The Level Up Experience

“Esports: Hacked - An Inside Look in Cybersecurity in Gaming” report available at http://esportshacked.com

"By combining Akamai’s data of web attacks with actual end-user data and insights sourced from DreamHack’s community of gamers, we want to raise awareness around cyber security threats facing esports."

____________________________________________________________________________

Guests

Tomas Lyckedal | Chief Strategy Officer DreamHack/ ESL Gaming

Jonathan Singer | Senior Manager Global Games Industry at Akamai Technologies

____________________________________________________________________________

SPONSORS

Thank you to ggLocators for sponsoring the show.  Good Game Locators is a contract staffing and executive search firm specialized in sourcing and placing top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries.  Whether you’re searching for your next hire or the next step in your career head over to http://gglocators.com to learn more.   

Thank you for the 5 star ratings/reviews and subscribing to the channel: https://apple.co/2W5kmLL

Get in touch with Cris Reed about sponsoring the podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisreed/

____________________________________________________________________________

YouTube Replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGUNVkHGYQ&t=1s

Betti Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/BettiGames

David Strashnoy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-strashnoy-28926aa7/

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

SPONSORS 

Thank you to ggLocators for sponsoring the show.     

Good Game Locators is a contract staffing and executive search firm looking to help  place top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries.  Whether your company is searching for an addition to your team, or the next step in your career head over to http://gglocators.com to learn more.

Connect with Niccole Minka Managing Director at ggLocators:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/niccoleminka/

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

LEVEL UP EXPERIENCE SOCIALS

Connect with us YouTube, Twitter and more: http://linktr.ee/thelevelupexp

Get in touch with Host Cris Reed about the podcast, collaborations or general inquiries at: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisreed/

Building Your Online Network | Chase Walter  ggLocators 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Chase gets into how to build online connections, growing your network from a quality not quantity perspective, Candidate - Recruiter relationship dynamics, and answered live questions throughout the stream.

Level Up Experience Substack Newsletter- http://levelupexp.substack.com

YouTube replays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqRxcXg7GVc&t=1281s

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

SPONSORS

Thank you to ggLocators for sponsoring the show.  Good Game Locators is a contract staffing and executive search firm specialized in sourcing and placing top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries.  Whether you’re searching for your next hire, or the next step in your career head over to gglocators.com to learn more.   

Thank you for the 5 star ratings/reviews, subscribing to the channel! 

Get in touch with Cris Reed about the podcast, collaborations or general inquiries at: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisreed/   or  Twitter @thelevelupexp

YouTube VOD- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqRxcXg7GVc&t=19s

In May of this year Regina saw Gamerjibe host an esports and gaming career fest in a virtual world  and she wanted to create a new way for students to engage with colleges/universities outside of a traditional video conferencing platform. 

Nearly 800 students from 13 school districts have signed up for the fair with the opportunity to meet with 50 colleges and universities. All Iowa tribal members 9th through 12th grade are invited to RSVP for the event.

Peter talks about the growth that Gamerjibe has seen over this year and how the platform is changing the way event organizers are building virtual experiences from startup pitch events, company happy hours, music festivals, fintech conferences and educational events like this college fair.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

SPONSORS

Thank you to ggLocators for sponsoring the show.  Good Game Locators is a contract staffing and executive search firm specialized in sourcing and placing top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries.  Whether you’re searching for your next hire, or the next step in your career head over to gglocators.com to learn more.   

Thank you for the 5 star ratings reviews, subscribing to the channel! 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

CONTACT US 

Get in touch with Cris Reed about the podcast, collaborations or general inquiries at: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisreed/  or  @thelevelupexp on Twitter 

YouTube VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO9cR8k8ZQY&t=699s

This was a previously recorded LinkedIn live stream with Ben Feferman CEO at Amuka Esports on October 13th.  

Ben covers news around Amuka Esports including the reopening process of the Toronto & Windsor hubs (Waves Gaming and Ezy Mode) the recent acquisition of High Performance Motor Sports, the multi-event partnership with Corsair and his take on some current esports news. All of this while we play Fall Guys on stream. 

