This week, we continue the series with a conversation featuring Shane Shown, CEO of NXT Level Recruiting, which specializes in helping video game companies build great teams. Shane has been creating businesses since he was kid, and has great advice for high schoolers who want to get a leg up on joining the video game industry or even starting their own business. According to him, you have to try, put yourself out there, and use all the resources available to you to learn new skills, try and build something unique to you. 

Learn more about NXT Level, Shane's company, at their website: https://www.nxtlevel.io/

This episode we are talking to Chris Bothur and Hans Kassier of BASILISK, an esports organization that uniquely combines science and gaming. They encourage self-improvement and inclusivity, creating a community of STEM enthusiasts and the STEM-curious. We chat about how they use data science and performance psychology to discover and train players and creators, and as always, we ask our guests for their advice for aspiring esports professionals and high school students.

Learn more about BASILISK: https://basilisk.gg/

Bios:

Prior to BASILISK, Chris had a career in international finance spanning four continents. Post-MBA, he invested across asset classes for the family office of renowned economist Dr. Henry Kaufman and served as their Entrepreneur in Residence, launching fintech ventures. Chris's love for gaming and tech started early, as he taught C++ and organized covert StarCraft LAN parties in high school. During his undergrad, he studied and worked in China while hustling BroodWar games at his local wangba.

Hans is a talented data scientist and developer. During his undergrad at Yale, he researched granular avalanching using high-performance computing (HPC) and swears it was ‘cooler than it sounds.’ In addition to working with Chris at Kaufman, Hans was a quant developer at Bloomberg, where he built data pipelines and advised some of the world's largest investment companies. To unwind, Hans enjoys reading broadly and watching Factorio and Cities: Skylines videos.

This episode, we are taking a break from interviewing esports and gaming professionals to chat with three very special PlayVS coaches in a conversation hosted by the PlayVS employee resource group focussed on women’s empowerment, Valkyries. In our discussion we learn about why they became coaches, their favorite moments, misconceptions about co-ed teams, and their dreams and aspirations for the scholastic esports space.

Our incredible guests:

Aubree White is an English teacher at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama where she also serves as an Esports Coach. In addition, she is a PlayVS SuperCoach for her state. You can hear her students’ Esports Podcast “Let’s Talk: The Bobcast” here.

Melanie Rahr worked for 16 years as an intensive case manager for an outpatient psychiatric program. She has been a social work assistant for the Horseheads Central School District in Horseheads, NY for the past 4 years. She has been a Unified Esport coach for the district since 2019.

Serving in the public schools of Fort Smith, AR, April Coats is a career educator in the fields of technology and library media. Since starting her school's esports program five years ago, she has seen her students consistently achieve success on the state and regional levels. Serving as one of the state's SuperCoaches, April has enjoyed helping coaches from across Arkansas establish, grow, and advocate for their esports programs. 

About PlayVS and Special Olympics North America partnership:

PlayVS is proud to partner with Special Olympics North America to run the official Unified esports league for Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools. Unified esports is an activity that combines students with intellectual disabilities (Special Olympics athletes) and students without intellectual disabilities (Unified partners) on esports teams. Unified esports provides Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools with an additional opportunity to develop sportsmanship, build team bonds and create a community for athletes and partners to connect and it is completely free for schools to compete in.

Learn more about the partnership and about our Fall 2023 season  at playvs.com/so-unified 

This episode, it's all about the behind the scenes movers and shakers! Jackie and Prince talk about their roles as Chief of Staff and Director of Operations, respectively, at Bad Robot’s startup game studio. We chat about the importance of fostering a positive team environment - including some great advice for anyone whether you are a mover and shaker in the video game industry like Prince and Jackie, or maybe you want to help lead a positive and inclusive esports team at your high school!

We are tackling the world of game writers & narrative design, speaking to two experts in the industry, Peter Drummond and Brandy Camel, who have some excellent advice for creative student gamers!

Links:

Coach Notes for February 13

Firewalk Studios

Revita (Steam)

Nocturnal (Steam)

Nocturnal (Announcement Trailer)

All about Jerry Lawson, the father of the video game cartridge (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lawson_(engineer)

For our very first episode, we interview Brandy Camel - a 14 year video game industry veteran, who has spent the majority of her career as a community manager on titles like Grand Chase, Diablo, and Dungeons and Dragons. We learn what a community manager does, the qualities that make for a great community manager, and Brandy has a ton of excellent advice for high schoolers (including how to be a great digital citizen and get noticed by your favorite game companies).

Sign your school up to participate in a PlayVS league: http://www.playvs.com

Coach Notes for the week of January 30th, 2023: https://www.playvs.com/news/coach-notes-s23

Calling all high school esport players, coaches, and parents. Curious how to spin a passion for gaming into a career? You'll definitely want to listen to our interviews with esport and gaming professionals because they are sharing their best advice for anyone looking to break into the industry. Be sure to subscribe so you are notified whenever a new episode drops.