MOBA Monday: An Interview with Turnip eSports .

Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with Codie Sondesky and talk about SMITE, gaming, casting, and philanthropy. Codie is the cofounder of Turnip eSports, a gaming community that promotes “eSports for a cause.” Here are the highlights of last week’s discussion.

 

What is Turnip eSports?

Turnip eSports is a gaming community with a heart.

We love SMITE, we love eSports, and we love philanthropy. We wanted to tie those things together, so we created Turnip eSports. Turnip bridges the gap between games and service. We want to raise awareness for charities and causes while we play our favorite games, host tournaments, and grow the eSports community.

Where did the name “Turnip” come from?

Ha! So–we were at the [SMITE World Championship] watching F. shout casting, doing his analysis. Everyone kept shouting, “Turn up! Turn up!” I couldn’t help myself; every time I heard them, my mind pictured a little turnip. And I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we named an eSports team ‘Turn Up’ with a turnip as the mascot? People could spam little turnips in the Twitch chat.” I thought it would be pretty awesome for people yell “Turn up for Turnip!”

 So I have to give a shout out to F. for that one. Without him, there’d be no Turnip.

 

How long have you been working on Turnip?

Turnip went live five weeks ago, and we spent four to seven weeks working on it, preparing everything to go live. There are three founding partners–Tanner, Michael, and me.

 

How long have you been playing SMITE?

For everybody that knows the game, I started playing when Chaac was released–so about seven or eight months ago. It’s funny. I was downloading DotA 2 at the time. As I was downloading it, I was browsing Reddit. I saw a SMITE icon on someone’s desktop and I said to myself, “What game is that?” I looked it up and downloaded it. SMITE actually downloaded faster than DotA 2, so I’ve never actually gotten around to playing it. I guess you could say SMITE won that battle.

I have been addicted ever since.

 

What hooked you?

I love the fast-paced action. It feels like I am actually playing the god, unlike most MOBAs that feature a top-down view. I played Defense of the Ancients back when it was a mod for Warcraft. That was my only taste of MOBAs for a long time; I stopped playing video games for a while. When I started playing SMITE, I started playing again.

 

Who is your favorite god to play?

Aphrodite–because she has big [eyes]. I love her [face]. She has [a great smile]. I don’t play her much, but she’s a lot of fun when I do play her, especially with her [great build and abilities]. She’s the best.

I play Cabrakan and Guan Yu the most.

 

How did you start casting?

I started streaming on Twitch, and I really enjoyed interacting with people and entertaining them.

Lately, I’ve been down-graded to tournament admin, since Tanner likes to run the show. He wants me to be the APC to his Bart.

Haha, no, I wouldn’t say down-graded. He moved me along. He said, “We don’t need you shout casting. We can get someone else. We need someone to run the tournament in the background so we actually have something to cast.” I love it; it’s different.

 

 

When did you start casting?

 I started casting back in December. That’s when I started doing more streaming than casting. Lately, I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus–but I’ll be casting some Smash Bros soon. Everyone should check it out.

 

What does “eSports for a cause” mean to you?

That is Turnip’s vision. Like I said earlier, we want to bridge the gap between gamers and charities. We want gamers to get involved, and we want charities to have an outlet for reaching people. We want people to donate and get involved, and we want to grow the eSports community.

 

How can sponsors get involved?

If a sponsor wants to get involved, they should send us a contact email. We usually respond very quickly.

 

How can everyone else get involved?

We have a program on our site called “Caster Levels.” “Caster Levels” is our way of trying to help nurture amateur shout casters and video creators. If people want to create guides for SMITE or write about SMITE or get into the eSports scene, we want to help them grow. If someone is interested in streaming for Turnip.tv or shout casting for one of our tournaments, they should apply at our website and give us a run-down of what they are interested in doing and how they want to grow. For every contribution, volunteers get Caster Level points. Every time someone levels up, they get rewarded–from merchandise and shirts to exclusive areas of the site. The more you work, the more you get rewarded. We want to give back to people that volunteer for us; we want to give people a reason to come back to Turnip.

 

How are tournament teams decided?

We have a weekly 5v5 conquest called Friday Night SMITE. It’s random seeding, and it’s open to everyone except SPL teams. Anyone is free to join as long as they have five players, they sign up, and they show up on Friday.

For the first month, we had Gamer Gloves. It was a promotion we were running for Friday Night SMITE. First place got Gamer Gloves and four thousand gems total. Two thousand gems went to second place, and one thousand went to third place. Anybody that tunes in while we cast the tournament is eligible for gems and Turnip tshirts. We also hold tshirt giveaways for our Twitter followers.

For more on Turnip, its weekly tournaments, and its causes, check out turnip.tv. Although they currently broadcast just SMITE, they are looking to branch out into other eSports. To get involved, email [email protected]