Inside the Core: General E

Posted by: ncasolo

Written by Ryan "Solo" Terpstra, Lead Forza2 Feature Writer

Name: Eric Earley
Alias: General E Live
Game: Forza Motorsport 2
Age: 22
Hometown: West Lafayette, IN
Past Teams: President/GM of Pure Performance Racing
Favorite Food: I am a big Pizza Fan
Favorite Game (video or otherwise): Favorite Game of all time is Forza 1
Favorite Gaming Moment: Well that is pretty easy, my favorite gaming moment is driving down to the combine, competing and then being drafted to the team I had as my #1 choice. The whole experience was way more exciting and rewarding than anything I had done online in the previous 5 years. Being able to meet all of the people I have raced with since I got Xbox live 5 years ago was quite the experience. Competing in front of Mark, the other GMs and TV was the coolest/craziest experience I have ever had with video gaming.

Can you introduce yourselves a little for the Carolina Core readers who might not know you? (For Jewels sake don't forget the baby!)
I am a senior in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, and will be graduating this December. It’s been a long road through Purdue, but it will all be worth it when I get that degree I have been killing myself for. I am engaged to my beautiful fiancé who runs around this website with the alias Tanamariebee, and I have a son who is now 10 months old, walking, destroying everything in our apartment, lol. He will also say hi to people now, so we are definitely in the most exciting part of his growth. With all of this being said as you can imagine my life is pretty crazy. I go to school full time, my fiancé Tana does as well, and we have a full time job as parents as well. We are always running around to class, home, back to class and back home all day long. We are pretty much living at light speed from 8:00am until 6:00pm everyday during the week. I have been playing games since I was a junior in high school, and have always played racing games. My experience in racing games is unmatched by any other racer. I have the honor of being considered one of the best racers on a list of titles such as PGR2, SRS, TOCA 2, RSC2, Forza 1, and Forza 2. I also like games like Halo and COD4. I was born a racer though and that is what I really love to do.

How did you come up with your gamertag?
Basically there is no way to make the story of how I came up with it interesting. So I will tell you just how it is like I did at the Draft. Basically it started with Halo CE, and I basically just took the E from my name, General because it’s the highest rank in the military and Live because I just got Xbox live and I put them all together. What did I get? None other than General E Live. Most people know me as GEL now. I like it too because General E Live takes a lot of effort to type and say. lol

What got you started on Forza? Do you like any other racing games?
Well it was in like 2003 when I finally got Xbox live and when I decided to get Xbox live, I didn’t have any intention of being competitive or playing with the best racers. When I started though it came quite natural, it was easy and I just got drawn to the competition. My first game was PGR2, that was when I first met, ch0mpr, muffin, dan, and jason x. This was 5 years ago, I then transitioned through many flavors of the moment racers such as TOCA 2, SRS, RSC2. Then Forza 1 was released and we all finally had the next big racing game. I loved the simulation factor in the game and I just was really, really good at Forza 1 right off the bat. Then the Racing Team wars broke out 6 months into the game and I ended up sticking with Forza 1 all the way until Forza 2 came out. Forza 2 came out just when my son was born so basically I had no time to play Forza 2, so I pretty much just waited for tournaments in Forza 2 and that is how I found my way to CGS.

Last year the CGS featured PGR3. This will be a new change for the league. How do you think the transition for some of the returning pros and the new blood is going to impact this season?
The difference between this season and last season is huge, and huge on many levels. Everyone will transition to the speed pretty well, you won’t have a whole huge variation in overall pace. Some teams will be slightly faster and some teams will be slightly slower but speed is not going to be the only factor to consider in these races. The other skill that probably everyone has to adjust to is the ability to understand the collisions and understand the tracks on a more in-depth level. Basically understand every turn where you can be taken out on, understanding how far someone can come to take you out in the turns, etc. It’s going to be an interesting ride for all the Forza racers, with all these variables to figure out and adjust to. I really don’t think any one team is going to run away with things like Chicago did last year.

