Podcasts about pittsburgh knights

Join Feyaza Khan and Robert Hillier in a special 2023 roundup of the South West Tech Daily podcast, where we reflect on another year of brilliant conversations We're looking at our top interviews of 2023, with some previously unheard bits, so lucky you! Garry Hunt from Software Cornwall's Agile on the Beach is looking for some tech speakers - is that you? Find him on LinkedIn! Liam Brown is an esports executive at the Pittsburgh Knights and told us what kids need to get into esports as a profession. We explored sustainable farming with Sarra Mander of Lettus Grow and delved into gut health with Dr. Jenny Bailey of FerryX (both excellent technologies - go look them up!) We also uncovered the heartwarming innovation of smart socks for dementia patients by Dr. Zeke Steer and Jacqui Arnold from Milbotix.

This week we have a guest who was on a few weeks ago but with the hard drive catastrophe had to be delayed.The newly touted "Lounge E-sports Expert," Liam Brown is a member of the Pittsburgh Knights e-sports team, and joined Sam & Richey in the Lounge!Liam started playing video games at a very young age, but when is it he realized that he could make it in the world of video games? There are a LOT of people who Liam has been able to meet through the jobs and events of his life, thus far, and he talks about some of the events that brought him to these meetings. How has the evolution of video games changed the landscape of how people view them? How about the gaming events? What game does Sam talk about being the best ever?How has Liam helped changed how people view the "prototypical" gamer? Are there things he does differently to try and make people take e-sports in a more serious manner?There are a lot of topics, pertaining to the world of video games, that the guys talk about, and Liam covers all of them at TOP-level!It's a great conversation with a young dude who has done a lot, already, and is heading towards more!Enjoy our hangout with Pittsburgh Knights e-sports member, Liam Brown!See what Liam and the Knights are up to by going to https://knights.gg/

SUBSCRIBE NOW!!!! on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher & Audible. On This Episode: DJ, Sean & Avery have the distinct pleasure of interviewing the corporate partnership manager from The Pittsburgh Knights, Liam Brown about the future of Esports. Interview Start - Time code: 1:27 Esports Exec Talk - Time code: 20:09 The Current State Of Esports - Time code: 34:56 Efforts In Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - Time code: 46:25 The Mark Liam Wants To Leave On The Industry - Time code: 57:01 If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you're using. Every little bit helps!  Want to ask a question, ask us at PressX2start.com/Questions Join/Follow Us: Youtube: Press X To Start TV Twitch: pressxtostarttv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pressx2start Twitter: @PressX2S  Instagram: @PressX2Start TikTok: @pressx2start You can find more info about the Press X and who we are at www.PressX2start.com. If you have any questions or just want to tell us how great (or just slightly okay) we're doing or how we can be better, be a friend and reach out and email us at pressxtostartpodcast@gmail.com Be good to each other, Peace!

This week on Valoranting we brought on a handful of guests! We had Tanner_Metro, a Valorant caster, ItsKaplan, the Ghost Gaming head coach, GRT, the manager for Pittsburgh Knights, and Daniel/Squishguin, the CEO of Akrew to discuss everything from VCT Copenhagen, to the Riot Partnership Program. Tune into VALORANTING every Tuesday at 11:00 AM PT / 20:00 CEST on Twitch

Love was in the air last weekend as both NA and EMEA Challengers started their group stages. We recap all the matches from the two regions and get a better perspective on the Pittsburgh Knights, whose general manager Garett Bambrough joins the show. VALORANTING is live every Tuesday at 11:00 AM PT / 20:00 CET at http://twitch.tv/dnpeek

The topsy turvy world of Valorant roster shuffles continues as TI courts Steel, TSM releases Hazed, and 100T drop FrosT. It's going to be a while before the next season begins, do any of these teams have a need to rush their rosters? We also take some time to look back at Team Liquid dominating RedBull Homegrounds, the rise of the Kansas City Pioneers and Pittsburgh Knights in the Valorant Elite Showdown, and we take a peek at the ongoing Game Changers EMEA Series 3. Oh yeah, and let's not forget there's this suave Daddy who got released in Chamber, and might just be ready to shake up some pro comps going forward! Live on Twitch (http://www.twitch.tv/dnpeek) every Tuesday at 2pm EST. Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/dnpeek), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/dnpeek/), and check out our website (https://www.dnpeek.com/).

