Visionaries: Gaming, Media and the Internet Dissected
Overcome
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Gaming explained. Ever wonder how video games are made? Or how the most popular livestreamers and YouTubers go viral? Former ESPN, award-winning journalist Jacob Wolf and Overcome comes Visionaries, a new twice-weekly podcast that takes you deep inside the inner workings of the fastest-growing sector of entertainment with interviews of the powers driving it all. Hear from your favorite content creators, game developers, pro gamers and others who shape the media we consume today. No question is off the table.
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6 days ago
Going from Public Health Expert to Twitch’s Rising Star of the Year feat. Frogan
26-year-old Twitch streamer Frogan recently won Rising Star at the 2023 Streamer Awards. But what sets her apart from other streamers is her unique background in public health.
Frogan gained popularity in 2021 after a clip of her went viral on the subreddit LivestreamFail. Since then she quit her job as a public health expert and now uses her platform to educate her viewers on public health issues.
You can follow Frogan here
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Mar 17, 2023
‘The Last of Us’ Star Troy Baker on Why Video Games are Revolutionizing Storytelling
Troy Baker is the voice behind some of the most iconic characters is more than a dozen video games. From Joker to Batman to starring as ‘The Last of Us’ main character Joel Miller, Baker’s life’s work has featured one through line: immersive storytelling.
Hot off appearing as James in HBO’s adaptation of ‘The Last of Us’, he joins ‘Visionaries’ to discuss how video games are revolutionizing the way stories are told and break down some of his most renowned characters.
“Regardless of what function you’re going to perform, whether you’re an actor, a director, a writer, a cinematographer, you’re a storyteller. So how can you adapt your currency to whatever the commerce is?”
You can follow Troy here.
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Mar 10, 2023
The Danger of Saudi Arabia's Monopolization of Esports
As traditional investors turn their eyes away from esports, Saudi Arabia is continuing its aggressive acquisition of esports companies. In January 2022, Savvy Gaming Group, a subsidiary of the state-backed Public Investment Fund, acquired independent tournament organizers ESL and FACEIT for $1.5 billion, merging the two competitors into one and forming a super group. Now, just over a year later, that company's purchased Vindex, who are the owners of one of their competitors, Esports Engine. With that acquisition, the Saudi government holds a near monopoly on esports that aren't run by the game developers and publishers. This week on the pod, veteran esports journalist Richard Lewis and Washington Post editor Mikhail Klimentov, who've been covering the stories, joined to discuss the dangers a Saudi-backed monopoly on the esports industry.
You can follow Richard here and Mikhail here.
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Feb 24, 2023
How This Opera Singer is Becoming One of Twitch's Next Big Streamers
Jonas "AverageJonas" Navarsete is one of the fastest-growing streamers on Twitch, but before his newfound life as a content creator, he performed live on cruise ships as an opera singer. Now beloved by the 'VALORANT' community, he joins the show to discuss his rise, if 'VALORANT' will stand the test of time and how co-streaming is impacting esports and whether that is a net negative or positive.
You can follow Jonas here.
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Feb 10, 2023
Why Aphromoo is Retiring from 'League of Legends' After More than a Decade
Zaqueri 'Aphromoo' Black is one of the longest tenured players in League of Legends professional play, with his career spanning almost 13 years and two championship runs. He is also the League Championship Series' only Black player in its decade-long history. But in mid-January, he announced his retirement, hanging up the mouse and keyboard and assessing what's next in his career. He joins Prem, who guest hosted this episode, to discuss his legacy and the impact he left on the world's most-watched esports game.
"When your favorite player stops playing, or whatever might happens, moves teams, either you follow or you don't. So a lot of the old guard is gone now and all I can really think about [is that] a lot of us, back in the day, we were all streamed most of the time. It was easy to hop on Twitch back in the day, watch our stream, learn League of Legends when it was first coming out. Nowadays, you don't really see a lot of people streaming... and obviously it's a lot harder to build that sort of connection."
You can follow Aphromoo here.
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Feb 7, 2023
How Creator Ovilee May is Changing 'League of Legends' Through Content
Ovilee May started her career young, creating content about professional 'League of Legends' in her late teens. She's had a meteoric rise, becoming a host at Comcast's G4 network and at Riot Games' official League of Legends Championship Series. Her content, known for its humor and intentional cringe, is a standard bearer in an esports industry that's struggling to retain viewership. In January, she returned from freelance work to go full time with FlyQuest, one of the LCS' teams and get back to where her career started, while still pushing it forward in a new and meaningful way.
You can follow Ovilee here.
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Jan 28, 2023
Is 'The Last of Us' Finally Breaking the Video Game Adaptation Curse?