__________________________________________________________

SPONSORS

Thank you to ggLocators for sponsoring the show!  Good Game Locators is a contract staffing and executive search firm highly specialized in sourcing and placing top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries.  Whether you’re searching for your next hire or the next step in your career head over to gglocators.com to learn more.   

__________________________________________________________

Thank you for the 5 star ratings reviews, subscribing to the podcast and YouTube channel, that's how we get the word out about the content and it really means a lot. 

Get in touch with Cris Reed about the podcast, collaborations or general inquiries at: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisreed/

Thank you for the 5 star ratings reviews, subscribing to the podcast and YouTube channel! 

----SPONSORS----

Thank you to ggLocators for sponsoring the show!  Good Game Locators is a contract staffing and executive search firm highly specialized in sourcing and placing top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries.  Whether you’re searching for your next hire, or the next step in your career head over to gglocators.com to learn more.   

----Get in touch with Cris Reed----

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisreed/

Thank you to ggLocators for sponsoring the episode. Learn more about how ggLocators can help you find your dream job or find top talent in esports and gaming at gglocators.com 

We will be diving into why they entered the esports space, the benefits ESPAT has brought to the creative community, the significance of B2B platform espat.ai, their vision for 2021 and answering live questions from chat.

Thank you to the ggLocators Team for sponsoring the podcast! ggLocators is focused on placing top tier talent in interactive gaming, corporate gamification, and esports operations as the unrivaled experts in gaming recruitment. Learn more: https://gglocators.com/

Evan Denbaum Competitive Gaming Commissioner at Electronic Arts

We discuss Evan's career in the gaming industry, the 20 year history of The Sims franchise, the impact of The Sims Spark'd Reality Show, if esports leagues should use bubbles and a number of other interesting topics.

I want to thank ggLocators for sponsoring the podcast. (Good Game Locators) is a contract staffing and executive search firm specialized in sourcing and placing top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries. Niccole Minka, Managing Director, will have a feature job of the week in just a moment.

Thank you for the 5 star ratings reviews, subscribing to the podcast, Level Up Experience YouTube channel, and of course smashing the like button on every video you come across. That's how we get the word out about the content.

I really enjoyed the conversation with Evan, enjoy the podcast.

Follow Evan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/playoffbeardea

Thank you to the ggLocators Team for sponsoring the podcast! ggLocators is focused on placing top tier talent in interactive gaming, corporate gamification, and esports operations as the unrivaled experts in gaming recruitment. Learn more: https://gglocators.com/ 

Hearo.Live's Republic Campaign: https://republic.co/hearo-live 

This was a previously recorded LinkedIn and YouTube live stream with Chuck Pettid CEO Republic and Ned Lerner CEO Hearo.Live.  

We discuss how startup investing has changed since reg CF in 2016, the recent rollout of the Republic Note, the no fans effect in sports, the phenomenon of online watch parties,  and live questions from chat.  

Thank you for taking the time to leave five star ratings and reviews & subscribing to the podcast! 

YouTube Replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgtM_6O9wcM

Learn more about SIlica neXus: http://silicanexus.com

Free LUE Substack Newsletter: http://levelupexp.substack.com

Thank you for the 5 star ratings reviews, subscribing to the podcast, YouTube channel, and smashing the like button!

Level Up Experience welcomes ggLocators as an official partner! If you are in the market for a job or searching for top talent in the gaming, esports and extended reality industries, be sure to visit: https://gglocators.com/

Subscribe to the free LUE Substack- http://levelupexp.substack.com

Bobby Baird | Stream Hatchet | Demystifying Measurement: Using Data Analytics in esports and gaming 

YouTube Replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlmlD2g_CJY

Thank you to our sponsor ggLocators! 

ggLocators is a contract staffing and executive search firm highly specialized in sourcing and placing top tier talent in gaming, esports, and extended reality industries. Learn more at http://gglocators.com 

