The Australian 1.6 community has had a plethora of small online competitions on offer in the previous few months; ZYM, #therealsmasht and, ofcourse, Dice's own event. Yet while small competitions certainly provoke interest amongst the community, they seem to be nothing more than bandaids, a temporary measure against the gaping wounds in Aussie Counter-Strike. Luckily enough, a group of our diehards are attempting to apply the gauze neccesary to stem the flow.

Today, ZYM announced the inaugural season of its self-titled league, the ZYM 1.6 league. DICE sat down with the owner and creator of both ZYM and PlasmoCap, Plasmo.

First and foremost, could you give us a little about yourself, and ZYM, for those who don't know you?

Well I'm the current manager of the Australian High Ping Bastard community which used to be the home ground for Australian dialup Counter-Strike tournaments. ZYM is the new endeavour which I launched late last year which I use to promote e-sports gaming and the likes.

ZYM's name is rather well known in the community, but many people don't have further understanding of what ZYM is and what it does. Can you fill us in?

Well most people won’t know this but ZYM stands for Zero Your Mind. Originally we sought to become an e-sports central for news focusing around the local gaming community but due to lack of motivation, writers, staff and other reasons, we ended up going with the league/ladder idea instead.

You're synonymous in the community for your struggle against cheating - and the creation of PlasmoCap - what drives you to continue such work?

Well I think everyone loves to win the game fair and square and I certainly know that I do. I’ve sought help from various people on how to create the program in-order to do such things. The end result was Plasmo Capture which is a program used to record down the player’s gaming environment. This greatly helps the admins determine whether a player is cheating or not. You could say that I did it because I enjoy playing games and hope that other people get the same from it.

ZYM has announced this week its very own 1.6 league, a large step up from the small scale competitions ZYM has run in the past. What does the league involve?

Well the league is actually a ladder similar to that of Game Arena’s. There will be seasons and each team will challenge/defend for their ranks.

What motivated you to run the league?

Well at the moment in Australia, I think the lack of online competitions and ladder have to lead to a decline in number of teams. I miss the old days when there were hundreds of teams and with the ladder; I seek to return back to those days where online teams actually exist.

Any last shout outs?

Shout out to atomic, Neil and the zym bois :P

Dice will be providing coverage of the ZYM ladder games in the future, and wish Plasmo and ZYM all the best for the upcoming 1.6 league. Check them out at http://www.zym.com.au/!