'The Last of Us' recorded HBO's second-most watched premiere of the past 13 years, behind only 'Game of Thrones' spin-off 'House of the Dragon.' An adaptation of the 2013 video game of the same title, the $100 million post-apocalyptic zombie drama may just be breaking the video game curse of bad translation from small screen to big screen. What's so different about it? And why are video games the hottest new thing in Hollywood? Emmy award-winning podcast host Jason Concepcion joins the show to share his thoughts.
"The technology got to the point where you can make this stuff look good on television. Second, 'Game of Thrones' proved fantasy could really make hay with a television audience in a huge way, in an international way. Maybe with 'The Last of Us' now, you're seeing the same thing with video games."
You can follow Jason here.
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Jan 20, 2023
Why Microsoft, Google and Others are Laying off Tens of Thousands of People
So far in 2023, the likes of Google, Microsoft and others have laid off tens of thousands of employees, with some in the gaming industry. Each day there's new news of layoffs and on this episode of 'Visionaries', Washington Post reporter Shannon Liao joins Jacob to discuss the layoffs and what they mean for the tech, entertainment and gaming industries at large.
"A lot of this is due to the pending recession that hasn't happened yet that people are worried about and they're thinking the market is going to contract. To correct for that, as the prices of milk and everything increases, the companies—and a lot of these are public companies—want to keep profitability up and look good for their shareholders, for investors and their next earnings call."
You can follow Shannon here.
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Jan 18, 2023
How Riot Games Built a Genre-Defining Game In Less Than Six Months
If you're into games, chances are you've played—or at least heard of—League of Legends and its developer Riot Games. Despite League's success, though, Riot famously didn't publish any other titles for the first 10 years of its company's existence. That is, until it got inspired by a group who created a mod for one of its competitors, Dota. In less than six months, a small scrappy team at the California developer built Teamfight Tactics, a spinoff digital board game that mixes chess with slot machines and inspiration from card games. Now it's one of the studio's most successful titles. It's lead designer, Stephen "Mortdog" Mortimer, joins the break down the genre-defining game, how its maintained and how the team finds inspiration for new ideas.
"TFT's success is about novelty and new experiences. If you come back and everything feels the same, you're kind of like, 'Yeah, I've kind of seen it before.' What you're looking for is those new unique experiences that excite you."
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Jan 10, 2023
Embattled Panda CEO Alan Bunney Faults Nintendo for 'Super Smash Bros.' Cancellations
In November, the community-organized 'Super Smash Bros.' esports circuit Smash World Tour canceled its finale event just two weeks before its kickoff date, citing legal concerns stemming from conversations with the game's publisher Nintendo. But the organizers behind the event also made another accusation: the CEO of their biggest competitor, Panda's Alan Bunney, had threatened 'Melee' and 'Ultimate' grassroots organizers on behalf of Nintendo, who his organization partnered with in 2022. In an intense set of events, Bunney resigned in fear in December and issued a statement scolding the Smash World Tour organizers and tournament broadcaster Beyond the Summit. Now, he joins Jacob for his first-ever interview in the wake of the scandal.
"The shadow of Nintendo behind us made [our competitors feel threatened.] You have to keep in mind I was working towards phasing myself out. The only thing connecting any distrust people had was me."
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Jan 4, 2023
FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried Won't Go to Prison & Other 2023 Predictions
Visionaries is back! 2022 capped off as one of the biggest year's ever for gaming entertainment, but for esports, the year was less than kind. What will happen in 2023? Award-winning investigative journalist Jacob Wolf and producer Prem Thottumkara sit down to dole out their big predictions for 2023. After allegedly stealing millions of dollars in customer funds, will 30-year-old notorious crypto count Sam Bankman-Fried actually see prison time? Will FaZe Clan, amid financial uncertainty, make it until the end of the year without additional financing? All this and more in Visionaries 2023 prediction episode.
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Dec 23, 2022
Why the General Manager of Esports' Most Valuable Team Left to Start a Consulting Firm
Parth Naidu is the former general manager of esports organization TSM, which Forbes estimated in May is worth $540 million. After nearly a decade with the team, Parth decided to move on last fall and now, he's launched a consulting firm, Sido, focusing on tackling some of esports' most challenging issues.
You can follow Parth here and Sido here.
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Dec 21, 2022
Best Of: How 'Among Us' Nearly Died Before It Made Millions
Marcus Bromander is the co-founder of Innersloth and the co-creator of 'Among Us', the online multiplayer titles that became one of the most popular video games in 2020. But before its smash success, 'Among Us' nearly died, as it struggled to maintain a player base and Marcus and his team looked to move on. Yet thanks to the pandemic, 'Among Us' became a favorite of gamers isolated away from their friends. Now, 'Among Us' has made more than $100 million in sales and gone from life support to thriving with new development.
"We were basically done with it at the start of 2019. We had put out our third map. We had done enough bug fixes that the game functioned. We were like, 'alright, that's it.' Forest and Amy started prototyping other game ideas that got decently far along, but when 'Among Us' took off again, we were like what do we do? We should ride the wave."
