The role of observer is still kind of unknown, however, it is essential. Can you describe what he has to do?

An observer is the person that controls the CS:GO in-game camera - essentially an in-game director of the show. The observer's point-of-view is what is shown to viewers on stream. Without a skilled observer, fans could miss a lot of the action. Observers must be very familiar with the intricacies of the game, especially the maps, angles, and contact points. The observer must quickly navigate to the action, memorize and rapidly recall where each player is on the map and take queues from the casters and the producer.

How did you discover, then start doing this job?

I used to watch a lot of Counter-Strike demos which accumulated to hundreds of hours a month. I previously was an analyst for Counter-Strike:Source (and some CS 1.6), where I’d write a number of strategic articles about various top and aspiring teams.

Given my experience there, coupled with my competitive experience, I was approached by then employee of ESL, Derrick “impulsive” Troung (now a manager of TSM). Derrick needed an observer for the ESL One Cologne Major Qualifiers back in 2015. Since I was local, he asked if I could give it a shot. I was hesitant at first given I never tried observing for a major event. It turns out, I was pretty decent at it. I realized that I’ve been doing this all along, for over a decade, while trying to study teams and watch matches. So it was a natural transition for me.

Does it help you in your job to have been a high level player in the past? Compared to someone who never had this experience, does it give you some kind of advantage?

Certainly being a competitive player has helped my observing skills. I also have a decade’s worth of experience as a journalist where it was my job to analyze teams and demos for top rated CS:Source and CS:GO teams. Because of this experience,. I have a strong understanding of the maps, angles, contact points strategies, teams and players. Having this knowledge allows me to react more quickly to what I’m seeing during a match and be able to broadcast the most important storylines of a round to the audience.

What kind of devices do you use to fulfill your role? A kind of “mini control room”?

Each set-up varies depending on the organizer, but in an ideal set-up I have four computers, five monitors and a co-observer.

Computer 1: The main observer feed - this is what the audience sees during a live round and as the main observer, I’m controlling this view.

Computer 2: A full-screen mini-map so I’m able to better understand player locations. This is what I’m looking at the majority of the time.

Computer 3: A back-up computer. If CS:GO crashes, for example, I can quickly switch to a new computer, already in the match server, and avoid much interruption.

Computer 4: This is connected to a GOTV server that’s on a 10 second delay. The second observer will use this to build nice replay clips. If Skadoodle gets three frags and the main observer only captures two on the stream, the second observer will capture all three frags to produce an optimal frag clip.

Monitor 5: This shows what’s called a ‘program feed’ - what the audience sees. This way the observer will know if there computer is being shown to the audience, or if the camera is on the fans, players, casters, etc

Do you work alone, or are there several people working at the same time so you don’t miss anything?

At minimum, I usually have a second observer with me for big events. At the ELEAGUE Season 2 Finals, there were a total of four observers and it was my first experience with that type of set-up. It produced a very nice end result.

Observer 1 : Main observer displaying the live action in first-person point-of-view only (With only 2-3 observers, the main observer would also have binds to present third-person point-of-views as well as views of the scoreboard and large map).

Observer 2 : Flies around the map to look for optimal third-person POVs. This observer will also bring up the large map and scoreboard at the appropriate times.

Observer 3 : This observer will have a master switch that sends either Observer 1’s feed or Observer 2’s feed out to the stream. This observer is tasked with watching multiple views at the same time and quickly switching between the two to show site set-ups and executes without necessarily missing any of the frags.

Observer 4 : This observer operates the delay GOTV computer

Four observers in action for the semi-finals of the ELEAGUE season 2

In the end, do you really get to enjoy the match and the great actions? Don’t you sometimes feel frustrated because you need to permanently concentrate and can’t just watch and enjoy?

I do feel like I enjoy the matches. It’s nice to feel like I’m a part of a historical moment. Great plays that get upvoted to the top of reddit or talked about for months to come can often be because the observer made the right decision on which player’s POV to show. Also, because I’m such a huge fan of CS:GO, I often find myself cheering in the control room when a big moment happens. Sure, I do miss sitting in the audience cheering alongside my friends but I still wouldn’t trade my experience as an observer for anything.

We know about the auto-director, which handles by itself the different actions on the GOTV. What can an observer do that this tool can’t? Does it actually have some advantages that an observer cannot (yet) reproduce?

When a GOTV is on a 10 second or more delay, auto-director does a decent show of showing frags. It knows that the frags already happened so it can quickly switch to the right player. However, there are a lot of flaws to this. In a 1v1, auto-director will always show the player that gets the kill so it ruins the excitement of the moment.

Also, auto-director may show as many kills than the average observer, but it doesn’t necessarily the most important kills. The observer is a storyteller, tasked with broadcasting the most important information to the audience. Observer’s aren’t necessarily trying to capture every frag as it could disorientate the audience. Instead, the observer must show the most important kills - something auto-director can’t know.