Twitter: @InirvLabs https://twitter.com/inirvlabs

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshitaiyer/ 

Connect with Cris and Level Up Experience on socials >> http://linktr.ee/levelupexp

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql918Efcn6g&t=1s

Learn about Silica NeXus- https://bit.ly/2ZpSZhU

We're discussing how the virtual reality space has evolved from the 90's, how the Silica neXus ecosystem is setting to create a digital economy, the emergence and the future of NFT's (non-fungible tokens), Run for the Unicorns Event in September and your live questions & comments.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/c4JME1v97CU

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristopher-reed/

Ned is an innovator in new media platforms.

He wrote EA’s first hit 3D game, founded Multitude, the startup behind FireTeam (the first MOBA), and FireTalk (Skype precursor). He worked on John Madden Football and The Sims as CTO.

At Sony he was Director of Engineering on the PS4 working projects including LLVM, PlayGo, Scream/BRB, ATF, DTE.

We discuss his career in the gaming industry, why Hearo.Live will change the way viewers experience media and answer live questions.

This was a previously recorded LinkedIn and Youtube live stream. You can connect with me on LinkedIn at Cris Reed and subscribe to the Level Up Experience Youtube channel.

Replay on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsjb4t7lMQg

Connect on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristopher-reed/

Amir Bozorgzadeh is the CEO at Virtuleap, a health and education VR startup that is taking cognitive assessment and training to the next level thanks to VR and AI.

Replay on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6OOG1oXlA8&t=979s

Marcus Howard is the CEO of ProjectMQ, an experiential marketing agency that uses video games to help colleges and other brands more effectively engage younger audiences. 

He's also the President of the Tampa Association of Gaming, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the gaming industry and STEM youth programs in the Tampa Bay region.

We're discussing his experience as a startup founder in gaming, why the industry will play a major role in education for the future, the current esports industry outlook, projects his team is currently working on and questions from the live stream. 

Watch episode on YouTube- https://bit.ly/3d8DkHs  (aired April 28th 2020) 

Follow Amuka Esports 

Twitch- https://bit.ly/2N2qmQK  Twitter- https://twitter.com/AmukaEsports

Ben Feferman CEO of Amuka Esports back for round 2. 

Amuka had a busy end to Q1 and Q2. We disucss the aquisition of Waves Gaming, Ezy Mode and Incendium Gaming. We also discuss their recent crowdfunding campaign launch on FrontFundr. and how Amuka has pivoted during the pandemic. 

It's also a unique episode because we originally recorded a live stream on LinkedIn/YouTube and screenshared Ben's Warzone VOD from the charity stream Scope 4 Hope, so if you missed the video make sure to check out it out. 

1:14- Start  

3:52- Physical vs virtual events  

4:42- Challenges moving to online tournaments 

5:50- Are physical esports events going to change fundamentally  

8:29- Get creative with your esports tournaments  

11:24- Politicians playing Fortnite  

11:58- Travis Scott concert thoughts 

 15:18- Justin Trudeau needs to play Smash Melee  

17:03- Amuka Esports news over last three months  

17:58- Windsor has a growing esports scene  

22:50- Amuka Esports acquires Waves Gaming  

23:43- What Amuka has done to pivot because of COVID-19  

26:35- How Amuka sees the value of virtual events   

36:32- How stream engagement will change in the future  

37:26- How esports industry can learn from poker industry circa 2003-2004 

41:28- Is Fortnite as an esports dying out? 

41:57- How orgs are pivoting  

42:35- Orgs are diversifying their asset base  

43:58- How do you think Valorant shakes up the esports space? 

46:58- What will happen if Overwatch League fails over next couple of years? 

48:13- Tencent is the mothership of gaming

Watch replay on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFboV9fGdww

Previously recorded live streamed panel from the Gamerjibe Esports and Gaming Virtual Career Fest entitled:

 "Esports Post-COVID: How Does it Look?"