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.  Full episode transcription below: --------------------------------------------------------------------Mitch Reames  Hello and welcome in to nursery gamers. eSports Mehta, a podcast featuring interviews with leaders across eSports. From players to execs to streamers and more. I'm your host mudrooms. We kicked off this revamp nurture gamers podcast by interviewing setenil Star 10s last week, and we're continuing the valorant training in part today as we talked to Lj Brown, the chief gaming officer and founder of Kansas City pioneers. If you weren't familiar with KC pioneers before, you're probably getting a bit more familiar lately. Ballard stage three over qualifiers held over Fourth of July weekend was the biggest slate of upsets the young esport has ever seen. And I'll run through all those upset upsets of the course of the show. But Casey pioneers was one the team have said Immortals in the first round and beat virtuoso to become one of the eight teams to qualify for challengers one in stage three of VCT North America at challengers one Casey pioneers had about the toughest sleep possible for any team. They started off against EBI, losing 1311 at 39, and two very close Babs. Then they go to the lower bracket where things are supposed to get easier, but they don't. And they play version one one of the best teams in NA and North America's second rep at Islip. After dropping the first map, though, they want to straight to advance past v1. And so what's the reward for beating what are the best teams in North America play not just at his best team, but the best team in the world in setting those were KC fighters dirty ended at least four challengers one. In addition to Valerie Casey pioneers had a top 10 Rocket League roster for most of our LCS season x, which is bought out by Shopify rebellion in April. They didn't leave the game, however, and picked up a new roster led by Chris Novi, one of the most famous faces in Rocket League, and arguably the game's first superstar. They also have a Forman, Call of Duty squad led by sensor a two time Call of Duty champion, who they signed in late June. The word also features of Madden player, a women's Rocket League team, a halo team, a solid Rainbow Six team and content creators, founded in 2019, Casey pioneers has quickly made inroads in a lot of major eSports over the last two years, so on the show, we're gonna be talking about Valerie's upset weekend, signing stars like sensor could Ovie the value of time, the organization to Kansas City, and KC pioneers focus on diversity and inclusion within the organization. Lj Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Hold luggage show right there. If you could tell people who don't know anything about the org, just one thing about it, what would you tellLJ Browne KCP  them? Um, that we're awesome. And we're authentic. I mean, you don't you don't get that a lot nowadays. And, I mean, we're extremely authentic. And, you know, we just got a lot of cool people with what we're doing.Mitch Reames  Clearly, you guys are finding success on the competitive side and are picking up some really big names, some names that most even casual eSports fans definitely recognize. I want to start with valorant because we're sure gamers are big on the valor inside and so far it's it's been a pretty valorant focus show, we're actually playing on cover most eSports but we do a lot of our coverage because again, you guys picked up fplc on June 30, just a few days before the open qualifier. And it's a team with some notable history three guys on united before they drop their roster. What did you see in that fplc squad that push you to pick them up?LJ Browne KCP  Um, well, I know, valance been out for over a little bit over a year now. I recently got into it earlier this year. And I'm keeping up with the the core three, you know, jMo Scourge physic, you know, over at EA united. Um, you know, those three guys themselves are cracked individuals, like those guys are really good at the game. And then when you see somebody like odorous who has this, this extremely rare work ethic and drive. You know, you want that guy on your team. Um, you know, and then you've got scuba, you know, the kids crack to, um, you know, so really doing a lot of digging on, you know, how they've been playing and building relationships with these guys is huge. I think that's my most favorite part is you know, building the relationship with these players and getting to know them personally on a personal level. Um, I think that's how you actually understand you know, the competitive integrity you know, that they have. So, you know, we got them on board and, you know, we kept up with scrims and how they were doing and, you know, we knew this team was going to be a top caliber team and you know, we're looking forward to the next qualifier to show you guys some more.Mitch Reames  I, you guys appeared on the scene. These guys had some previous experience but fplc there'd be a lot of nerves shoot events. You come to challengers one and odorous in particular was really one of the standout stars so vcts North America, Twitter account posted a bunch of stats after the end of the entire challengers event. An odorous name popped up over and over and over in these different stats. The first one was ACS and it's tense the star sentinels as soon as the star 100, thieves, odors in third. You know, it's just arguably the two biggest stars in North American Valerie. And an odor it's, it's, it's like he's right there. He's six, the KD is first an average damage per round bdl both heads and assuta as soon as who dropped a 40 Bob in the course of this tournament, by the way, and here he is. But the craziest part is, he's not a duelist he's putting out similar damage numbers attend to the pseudo playing on setenil on killjoy and cipher, that's absurd, a little bit that he's out there competing with them playing a little bit of a different role. What makes him so good? And you know, what, why was this such an arrival for him? Among the biggest names in the game?LJ Browne KCP  Um, honestly, he's just, he's the true definition of a true leader. Um, you know, and that's why he's our, you know, in game leaders or captain. And, you know, those exact reason for those exact reasons, you know, um, you know, he's, he's a great leader in the game, you know, as far as the methodical part, and, you know, the technicality of the game itself, but the actual skill, you know, you guys got to really see how good odorous is when it comes to raw talent. And, you know, it all comes back to grinding the game, knowing the game, knowing your teammates, and you know, just being a raw leader, like, you know, the guy's insane, he never stops grinding, um, you know, just to be as big brain as he is, he knows where to be, you know, on the map, he knows where his teammates needs to be at. And, you know, that helps him you know, lock in, you know, headshots and, you know, these kills and, you know, just having a great tournament, I think that this, I think Otis is going to be up there with your tins. And sooner than, you know, he's he's one of those guys, so I'm really looking forward to what he's going to continue to do this season.Mitch Reames  It's, he can't overstate how crazy it is for guy to be itl not playing a duelist and to be putting up numbers in the same level as guys like that, whose only job is to Frank and the way ACS in particular set up if rewards that doesn't reward inherently, the itl the Sentinel player, but yeah, you know, it there, he was on the stats, and the stats Don't lie. It's one of my favorite things about sports or eSports. The stats Don't lie.LJ Browne KCP  It's insane. What he can do on the map. Um, it's it's, I mean, like I said, there's there's almost no one like it, you know, that's, you know, like you said, He's not a duelist he's our igvault he's got a look at the map the whole game, you know, he shouldn't be he shouldn't be popping off the way he is, but he's doing it and and you know, the fact that he's able to do that and you know, also call the shots and, and, you know, get all these kills and you know, really lead his teammates and motivate his teammates. It's insane. And so, um, you know, we love odorous, and he's a great guy. We love chat.Mitch Reames  Love it. Love it. Yeah, it's so the other cool part about that is like some people might be saying, Well, okay, so it's averages. You guys only played three games 100 thieves and sentinels played a few more, but the three games you guys played? If you had to pick Have you talked to a random failure like Hey, who are the top three teams in North America Valerie right now? I think the most common answer might have been envy version one and sentinels. Oh, yeah. Which are the three TV has ended up play. So yeah, you know, sometimes the schedule works out like that. But what does that mean watching the team play against the three teams that are the best this region has to offer and competing in each one of those matches?LJ Browne KCP  Um, honestly, Mitch, I think it's it's the way we want to go um, you know, I know we will talk about Rocket League later on down the road but it's this it's kind of similar to how we got in the rock league you know, we got in with our team they're ranked like top 16 and then you know, we get in and we're starting to play against all the top teams and stuff you know, right off the bat and then you know, we're instantly ranked top six after that, um, you know, we want to be the underdogs we want to show these these big orange these big teams that you know, we're here to compete you know, our guys are more than capable of you know, beating anybody in in in in the in a scene you know, you know, we get in we play envy we have a close series against them. They go up what 11 I want to say 11 three honest we can't we bring it back. Then we lost that 113 to 11 we are one round away from OT and then we go in we play version one, we beat them and then the next day we come back and we play the number one team in the world so it's it's insane, you know, but but like I said, bro, we wouldn't want to come in any other way like it You know and now people know you know what we're capable of and I mean we're coming into this next qualifier with all three of those teams already qualified for playoffs and we don't have to see any of them so I think that any team coming into this next fire does not want to run in usMitch Reames  or you might you guys ruin v ones chances so you might they might come back for a little bit of revenge oh yeah advocated and said those are both there but yeah v one is on the hunt for you guys now they're not if you go to the last one that they ate now I'll probably see that Oh, yeah, I do want to get over to some of those other games but there's one more stat I wanted to highlight which was headshot percentage now odors does not rank first and this odd that's because two other Casey pioneers got ahead of him. Number one, scuba number two, Mark from envy at number three and then odors at number four. So you get first second fourth best headshot percentages all Casey pioneers, what his stats like that say about this team, especially as we look towards the next qualifier. And the next one about, hey, this team didn't just get lucky against fee one or something like that. This these are stats that show a really, really talented team that is going to stay out that going forward. Oh, yeah.LJ Browne KCP  Um, that consistency is one thing and I think that we proved last weekend, you know, that we're gonna this is this is going to be a consistent roster. You know, guys that the underdogs you know, we were the underdogs coming into this tournament. And we played lights out the whole weekend, you know, we didn't have one good day. And you know, we had every game that we played was a good game. You know, and with our team being a fresh team, you know, only teaming together for about almost two months now. Um, you know, I think it's scary, you know, that we come in and we lead in headshot percentage and even some of those other stats there. I think it's scary that we're just now getting started we've only been with our coach fraud for about two and a half weeks now. You know, this isn't this isn't kcps form. You know, I think that like I said, any team that's going to be in this next close qualifier, I don't think they want to run into us at all.Mitch Reames  Again, yeah, I think there was it's actually happened a little bit in stage two as well, where the some of the teams like FaZe clan got beat by might be mixing this up, but FaZe clan in version one. Alright, sorry FaZe clan and Genji both got beat by version one and cloud nine blue. And at the time, those both seemed like really big upsets. And then in hindsight, we're like, ah, those might not have been that big above sets. And I think there's potential for especially your win over Immortals. In the first in the open qualifier that in hindsight, we're gonna look back on that and be like, no, that makes sense. Casey pioneers, just the more talented team overall, even when it looked like an upset at the time.LJ Browne KCP  For sure. Um, like I said, I think that, I mean, we've as internally You know, we've known our guys have been capable of doing this for you know, a little over a month now. But actually seeing them do it and, you know, publicly and them consistently doing this. It's insane. I think that I don't think that any match that happened last week was an upset maybe the version one I think everything's an upset the first time it happens, because it's never happened before. So we have an upset. Um, but I think you know, when it comes to pure skill in, you know, big brain plays, I think that we've got the guys that have the edge over, you know, a lot of these teams in NA So, you know, we're extremely confident in our team and, you know, we're here to give them the tools they need to be the best team in NA.Mitch Reames  Absolutely, and clearly a auspicious start for the squad right now. Talking about Yeah, I think I think it dies with that v1 when that upset or not so much upset doesn't look as, as glaring on paper over mortals over the weekend that we did see a bunch of different smaller orgs orgs that we love over a nursery then like video, a lot of our tournaments, your your nobles, your rises, even virtuoso, the guys who played beat NRG and these bigger orgs. What's the value of that open qualifier system in especially right now in valorant, where so many leagues are moving to this more closed system? Why is it important to at least have some opportunity to set up those KC pioneers versus v one matches because even if it doesn't look, if it looks v one on paper, once the game is actually played, clearly, that could change. So what's the value of having the ability to do that, especially in a young esport like Ballard,LJ Browne KCP  um, it, the open ecosystem shows you know who the real grinders are, um, it's gonna keep it's gonna protect the competitive and integrity of the game, you know, as long as they're doing this, because it's gonna keep the highest level of players at the top. Um, you know, I don't know, if you saw a couple, couple weeks ago, the CDL La La gorillas Academy was playing their, their, their, their starting CDL team. And they were like smashing them. And it's just like, like, if they can do this and challenge their scenes are doing this. I mean, there's obviously better challengers, players and teams, and challenges in there is in the Pro League. And so I'm kind of hoping they kind of open things up there. But it's just a great example of why an open ecosystem keeps, you know, the highest level of talent at the top, you know, our team being one of those examples, we weren't, these guys weren't competing at this level. You know, until this month, it's crazy. I've been on Reddit almost every day, and everybody's like, oh, he united this united that. And it's just like, you can't really time those things you don't know when a team is gonna pop off or a players or a player is gonna pop off or anything like that. But I love the ego, the open ecosystem there. And I mean, I think it's just a great way to kind of build their esport. You know, they're, they've been around for a year now. And they've got to, they've got to build this community. And this is the best way to do it. For sure.Mitch Reames  It's quickly and I'm not just a company man talking about talking about valor in here, it's quickly become one of my favorite eSports as well. And I credit that open ecosystem for it. Because that was, I was a huge Call of Duty guy before and I still live with a CDL. But I didn't realize until it was gone, how much I loved the open ecosystem, part of it and the different runs we got to see in the CW Well, you mentioned the Los Angeles gorillas, team, and I, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe I saw on Wikipedia that you guys ran into them. And one of the challenges tournaments recently, as well. on why it's closed, and why like, there's so much talent, that's, I don't wanna say stuck down there, but isn't really getting its shot at the next level.LJ Browne KCP  Well, I mean, a lot of people, and it's, it's funny, I came from the cod community. So I know pretty much you know, all the pros, I know, a lot of them on a personal level. But they call it the friendship League, a lot of people call the friendship league because because of that exact, you know, reason, you know, it's not an open ecosystem, it's really going to come down to who's captaining the team and who they want on there. Um, but I think they were supposed to expand this year, they weren't because of COVID. So that, that obviously hurts the chances of players actually being able to get a shot. You know, and then, with the addition of taking the teams back down to four man instead of five, man, you know, it cuts a lot of chances for a lot of players. You know, so them not having an open ecosystem. Um, it's, it's a good thing, but at the same time, I feel like it's kind of hurt God in a way, in a sense, um, you know, just because, dude, the AMP scene is, is where that fire is, there's a lot more fire in the AMP scene, there's, um, you know, I don't know if you've ever been to a con event. But you know, when you get down to the the am the am venue. I mean, it's just a whole different grind. And it's a it's a completely different feeling and vibe, you know, because it's just a bunch of guys fighting it out in a pit, you know, for that top spot. So I'm hoping they will, they'll move back to some sort of an open ecosystem or, you know, a little bit more support for the challenger scene. But I love Cod, I'm hoping they can do it for us.Mitch Reames  Oh, absolutely. So I have to ask as well, especially with the name the Kansas City pioneers. You guys are part of a growing group of orgs that have named yourself after city without actually holding a spot in one of the Activision Blizzard franchise leagues. We've also seen that with the Pittsburgh Knights is another pretty notable example there. Now, you guys also have a call of duty format roster feature, said Sir, he's a two time world champions over a million followers on Twitter. He's one of the biggest days that Call of Duty's had ever. Is it fair to say you're targeting or angling for some possible expansion slots? If the CDL does expand like the Overwatch league did, which went from 12 to 20, after season one or season two, is that something that's, that's on your mind?LJ Browne KCP  Um, I think that any Cod, I mean, it mean, any org that has roots in Call of Duty, I think that the CDO is a priority for them. Um, you know, obviously, the CDL is extremely hard to get in. Yeah, for obvious reasons, you know, for some words might be the financial impact for most or just the financial impact, but you know, them you know, they they're very specific on who they want in that league so but it's definitely on the priority list and it's a reason why we're in challengers for sure and you know it's it's also a reason why you go out and you get a brand like sensor who's been in cod for years and I mean I I've watched sensor when I was in eighth grade and now you know he's in the Oregon so to say you know to have a face like that and on the in the brand so um yeah 100% CEOs great we want to be a part of it someday and hopefully when they expand we're you know one of those teams that they're looking atMitch Reames  I think you're definitely in a good spot with the team already that the $25 million wall is probably the toughest challenge but you know it it things might change things might open up at your with your eyes success so far hopefully you might be able to find one of those big sports odors maybe the I'm not sure who was the chiefs of the Royals but