Esports Meta | A Nerd Street Podcast

In the first live-recorded podcast at Nerd Street's The Block, XSET's Erin Ashley Simon discusses the difficulties aspiring professionals face when entering the esports scene, and having the courage to be true to yourself and speak your mind on social media.

Zekken gives the recap of what happened on day one of the VCT Last Change Qualifiers, and what it is like to be a student while also maintaining a career as a professional VALORANT player.

Naori Mizuki, aka Samantha Timms spoke to me about how she got her start in her casting career. Then we talk about our predictions for Valorant Champions, and how VCT Game Changers is going.

Jason Lake founded Complexity back in 2003. For the last two decades he has been the leader of one of North America's longest running and most prestigious esports orgs. After being acquired by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in 2017, Complexity has become an industry leader in physical health, mental health, posture and nutrition for esports players. On this episode we dive into the science, how esports has changed and why its important for not just the players but the industry at large to place a big focus on all forms of health.

True Neutral is an esports organization based in Argentina best known for their Rocket League team. After winning RLCS X South America, True Neutral is moving up north to compete against NA teams for this upcoming season. We talk about that decision, winning NSG's Summer Champs, and the South American esports landscape as a whole.

Harrison "Psalm" Chang has one of the most interesting esports journeys over the last few years. The former Heroes of the Storm pro moved over to Fortnite when HotS esports shut down. In Fortnite he placed second at the Fortnite World Cup Solos event, good for $1.8M in prize money. Then he retired to play VALORANT where he's been competing for the last year. We talk winning huge prizes, what he would do differently over his career and the game that's posed the toughest challenge.

Yannick "KOLER" Blanchette plays for DarkZero Esports' VALORANT team. On this show we react to Challengers Playoffs live on Thursday night as XSET battles Rise and Envy takes on FaZe. He gives his predictions for Masters: Berlin before we move on to talk Summer Champs, a huge NSG VALORANT tournament beginning on August 18th.

Dexerto's Lead Business Reporter Adam Fitch joins Esports Meta. We cover cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX opening the wallet for TSM and the LCS. Also, the state of esports on the business side, where it's going and what the casual esports fan should know about how esports operates behind the scenes.

In Challengers 1 for VCT's Stage 3, XSET became the first team to beat Sentinels since April. BcJ led the way with one of the highest individual scores against the team ever. On this show, he talks about XSET's new roster, why they have an advantage going into Challengers Playoffs and how his background as an Apex Legends pro has translated to VALORANT.

LJ Browne, the 19-year-old co-founder and Chief Gaming Officer of the Kansas City Pioneers, joins the show. We talk about the orgs impressive upsets over Immortals and Version1 in VALORANT's Stage 3 Challengers1, signing previous champions like Kronovi and Censor, and the orgs goal of potentially getting a spot in the Call of Duty League if it expands. We also talk about LJ's background, being a young founder, the orgs work in Kansas City and its mission of increasing diversity and inclusion in esports.