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Dec 16, 2022
Why 1.5 Million People Watched Chessboxing This Weekend feat. Matt Thomas
This past weekend, YouTube star Ludwig Ahgren hosted the Mogul Chessboxing Championship, an exhibition event featuring chessboxing. What is chessboxing, you might ask? It's exactly as it sounds: chess and boxing. Competitors compete in both, alternating between the board game and the combat sport every round until there's a winner in one or the either. 2018 chessboxing world champion Matt Thomas, who helped organize the Mogul event, joined Jacob to discuss the history of the niche sport and how it's growing beyond its small community.
You can follow Matt here.
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Dec 14, 2022
The Twitch Creator Who Livestreams Almost Exclusively as a 3D Avatar feat. CodeMiko
After she got laid off in 2020, 32-year-old professional animator Youna had an idea: start a Twitch channel and stream almost exclusively using a 3D avatar. She invested nearly all her savings and went $20,000 into depth to purchase a motion capture suit. The result? CodeMiko, a 3D character full of dry wit and dirty humor. Within a year, she became a hit sensation on Twitch. Now, almost two years into her success, she's trying to make VTubing—the act of livestreaming as a 3D model—more accessible with her company MikoVerse.
"I was like, this is the only chance I got because I got laid off already. If I did get another job, then it's gonna be the same thing over and over again. If I lose, if I don't make it, then fine, I'll get a job. I'll lose my tiny bit of savings that I have. I'll put myself in debt, but I have student debt anyway. I'll go get another job. But I was like I have to do it. I have to do it and see if I can make it. Otherwise, I think I'm going to just regret it an…
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Dec 9, 2022
How This Marvel Game Became Mobile's Hottest New App feat. Ben Brode
There's something incredibly satisfying about games that let you command the superheroes, and Second Dinner co-founder Ben Brode and his team have perfected the process in 'Marvel SNAP'. He joins the podcast to talk about his time at Blizzard, his departure, and how Second Dinner became the developers of the 2022 Game Awards Mobile Game of the Year Winner, Marvel SNAP!
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Dec 7, 2022
Why Nintendo is Finally Cracking Down on 'Super Smash Bros.' feat. The Yard's Aiden & Slime
It's been a long week in 'Super Smash Bros.' and we can only explain with a long episode. The Yard's Anthony "Slime" Bruno and Aiden McCaig, long-time tournament organizers and now staff at Ludwig Ahgren's Mogul Moves, join the podcast to discuss the nuance behind why Nintendo is enforcing its copyright rights on the 21-year-old title.
You can follow Slime and Aiden here.
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Dec 2, 2022
The Internet's Most Popular Music Critic Anthony Fantano on His Drake Feud & Viral Success
Known as the "Internet's busiest music nerd", Anthony Fantano, aka The Needle Drop, is the web's most popular music critic. His takes on Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean and Kanye West have garnered him hundreds of millions of views and in 2020, The New York Times called him, "The Only Music Critic Who Matters (if You’re Under 25)." Recently, he got in a feud with Drake after giving Drizzy's latest album a bad rating. He joins Jacob to discuss how his work is affecting the music culture and how he's remained relevant for more than 13 years.
"I'm in a very unique position that nobody else is in and nobody else has been in and I sort of take solace in that. I'm definitely a part of the conversation, like the general music discourse. I am definitely a part of, in terms of the things that I say, the anticipation for whatever I'm going to say, the reactions to the things that I say that people have. And even down to if I go on some kind of user generated, music review site or something like th…
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Dec 1, 2022
No One Gives a Fuck About Esports
It's been four months since we launched 'Visionaries' and there's been one reoccurring theme: No one gives a fuck about esports. With a recent report from Deloitte that esports engagement decreased by nearly half in 2022 versus 2021 in Europe, Jacob and Prem take some time to review past interviews, answer audience questions and discuss critically why fewer and fewer people are engaging with competitive game.
You can follow Jacob here and Prem here.
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Nov 23, 2022
The Former Investment Banker Building the PG-13 OnlyFans Alternative
Rosie "jasminericegirl" Nguyen is a content creator and the co-founder of Fanhouse, a PG-13 creator platform helping influencers better monetize their content. Rosie's Twitter first became famous for openly speaking about her thoughts on sex and her sex life. She founded the company after losing a work-study job while in college at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business amid frustrations with harassment on the likes of OnlyFans and other platforms. Now, Fanhouse is home to more than 1,200 monthly creators.
"I'm a person with very strong convictions. I have a strong moral code that I live by and I don't do things that I believe are like harmful to people or bad for society. Talking about sex in a positive way is not one of those things. I really don't believe people or women should be shamed. For what? Being horny. That's not a crime."
You can follow Rosie and Fanhouse here.
