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Alex ‘Machine’ Richardson dishes on joining ELEAGUE

By Brittany Frederick

Alex "Machine" Richardson will make his ELEAGUE debut in July. Photo Credit: Adela Sznajder/Courtesy of Turner Sports
Alex "Machine" Richardson will make his ELEAGUE debut in July. Photo Credit: Adela Sznajder/Courtesy of Turner Sports /
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Alex ‘Machine’ Richardson is Counter-Strike’s man of all trades, and he’s coming to ELEAGUE. He told FanSided about hosting the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018.

Alex Richardson’s nickname is Machine, and that’s pretty accurate. He’s one of the most versatile personalities in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene, hosting, casting and even doing a few interviews when necessary. And now, Machine is taking his talents to ELEAGUE.

Turner and IMG revealed him as the desk host for the upcoming ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 on Wednesday. Ahead of his ELEAGUE debut, FanSided connected with Machine to talk about his new gig, his long and varied resume, and what he’s going to bring to the tournament.

Meet Alex “Machine” Richardson in our interview below, then find him hosting when the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 begins July 21. Complete tournament information, including the schedule and how to watch, can be found here.

FanSided: What made you want to join ELEAGUE?

Alex “Machine” Richardson (AR): ELEAGUE is a premier experience, and I’ve always kind of admired from afar. It was a real honor. I saw the name ELEAGUE in my inbox and I just got very, very excited.

FanSided: You began your Counter-Strike career as a caster, and casting is still something that you’re passionate about. Does that influence your work as a desk host?

AR: I still do have the itch for casting. It’s something that I’ve always enjoyed. I got into esports by sitting in my bedroom at university and casting. Definitely wasted many a good evening talking about Counter-Strike or Call of Duty for essentially peanuts. But I love casting; I got the job at ESL through my commentary and ended up casting every game under the sun in a very short space of time.

I do think it did influence my hosting, in the sense that casting is all about creating a narrative and a storyline, and hosting isn’t that different actually. You are still telling a story and educating at the same time. It’s fun because you aren’t just working with a co-caster; you’ve got four or five different personalities throughout the course of an event that you get to work with and understand. Select questions for different people. It’s a nice little puzzle in itself to get everything flowing nicely.

FanSided: We do know the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier will have a rotating analyst desk, so maybe you can get Jason “Moses” O’Toole to hold your microphone and sneak up to the casting booth?

AR: I wouldn’t complain and I’d do it in a heartbeat. Jason’s definitely capable of hosting, but he’s also probably the snarkiest analyst we have, so I don’t really know how they’d feel about that. (laughs)

FanSided: Does having a rotating desk like ELEAGUE affect your role as the desk host, since you work with different analysts throughout the tournament?

AR: One of my favorite parts about the desk hosting job is that you do learn the personalities and you know where the preferences lie. For example I’ve worked with Janko [Paunovic], my close Serbian friend, for many moons and many late nights in Copenhagen. And it’s fun now because we’ve gotten to that stage in our relationship where we kind of know how the person’s doing that day, what kind of questions they really don’t feel like answering, but also where their specialties lie.

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Janko, he really takes great pleasure in setting the scene for the map veto. He likes to drop knowledge bombs on what happened in 2014, so I’ll let him do that and give him the space to do that. And then if I was working with Jason, I would know that he’s my go-to guy if I want a story to be told. If I want someone to set the scene for Astralis, the world’s best team, I turn to Jason and he sets up nicely for the follow-up. It’s nice to have that kind of connection with the analysts. You do know what they prefer and don’t.

FanSided: Is it easier coming into a new brand like ELEAGUE when you do know all of the talent that will be at the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier?

AR: One hundred percent. It’s scary enough in itself that this is going to be a new experience for me. When I’ve spoken to guys about it in my excitement, I’ve definitely asked a lot of questions; people were just saying it was a different experience. I think that’s probably the most exciting thing for me is that their production workflow is going to be very different to something I’m used to. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rundown works, how those pre-meetings work, how much influence can I have? There’s lots of questions I’m looking forward to answering.

FanSided: You’ve worked for all of the major Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament organizers: ESL, DreamHack, ECS and now ELEAGUE. Have you noticed anything that the top TO’s have in common, as far as creating a successful event?

AR: Definitely they all have passion for the game. I don’t think you could run a tournament without a clear understanding of the game, but also just a clear kind of passion for it. You want to be telling these stories. You want to have this team for this reason at your event. If you just went onto the internet and tried to do your research to create an event, not necessarily the casual viewer but I think the majority of the commited community, they’d feel it. They’d know it that your heart wasn’t in it.

FanSided: One of the many strengths you’ll be bringing to the CSGO Premier is how you’re able to always keep everything very loose and relaxed. What’s the most fun you’ve ever had at an esports event?

AR: It has to be when I decided, and probably should have asked before, how many phallic jokes I could get into The International broadcast before I got a slap on the wrist. That definitely was probably as far as I pushed it. I had a lot of fun, and Valve told me to keep doing it, so that’s okay.

FanSided: How would Alex “Machine” Richardson introduce himself to ELEAGUE fans?

AR: I would say hi, my name’s Machine, some people call me Alex, and I’ve kind of accidentally became a desk host in Counter-Strike and I’ve loved every second of it. I would be backstage picking up confetti if it meant I could go to the events, to be honest, but I’m fortunate enough to be able to talk about the game and sometimes people listen.

Next: All the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 details

The ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 starts Saturday, July 21 at 2:00 p.m. ET. For complete ELEAGUE coverage, follow the Gaming category at FanSided.