VeraCanoftin

Tintin · @VeraCanoftin

2nd Mar 2022 from TwitLonger

The Future of Area Of Effect Esports


As of today, I will be taking up the role of Co-Owner for Area of Effect Esports (AOE), alongside myself will be @MelscoutVal and @AoeKobe. With a revamped executive team, I am happy to have @saturn_gg and @TheKingsGFX remain with us and @Okeanos joining. The Esports scene is a difficult, cutthroat, and unfriendly scene for a person like me, for context I have been a part of AOE for just less than a year if you include my time as a player, but as an individual in leadership/management today is my 8-month anniversary.

If I’m already losing you, I understand, I’m just some random kid in his early 20s who could not go professional in Esports, so he decided to take the management route, not exactly unique. About a year ago I told my parents I didn’t want to go to medical school, because it wasn’t my passion, they asked me what my passion was and I drew a blank, I had no idea what it was. Around the same time, I randomly dm’d the CEO of Area of Effect Esports for any opportunities I could take a shot at to still be involved in Esports after I inevitably stop playing the game competitively. Michael J Riley, or as some of you know as AOE Riley was that man and he couldn’t have been more excited to have me on board, Riley wanted to know my goals in Esports and said he would help me in any way to achieve that goal. This was new to me, because everyone else who I considered a leader in my life never asked me that, they only asked me how much money I would make, or how much prestige I would bring to my name. It was never about what I want. So, I made up some pitch about the passions I supposedly had in esports to Riley the same way I told my parents for 20 years that I would be a doctor. Pretending like I knew what I wanted felt so much easier than being honest about not knowing, because that’s my biggest fear, being unsure, unknowledgeable, or dumb. Riley didn’t make me feel that way, to this day I have no idea how he, Kobe and Jacob cultivated the biggest Amateur Esports organization in essentially under a year, these people are what esports should be about, they fought through so much adversity, but never took no for an answer. The amount of 20+ page proposals Jacob wrote out for affiliations, tournaments, inhouse leagues etc. all to get shot down by Riot or some power above us is ridiculous. What’s equally ridiculous is how he was still willing to do more, we created a development system recruiting young prospects where we would put them on teams with PG/Academy level coaches in hopes of developing the next big star, we did not profit from any of this, this was all from our passion for esports. In my eyes as someone who was very new to the esports scene I was so oblivious, I thought “How could we not succeed?”, we were a bunch of people who became friends and were willing to stay up until 4am each day knowing we had school or work in less than 5 hours just crafting ideas or discussing strategies to push our organization to the next level. This was supposed to be minute 1 of our documentary when we finally become an LCS organization. It was just pure passion and love for the industry, the passion I didn’t have for medicine, I still ‘taking breaks’ from my day job just to join some meetings with AOE or finish up a proposal, I’d spend more time working on projects for AOE or with players than I would doing actual work for my day job, even the most remedial tasks for AOE seemed fun and enjoyable. We all gave the time and resources we barely had just to push this organization to where it is today. Despite all that it was at this moment when I knew that I would do anything for this organization and for a future in esports.

If you made it this far or skipped to the last paragraph because you don’t have the time, I appreciate you so much. The only thing I ask is to please share this, whether it means retweeting or sending it to a friend or a stranger! I only have 74 followers, but maybe by some stroke of luck I’ll find the next Riley or Jacob willing to give this organization a shot. Now the only thing we ask for is to be a good person who is passionate about esports, even if you are like me who started without a large amount of experience. Dm me on Discord or dm me on Twitter! #changestartshere

Reply · Report Post