I see you rocking that Royals Royals headers that you guys get thisLJ Browne KCP  is a Royals hat. Um, and it's funny because like most people ask is that a royal tie or KC hat? And most most people say a lot of people in KC dress like we're tourists because we wear Casey stuff. And we live here in KC, but just like we like to wrap our city. It's just like, Casey thing.Mitch Reames  Just say, That's how that's how a lot of the other org seemed to make it happen. It's finding that that's for its owner be like, hey, what a little bit on the side. Yeah. So speaking of major faces, joined to the org. I'm a huge Rocket League fan. That's, uh, that's my background. That's my, that's my favorite game. And so, so you guys had kernoviae? I was like, wow. And for people who might not get the impact of crow like, this dude was the best player in Rocket League season one, season two, season three. And for my money, you know, some European people would probably argue with that, but for my money, he is the best. What? Why did you what what does it mean to have a player like that? Who is instantly recognizable to every Rocket League fan? Same sort of deal with sensor there. He's a former world champion. I think Crowe got a world championship. Regardless, he's on that same level. You know, what's it mean to a new orc to have players like that it faces like that, who have so much history in their respective communities.LJ Browne KCP  Um, I think that these guys are, you know, Kurt Kenobi, especially a really good fits for what we're doing. Because, you know, we're newer org. And these guys, they know their stuff. Um, you know, crows held that trophy up before you know, centers held that trophy up before. We as an orc have not, you know, you know, being new. And so bring in guys with this experience, and knowing the game and knowing that community, and even knowing the the business side of things, you know, I think it's crucial to grow our brand. You know, you have to have these people on your side, to be able to level up what you're doing. You know, if we want to be a tier one organization, we've got to, you know, bring on people and connect with people that have been to that, that tier one Oregon, you know, people that have won championships, you know, we want to hang banners here, we want to win championships. So we got to get people that have done that already.Mitch Reames  And it shows how serious you are about that, to where some words come out and the first thing they invest in is streamers and content creators and that's a part of every eSports organ, there's no doubt about that. You guys come out and be like, we want world champions. This is our goal. This is our mission. It adds an air of legitimacy isn't the right word, but like seriousness about it, like no, we're going after this like we want a title. And we're gonna we're gonna go get the people that know what it takes to get that person. Speaking of speaking of rosters and really talented rosters, you mentioned it earlier and I want to jump back to while we're while we're on the subject of Rocket League. Your Rocket League roster for all CSCs next was one of the big upstarts of the last year that was like wow, this team's crazy crazy good. It featured rapid beastmode and memory and got bought out by Shopify in April I assume it got bought out I'm not sure the details of that I'm not sure if you could speak on itLJ Browne KCP  I would have to get we made a transfer to we made a transfer to ShopifyMitch Reames  Shopify has a bit of money that that one company that so much digital marketing so yeah, I I thought about it was like that feels like Shopify VM like Toby's coming out with a bag. He's like, Hey, what's up guys about it. But anyways, they're very talented team under you guys. They became a top 10 team and now they're currently ranked six and liquid pedia under the Shopify banner. He did something similar fplc who'd been a free agents for a few months now was like they just been dropped by United and immediately found some success. What are you looking for in these players that's helped you find diamonds, people who are better than they're currently being credit credited for?LJ Browne KCP  I get this question a lot, just because it's, it's insane, that it happens. You know, it's, it's happened with our Rocket League team valorant. Now, we had a Gears of War team last year where, you know, they were kind of the underdogs and ended up winning the whole playoffs, you know, event and so it's, it's kind of the running question in our org is, like, you know, how are you guys going out and getting these people that are performing at a lower level, and then you guys are signing them in there instantly. Like, I mean, we're not obviously, we're not coaching, we're not doing any of that, um, I think that, it, our support comes from the mental aspect of making sure our players feel like all they need to do is focus on winning and playing good. And we take we take care of everything else, you know, we make sure you know, their skills, their schedules are set, we're make sure we make sure they're organized. And, um, you know, we give them the tools that they need to be successful, and, you know, having that, that, that mental, you know, that barrier there, you know, kind of having all that stuff off of their shoulders, helps them play better, you know, and then just giving them a great community, we have a awesome community here at kcp. And it stems from kind of the rocklea community and then, you know, now the valorant, and Rainbow Six community and Call of Duty, um, you know, when you've got, you know, over 100 200 people in the chat, you know, just spamming your name and your orgs logo. I mean, it's, I mean, who doesn't want that confidence boost there? You know, but as far as looking at the players, you know, before we sign them, it goes back to guys like odorous, you know, when you talk to somebody that has a crazy work ethic like that, and somebody that wants it that bad, and then has raw talent like that. Like I said, you want that guy in your team, nine times out of 10. Same thing with Kenobi and center, you want these guys that have that fire in their chest, and have been there before? So I mean, that's that's how we do it here.Mitch Reames  Yeah. Oh, doubt. I mean, you can't argue with the success. so far. Of course, as you talk about sort of the, the environment that you build a case, if it is, I was a little surprised to see, you know, when they're playing these v wads, these sentinels, these places that have had, a lot of times to build a fan base, the VCT chats got just as many pioneers in it as people spanning say, it's like, how have you guys built that fandom? And how much of it radiates out of Kansas City? And really, the being located in a certain place? Is that a big part of why you have this built in fandom right now? Or is it just been, you know, what you guys have been working on? What do you guys building the culture you've been building,LJ Browne KCP  um, it stems from the the culture, and then just being authentic with our community. Um, you know, we're not, we didn't get into eSports backed by, you know, sports owners or celebrities or anything like that, you know, we were just people that, you know, had passion and a dream here and a vision. And, you know, we did it from the ground up. And so with that, you know, you get to offer a way more authentic feel to the community in, you know, the business itself. Because we were just regular people. So, you know, everybody that looks at what we're what we've done, you know, they're like, they're extremely inspired by that, and motivated by that. And so we get to build the community, you know, based on that. And then, you know, we, like I said earlier, we've just got some great people. And we've, we've, we've, you know, built this thing, like I said, from the ground up, and we've, we've added so many people, you know, and they're just all great. And so, to be able to build what we built has stemmed from that and then obviously, the local perspective is, you know, we're the pioneers to the world, but you know, to the Midwest and to KC where they can see the pioneers, you know, and we want to be that fourth premier sports team right next to the Royals, the chief sporting KC, um, you know, so to be able to add that geographical base tag on our onto our name, it helps you know, people in KC say, you know, like, I'm really a part of this, you know, it's it can see pioneers, like, I can rock this merge, I can be a part of this. I'm a gamer every day, I mean, the game every day. Um, you know, and so, kind of building that inclusiveness is, you know, where we're at right now. And that's one of our missions. You know, we want people to feel included in what we're doing here. You know, for you know, people in KC and people in the Midwest in general, soMitch Reames  I love that. So my family's from St. Louis. And when you were talking about how we're just, we're just calling people I was like, that fits with what I know about Missouri, what I know about the Midwest that like, this is what people want to support, like, Hey, we just made this we're not, we're not millionaires, we're not backed by crazy amounts of money, or just people from your community, trying to create this trying to represent you well, and that's so much about what Midwest is and what the Midwest stands for. And I'm sure that the city's resonated with that.LJ Browne KCP  100%. Um, like I said, I think that building the community here, first was was really crucial. You know, we don't want to build the Kansas City pioneers, if Kansas City's not behind us. Um, so you know, making sure Casey's was behind us and making sure we built our fan base here and making sure everybody felt included in what we were doing. was a was a high priority for sure.Mitch Reames  What are some of the things you're working on within the city to make sure it's not just a name only and you know, we are part of this community? Were you holding events? Are you doing different things for the people that live in Kansas City, to get them familiar with the KC pioneers?LJ Browne KCP  Well, that's funny, because we actually over the weekend, we actually had an event, I'm at sporting KC, which is our MLS team here, we had an event at the stadium there where, you know, we had a booth and we were able to meet some of our fans and take pictures and simply sign some stuff for people. And we got to network with a lot of people but you know, doing, you know, things like that, where we've, we have something called our kcp Street team, which is a group of some of our content creators and people that actually live here in KC, where we go around to, you know, events, you know, partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club of greater KC, where we actually exercise our mission of, you know, inclusiveness and diversity and all that good stuff. Because we, like I said, we're building this authentic environment, and we want to show people, we actually care and we don't want to talk about it, we want to actually put x into that.Mitch Reames  Definitely. And you mentioned your vision for the company, sort of your mission statement on your website and says, Our vision is to use the power of Esports to champion diversity, inclusion and opportunity to players and fans across the world. And I'm curious, why is it important not just to stand for important issues when they arise, but make it a core component of the audit itself.LJ Browne KCP  I mean, man, we're in 2021, um, you know, you've you've got to be diverse, you've got to be inclusive, you've, I mean, there's so it's so important to make sure people feel included in what you're doing. And, you know, especially with, you know, the gaming aspect, there's so many different, you know, ethnicities and cultures, behind gaming, you know, we've got to connect with everybody, you know, we want to connect with everybody. We want to learn, we want to, you know, bring some of these people on board, you know, we have a ton of different people from a ton of different backgrounds in kcp. You know, it's extremely rare that you see, I mean, I was set, I was 17 year old, you know, black kid, you know, founds a business, you know, from a college dorm, and then we've got, we've got older guys in our org, you know, we've got women of different ages in different cultures, and, you know, it's insane, you know, just being able to meet all types of different people, you know, at the age that I am personally, um, you know, and work with them, because I get to learn, I learn every day, I learned something new. And then, you know, being being the type of org that not only wants to raise awareness for, you know, diversity and that, I mean, LGBTQ and, and things like that, you know, beyond you know, just raising awareness for it actually doing it. I mean, I'm wearing our pride merch right now. Um, you know, actually doing this type of stuff, like, it's an everyday thing. And putting this into our everyday practice, is what we're doing, you know, we don't, we don't want to just post for, you know, we don't want to exploit, we don't want to post just to post or just to keep up with what's going on. And, you know, every day social media, you know, we actually do these things. We have people from different backgrounds and, you know, different ethnicities and things like that, um, and so, you know, just just actually doing it, it's where you really have that authentic feel and, and actually doing stuff for sure.Mitch Reames  Absolutely, and you could tell when it's a random when it's a social media team putting out a statement or when it's core to the org itself, and $100 statements are good. And it's good to join that conversation. But we've seen a lot more eSports orgs move beyond just, oh, we're gonna change our logo for June, for example, we're going to let's, let's actually keep this front of mind year round and focused on it. And some of the other orgs out there doing things like this, you got flyquest focused on the environment, complexity, putting a big focus on playerhealth exit Ed, you guys will put diversity inclusion as core parts of the founding of the org. Why is it important for eSports for the world of general to have organizations investing and pushing for change.LJ Browne KCP  Um, I think like I said, it's, it's 2021 man times are changing. Um, I mean, I don't, I don't want to act like I'm oblivious to it, or I don't want you know, anybody to feel, you know, watching this podcast that we're oblivious to, you know, the world changes, and you know, what's actually going on and current events, um, you know, being being diverse and inclusive, and, you know, raising awareness for, you know, the LGBTQ community, you know, things like Black Lives Matter and things like that, um, you know, we've all got to do these things, we want to be a part of change, and on the right side of history, and in order to do that, we have to actually do these things, we've got to show our faces and show up to, you know, events, we've got to, you know, we've got to run charity events, we've got to do these things, because it's our mission. And it's, it's what we want to do, and it's and it's how we feel, you know, we actually care about these communities and about these problems, you know, in our country and around the world. So being a part of it, you know, making making our merge our primary, you know, something on our store year round, it's not just going to, it's not just up in June, you know, this stuff is up year round. You know, that type of stuff, it matters, you know, to people that are in that in the LGBTQ community that are gamers, you know, for them to say, for them to go on our website and see, dang, like, they've got their stuff up, you know, 24 seven, like, this is great. Like, I can always go grab a pride shirt if I want to, or whether it's, you know, we did a charity back in February for Black History Month. Um, you know, we're always going to do these things, and actually care about these things for sure.Mitch Reames  Absolutely not. So, so important love to see, in order supporting that something that's really important to us. At nerd street as well. We're actually launching new content series about the time this goes out hosted by our editors, a member of the LGBT community called gamers chair, where he's going to bring on different members of the community to talk about their experiences and how video games have helped them with their identity as well. So be on the lookout for that first episode coming out and nurture gamers. And that's going to be a monthly episode. For us. Again, going year round, making sure these aren't just designated parts of a social calendar of like, okay, June, we're focused on LGBTQ and then February we're focused on black lives matter. But this is, this is your route, these these issues are important your route and they don't just have one month, where they're important. So love to see you guys focused on that we're focused on it here too. And hopefully, in the future, gaming in the esports world is much more inclusive, and diverse place for for everybody in it. 100%. Speaking of the future, I want to end on this, if you could see yourself in five years, if you can see the Oregon five years, which apparently according to you, you'd be What 24? Are you like?LJ Browne KCP  Yeah, I'm 19 I'm 19 I turned 20 in September.Mitch Reames  credit to you, Kenny to you, I would have never known I mean, based on the way you're running the org on this interview to is the first time we've talked but like you carry yourself with not somebody who should be a freshman in college or who's a freshman in college, give me credit for that. I appreciate it. So 24 years old, what's the five you play? Where do you hope Casey pioneers is?LJ Browne KCP  It's not even, it's not even a hope thing. I know, you know, we I mean, I'm a big guy on speaking into existence. Until you know, it's never if for me, it's always a win, you know, so when that time comes around, you know, the plan is to be you know, a tier one organization, you know, leading in eSports, and leading and content creation. You know, big shout out to my guys hex and NadeShot you know, those are two guys that I ended up watching a lot of. And I give those two guys credit for everything that I've learned in eSports. And everything that I've done, you know, um, you know, the the model behind, you know, what I've always wanted to do is, you know, stems from what those guys have done, you know, the last 10 years. So, you know, five years, bro, we're going to be a tier one organization. We're going to have championship teams, and we're going to be leading in content creationMitch Reames  and hopefully, you're taking On thieves and optic yo fighters as well. Hey yeah and NadeShot you're not the only guy in eSports who has those guys to thank for a lot of lessons and leadership and inspiration over the last decade or so. So you're already well on your way man, it was great talking to you. What do you want people looking out for follow in subscribe into twitch YouTube Twitter where you guys at?LJ Browne KCP  Definitely check out our Twitter or twitter at pioneers GG same at our Instagram pioneers GG pioneers GG for everything is going to be Kansas City pioneers. You know, that's where you can catch any of our off the record content where you can see you know, behind the scenes of signing, you know, valorant Rainbow Six and some of that good stuff. And then also, I mean, you've got our valentim plan at the end of this month we've got that last close qualifier so make sure you guys are checking that out. And uh, yeahMitch Reames  awesome, awesome. I'll be on lookout for KC pioneers and I'll link all of their different socials underneath this episodes just jump down there, you should see a bunch of hyperlinks. Be sure to follow them you're going to be we're going to want to be on the lookout for what they do next. Whatever team they sign next apparently is going to become a top 10 team whatever game they play, that's just kind of how they do it. Over at kcp no pressure though they'll fresh it. That is it. Thanks for coming on, man. It was great talking to you. For next on the esports metaphor, you guys we've got a deviation from valor and a little bit we're talking to Kaido he's an oxygen eSports Rainbow Six Pro. I'm talking about Brazilian eSports and why they're really playing great Rainbow Six these days. And then we're finishing off the month with an interview with bcj from accet. The young stand out on exit who just upset sentinels in challengers one and are now locked in to challengers playoffs. So we'll have that for you on July 30th and kind of coming on July 23. I hope you enjoyed this episode. With Lj Brown, the owner and chief gaming Officer of Kansas City pioneers

