Seamus talks to Jamie Skella, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at Mogul.gg, an Australian-owned online tournament platform that first launched across South East Asia but is now pushing to build its presence at home. Jamie has quite a history in esports and gaming - from playing high level CS 1.6 and Magic Arena, helping develop Telstra's GameArena platform back in the old days, and being an owner of Melbourne's GGEZ bar.

We touch on a little of everything while focusing in on Mogul and what it's trying to achieve and the path ahead.

Find Mogul here: http://mogul.gg/

Find Jamie on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JamieSkella

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Karrigan is one of my favourite players on the world circuit so it was fantastic to get time to sit down with him at IEM Sydney. We talk about his interesting year, from winning IEM Sydney with FaZe Clan, to being benched, and now finding a new home at Mousesports. He tells us how he treats every time on the big stage like it might be his last, and how much the Counter-Strike scene has changed since his early 1.6 days.

It's an honest and insightful conversation. Please enjoy!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At IEM Sydney 2019, I grabbed some time with Chad ‘SPUNJ’ Burchill, a former pro CS:GO player and now an analyst seen regularly on the global circuit. He’s an Australian and over the past few years has really helped build the identity of IEM Sydney, especially with the Caches show match that takes place before the grand final.

We talk about his transition from playing to casting, why he thinks CS:GO is the best esport in the world, and what young casters should be trying to do to find their voice.

He managed to squeeze in a quick chat between maps during the grand final so a huge thank you to SPUNJ and to ESL for managing to fit this in for your listening pleasure.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I’m sharing a really interesting, and hopefully useful, conversation with Morgan Romine that delves into some of the trickier areas of the state of online gaming, competitive gaming, esports, and the diversity problems that float around this industry like a *really* bad smell.

Morgan is a long time gamer and one of the founders of the Fragdolls all-women esports team run by Ubisoft back in the day, and is now a cultural anthropology researcher and is the director of the Anykey organisation which advocates for greater diversity and inclusiveness in gaming. It works closely with Intel and ESL to run elite women’s CS:GO tournaments as well as other initiatives across both tournaments and research efforts to improve the gaming landscape to make it more positive and inclusive across the board. It’s a great project and one that’s desperately needed and something we can all do more to support.

So in this conversation I try to get Morgan to talk about how we overcome frustration when things don’t change fast enough, how we can all do better when those standard questions crop up that push back against diversity initiatives, and what straight white guys like me can do to be better allies and supporters of change for those who deal with bad online gaming experiences every day.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on The Esports Moment we get one-on-one with Jack Harari, Vice President of International Partnerships at Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues. He’s in charge of making the big commercial partnerships happen beyond the US borders for all Blizzard and Activision esports franchises, including the Overwatch League, which we talk about in depth, and he’ll also be tackling the needs of Call of Duty World League as well down the track.

Jack came to Activision Blizzard in mid 2018 from almost five years in global partnerships development at the NBA, so he brings some very serious traditional sports expertise into the esports domain.

Jack was a really nice guy and was in Sydney to speak at a Business of Sports Summit event so it was a real treat to have Activision Blizzard make the time to sneak The Esports Moment into his schedule. His insights are really interesting so I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of this conversation about his experience so far in esports, how he sees commercial and broadcast partners fitting into the evolving landscape, and lots more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we have another top tier conversation for you from my trip to IEM Katowice. I managed to grab some time over a coffee with Erik Anderson, the head of esports at FaZe Clan.

A super cool guy who has some really interesting perspectives on the esports scene given he came to this industry from the music scene. We explore some of his thoughts on how the two industries are alike, and maybe even get weird about what genre of music we’d put esports into.

FaZe is not your average esports org so we also try to unpack a little of what helped the clan build a distinct fanbase that has devotees right across the world.

Find Erik on Twitter: @budgetkeanu

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're bringing you one of the best voices in the business for selling what esports has to offer to big business. Nicola Piggott is the co-founder of Story Mob, an esports communications consultancy that works closely with some of the biggest teams and brands in the industry. Team Liquid, G2, Splyce, Kinguin, Riot Games and many more.

The co-founders are ex-ESL and ex-Riot Games, Nicola being the Riot half, which is where I first met her back when the Oceanic Pro League was first launching here in Australia. She's a great communicator and has a deep love of esports so she has so many great thoughts to share from two very interesting angles. How can esports tell its stories better? And how do brand marketers build the right relationships with teams and fans so that everybody wins?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.