Valor: Esports Demystified: Recent Episodes
Valor Esports
Take a weekly dive into the world of esports by interviewing the men and women that are shaping this amazing industry.
In today's episode of Esports Demystified we're joined by Boltzy, a talented and aspiring Valorant player. Boltzy has experience in professional esports with Team Serenity. Currently Boltzy is a free agent and developing his profile as a player.
Today we want to explore what life looks like for an up and coming esports athlete. What options are out there for people who have talent and a desire to play at the highest levels? How do you navigate the esports scene when you are just beginning your career? Is it a matter of just grinding away until the opportunity arises or is there a pathway with direct steps?
Kate is an accomplished video game and esports attorney, who on a daily basis deals with everything from intellectual property and trademark issues to developer agreements and esports contracts. Her work in the esports industry has been cited dozens of times by subsequent authors. Kate also recently volunteered for Gamers Outreach, a charity that empowers hospitalized children through video games.
It comes as no surprise then, that in her spare time Kate enjoys video games, an obsession which in a 2015 paper she said her family “endured ... with tireless resolve”.
NOTE: This interview was recorded in late 2020 and René has since began working as a coach for Wylde and Lycus Empire.
René is a high level gamer specialising in Rocket League, currently working as a Rocket League coach for Wylde and Lycus Empire. He also has experience as an esports caster for Rival Esports. Currently René is the chairman of the esports club at Groningen University in the Netherlands.
Today Esports Demystified is joined by Miles Harvey, PhD. Miles is an esports coach, media literacy educator, and teacher educator at University of New Mexico. Miles is also a huge advocate for digital game-based learning within the education curriculum.
Miles has built a course, based on the studies of new literacies and digital game-based learning strategies, called media literacy. The course uses virtual and augmented reality technologies and virtual spaces to explore what it means to make meaning in new places.
With Miles' expertise, we dig into the exciting prospect of changing education curriculum through gaming.
Playing online has a dark side: Toxicity. Many players suffer in silence and we wanted to highlight this issue by giving a voice to Jess "Sif / Siferra" Chan, a gamer who has suffered from it and is now using their experience to raise awareness. To all of us, it's our responsibility to listen and put forward the voice of victims to help educate and ultimately build a more positive and inclusive esports world, particularly for marginalized individuals.
Duran Parsi is a young entrepreneur in the esports world. While still at university in his twenties, Duran founded Collegiate Starleague, also known as CSL, the world's first collegiate gaming organization. Over the past 11 years, CSL has hosted competitions for over 100,000 college students across 2,000 universities. Duran helped provide over $1 million in scholarship funding to student gamers. In 2015 Duran sold CSL to World Gaming. Currently Duran is the Director of Collegiate Esports at FACEIT which is an esports platform with over 15 million registered users. FACEIT was founded in London in 2012, and is one of the top gaming league administrators in the world. We are truly lucky to have Duran join us today to discuss the challenges of building a business in esports and also where the world of collegiate esports started and where it's heading.
Craig Winfield leapt into life as a professional player for rugby league powerhouse Hull FC, based in the United Kingdom. After deciding to hang up the boots, Craig began a career in the world of event management in Greece. He has since worked in sales and advertising for companies such as Coca-Cola and Johnston Press. This is where Craig developed a love for competition-based events. With a passion for competitive FIFA and competitions Craig realized his skillset and interests aligned with esports. Today, Craig is the Partnerships Manager for SAF Global Gaming and Community Manager at 1st11. SAF, which has more than 460,000 followers online, is a collective of content creators and has its own esports team with top players in its stables. 1st11 is an entertainment organization aiming to bring together creators, athletes and gamers with an interactive online platform.
Luis "SLK" Salik is an Aerospace Engineering student and Rocket League coach and player. Having been a player for 5+ years and a coach of the game for 3+ years, Luis is in the top 100 Rocket League players worldwide for both 2v2 AND 3v3. He also plays on University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Rocket League team.
This week's guest represents a growing number of people who are transitioning from a background in high level sport to the world of esports. Bartosz Kawczak, also known as "papa_barty", is a former first grade soccer player with an extensive level of experience in coaching. He was running his own futsal academy before the COVID-19 pandemic put that on hold. And, to finish it all off, he's currently completing a degree in sports administration.
In this episode, we're joined by Florian "Koko" La Villa. Florian is Head Coach at Gaming Campus which is based in Lyon, France. He has also been working with Team Vitality which is a prominent esports outfit based in France. On top of this, Florian has assisted the growing Fortnite training community EliteIQ. If that wasn't impressive enough, he also holds a master's degree in neurosciences and one in neuropsychology.
Florian has an interesting story to tell as he has provided public retrospective content over the course of his career in the esports industry (which hasn’t always been a perfect and fun adventure). Through Florian, we have the pleasure of exploring some of the ups and downs you can experience in this industry and the different ways you may navigate them.
In our second episode we talk to Kyle Jenkins, Video Coordinator/Esports Manager and Head Coach at Western State Colorado University. Kyle has had a hugely impressive career so far, and he shares a wealth of knowledge on this episode of our podcast. We hope you enjoy!
In this episode we talk to the legendary Wim Stocks. Wim has had a huge career in the video games industry with executive roles at companies such as Atari and THQ, and has been a key innovator in the esports sphere working with companies such as Virgin Gaming, Collegiate StarLeague. At the time we recorded this episode Wim was CEO of Collegiate StarLeague, but he has recently announced he will be stepping down to take on the role of Head of Partnerships & Commercial at Belong Gaming.