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Nov 18, 2022
Why Esports Startups are Failing
After just three years, beloved esports social media startup Juked is shutting its doors after failing to find funding and gain product momentum. Why is that esports startups continue to fail? Why aren't there deeply engaged esports fans? And are all the data reports out there about esports being "the next big thing" just absolute bull$!%&? Juked's founder Ben "Fishstix" Goldhaber joins the show to discuss what went wrong and the dismal trend the industry is experiencing, but continues to ignore.
"A lot of the industry doesn't listen to some of the problems that we've discussed in this, whether that be willful ignorance or they don't want to hear it because they are super passionate about something or whatever it might be. But I do think it's really important for the future of people's careers, for future startup founders, for other people trying to work in this space to have a better holistic view of where issues lie"
You can follow Ben here.
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Nov 16, 2022
How Creator of the Year Nominee QTCinderella is Building An Empire
QTCinderella has become one of the most recognizable women on Twitch in the past few years. Her regular streams have built her a loving community, but her events have built her a fanbase of millions. After being nominated for Content Creator of the Year 2022 by The Game Awards on Dec. 8, she's not sure if she truly deserved the nod. After a year with TSM, she is excited about her potential to find her definition of success with her new sponsor, Misfits.
"I am not successful on my own...And so without that community, I don't think I'm successful. I realize that I'm the glue that puts these people together and gives them this platform to do this really cool thing"
You can follow QTCinderella here.
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Nov 11, 2022
Award-Winning Journalist Ahmed Ali Akbar on "Radiolingo" and The Culture of Everything
Ahmed Ali Akbar is a James Beard Award-winning food journalist, the former host of Vox Media's "Delivery Wars" and now, the host of Crooked Media and Duolingo's "Radiolingo" podcast, which releases Nov. 15. Prior to becoming a journalist, Ahmed competed in and commentated "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" mod Project M and its successor Project+.
"Everybody can understand through food. It's a basic, fundamental human need that we all share. And you also get exposed to so many different things as a result of food."
You can follow Ahmed here and "Radiolingo" here.
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Nov 9, 2022
Should We Be Concerned About How Gaming is Affecting Players' Well-Being?
Gaming may seem just like a passive activity. But as more research around its effects on mental and physical health is studied, how concerned should we be about its bigger picture impacts on players' well-being? Doctors Rachel Kowert, a psychologist who is the research director at Take This, and Cait McGee, a physical therapist who is the co-founder of 1HP, join Jacob to discuss their findings.
"It's not so much about the games themselves, although I think there is a conversation to be had about content. We do know that hate is normalized to a certain extent, gaming communities. When I say normalized, I say that because when you look at the research, looking at the prevalence of the rate at which people have experienced the more extreme forms of behavior, so hate speech, sexual harassment, and doxing, it is more common to have witnessed it or experienced it than it is to have not."
You can follow Rachel and Take This here and Cait and 1HP here.
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Nov 4, 2022
How Alpharad is Continually Reinventing Himself and His Content
Jacob "Alpharad" Rabon IV is a YouTuber, a musician known professionally as Ace of Hearts and an event organizer. Over the past seven years, he's become the most relevant content creator in the Super Smash Bros. community—but as he explains to Jacob, that's not enough. The 27-year-old creator is constantly looking to reinvent himself, push new boundaries with his content and remain steadfast in exploring his creative passions.
"The longer you do YouTube, the harder it gets because the more times you have to flip your style, you have to adapt, and then you have to make these conscious decisions where... I understand that this is the direction I need to go to experience growth on this landscape."
You can follow Alpharad here.
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Nov 3, 2022
Richard Lewis on How He's Managing His Grief | Part 2
In 2019, veteran esports journalist Richard Lewis lost his closest friend and roommate, Remilia, the first ever female professional League of Legends player. In part two of this interview, he discusses how he's gone on a journey over the past three years, fighting with depression and looking for motivation to continue on in his career.
"I'm in the process of getting past the depression and self-loathing and negative thoughts, and I'm getting to a place where maybe there's a possibility at some point I could feel like happy. Joy is like @!#%^*$ miles away."
You can follow Richard here.
Find Part 1 of this interview here.
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Nov 2, 2022
Richard Lewis is Tired of Being a Public Figure | Part 1
Richard Lewis is a veteran esports journalist, the former host of ELEAGUE and the editor-at-large at Dexerto.
"I don't need the spotlight, I don't need the attention. My ego comes from the work I do. Like by the time it goes out, I am proud of it. If somebody says he's lied or that's not true or you've put misinformation in it, nah, I'm not gonna tolerate it cause I know I wouldn't do those things."
You can follow Richard here.
Part 2 of this interview will release tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 3. Subscribe to 'Visionaries' to hear more.
