Greetings and welcome to Cue Sport Nation. For those who are unfamiliar with my blog "Straight-Pool", my name is Markus Noé. I am a Journalist Graduate from St. Lawrence College which is located in my hometown of Cornwall, Ontario. I began playing pool recreationally in my mid to late teens and played my first 9 ball league at 21.

After winning the beginners league in my home room of Rack-M-Up Billiards I was immediately hooked on the idea of competing. Soon after I began travelling to Montreal during the 2009-2010 season to play in the Quebec Federation which boasts some of the best Amateur and Professional players in Canada. Here I have been feeding my passion of competing and attempting, like all who get bitten by the "bug", to improve with each year with the hopes of becoming a top player.

Last November I realized that it had been over a year since I worked in my field. Seeing no prospects on the horizon for re-entering it, I decided to combine my addiction to cue sports with my passion to be creative and expressive through writing all while keeping my Journalistic skills on par in case an opportunity came.

Unbeknownst to me I was creating my own opportunity. A few months into this endeavour it became clear that there was a major need for Canadian focused content as Andrew Attard from The Pool Scene approached me to be a contributor early this year. Feeding off his established platform, which before Cue Sport Nation was the only Canadian cue sport media site, I built an audience.

Through this audience I discovered what my brand will be. I noticed that pool hall junkies like myself want more than just your run of the mill tournament updates. Like all other sports out there in the Facebook and Twitter age we live in, the audience wanted opinion pieces that dealt with the state of the game.

It is this style that got the attention of a friend of mine who I met in the summer of 2012 at a tournament in Gatineau, Canadian Champion Erik "Big Red" Hjorleifson. He was impressed to the point where he approached me this past spring in Thetford Mines, where a good chunk of the best players in the world were playing in Le Classique du Appalaches. It was there he expressed his desire to become a contributor to the blog.

After a few months of writing instructional articles and sharing ideas over long telephone conversations he decided to become more than a contributor, but a small investor and partner as well. Throughout this past summer we have been spreading the word of our goals and gaining support through advertisements which has made this website possible.

This is how Cue Sport Nation became a reality. In Conclusion the goal through this website is not only to promote all cue sports, but to talk about important subjects that are holding our sport back from the mainstream. This includes anything from flimsy tournament rules to promoters and organizers taking shortcuts or not doing what they should in order to protect the integrity of our sport. In this battle to bring cue sports to new heights, nothing is off the table when it comes to educating our audience on the current state of the game. Thanks to those who have supported us in the past and we welcome all new members to the Cue Sport legion.