An Interview with JIMJAM

We took the time to ask JIMJAM, aka Jim, from Cunning Stunts Dota 2 team, and the owner/manager of the Barracks to discuss their participation in the league and getting to know this fearless captain.

Player profile

Name:  James Andrews

Age:  35

Current Team:  Cunning Stunts

Headset:  Ttesports Shock

Keyboard:  Ttesports Challenger

Mouse:  Ttesports Black

Essential tournament food: Coffee & Cigarettes

Could you introduce yourself? What’s your role within Cunning Stunts?

I’m the Captain by default, because I was the first person to know about the tournament, and I said to my mates ‘oy, join my team’. I find myself inevitably drifting into captain/leadership roles because I’m pretty vocal and understand that someone on the team needs to make the call, even if they don’t make the right call every time.

This will be your first tournament together as a team in a long while, what are your expectations entering the Canberra DOTA2 tournament?

I think we will pull out some big plays, big surprises, and big throws. Hopefully there will be more of the former than the latter.

How far do you predict Cunning Stunts will go? We will be happy to not get knocked out in the first two rounds, and stoked if we make semis.

Tell the people about the Barracks and how did you get involved?

The Barracks is afaik the longest running Internet/Games Café in Australia. The Bunker in Brisbane was established before us, but they moved and changed their name to Elysium so we win on a technicality. We’ve been around since late 2002. I started working at the rax in 2003 after I finished Uni as a fun job to tide me over until I joined the public service. That never happened though, because the owners offered me the Civic Store. I ran it under a license agreement for 3 years and then bought it in 2007.

What are your ambitions for the Barracks in the future? We have some big plans! Frankly the industry is tougher than ever. We need to adapt to stay relevant and survive in this age of free wifi, mobile devices and cheap online consoles. We have a two-pronged plan of attack. First, we will move the business to smaller, cheaper premises and upgrade the ageing hardware and peripherals.. The second part, which is the exciting bit, is to open Canberra’s first esports & gaming bar, which will be in a spate room in the same premises.

The Barracks and the Bar will technically be separate businesses but will be heavily integrated. For example, customers will be able to order drinks and have them delivered to their tables. We will run regular ladders for all sorts of games, played at The Barracks and streamed to the big screens in the bar, so that the player’s friends and general public can watch the games. We intend to make esports in Canberra a thriving spectator sport and social scene.

The bar will also feature consoles which will be free to play, so that we can attract a more casual gamer market, and big tables that people can play card and board games on. Basically it will be a place where people can enjoy all forms of gaming in a pub environment.

Tell us a bit about Cunning Stunts – what sets you apart from other teams?

 Probably our lack of practice! We have some pretty different schedules so trying to organise some scrims is pretty hard. One of the guys works nights, the rest work days, and two of them are at the paintball field most weekends. We’re definitely a casual team, just a group of mates that pub together.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to running an internet café like yourself?

To be honest I would say don’t do it! I’ve had a great time, made lots of friends and have no regrets, but it gets harder every year. It’s definitely a lifestyle business more than a big earner. Having said that, here are my top 3 pieces of advice for anyone getting involved in a business:

1. The lease is what will kill you if things don’t work out, so have an escape plan.

2. The most important thing about business is to stay in business.

3. Other people’s money.

SkinnyG, Poida The Destroida, Rbinary, and Garg aren’t familiar names that many Canberran DOTA2 players would know, are you able to tell us about their roles in the team and their personalities?

SkinnyG is our mid. He’s mad aggressive in dota and on the paintball field. He’s so aggressive that Abaddon is one of his top heroes and he didn’t even realise that death coil healed, because he levels stats instead. I put him in mid so he can do his thing and hopefully snowball.

Poida the Destroida is a support. He has two different playstyles. One is brutal yet cunning, and the other is cunning yet brutal. He’s very good at analysing the game state and figuring out what we need to do to counter the bad guys, keeping an eye on the endgame and what’s happening in teamfights.

Rbinary is our offlane, because he’s a bit of a solo rambo anyway so I figured it made sense to leverage that. He destroys people in lane and on the mic. He is brutally harsh in chat, if you do something dumb he will let you know in no uncertain terms. But he’s a nice guy IRL.

Garg is our other support. He is very good at not dying. He likes support roles because he gets bored farming - he likes to press buttons and blow things up.

I’ll be playing carry, which is interesting to me because traditionally I have played support & ganker roles, but we didn’t really have a strong carry player so it fell to me.

What’s your best way to unwind after a particularly long day?

Relax with a beverage and play some dotes, or watch a movie or doco with the missus. The best days are when I get to do both.

Any funny memories at the Barracks, you’d care to share?

There’s been a lot. Many of them involve drunks coming down the hassle us on fri & sat nights. One of the best was when these guys came down and started giving me grief when I was behind the front desk. My friend Frost, a 1^st generation Vietnamese immigrant who grew up in rough Sydney suburbs in the early 80’s and doesn’t take any shit, walked up to me and was like ‘can we just beat them up already?’ He grabbed an umbrella that was on hand (we have an endless supply of sunglasses and umbrellas in our lost and found) and started whacking these guys with it, forcing them up the stairs. They couldn’t believe it, they were saying ‘wtf you’re hitting us with an umbrella’. It spilled onto the street and I grabbed Frost to drag him down stairs before the cops saw what was happening on the CCTV and showed up. I got him inside but these guys were incensed by that point and started kicking the front door in. So I’m bracing the door while these guys are kicking the crap out of it, but the glass was that shatterproof stuff with a plastic film so it’s still holding. Then suddenly there’s a blur of movement and some noises and the kicking stops. I open the door and there’s this cop standing over these guys who were kicking the door, they are face down on the pavement and moaning. Hero Cop had just run up behind these guys, arm barred and flipped them over and cuffed them. He said to them ‘you boys ought to be ashamed, you just got taken down by the smallest cop in Canberra.’ We had a good laugh at their expense, telling them they wanted to start some trouble and look at them now, face down on the pavement, don’t mess with the nerds etc. Then this other guy comes around the corner, sees them lying there and says ‘oh no!’ Turns out he was the older brother of one of the door kickers. Door Kicker had just turned 18 and this was his first night out in Civic. He spent the rest of it in the watch house. His brother brought him around the next Monday and made him apologize, and then he had to pay the $300 insurance excess. Owned.  

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Have a good time on the day, get pumped, bring your best game and your best trash talk but don’t make it personal and don’t forget your sense of humour either!