sjearthquakes.com: What made you decide to pursue a career in Esports?

Alan Ortega: For the most part I’ve always been a person that pursues their passion, and this is something that I was really passionate about. I felt like it’s take a chance now or never do it and look back and regret it. The main purpose just mostly came from it being a passion, and knowing that I have what it takes for it to change my life.

SJEQ: What does it mean to you to be the first eMLS player for the Earthquakes?

AO: It means a lot. When I got the news I was super shocked. I was in disbelief I literally just didn’t believe it. It means a lot knowing that a long as the club is around I’ll always be associated with it as the first eMLS player for the Quakes. It’s a real honor.

SJEQ: In what ways do you use your celebrity to give back to the community?

AO: I think the main thing I like doing is giveaways on my stream. I’ll give away gift codes, I’ll give away video games, I’ll give away whatever I can give away. One of my favorite things to do are charity streams. Basically, you’ll stream for a long period of time and during that time people are donating to whatever charity that you want them to donate to. Last time it was to Make a Wish and we raised over $4,000, so that was pretty cool.

SJEQ: What is the most satisfying part of your work?

AO: The most satisfying part is honestly the interactions you get within your viewers, definitely building relationships and just knowing that a lot of them use my entertainment to get away from whatever harsh realities they’re facing at the moment.

SJEQ: What was it like being named an EA Gamechanger?

AO: That was awesome, that was amazing because I knew with that there was going to come a lot of opportunity. I get to fly out to Germany, I’ve never been to Europe, I’ve never been to Germany. That’s definitely something that I just never imagined and when the opportunity presented itself, it was more than just a jaw dropping experience.

SJEQ: What will you be doing on your trip in Germany?

AO: It’s called the EA FIFA 19 Capture event, so basically EA is going to have stations for us to record and play FIFA 19. It’ll be me and a bunch of other people that kind of do the same stuff. We’ll be allowed to upload and promote the game before it comes out, and just upload videos to our YouTube. So it’s good for them and it’s good for the content creators.

SJEQ: In your opinion, what is the best part of being in the eMLS community?

AO: The best part I would say is the support. I was honestly shocked by how many people that were Quakes fans that jumped on the eMLS wagon and they were like ‘We are totally for this and we will support you’ and stuff like that. I remember when I first was announced I got a lot of tweets from Earthquakes fans supporting me and wishing me the best, people coming into my stream and saying things like they hope the best for me and that was really satisfying to get their support.

SJEQ: Where do you see Esports as a whole going?

AO: I feel like it’s going to grow, I’ve heard that they’ve got big plans for the next season, I’m pretty excited about it. If it’s done correctly, which I’m sure it will be, I feel like it could grow into something. I think that Esports is a growing organization, and it being that we play soccer, the biggest worldwide sport, I feel like it has so much potential to grow into something super big.