Chris Smith-  Founder Big Esports 

Jake Zinn-  Founder Esport Supply 

Brett Diamond- COO Wise Ventures and Minnesota ROKKR 

Erik Alexander- Founder  Era Sports

Marcus Howard- Founder Project MQ

Some topics discussed:

CDL pivot from in-person to online competitions.

Is esports only segmented towards pro competition play?

Have endemic/non-endemic brands been more involved in esports over the last few months? 

Does the value of virtual events exceed live events when measuring engagement metrics?

time stamps: 

00:46- start (panelist introductions)  

7:49- CDL pivot from in-person to online competitions 

11:25- Chris discusses as a former CSGO player: did he like competing online or in-person? 

13:52- Viewer numbers/engagement when CDL shifted online  

14:51- ROKKR Watch Parties  

18:10- Discord engagement levels during online events 

19:52- Is esports only segmented towards pro competition play? 26:08- Has the lack of physical sports created more awareness around esports? 28:34- People watch other people cook, why is there any stigma on people who watch others game? 31:48- It's hit or miss if high schools want to support esports  33:54- As a parent, esports/gaming will give kids an opportunity to stay engaged  35:34- Have brands been more involved in esports over the last few months or are they in sit and wait mode? 37:54- Traditional sports is still trying to figure out esports  40:34- How partnership and brand conversations have changed with ROKKR  42:02- Small businesses are trying to learn how get involved in esports 45:47- Marketing dollars will shift from traditional sports to somewhere else if traditional sports continued to be halted 46:32- Investors aren't just comparing esports teams and companies, they're comparing the esports to investing in other verticals 48:28- Why do sponsors work with Minnesota ROKKR in the end?  51:26- Does the value of virtual events exceed live events when measuring engagement metrics?

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx12G9MnTKQ&t=625s

Watch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cristopher-reed_esports-gaming-esportsindustry-activity-6648247621901254658-35oE

Erin is a multi-media personality, host, producer and consultant. Her vast knowledge and creative mindset has lead her to be tapped by well known brands and organizations such as AT&T, Gen.G, The Wall Street Journal, University of Kentucky, REVOLT MEDIA & TV, Cycle Media and was host at Cheddar Inc. Esports.    

We discuss how her career in media brought her into the world of esports plus fielding your live questions and comments!

Watch YouTube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbU0OLeDzoE

John Davidson | Director Business Development Esports at PRG | President Esports Trade Association | Stadia Ventures Advisor

John Davidson, TEDx and active speaker on gaming and youth marketing, is formerly the Head of Partnerships at GameStop and now leads Esports for PRG, the world’s leading event technology company.   John also serves as President of the Esports Trade Association, Advisor for Stadia Ventures and Dallas Influencers in Sports and Entertainment.   Through a diverse career in skateboarding, video production, marketing and business development, John has a unique perspective and understanding of sub-cultures and consumer behavior.  We're discussing the current landscape in esports, how the event space will look in the future and answer your live questions from the live stream.

1:32- John’s background  4:24- Pro skateboarding career  6:36- Doing what you say you’re going to do  8:38- how brands can activate with targeted marketing  9:46- 4 pillars to adding value to the esports experience  13:40- Biggest change to physical events when the come back  15:07- Easier to sell a case study than an idea  16:02- Smart teams and leagues will reset expectations  16:28- Esports numbers can be easily inflated  19:08- #1 source of revenue in esports is sponsorships  22:54- Go to the esports community and ask what you can do for them  22:14- Grow your online footprint  27:23- ESPN has started to feature esports like League of Legends 32:41- John’s 5-10 year goals  34:02- Grow the esports community the right way  36:10- Competition vs. collaboration  39:15- Jump in the deep end and challenge yourself  43:02- How can you break into the esports industry?  44:19- Volunteer!!!  49:31- If you’re in college or recent grad listen to this part  54:03- Mentor others, give back  55:54- What’s up next for PRG

Follow Level Up Experience on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and more: https://bit.ly/31L5MeB

Learning how to compete through gaming is still driving my competitive nature in business today. 

How has gaming affected your life?