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Oct 28, 2022
Why One of Silicon Valley's Wealthiest Investment Firms is Betting on Internet Creators
Lester Chen is the former global head of gaming creators at YouTube and a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's most wealthy investment firms. This week, YouTube's fifth-most subscribed creator MrBeast announced he is raising $150 million on a $1.5 billion valuation, a massive amount of capital for an Internet creator. Lester joins the show to discuss the shift happening in the creator industry and how creators are formalizing their businesses.
"There are ton of creators that are making tens of millions of dollars just through ad [revenue], but very few of them wanna expand their businesses to actually build out like these functional new ventures. He has the microphone right now and what do you command with that microphone? Where does it actually tie into the DNA of what he already does from a content perspective is like kind of a question."
You can follow Lester and a16z here.
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Oct 19, 2022
ConnorEatsPants and Jacob Discuss Becoming a Public Figure at Such A Young Age
This week, we're changing things up. Overcome's Prem Thottumkara joins Jacob at the top of the show to discuss the recent closure of gaming network G4, as well as the recent accusations levied by Twitch's most watched female streamer Amouranth against her husband of emotional abuse. Then, Jacob's joined by ConnorEatsPants, the successful variety YouTube and Twitch creator. The two discuss recent changes at Twitch, how Connor works through his diagnosed OCD to create compelling content and the trends of where gaming and content are headed.
"Our brains literally just aren't built for streaming or public figure facing in general. It's a super weird experience to go through because 50 years ago you could make a mistake and then people move on and it's not that big of a deal. But now you're online, you do something and suddenly that sits with you for a long time."
You can follow Connor here.
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Oct 15, 2022
Broken Backs and Parasocial Mobs: How TwitchCon 2022 Became a Disaster
Twitch hosted its first TwitchCon in America in three years last weekend. The results? A streamer breaking her back, mobs flooding some of the biggest creators and an unruly experience for streamers, security and administrators alike. Washington Post reporter Nathan Grayson, who covers livestreaming and the creator economy, joins the podcast to discuss what went wrong at the event and how it's changed since it last took place in 2019.
"Previous TwitchCons have felt, despite their size, kind of small and chill. But this year, very large crowds could be hard to move sometimes. Lots of people getting stuck in hallways because... You'd see like one streamer with like their camera and everyone getting mobbed and their little bubble or their little mob bubble would try to pass another one doing the same thing and they'd sort of like get stuck together because there were too many people and it was hard to move past each other."
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Oct 12, 2022
T1's CEO Joe Marsh on Running Esports' Most Dominant Dynasty
Joe Marsh is the CEO of T1 Entertainment and Sports, the group behind South Korea's most successful esports team. Prior to running T1, Joe worked at Comcast Spectacor, the owners of the Philadelphia Flyers, and became a part of its initial esports group, who now own the Overwatch League's Philadelphia Fusion, have relaunched gaming TV network G4 and are co-owners of T1, alongside South Korea's SK Telecom.
"The issue is the people that had bloated valuations a couple years ago and now they have no revenue to show for it. They can't raise new capital because everyone's taking a down round and that is why you're seeing the esports winter approaching."
You can follow Joe and T1 here.
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Oct 6, 2022
Can Overwatch 2 Reinvigorate the Franchise? feat. Seagull
Brandon "Seagull" Larned is a former Overwatch professional player and a content creator on YouTube. This week, Blizzard released Overwatch 2, the sequel to one of 2016's Games of the Year. But so far, the reception's been mixed—with many, including Seagull, saying the sequel isn't actually a sequel at all. From minor iterations on gameplay to just three new characters, one new game mode, and a few maps, Overwatch 2 isn't "redefining a sequel" as it was once pitched. Or at least not yet.
"Going back historically over the past couple years, it's been a pretty steep and steady decline in interest and engagement in the franchise. The community sentiment around the game has been kind of boredom and also confusion, particularly in the last year. But when I look at the overall franchise, when a developer stops working on it for years and then they have all these competitors come out one after another that are all free to play live service audiences, the interest in the game just starts to…
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Oct 4, 2022
What's Next for Twitch and YouTube's Biggest Creators? feat. Stanz
Nathan Stanz is a livestreamer on Twitch and the co-founder of Offbrand, a new creative agency he started with creators Ludwig Ahgren and Atrioc and long-time gaming executive Nick Allen. The company's first show is "Juiced", a game show hosted by xQc, the most watched individual streamer on Twitch.
"It is easy for us and we also bear the burden of the cost. We believe in our ability to go out there and secure sponsors. To go against this using things like the ability to fall back on Ludwig to help out with his brand-friendly face. So I'm confident in our abilities to do literally everything in the sphere, and we're only talking about content in the form of shows. We wanna do this in a lot of things."
You can follow Stanz here.