Lastly, auto-director doesn’t know what to do when no action is happening. Often times, it will show a single CT holding a bombsite when the remaining nine players are on the other side of the map with five T’s preparing a site-execute.

We’ve noticed, at the production level, that each organizer tries to do better for every new event. Does it affect your role? Do you feel more pressure, more expectations?

Of course. Especially when there is a massive in-person audience. A missed kill in a big moment will produce some light clapping as fans only read the kill feed to see what happened, but a clutch 180 no-scope shown on stream will result in a standing ovation. The best teams, players, casters and production can all be in the same venue, but without the best action shown on stream, the audience’s reaction can suffer.

You were able to use your talents during the Eleague, greatly praised for its production quality, particularly thanks to the Television being involved. From inside, was it really different from other events? What was different, better or worse?

What’s great about ELEAGUE is that it’s the same crew and same set-up week after week. It’s predictable and repetitive - and that’s a good thing. We’re able to get into a rhythm and not worry about how the set-up is designed, what the run of show will be, etc. We know what is expected of us and we know how our set-up will look and operate. We can show up not having to worry about rehearsals every week and the chance of technical issues.

Compare this to other events which use new venues each time, new computers, potentially new crew. At these other events, the end result is often something amazing and special as well, but there are higher chances of something going wrong, some delays and more need for rehearsals. That’s not to say I ever want those events to go away because they do mean a lot ot me as well, but having a consistent set-up is certainly appealing.

Also, the ELEAGUE’s production crew is incredible. The team I work with have won Emmy’s for their work on other shows. I’ve played Counter-Strike for 17 years and it wasn’t until I brought my mom to Atlanta to see ELEAGUE in person did she finally “get it”. The production crew allowed her to participate in rehearsal and ‘push the buttons’. She was able to see how much work goes into the broadcast and it was much more than ‘just a game’ now. The crew at ELEAGUE is incredibly talented and it’s an honor to be a part of this historic production.

Behind the scenes of OpTic's final victory

Carrying on this idea of evolution, do you think your job as an observer is bound to evolve? Do you think people might expect more from you or ask you to manage more things?

My first few events, I was the only observer - it means long days and a lot of pressure. As the role has evolved, the observing team has grown. As mentioned above, at ELEAGUE Season 2 Finals we had four observers. Also, I’ve noticed in recent events we work more closely with the replay team to produce clips not only during the live match but post-match as well. We’ll work closely with analysts like yNK or DaZeD to clip important rounds into a nice package in which the analyst can talk over on camera.

How do you choose the events in which you’re going to participate? Do you make offers to the organizers, or are they the ones contacting you?

If I’m available and can make it work into my schedule (I also balance a regular 9-5 job that is outside of esports), I’ll often accept the work. I’m addicted to this. It’s often the organizers contacting me to hire me for an event but if there is an opportunity to offer my availability to an event, I definitely make sure to do that. I’ve often volunteered to observe various smaller events or charity events without pay because it’s important to me that those events succeed.

Not long ago, you pointed out on Twitter, that observer was a pretty precarious post. Could you tell us more about it? Can you currently make a real living of your job as an observer?

If you’re younger and still in school, it’s a nice extra income to support yourself when living at home with parents, for example. I’m older, married and recently completed my Master’s degree so I’m at the point in life where observing can’t pay the bills. But it’s certainly nice to have the additional income from the work I do. I never expected to be paid for it. I volunteered for years upon years, paying tens of thousands of dollars of my own money to travel to LANs and create interesting content for fans. It is a great reality to know that someone pays me to travel to LANs now.

In the end, you are a “shadow worker”: your role allows viewers to fully enjoy the match, but you’re almost never recognized for what you do. Does this lack of exposure and recognition bother you sometimes?

It didn’t bother me too much but that being said I think events are doing a better job of recognizing observers. I really appreciate when observers are announced in “talent line-ups” and especially thankful to events like the MLG Major or IEM Oakland that included observer’s photos in the talent line-up as well. Other events will recognize us by putting “OBSERVED BY: @sapphiReCSGO” in an overlay image when a match starts.

That being said, we’re still essentially “faceless” to the average viewer. Since we don’t get recognized too much, I try to produce a lot of behind-the-scenes content so fans can get to know what our role is. Not that I want recognition, but more that I want fans to understand what goes into event production. At recent events, I’ve been interviewing a number of staff members behind-the-scenes and creating “Jobs in esports” video clips to show people that aspire to work in esports how many opportunities are really out there.

At IEM Oakland, I was asked to go on stage to do a Q&A with Anders. In my head I’m thinking, “Great, no one is going to ask me anything when I’m standing next to a legend.” I was blown away by how many questions people had for me about observing. It’s exciting to see the growing interest in the work I and many other talented observers do week in and week out.