In May, Respawn Entertainment announced Arena Mode, a 3v3 version of Apex Legends similar in style to the top FPS esports. On this show, XSET's Clane and Keni join to talk about Apex Legends Global Series, the creation of Arena Mode and why the battle royale version will likely stay the dominant form of Apex esports. We also talk about XSET, one of the fastest growing organizations in esports, Nerd Street Gamers' upcoming Summer Champs and more. Be sure to follow Clane and Keni on Twitch and Twitter. @ClaneSZN and @KeniFPS. The full transcription of this show is below the dotted line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mitch Reames  Hello and welcome into this episode of loosely scripted a podcast from nerd street gamers. I'm your host Mitch Reames. We're talking Apex legends eSports today and I'm joined by two players from exits relatively new Apex legends team. Previously, the duel was competing under the team named season where they were a mainstay in Apex legends global series or args circuit events. That's the top level of Apex eSports for people unfamiliar with the game that included an eighth place finish for season at the Winter circuit playoffs which qualified them for a spot in the 2021 na LGs championship. In late May, the duo Klain and Kenny are picked up by exit the growing eSports organization founded by former FaZe clan executives last summer. At the championships exit finished 24th out of the 40 teams competing but clean and Kenny are just getting started with their Apex legends careers and now are signed to one of the top boards going forward. They were also just joined by a third Rambo to round out the team. He's an accomplished player as well who competed on a different team during championships but as a play with the duo for well over a year, clean. Welcome to the show. Hello, hello. It's good to be here. And Kenny, it's great to have you here as well. Thank you Thank you. On the show we'll definitely be talking about the apex legends eSports scene as a whole the creation of Apex legends new arena mode and being signed to one of the fastest growing eSports orgs out there in exit. Let's start with the recent championships. You guys Apex legends might be the best at this from all battle rails, but scoring in eSports competitions for BRS is the torturously very difficult fortnight really struggled to find a good format even with the massive prize pools, the H wanzhou. A Pro League was a pretty high profile failure at this point at pub g mobile is doing better than the PC version on the front. All that's to say it's really hard to build a battle royale eSports competition simply due to the nature of the genre. I'm personally not quite as familiar with Apex legends scoring system as I was with fortnight and pub G. Can you break down how placement works in alts events? And what if anything, you might change if given the chance playing? Well, it will start with you. But Kenny again, please feel free to hop in as well if you have thoughts.Clane  Yeah, so basically, it works. There's a placement point system and then you get one point per kill. So first you get 12 points like this is for placement. First you get 12 points Second, you get 930 you get seventh, fourth, you get fit five points, a fifth, you get four points six, and seventh, you get three, and then eight through 10, you get to 11 through 15, you get one and then 16 through 20, you get no points for placement. But like I said, I'm your team's kills combined. So let's say I had two kills Kenny had one bow had one, we would have five kill points plus whatever our placement is. And I think that's actually a very even way because it benefits both teams that like to rotate and play late game or teams that like to get a lot of kills and play on edge.Mitch Reames  Definitely, yes, some combination of kills. And placement is pretty much the core of Battle Royale scoring at this point. Kenny, are there any drawbacks with that format from a player's perspective, where it's like, hey, maybe we could improve it here or weight things a little bit differently.Keni  In my honest opinion, I feel like Apex has done a great job with the scoring system. The only thing I really could say is upping the placement like points just a little bit. Because it really like there are some teams that really just play on edge and look for kills. And that's how they get most of their points throughout tournaments. So I feel like it could like be better for like rotational teams, because rotating teams have less opportunity at kill points than edge teams do. so rewarding those teams that consistently come for a second third place with more points. That's the only thing I would really change. But right now I feel like there's a great balance between placement and kill points.Mitch Reames  That's honestly pretty impressive. I've talked to to a few different pros. Clay, do you have anything you want to add to that?Clane  I was just gonna say I definitely agree. I think rotating teams don't get as much as much worse sometimes as the teams that just kill on edge because realistically, I believe that the whole point of a br is to literally just be the last team alive or like try your hardest to win. And the kills like come along with that. So I think that placement points definitely deserve to be a little bit more than what they are but honestly it's pretty, pretty equal for every kind of play style right now.Mitch Reames  Again, that's obviously pretty impressive. I was pretty deep the fortnight seed during the height of that Like 2018 and let me tell you every single fortnight pro I talked to had like six different things they wanted to change about how that game worked about might be a different approach between epic and add, respond or just sort of how they approach the game and the esports scene in general, but it's pretty impressive that they've actually found a very nice balance. So I am curious looking forward we're in between alts circuits right now the last one just finished it the next one starts in September. Do you guys expect anything to change so the I'm also getting at this new arena mode, which is three v three, the original br is a br you know, 20 teams of three all drop into one map and the last one standing wins. You guys are all familiar with Battle Royale at this point. But the arena mode is like a classic three v three it's something you you'd see more in eSports like Overwatch like valorant like Cisco three teams battle it out head to head, is that going to bleed into the esports mode? Or is alts going to stay? The Battle Royale format and then arena mode is just maybe something for like twitch rivals events or things in the future. Kenny, what do you think on that front is is a transition coming at all.Keni  I truly don't see a transition in the near future at least. But I think the competitive side of Apex legends will stick to battle royale. But if they do properly execute arena mode, I feel like it could potentially have a league of its own in the future. Because it Apex like movement and gunplay and things like that it is the closest to perfect in a shooter in my opinion. And battle royales do have that RNG factor as everyone knows, you know, with all anything can happen but in an arena mode three v three, you versus a different team. I feel like there's a lot less RNG if at all any you know, like you are in control of your match completely and entirely. And if they do properly executed I feel like in the future there could be a arena league in a way like like just like Call of Duty has or valorant things like that, you know, but for the near future I do believe Battle Royale will be what Apex Legends is about.Mitch Reames  It would certainly be a pretty quick switch if they released it and then like they announced it a month Hey guys, next circuit is actually going to be to read a boat like we're dropping the br it's I have to imagine a pretty big deviation. Joe clade from a player's perspective. How different is flagging Have you been playing some arena mode and how different is it from like an approach and gameplay standard compared to playing a normal Battle Royale mode in Apex?Clane  Well like like Kenny was saying the battle royale there's a lot of RNG like sometimes you can't even pick what guns you want to use. Sometimes you can't pick like you don't get good attachments and the other person you're fighting has just insane attachments on their gun and like you might have white armor the other person has purple and it's just a very uneven fighting you have to play perfectly if you're at a disadvantage to win the fight. So in arena I really like the fact that everybody's on even playing field every single round nobody has better gear unless obviously they earned it in the previous round by getting multiple kills or like getting the materials so that they have more money but yeah, I just I think that the the arena mode is actually very good I've been playing it a little bit i like i said i just love how it's even playing ground and it's really good to practice gun skillMitch Reames  that's a good point as well in terms of just being an area where you could compete in a market trolled environment and getting the practice they're getting from from your perspective what is the value of arena mode to apex like thatKeni  I just purely believe arena is there to serve as a three v three fighting scenario and practice your gun skill. When you play the competitive br there is so many possibilities and and things you have to take into consideration when playing for example knowing zones like like I spend a lot of my time just looking at zones and trying to predict where it ends which is one of the great things about Apex Legends is it has a pretty consistent zone algorithm not perfect but it's pretty consistent. And you can pretty much guess where the where the game is going to end based off of a zone to read which is like you when you play arena you have you don't have to worry about any of that. You don't have to worry about zones at all really. But the thing about the br is you can also get Like r&g out of his own, like you think it's going somewhere, but it completely pulls the other way. And your position just gets completely destroyed. And you just have to play on edge. You know, it's just you have to do what you can. But in arena, like it's just strictly there for fighting and getting better as a team that that's all it really serves us.Mitch Reames  Yeah, that absolutely makes sense, as we're in this gap between LGs circuits with another three months until it kicks back up. are you guys looking? Are there some arena mode tournaments out there? Would that be something you guys would like to play in during the summer just to kind of get an idea of what that might look like, and a reduced RNG eSports competition.Keni  Um, I definitely if there is the opportunity to play in such a tournament, I would love to because I absolutely love Apex legends when it comes down to gun scale and positioning and raw mechanics. Like it's really just the best game out there for such a thing. And if there is an opportunity to play in a arena tournament, so to speak, like I would love to be able to be in it. But there is nothing planned, like maybe twitch rivals or something like that. They may host but as in like, like an actual tournament. I don't think anything's been announced for arena yet.Mitch Reames  I don't think so, either. But you know, I'm hosting this podcast for nursery, but I'm also maybe doing a little bit of market research, just seeing what some players might want to do. Because you don't worry. We've read plenty of tournaments as well. And I was, I know, we're talking about, you know, I don't want to spoil anything for our tournament Ops, but they were talking about it in Slack, a little bit of like, Hey, is this something possible to do in the future? So it's cool to hear the players be down for I think it'd be at least an interesting look, and would allow for more of those head to head matchups as head to head rivalries that we see in other eSports, which are kind of hard to develop in battle royale just due to, you know, dropping in and by the time you get to five teams left, you know, there's no guarantee what teams are left. Is that a fair take a clean is like, is that hard? Or is it actually like there's plenty of rivalries a battle round? I'm just totally off base here.Clane  Well, no, I don't think you're wrong at all, I think. I think there's there's not many rivalries in battle royale because I mean, there's 20 teams competing against each other. And then the arena would just be one team versus another team, you know. So I think, yeah, I think I don't think you're off at all. I think, also the having arenas, like I would love to play Arena in a tournament, just for the sole fact of, like, let's say x set versus TSN. Like fans are can easily route for one or the other, you know, or like TSM vs NRG. Literally just anything, it's very easy to route for very easy to understand what's going on for the viewers. So going back a little bit to what you were asking earlier, I do definitely think that arena can be a competitive mode, but I don't think it will take over Battle Royale ever. I think Battle Royale will always be the main priority.Mitch Reames  Interesting. Yeah. That That definitely makes sense. You know, it's possible to see like, way out in the future of arena mode really takes off. It's like, Alright, we'll make that adjustment. But no, for now, it's a battle royale game and switching and deviating completely from Battle Royale feels like it'd be very hasty at least. But it would definitely be cool to see it. At least it's like a competitive experience. Or I think Kenny, I think he said this earlier as a sister legal most where they run to different things. And maybe players compete in both or you have two different teams even competing in the two different modes. I want to be pretty interesting.Clane  I definitely agree. That'd be I think I think having two leagues is more of a like what will actually happen in the future.Mitch Reames  But a big shift over just like all right now we're in a mode. Yeah,Clane  I don't think it would ever do that. I think it would just be both at the same time, if anything.Mitch Reames  turistic that makes a lot of sense. So you guys have mentioned the gunplay in the game and Apex Legends is pretty unique because unlike other BRS you have this character pool which are naturally called legends in game but every game that's ever been created has a different name for that Champions League of Legends. Its agents of valor it the whole point is it's different heroes. You could choose any day you want for it, but they all have different cops and abilities and allows teams to build a cop play from your perspective does that team carbs and flexibility allow for more depth in the esports scene especially compared to the other battle rails?Clane  Um, it definitely adds more depth there's a lot as of recent there's been all kinds of different comps and different characters coming in. Um there's definitely some things I think with every game Some things are very some comps are like on the people say they're unhealthy for the game, but There's just so many different varieties, varieties of things that people get to experiment and fans get to like, see their favorite characters and actually not just the same three every game, you know what I mean?Mitch Reames  There's always going to be busted cups for sure. Kenny, what do you think?Keni  Um, so when Apex legends came out, it was strictly Wraith, Watson and Pathfinder, and I think as the meta, like every game goes through meta changes, like every single one. And I think like right now, Apex legends. It has a pretty diverse meta compared to the beginning of the game. But there still are like, you know, meta comps compared to just other characters. And I do like, like the diversity of characters, but in a way I did appreciate and enjoy watching it when everyone was also playing all the same characters like back in the day with Wraith Watson and Pathfinder def compared to now, yeah.Mitch Reames  Interest Sue's almost sometimes more depth when they're on the same characters and watching how different people use those or use the interplay between them actually might be a depth is a sort of a loose word, I guess, here, but that also provides a really high level of strategy as well.Clane  Yeah, like back in the path wide Wraith meta. You can see the difference in teams basically, like, the most experienced teams are obviously just at the very top, you know, like TSM, winning five major championships in a row. When that meta was out. That's unheard of in battle. royales I think that meta really made like, made the game feel like it wasn't a battle royale and made it just feel very competitive. Because like I said, you look at any other Battle Royale, there's no single team that's just winning every single major tournament in a row.Mitch Reames  Yeah, consistency has been one of the absolute hardest things to fight a battle royale and was, you know, one of the reasons why, or doesn't necessarily stop investing in fortnight pro players, but they were also like, oh, we're just like, these guys are all good. But what it actually comes down to it, it's really hard. It's not necessarily entirely about players skill. There's, there's a lot of RNG Yeah, part of it. So yeah, TSM winning all those different events is really, really unique and definitely speaks to some of that depth that exists in apex.Clane  Yeah, definitely. Because, I mean, they were just ahead of their game. Other teams played different ways. They played their way. And they just knew how to play that competition at the very best and at its peak compared to everybody else.Mitch Reames  And sure, interesting. So talking about major orgs in eSports are actually publishing this episode on June 28, which is the one month anniversary of YouTube being signed to exit claim, what did it mean to be picked up by the organ org that is quickly becoming one of the bigger orgs in the space?Clane  Oh, my, I'm actually smiling I was working so hard to join exit exit was the one org out of n like, if any top top org hit me up, I would have 100% rather than with x I work so hard, and wanting to join this org for so long, and I'm so happy that it came through we really grinded for it. And we're going to show up for the whole next year. We want to make sure x sets on top everybody knows and we want to be one of the biggest names and a perksMitch Reames  That's awesome. And I'll give some background on x if people unfamiliar with the organization because it really came out of nowhere and it's been a major player in Esports in under a year since it was founded. But Kenny from your perspective, you know getting signed to an org is really making it it's kind of the the milestone that you grab for the new like Alright, now I'm here and now I have to win to stay up here but that's like the big milestone that you tried to get to what did it mean to be picked up by a major org like that?Keni  I mean getting picked up on accet it's it's it was insane for the first week I didn't even believe it like how I was just like in shock though time I really was surprised clan was able to pull it off and I'm still appreciative of the opportunity to be on sets it's honestly a great org and they've honestly been so amazing to the the apex legends team like all three of us and I'm just thankful for it. But um yeah, back to your question like, like getting picked up it's great but you know, there's still a lot of work to be done like getting getting on an org is is the is like the great first step, but I think there's just a lot more work to be done and being considered one of the best teams in the game. You still have a lot of work to do. It's not it's it doesn't stop once you get picked up. There's a lot of behind the scenes work and you just got to grind.Mitch Reames  Yeah, absolutely. It is a marker of Hey, we're doing a lot of things right to get to this point, but we have to keep doing those things right it doesn't just like alright guys control. We're gonna do it we're good. So a little background on exit because again I can't rave about this eSports and I'm not affiliated with exit in any way. They were founded by three former FaZe clan execs is the former president of faze Greg selkoe will Eden's who is crucial and phases Mart merchandising clubs, like with champion at Clinton sparks, who help broker phases music crossovers, including bringing on offset as a co owner. Then the fourth founder was Marco Moreau, who came from outside phase and was formerly the founder and CEO of frame rate in they were founded in summer of 2020. So the org is less than a year old or maybe coming up on the one year anniversary of its founding now, Kenny, I've talked to all four of those guys at various times over the last year since they founded exit. What's your guys's experience as a player for the Ord over the last month?Keni  Um, well, there hasn't been besides champs and the the tournament that we had an Invitational last week, we haven't really been able to represent apex, the apex legends exit team too much yet, but we are really hoping to make a huge name for ourselves in the next next season of HGS. But um, so far EXA has been great, honestly, like the guys ever the welcome was amazing. I really just don't have many words other than accent is amazing, to be honest.Mitch Reames  Great. You were the one who said, Hey, this is the org, we would have chosen. I think some people might be surprised with that, especially with legacy orgs like liquid TSM CLOUD NINE that all compete in apex, what was it about exit that you're like, no, that's the team that I want to I want to compete under.Clane  Um, basically, I just see the crazy potential they have, like you said, it's under a year, and they have blown up so much, they've done so many amazing things. Um, I also really, really just loved everybody that was on the org, I talked to a lot of people before I joined because obviously, I wanted to get a good idea of like, how the people are like, what everything is going on, did a lot of my own research. And literally everybody in excess is so amazing to each other and friendly and nice and just wants the best for each other. And also, um, well, they have a few NFL players that are representing accet. And they also have one of my favorite artists Wei Li and I was very like, I was like, wow, if they can do this, imagine what they're gonna do in the future too. And I don't know, their their merge is all insane. Literally, just everything about EXA is just mind blowing, in my opinion. The fact it's been only, like 11 months, that since they made it, it's just insane. And also, I had a very, like I started competing in Apex actually the same month that they created the org. So I don't know, I just thought that was pretty cool.Mitch Reames  That is that is really cool. And you mentioned some of the celebrities when they founded they obviously split off a phase and phase is one of the giants in this space. And when they started it's like a few months later they signed suavely, NFL player that Kyle van Noy and a couple of others. And these are like big, big artists. Calvin Noy, I think was a pro bowler. I'm not sure. But he's, yeah, he's a great football player. And then they just started citing player after player team after team and I was like, Oh, these guys are, these guys are here for real, like they all switched over and hit the ground running. And clearly that's that shows in the org, because not only do they have this celebrity roster, they've picked up players in 10 different titles. According to their website, they have 58 pro players and content creators, that's not counting the celebrities, which they have like eight or nine of those as well. Is this just like good founders doing things right? Or, you know, what is there from what you've been able to gather? I know, you've only been there a month and it's been, you know, I'm not sure if you've been able to have a lot of like FaceTime with these people. But, you know, what's their motto? What's their mantra? Why are they adding people so quickly and really just trying to like plant their flag in eSports?Clane  Well, I think they just see the value and everybody that they're there picking up obviously they want to grow and getting more players in different titles, different content creators, different celebrities. Like obviously that's gonna help a lot. They just treat everybody extremely well. Like I said, they just want everybody to love everybody they care about every single one of us. They care about each other. They just want a great they just want to grow a great org that that is very supportive of anybody and everybody they appreciate anybody's work, they don't care who you are what you are. What you go for, like, what? Like, what your I don't know how to say this, but basically they just care about. They just care about everybody and anybody for just showing the work and being genuine and nice to other people.Mitch Reames  For sure, yeah, they were founded on sort of this mantra of diversity and inclusion and bringing people together. And making sure you know, Craig, on his way out, had a heads of words for faizabad could describe the organization as a frat house and wanted to make it clear that Oh, yeah, yeah, that was he dropped the bomb. He came out with a New York Times article describing phases a frat house, and I was like, all right, all right, they're, they're here to come. But yeah, they were founded on those different principles. And I think that's a great big, that's something that nurture gamers stands for as well. And we try to support it all of our tournaments. So, you know, it's, it's awesome to see orgs not just embracing it over time, but literally being founded like this is core to us, and then backing that up as well. The people they sign and the community and the culture they create. So speaking about nerd Street, you know, I got I got my corporate duty here. And you guys competed in the nursery gamers monthly open in April, and you guys won that you guys repeating under season at the time of about a month before your side to exit. Now, I'm not obviously not gonna say that, Oh, you guys want that tournament. So that's why you got side clearly it was the LGs success and your grind that you've put in over the last year. But I'm curious, Kenny, for your perspective of being somebody who is just sort of grinding out on an ortho scene, what's the value of having these community tournaments that nurse she puts on and so many other organizers are putting on as well, especially when it comes to getting players discovered getting players to break into the top level?Keni  Oh, yeah, definitely. So nerd Shree and small other smaller tournaments, like it's really gives you good practice other than a LGs, because scrims and Apex legends, you can get close to like a reality of how it actually will be on game day. But no one really like you have to incentivize practice. And I think smaller tournaments is a really great practice for alts. And, and I really do appreciate the opportunity to play in them, because I want to play as much as I can, and as competitive as I can, like in the best competition. So when you play in any of these tourneys people are, they're trying and especially newer players. And more, I guess you could say tier two players, because they're the you see, you see some people you don't normally see in the finals of an Al gslb. And you can definitely notice people stand out as well, the newer players and, you know, it allows people to make a name for themselves.Mitch Reames  You can't have a successful esport without a strong tier two seed because yeah, there needs to be charted, there needs to be people waiting to replace that at places for orgs to look for, either to pick up new players, like in the case of exit or if they need to make roster changes or something like that. So yeah, we firmly believe that, you know, for eSports to work, there has to be opportunities for players to get noticed and a pathway into that upper echelon.Clane  Most definitely, I agree. 100%.Mitch Reames  Clean flipping over to you with that when our monthly open, you guys qualify for the soccer championships in August, which we're really looking forward to, obviously, but it's going to be, you know, a pretty big event going into that. And so far, we have four qualifiers for that one. It's you guys, Team Liquid obey and the Pittsburgh Knights with alts not starting until September is our summer chair stuff that you guys are looking forward to so that you guys have marked in the summer where there isn't a ton of the alts events or any other top level events.Clane  Yeah, yeah. What's funny is when they announced args won't be till September, I was like, wow, we really need to make every one of these tournaments that we're playing until then, and we're like we need so we had the tournament last week for eSports arena. And I think just yet nerd street tourney in August, which we want to just do extremely well and like it's I love competing. I love competing against people just it is just so much adrenaline sometimes just it's such a good feeling competing in Apex and I'm really looking forward to play in the energy tournament for sure.Mitch Reames  Thanks. We're looking forward to you guys playing I'm sure I've actually talked to you guys around when that tournament is kicking up as well. The only thing that those community tournaments offer especially to you guys is bringing in Rambo and I saw on your Twitter clan. I think it was that you guys were playing together for quite a long time but you're playing on a different team in the championships. Why did you want to bring him into the squad and make him yours third, headed towards this next season of LGsClane  Yeah, so I guess I'm going to start, because this all kind of builds in with it. But when I used to play on Xbox back in like, February, March of 2020, so last year, and we were we just, we were like, really good good friends. And we were competing, or like playing ranked all day, every day, we're like, well, we can really take this to the next level, we both bought a PC. We started competing with each other back in May of last year, or June of last year. Um, he's the one who I started competing with an apex. And we did, we did really well for being like brand new players, we actually made it in our very first LGs tournament, we made it to finals, and we finished 12th, which was actually just, that was insane that our very first tournament ever. And then we kept like doing pretty decent, we made basically every finals together. Then he got an offer to God set to join them. And he took it obviously, because joining a joining like a good team that's known in the community is always a good, a good look for newer players. So he joined them. We weren't teaming for about eight months, because this happened in August. And yeah, he was been on another team for quite a while. And we found out that we needed to get a new third. I mean, Kenny did we went, we played with a guy named lion first and then we played with fun FPS, which is on he was on complexity. And that was our most recent teammate, and we were like, who can possibly do what fun did for us? Who can who can do that in better, like who has the motivation to be the best like we do. And, and we were just thinking, and Bo, honestly is just, he is insane. He is grown a really big name for himself. We have such good vibes, we're basically we're just all three best friends. And I could see this team, what are the lasting for all of the rest of apexes lifetime. We are, we're so motivated to be at the top. And that's really all I wanted in a third teammate is somebody that's just extremely motivated to be the best. And that would represent x set good. And I know that he's going to do everything correctly and I'm super excited.Mitch Reames  It's It's so cool to have somebody like that who you are playing with back on Xbox and then you know, get your break together and eSports oftentimes forces people to diverged a little bit like like what happened there, but you guys all come back on the tier one org is, uh, yeah, awesome. You guys got to be pumped. Awesome. So that was the last thing whatever. But actually, Kenny I want to give it over to you one more time for people that don't watch Apex legends eSports give them the elevator pitch give them 30 seconds why an Esports fan should check out Apex legendsKeni  so Apex legends in my I've played all sorts of shooters I played Call of Duty battlefield destiny, Halo, you name it, I've played it. And the gunplay and movement and mechanics of Apex Legends is unmatched to any any one of those shooters and I think it's also extremely easy to watch because it is a shooter at the end of the day and it is easy to watch and keep track of but um I think just the game itself has a insane skill ceiling as well with how good you can get and it's an interesting to watch players grow as well. And I do think Apex legends will go down as one of the best games of all time easily.Mitch Reames  Awesome, it's shown a lot of staying power and again, it's very unique in the battle royale space. I also want to roll out the red carpet for both you guys plug your twitch YouTube your Twitter What do you guys want people subscribing looking for? Follow it clay let's start with you.Clane  My Twitter is clean season. So CLA any SZN and my Twitch is also the same same thing clean season. And that's all I really use right now. I'm gonna make a YouTube in the future and tick tock in the future but right now I want to focus on growing our competitive team.Keni  Yep. So on Twitch and Twitter I am Kenny FPS. And those are the only two platforms I actively use. SoMitch Reames  check out these guys. After the show. I will link their twitches and their Twitter's underneath the show should be in the bio. So be sure to check it out. Give them a follow. If you enjoyed this podcast you enjoyed their thoughts on apex. I'll be back next week with another illustrious guest. We got 10s for the podcast. We're talking to the valor champion fresh off his stage two masters when we're setting goals. So be on the lookout for that podcast with 10s coming next Monday. Well, I hope you all enjoyed this episode of loosely scripted as always, I'm your host, Mitch Reames.