You’re in a unique situation where you're teamed up with a returning pro in Phantom and you've got the Forza background dating back to Forza 1. Do you think this will give you an advantage over other teams who are either both new CGS racers or both returning PGR racers making the transition?
It might give us an advantage over the teams with two new racers because they don’t have that experience to go off of like have with Phantom. I honestly don’t see any kind of advantage for anyone, the game is different and even the guys from last year have a lot of adjusting to do. It’s going to be a tossup for the first couple weeks of the season I believe. A lot of who wins is going to be determined through team work. The teams with the best team work will be at the top of the league. Phantom and I plan on executing our strategies and techniques to the best of our ability. This is will lead to great teamwork and ultimately a very successful season.

Many people in the Forza community are familiar with your talent. Tell us about your background with the Forza game. And perhaps you could shed some light on some stickers I was told about but not given any details on?
Haha, stickers don’t ring a bell, if someone refreshes my memory I will post in a blog or something. My experience with Forza has been extensive in many areas. With Forza 1, I basically held over half of the fastest lap times in the game for the first 6 months of the game. I also was the President/GM of Pure Performance Racing (PpR) which was the #1 race team in Forza 1 for roughly one year. During the second year after Forza's release, I basically just competed with Picaso for all the #1 laptimes in the game. Cam was really fast also, but he ran other car classes then I did, so we never really competed for times. With Forza 2, my son had just been born and I had no time to play, but with the Nissan Sentra Tournament last fall, I always was running the fastest laps. Then with CGS, I was the #1 Qualifier in the online hotlap challenge.

Forza is a game about racing and driving cars we could only dream of driving. What is your favorite car to drive in game and what car would you like to own one day if money were no object?
My favorite car to drive is the Lotus Exige. It’s just a sick car all around. I have like 10 in my garage, I wish I could race it but it’s all TVR and Saleen for a while. As far as car to own, I would love to own either a Ferrari F430 or TVR Sagaris.

What is your favorite CGS track to race on?
That is actually a tough question because they are all really good except Maple and Suzuka. If I had to pick a track, it would probably be Diamondback. It is just a really tough track that tests you as a driver in every way. At the same time it’s fun to throw the car through the turns on Diamondback.

What do your family and friends think of your new professional gaming career? Do they approve?
My family and friends definitely approve, my friends think it is the coolest thing ever. They know how much I have put into racing games in the past 5 years. They are happy that I am finally getting something out of it. My family is happy because I am doing something I really like to do, while being paid at the same time. Being paid is probably the thing they are most excited about because the money will give me the ability to pay for our wedding which we have been waiting to have for a long time. We just have not been able to afford a wedding along with everything else. All in all the CGS opportunity is providing a lot more then what’s on the surface.

How much more can you develop individually as a player? Do you think you will ever reach your peak?
As a player, my development needs to be focused on publicity overall getting my name out there. I have always been on online gamer, Austin was my first LAN ever. So I have a lot to learn in regards to the public side of the CGS, the technical side I have a great feeling for already. As far as reaching a peak, as a person you will never reach a peak in any kind of learning situation. You can always learn and grow as a person, so no I will never hit a peak in anything I do.

Anything else we should include?
Just want to do a shoutout to my fiancé Tana and my son Gavin. I can’t wait to get to LA and get back with the rest of my team. I am also excited about meeting the rest of the CGS players.

Thanks Ryan

GEL


Related Articles
» Tip From The Track: Tuning Those Big, Bad Gears
» Forza's Greatest Competition
» Forza's Greatest Addiction: The Scoreboards
» Tip From The Track: Week 1
» PGR3 vs FM2 Scoring Analysis
» Forza 2 Combine and Draft Recap
» Forza 2 Combine and Draft Preview
» Learning Forza 2 - The Fundamentals

About The Author

---

Ryan "Solo" Terpstra
Lead Forza2 Feature Writer

Ryan has been involved with the Forza community since the launch of the game in May of 2007. He is a moderator over on the official FM2 forums at ForzaMotorSport.net and also provides valuable feedback to Turn 10 regarding some of the multiplayer competitions. Beyond that, he is an avid racer himself climbing to as high as #5 in the world on the main Time Trials leaderboard.