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Sep 28, 2022
Why Twitch is Slashing Creator Pay and Becoming Closer to Amazon
Cecilia D'Anastasio is a reporter covering video games at Bloomberg and Zachary Diaz is the former director of emerging content at Twitch. Over the past 10 days, Twitch has been under fire. The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform banned unregulated gambling content, but then said it will reduce creator pay. It is reportedly struggling to curb child predation.
"It's absolutely true that the investments or the lack of prioritization from the start really put Twitch into the position where it is today. If Twitch had taken its understanding of monetization at the time and where it needed to be profitability wise from the start and said, ads are going to be a core part of our business moving forward seven, eight, nine years ago, maybe both creators and communities and audiences wouldn't be as disgusted with the changes that are coming out right now."
You can follow Cecilia and Zachary here.
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Sep 22, 2022
How NBA 2K is Teaching New Players About Old Legends with Ronnie2K
Ronnie "Ronnie2K" Singh is the digital marketing director and face of the NBA 2K franchise. Over the past decade, he's become the scapegoat for some of the most high-profile NBA players—the likes of Kevin Durant, Karl-Anthony Towns and others—frustrated with their in-game ranking not matching their self-assessed, real-life skill. But he's also seen something more deep in the culture, as a new generation of basketball fans become educated through the franchise.
"2K is now an educational device on these guys' brands and we help them build collectively into bigger properties, and that's why Kevin Durant is involved in those conversations. Just that's why the Jordan Challengers are in 2K. There's the younger kids don't know Michael Jordan as well. And so it's our responsibility to, to keep him top of mind and relevant as the greatest of all time."
You can follow Ronnie and NBA 2K here.
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Sep 20, 2022
The Agency Turning Gaming Creators Into Millionaires
Brandon Freytag is the co-founder of and chief of creator monetization at Loaded, a management agency that represents high-profile content creators such as DrLupo, Shroud, CouRage, QTCinderella, Doublelift, and more. He previously represented Ninja. As companies like Microsoft's now-defunct livestreaming platform Mixer, YouTube and Facebook have vied to take market share from Twitch, Loaded's been on the precipice of multi-million dollar creators deals.
"Competition's good cause it breeds innovation. Not only does Twitch have to make changes to their platform cause they see what YouTube is doing, then YouTube does the same thing. Ultimately we're getting to an end point where the platforms have a better product for the creators to use."
You can follow Brandon and Loaded here.
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Sep 15, 2022
Compassionately Making Team Liquid into a Half Billion Dollar Esports Organization feat. Steve Arhancet
In May, Forbes named Team Liquid the third most valuable organization in all of esports at a whopping $440 million valuation. With new investment, its co-CEO Steve "Liquid112" Arhancet built the most expensive roster in Western "League of Legends" history. But it didn't work out—and now the team is figuring out what's next.
"It’s human nature to crumble. It’s okay. It didn’t work out. I put that together. I decided to put that roster together. ... And unfortunately, it didn’t work out and there’s no one to blame."
You can follow Steve and Team Liquid here.
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Sep 13, 2022
The Developers Behind the Next Big Battle Royale
Adam Boyes is the co-CEO of Iron Galaxy Studios and a former PlayStation executive. In August, his studio launched 'Rumbleverse', a professional wrestling-inspired battle royale game published by 'Fortnite' creator Epic Games. So far, it's seen millions of engagements and is inspiring a new level of creativity in the crowded video game genre.
"Chelsea, my co-CEO, said, 'we should do wrasslin.' And that word, how she said it, so perfectly encapsulated it. What if you could do an elbow drop off a 40-story building? Then that night, we just sort of jammed for five hours. What would that be like? What would this world look like?"
You can follow Adam and Iron Galaxy here.
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Sep 8, 2022
SonicFox Doesn’t Care Who They Offend
Dominique 'SonicFox' McLean is a multi-time Evolution Championship Series winner, a content creator, and the best fighting game player in the world. Over the past decade, they've won dozens of titles in games like Mortal Kombat, Skullgirls, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Injustice. Now, they're using their success to be a role model for other queer and Black influencers everywhere.
"The way I try to present any content creation I do is ultimately being myself. That's what I want to express to other people—to be your authentic self. I want people to learn that whenever they're doing what they're doing that they're having fun with it."
You can follow SonicFox here.
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Sep 6, 2022
Best Of: Brandon 'Atrioc' Ewing
Since Labor Day occurred Monday, our usual recording day, we're highlighting a previous episode, our interview with Brandon 'Atrioc' Ewing, that's relevant to our recent discussion with Ludwig Ahgren. We'll be back with new episodes starting Thursday, September 8.
"In this world, especially in the past few years, loneliness is at an all-time high. I think of Twitch as the hamburger of human connection. Twitch is the fast food of human connection. It's not that big of a deal. You shouldn't shame someone for having fast food now and then. The only problem is if it's the only thing you ever eat. It's never going to be filling, it's never going to give you the nourishment that you really need as a person. That's where there's a problem."