Smite Pro League caster, Aggro, and Renegades' backliner, BaRRaCCuDDa, bring on back-to-back champion, Zapman, to take us through the Pittsburgh Knights' Smite World Championship winning performance

Discord has gone nuclear in 2020. The company's latest Series H round shows a valuation of $7B, double the valuation of the company in it's funding round in June. The Pittsburgh Knights took a turn at tournament organizing and drama around a cheating accusation from Ninja overshadowed the event. This episode was sponsored by Technology Game Changers check them out at TGCplay.com (https://www.tgcplay.com/) Watch The Gamer Hour - Esportz Network's new show hosted by Chris Puckett from Times Square. This week's guest was musician Zayde Wolf (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WteeA7OQG8) If you are connected to a gaming celebrity in the worlds of music, acting or comedy who might be interested in appearing on The Gamer Hour, please reach out to Esportz Network CEO Mark Thimmig by emailing mthimmig@esportznetwork.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and subscribe, it helps us out a ton! New episodes Monday through Friday. For more in-depth news check out our feature show the Esportz Network Podcast The Esports Network Podcast (https://www.esportznetworkpodcast.com/). If you are interested in learning more about college esports, subscribe to the College Esports QuickTake. (https://esportzcollegequicktakecom.fireside.fm/) Follow Mitch on Twitter @Mitch_Reames (https://twitter.com/Mitch_Reames) Follow Esportz Network on Twitter (https://twitter.com/EsportzNetwork), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/esportznetwork/), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EsportzNetwork) @EsportzNetwork Or visit our website esportznetwork.com (https://www.esportznetwork.com/) for updates on what's to come!

