Ahead of Sennheiser’s upcoming 3v3 Overwatch tournament, we managed to get an interview with Michal Tempczyk, the business manager of Sennheiser’s gaming segment. He’s the guy who overlooks all of the gaming-related products, potential partnerships and sales. We got to ask him some questions regarding the future of Sennheiser and gaming, his views on the eSports scene in the Middle East, and what he plays on his downtime.
What is your role at Sennheiser?
I am a Business Manager in our Gaming segment in Copenhagen. Basically, this means that I am the go-to guy for a number of our Sennheiser subsidiaries in all gaming-related topics, whether it is sales, marketing or partnerships.
Among the markets I work with are the Middle East, US and Canada, Japan, the Scandinavian countries, and France.
Does Sennheiser intend to host and organise more gaming tournaments worldwide and, in particular, the Middle-East?
We are very excited to be hosting our first gaming tournament in Dubai this Friday at HubZero. The Middle East is a rather new and growing market for us, and we expect to see more tournament opportunities here in the future. We are already experiencing positive feedback and initiatives from other brands and potential partners in the region.
On a more global scale, in Sennheiser Gaming we focus a lot on the eSports tournament scene as we see it as one of the biggest multiplicators in the community. We already work with some eSports teams, tournament organizers and specific regional tournaments. This is also our strategy going forward.
As a follow-up, eSports in the Middle East is an area that doesn’t see much support, with teams segregated across various tournaments. Does Sennheiser intend to collaborate more closely with various local eSports organisations?
The eSports scene on a global level is very dynamic. It is fair to say that a lot is happening within the teams, tournaments, standards being optimized, concepts being developed by large companies as well as start-ups. When looking at EMEA, APAC and North America, we wouldn’t say that the Middle East is an exception. Of course, there are different factors and circumstances to consider but, overall, we see a lot of opportunities in the Middle East which we are keen to look into more closely.
What other gaming-related products can we expect to see from Sennheiser? Do you intend to expand your GSX line of amplifiers?
In the last quarter of 2016, we launched our complete new range of gaming products, which is being well received by the gaming community so far. The feedback and voice of our end-users and fellow gamers is the most important guidance for developing our future products.
Without saying too much about what exactly we will be launching and when, I can tell you that we will develop products based on this feedback and on our own ambition to deliver the best products to meet the needs of pro and leisure gamers alike.
Is Sennheiser open to sponsoring local Twitch Streamers, YouTube gamers, or teams?
We strive to work with influencers on both a global and local level when there is a genuine match and an opportunity for both Sennheiser Gaming and the influencer. We consider influencers as very passionate and dedicated partners.
If you could work with any gaming studio which studio would it be?
We do not have one particular studio we would prefer over another. We are open for several partnerships in this field and we are happy that, already, many game developer studios are using Sennheiser pro equipment to record sound for games.
What games are you playing right now?
CS:GO, the Witcher 3, Civilization 6 and several titles on my SNES console. A bit of everything basically!