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Sep 2, 2022
How Ludwig Ahgren is Planning for His Future After Content Creation
Ludwig Ahgren is a content creator, the founder and CEO of Mogul Moves and the host of "The Yard".
"I know I'm going to fall off. Every m'fer on the website is going to fall off at some point. I'm ready for that. If you're not thinking about how this could be the last day that you will have the followers and viewers you have, you're too cocky. You're too comfortable in your own britches."
You can follow Ludwig here.
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Sep 1, 2022
Flipping the Script on Gaming’s Most Powerful Journalist with Jason Schreier
Jason Schreier is a reporter covering video games at Bloomberg, host of the Triple Click Podcast, and the author of New York Times Best Seller "Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry" and "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made."
Jason's work spans labor issues in the video game industry to mergers and acquisitions among the biggest companies in the world such as Microsoft, Sony, Amazon, Activision Blizzard and others. He previously wrote for Kotaku and WIRED and is one of the gaming's most seasoned journalists.
You can follow Jason here.
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Aug 25, 2022
How Hutch Became YouTube’s First Gaming Superstar
Sean "Hutch" Hutchinson once held the title as the most popular gamer on all of YouTube. A Call of Duty commentator, Machinima recruited him to co-host skit shows with Scott 'Mr Sark' Matthew Robison and Adam 'SeaNanners' Montoya for their channel in early 2009 and it wasn't long before millions of people viewed his work in any given month. Then, in April 2012, he walked away, leaving behind the fame and glory to focus on himself and find a new balance between content creation and life.
"There were a lot of reasons why I was not happy at the time. My mental health and my general well being was way too important for me to just ignore it."
You can follow Hutch here.
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Aug 23, 2022
The Million-Viewer Esports Event You've Never Heard Of with Max 'Maximum' Smith
Max 'Maximum' Smith is a co-owner of Team Liquid and the guild master of Liquid Guild. Twice a year, he and others organize the Race to World First, a World of Warcraft esports event that garners millions of viewers on Twitch.
"I don't think Blizzard has the best track record of esports in general. If Blizzard is going to come in, put their own rules to it and try to maneuver around how it works, it could end up being a worse product than it is as it stands."
You can follow Max and Liquid Guild here.
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Aug 22, 2022
Are Esports Viewers on Twitch Actually Watching? with Devin Nash and Harris Peskin (Part 2)
Former Counter Logic Gaming CEO Devin Nash and ESG Law partner Harris Peskin continue their conversation with Jacob to discuss how esports teams sell on shaky viewership data to advertisers and the lack of accountability around measuring those viewers on Twitch.
"If we don't know what a real viewer is, we can't price it. CPM is basically cost per 1000 viewers. If it turns out 500 of those impressions aren't really watching, we have a real problem. We're cutting the price in half."
Listen to Part 1 of this episode: https://link.chtbl.com/Visionaries
You can follow Devin, Harris and ESG on Twitter here.
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Aug 19, 2022
Can Esports Survive a Recession? with Devin Nash and Harris Peskin (Part 1)
Harris Peskin, partner at Esports Law Group and Devin Nash, founding partner of Novo and former CEO of Counter Logic Gaming, talk about the economics and longevity of esports and why we might be at the start of a period of stagnation as an industry.
"You need those people to be engaged in video games in a competitive sense and it's just not there right now. It might be, it could be in the future and I think it will be in the future, to be clear. The main problem I have right now is the engagement and the engagement isn't there. That's the problem."
Part 2 of this episode will be live on Monday, Aug. 22.
You can follow Devin, Harris and ESG on Twitter here.
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Aug 16, 2022
The Music Label That Flipped Gaming Content On Its Head feat. Monstercat's Mike Darlington
Mike Darlington co-founded Monstercat during his time in college. A few years later, the record label held a spot as one of the most popular music channels on all of YouTube. It quickly became a staple of gaming culture, being used in videos across all of content, on Twitch and YouTube, at esports tournaments, and more. Mike joins Jacob to talk about the label's growth and its connection to the gaming industry.
"From a content creator standpoint, it really made its way through the ecosystem, because of the fact that the licensing frameworks are much simpler in dance music than they are in other forms and other genres. It just made it easier to license and make available in the YouTube space and Twitch space."
Follow Mike and Monstercat here.
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Aug 9, 2022
Becoming a Successful Content Creator with StoneMountain64 and Stephen Ellis
The co-founders of Pipeline, David "StoneMountain64" Steinberg and Stephen "Snoopeh" Ellis, join Jacob to discuss about how to build a successful career in content creation. The three discuss finding an audience on platforms other than Twitch, like Facebook, where Stone's found much of his success over the past few years. They also discuss entrepreneurship and the difficulty of the current economy for founders.