Will Dzombak is a Pittsburgh native and one of the entertainment industry’s top music managers. He’s helped guide the career of Grammy-nominated rapper Wiz Khalifa and cofounded Taylor Gang Entertainment.   As a student at Penn State, Will co-founded an events company, where he booked Wiz Khalifa will he was still just a rising Pittsburgh rapper. After the first show’s turnout exceeded expectations, Khalifa sought out Dzombak’s help with booking more shows for him.    Within a few years, Dzombak has helped Khalifa create one of the most successful and consistent summer tours for the last 7 years. He’s also been one of the executive producers on Khalifa’s last three full-length releases.   Together, Wiz and Will have built Taylor Gang Entertainment, invested in the e-sports team Pittsburgh Knights, and much more.   In this conversation, Aaron and Will discuss the early days of Wiz’s career, their new restaurant Hotbox by Wiz, and the marketing strategies that they’ve been early to embrace. Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.   Will Dzombak’s Challenge; Start a second hustle.   Connect with Will Dzombak Instagram Twitter WillDzombak.com Taylor Gang Website   If you liked this interview, check out episode 358 with Jamilka Borges where we discuss the restaurant business, and episode 450 with Brian Scott where we discuss better planting soil.   Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680 Underwritten by Piper Creative Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.    How? Click here and Learn more.   We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.   Follow Piper as we grow YouTube Instagram Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | Spotify

