Scott Ball · @Rumcake
22nd Sep 2017 from TwitLonger
Its been the best 3 years of my life!
Today with a heavy heart and mixed emotions I am letting everyone know that I will no longer be with Twitch as of 10/1.
Three years ago I was given the opportunity to work with Twitch and help grow a community that I love and am incredibly passionate about. I didn’t have many connections in poker at the time. I had a few friends that I played with and was grinding $1/$2 no limit at a local casino in my spare time. All I knew is that I really loved poker and I understood how powerful a platform like Twitch could be to help the game grow. We set these crazy goals to help revolutionize the the way content is created and distributed.
I’ll never forget the first call I had with Jason Somerville. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a more confident, yet humble person. He was a fan of Twitch, a fan of games and already making awesome content so it seemed like a perfect match. One thing I didn’t know at the time was that he also happened to have the strongest work ethic I’d ever come across. Once Jason started streaming I put my head to the grindstone and dedicated the next few years of my life to growing poker on Twitch just like he did.
Everything started snowballing from there. I’ll never forget receiving a DM from a really nice Canadian named Jaime Staples. You see he really wanted to start streaming, but only had a Mac. Because of this, the only way he could stream was if he was partnered. He told me he really wanted to give it a try and would work very hard. Getting partnered on Twitch is a big deal, there are over 2 million broadcasters each month and around 22k partners. Since I could tell he was passionate about the concept and already had a massive fanbase, I decided to go ahead and fast track his Partnership. Well we all know the rest of the story. He went ahead and built one of the largest communities in the space and produces top notch content for everyone on a daily basis. Jaime also introduced me to Kevin Martin, Tonka and his brother as well. He’s done a lot for this community.
This job has led me to meeting some of my closest friends. I would never have met Nanonoko, Elky, Jonathan Little or Jeff Gross if I wasn’t given this opportunity. They have helped me through many ups and downs and I am incredibly thankful to call them friends.
Something the poker community might not know about my career at Twitch is that for a bit over a year I built out a community development team. I learned so much from everyone on this team. Drew, Sam, Brittany, Anil and AJ are all rockstars and made me look way better than I should have many times.
I’ve done my best to learn from all of my mistakes and become a better person along the way. Growing is hard and at times painful, but I am thankful for every interaction I’ve had. Every person I’ve worked with has taught me something.
I’ve had the most incredible mentors at Twitch. Jon Shipman, Kevin Lin, John Howell, JT Gleason, and Colin Carrier have given me so much guidance along the way. These guys really have helped shape me into the person I am today. Without them poker on Twitch wouldn’t have been a thing. They always believed in me even when I was literally telling them that I have no idea what I’m doing. They would give me the guidance I needed to ensure I was going down the right path. They helped me really understand what it takes to create a strategy for a specific thing that helps achieve what the community needs, but also helps a large company achieve its goals. Without this kind of guidance, Twitch wouldn’t have been able to invest so much into the poker ecosystem.
All of the poker partners are still in great hands with Farhan. Farhan took over those relationships earlier this year and has done a fantastic job. He might not be quite as good looking, but he sure is a lot funnier and more likeable than I am at the end of the day. I expect Farhan will continue to do great things for poker and Twitch.
This has really been the greatest experience of my life. There are a ton of names I didn’t list here that deserve mentions. I just want you all to know that I look forward to seeing you achieve your goals whatever they might be from another perspective. Every single one of you have played a huge role in making this such an amazing experience and I couldn’t have been dealt a better hand.