“For me, I’ve been so ******* lucky to do what I’ve done over the last decade and I feel extremely humbled by that. The opportunity to go help a thousand, 10,000, 100,000 people to do the same thing that’s ******* awesome.”
Follow Stone and Stephen on Twitter, and find Pipeline and its programs here.
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Aug 5, 2022
How James Bardolph Got Started in Esports and His Hopes for Its Growth
Few people have been in esports since close to the beginning. James Bardolph, a professional 'Counter-Strike: Global Offensive' and 'Apex Legends' commentator, is one of them. He joins Visionaries to discuss the financial woes of the competitive game industry and not when, but if, it will recover in a post-COVID world.
"We're in a transitional period, that much is clear. We still have serious problems out there. It's hurt, but maybe next year we can measure the damage COVID's done. That's not just true for esports, but for everything."
Show Notes:
@jamesbardolph
1:24: How James got his start in esports.
10:14: When it became clear esports would take off commercially.
14:38: How investments from Rick Fox, Sacramento Kings owners and others made esports mature.
20:42: ELEAGUE and Turner's impact on 'Counter-Strike' tournaments and broadcasts
26:37: Did esports get ahead of itself with salaries and spending?
34:34: Is esports in a downturn?
40:23: The pandemic excitement around es…
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Aug 2, 2022
Turning Conservation into Conversation with Twitch's Maya Higa
Maya Higa is a content creator, founder of the Alveus Sanctuary, and co-host of the "Wine About It" podcast.
"At the start of my journey into this industry, I was cool with everybody. It took me years to realize that every relationship I have if it's within the industry I'm in, it has layers. Does that mean that they're bad people? Does that mean that they don't like me and they don't care about me? No, not necessarily. But is there a layer that they want to be my friend because I'm successful on Twitch? Yes and vice versa."
Show Notes:
@mayahiga
1:45: How Maya got started with animals.
3:35: Reddit's LivestreamFail bringing awareness to Maya's first hawk stream.
4:56: Maya's mom's impact on her connection to animals and philanthropy.
9:26: How Maya's friends and family took to her Internet celebrity growth.
12:00: Maya's decision to focus on Twitch versus other platforms.
16:40: Evaluating shortform content and how Maya views TikTok.
21:42: Dealing with Internet hate for the f…
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Jul 28, 2022
How Gaming Content is Evolving with Creator Brandon 'Atrioc' Ewing
Brandon 'Atrioc' Ewing is a content creator on YouTube and Twitch and member of the global marketing team at Nvidia.
"In this world, especially in the past few years, loneliness is at an all-time high. I think of Twitch as the hamburger of human connection. Twitch is the fast food of human connection. It's not that big of a deal. You shouldn't shame someone for having fast food now and then. The only problem is if it's the only thing you ever eat. It's never going to be filling, it's never going to give you the nourishment that you really need as a person. That's where there's a problem."
Show Notes:
@Atrioc
1:55: How Atrioc grew his YouTube and Twitch by hundreds of thousands of followers in two years.
5:35: Moving away from esports and focusing more on general gaming.
9:25: Was esports oversold to the audience?
10:01: Twitch's pivot away from esports to gaming influencers.
13:51: How gaming influencers have become A-list celebrities.
16:55: TikTok's influence on content consum…
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Jul 26, 2022
Creating an Indie Game Success with 'Among Us' Co-Creator Marcus Bromander
Marcus Bromander is the co-founder of Innersloth and a co-creator of the wildly-successful multiplayer game 'Among Us'.
"We were basically done with it at the start of 2019. We had put out our third map. We had done enough bug fixes that the game functioned. We were like, 'alright, that's it.' Forest and Amy started prototyping other game ideas that got decently far along, but when 'Among Us' took off again, we were like what do we do? We should ride the wave."
Show Notes:
@PuffballsUnited
2:13: What Innersloth is working on now.
3:15: How 'Among Us' found success organically on Twitch and TikTok.
6:20: 'Among Us' evolution from initial 2018 release to present day.
7:48: The fan art community around 'Among Us' and how it's helped create exposure.
10:03: How has the game's financial success changed Marcus' and the team's lives?
12:10: Has Innersloth turned down acquisition offers?
13:21: Innersloth's next games and pipeline.
14:41: Marcus' time developing games on Newgrounds pr…
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Jul 17, 2022
Coming July 26: Visionaries with Jacob Wolf
Gaming has a problem. No one asks the hard questions. "Visionaries" is a new twice-weekly interview show hosted by former ESPN, award-winning investigative journalist Jacob Wolf. Wolf will welcome on the most powerful in gaming, from executives atop multi-billion dollar companies, influencers with millions of followers, and athletes and musicians who are integrating gaming further into consumer culture. No question is off the table. Live every Monday and Wednesday on Twitter at @overcome, with audio-on-demand available the next day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Starting July 25.
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