Owner and operator Dan Hosek and his house band gather at Pinball Perfection in West View every Friday night to get their pinball and music fix. This week they welcome the jagoffs, Eric Bentley from the Pittsburgh Knights, an esports connoisseur who plays video games with Whiz Kalifa as a job, and Cory Herschk, who is behind the explosion of Team USA Ball Hockey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on ESI Digest, we cover Cisco's move into League of Legends, Pittsburgh Knights' deal with SeolHaeOne Prince, Dignitas' selling the naming rights to its CS:GO roster, and plenty more.

Interview starts: 6:09Debrief starts: 39:07James O'Connor is the cofounder and president of the Pittsburgh Knights, a global esports team of 30+ players and streamers, headquartered in one of the most well-branded sports cities in the country. With his knowledge of management, program development, economic development, veteran affairs, data-analysis, and strategic planning, his 10+ years of professional gaming experience, and his desire to bolster his hometown, he is driving the Pittsburgh Knights to become one of the most esteemed esports teams in the world.In 2018, the Knights announced their partnership with six-time Super Bowl Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2019, the Knights brought on another strategic partner with Pittsburgh roots - multi-platinum recording artist Wiz Khalifa.We discuss: AD: Finding experienced employees for your new business with Integrity Power Search (4:32) History of Pittsburgh Knights (6:12) Opening Esports events (9:57) Deciding games for a team (12:08) How teams make money (15:59) Building a fan base and media (20:17) Team structures (24:36) Esports stadiums (31:37) Misconceptions about Esports (33:27) How to build a sustainable gaming company (35:01) Changes in Esports in next 5 years (36:22) Learn more about the Pittsburgh Knights: https://knights.gg/Follow James on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamesoconnorFollow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefmAdvertise with an upside classified: https://upside.fm/classifieds--This episode is sponsored by Integrity Power Search, the #1 full stack high growth startup recruiting firm between the coasts. They partner with venture capitalists, private equity groups and CEOs to build amazing teams for the world's most disrupting companies.Learn more about or get in touch with Integrity Power Search: https://upside.fm/integrity

We have James O'Connor, president of the Pittsburgh Knights on the show. He discusses his transition from Liquid's coach to team owner. We also preview the big weekend ahead, Six Invitation, CDL London, Blast Premier Group B, OWL Season Open. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/thecenterring)

Money Monday's leading story is a big loan for FaZe Clan but we also had some new brand partnerships including a top-tier brand for the Pittsburgh Knights. If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and subscribe! New episodes Monday through Friday. For more in-depth news check out our bi-weekly podcast The Esports Network Podcast (https://www.esportznetworkpodcast.com/). Follow Mitch on Twitter @Mitch_Reames (https://twitter.com/Mitch_Reames) Follow Esportz Network on Twitter (https://twitter.com/EsportzNetwork), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/esportznetwork/), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EsportzNetwork) @EsportzNetwork Or visit our website esportznetwork.com (https://www.esportznetwork.com/) for updates on what's to come!

Shogun, formerly of RLCS fame, created his perfect Fantasy Team alongside ya boys, but with a twist: once a player was chosen, no one else could choose him. Did this lead to arguments? Yes. Did anyone try and steal anyone else's 2 time World Champion best mate off them? Maybe.

James O'Connor has been globally recognized as one of the best team builders and strategists in esports. A Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, O’Connor went on to earn his MBA, translating his military skills into real-world applications. He actively supported returning veterans through his work with the non-profit, The Mission Continues, and continued to serve his community by working in economic development - first for San Francisco and more recently for Allegheny County. Today, he is the president of the Pittsburgh Knights, a global esports team of 30+ players and streamers, headquartered in one of the most well-branded sports cities in the country. With his knowledge of management, program development, economic development, veteran affairs, data analysis, and strategic planning, his 10+ years of professional gaming experience, and his desire to bolster his hometown, he is driving the Pittsburgh Knights to become one of the most esteemed esports teams in the world. In 2018, the Knights announced their partnership with six-time Super Bowl Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2019, the Knights brought on another strategic partner with Pittsburgh roots - multi-platinum recording artist Wiz Khalifa. Twitter @jamesoconnor

For EU guys like us, Pittsburgh Knights/The Peeps came seemingly out of nowhere. They quickly tore up the Rival Series and then moved on to winning Dreamhack Montreal, taking down Mousesports, Renault Vitality and G2 Esports along the way. After finishing 2nd at Regionals, Retals has joined us to explain his carefully crafted toxic persona and his "beef" with Turbopolsa.

Business Development in Esports with Matt Roche - Director of Business Development at Pittsburgh Knights Shot Notes https://www.bigesports.gg/60 Guest - Matt Roche LinkedIn Twitter Host - Chris Smith LinkedIN Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/big-esports/message

At no point during week 3 did we feel at all comfortable with what was happening. Cloud 9 went 0-2 and are in 7th place, Pittsburgh Knights are in 2nd and NRG are the only unbeaten team in North America. To help us make sense of the Rocket League, but to scramble our brains about literally everything else, NRG's newest member Turbopolsa provided us with a trip into his mind.

On today's Esports Minute, Mitch takes us throughwhere the money was moving in the past week of esports deals. If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and subscribe! New episodes Monday through Friday. For more in-depth news check out our bi-weekly podcast The Esports Network Podcast (https://www.esportznetworkpodcast.com/). Follow Mitch on Twitter @Mitch_Reames (https://twitter.com/Mitch_Reames) Follow Esportz Network on Twitter (https://twitter.com/EsportzNetwork), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/esportznetwork/), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EsportzNetwork) @EsportzNetwork Or visit our website esportznetwork.com (https://www.esportznetwork.com/) for updates on what's to come!

In this episode, Troy start with giving condolences to Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson's family and friends due to his untimely passing. He also congratulates eUnited on winning CWL Miami, Liquid on winning IEM Chicago, and FaZe on winning GLL Grand Slam. He discuss Blast Pro exposing FaZe Clan CSGO Strats, 100 Thieves completing Series B funding, LCS extending Echo Fox shareholder removal compliance, OpTic co-founder leaving after Immortals buyout, Liquid LCS players, Impact and Insanity car accident, Former Digintas founder joining Rogue, K-Swiss Esports performance shoe, Cavs Legion's plan to open esports center, Wiz Khalifa partnering with The Pittsburgh Knights, and Alinity being investigated by animal protection services.

In this episode, the guys got a chance to kick it with Rob "Leonyx" Lee, owner of the Pittsburgh Knights, to discuss why he signed a European team (00:55), player visas (02:50), secret PAX East PUBG party (06:09), thoughts on current state of the industry (07:50), esports television worthy? (11:11), and his first gaming experience (12:40). Leonyx gives his input on competitive game traction (16:50), signing players prior to an established competitive scene (22:45), esports fantasy leagues (26:14), competitive player to management trasition (32:03), breaking into esports advice (34:31), his esport failures (40:26), and his organization goals (45:06). Be sure to check out the Pittsburgh Knights' rosters and merchandise on their official website: Knights.gg Keep up with Rob on Twitter: @Leonyx

Happy to say that the Pittsburgh Knights are partnering up with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Huge congrats to our friends at the Pittsburgh Knights.  We have been working with them since February in a role designed around mental fitness for their competitive players. Very excited for what the future hold in store for both the Knights and Ramsden Mental Fitness --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Pittsburgh is a sports town. But, is the city ready to rally for gaming?   Rob Lee thinks so.   He co-founded the Pittsburgh Knights to compete in esports competitions like PUBG, Fortnite, and Super Smash Bros. He also recently inked a partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers.   Their core mission is to take the best practices from traditional sports and apply them to esports. Pittsburgh is the City of Champions; it has a long history of strong sports franchises and passionate fans. Can they continue the legacy?   In this conversation, Aaron & Rob discuss how that might happen.   Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter.   Rob’s Challenge; Try watching an esports event.   Connect with Rob Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Website   If you liked this interview, check out episode 344 with Griffin Schultz where we discuss smart sensors, fixing traffic with tech, and selling to city governments. Underwritten by Piper Creative A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings. Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0) Instagram Content Production & Account Building Podcast Production, Strategy Consulting, and Guest Acquisition   If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business. YouTube Instagram Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay

Joe and Max (twitch.tv/Maxdimensio) ask Shane Dennis (twitter.com/SVDennis4) of the Pittsburgh Knights (twitter.com/knightsGG) about what it is like to do marketing for the professional esports team, the Pittsburgh Knights, and they discuss how college esports are changing rapidly as more schools give teams varsity designations.

Jeff Konkle (Mr. Wednesday) once dressed like Billy Corgan in high school...once. Tim Benz comments on best houses in television, and Rob Lee (CEO/Founder of Pittsburgh Knights) educates us on the world of competitive video gaming.

Jeff Konkle (Mr. Wednesday) once dressed like Billy Corgan in high school...once. Tim Benz comments on best houses in television, and Rob Lee (CEO/Founder of Pittsburgh Knights) educates us on the world of competitive video gaming.

In this installment of the Future Grind podcast host Ryan O'Shea sits down with Rob Lee, the CEO & owner of the Pittsburgh Knights. The Knights participate in the growing world of eSports, where competitors battle in virtual environments with very real stakes. These may be video games, but according to some metrics, eSports leagues already have audience numbers that surpass those of some major sports, and it's popularity continues to grow. Investors and sponsors are clamoring to get in on the action, but this new industry is not without it's share of controversy. They discuss making a living in virtual worlds, the impact of IP laws, the future of entertainment, virtual reality, & more. Show Notes: https://futuregrind.org Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/future-grind-podcast-science-technology-business-politics/id1020231514 Support: https://futuregrind.org/support Follow along - Twitter - https://twitter.com/Ryan0Shea  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ryan_0shea/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RyanOSheaOfficial/  If you have any questions or are interested in supporting or sponsoring Future Grind, you can reach us at hello@futuregrind.org.

Leaks! Leaks everywhere! So many some might happen during the show! That's how it always is the week before E3. We cover the leaked games, talk about Overwatch League as we get closer to the playoffs, discuss the Pittsburgh Knights for the first time, and finally give our thoughts on what we think Nintendo will pull out at E3. Thanks for listening! You can find us on Twitter @LevelUpPod and on Facebook by searching Level Up! You can find Alex on Twitter @TheHattedGamer and on Twitch at TanookiTV.

This week we have the very special treat of hosting Mental Fitness coach Fran Ramsden.  He coaches a professtional pubg team in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Knights.  He ask him a lot about the pro circut and how we can get better and he gives a lot of really great, no-nonsense advice. To learn more about or contact Fran Ramsden, check out his website!   In the episode we mention a survey Robin created called a "Why did I die?" so we can start collecting data on why we're not winning every single game :)  The survey can be found here:Why did I die Our custom games schedule this week: 6pm Pacific Time on Monday, 5/14 and Tuesday, 5/15. Join us, bring your friends, and their moms!Join our Winner Winner discord server here. Here's the direct link to share with your friends (and their moms) (more participants in our custom games = higher chance of keeping them!): https://discord.gg/U6Ub9rrSend comments and feedback to winnerpodcast@gmail.comSupport us via PatreonJoin our subredditMany thanks to the amazing gazelle(s) for the intro and outro music on this episode. Find them at their Bandcamp or at their Facebook page.