After the first few projects started to complete, the opportunities we had were massive and somewhat never ending. It was truly a dream come true. Not only were we creating stories about our own teams and players, but we were also working with external companies to tell their stories as well. This opened up a whole new avenue of creativity and an interesting business opportunity.

At the time I personally was not very business minded. I simply wanted to make cool art that made myself and the fans experience something they would not get anywhere else. Steve and Victor, on the other hand, realized the opportunity in the space. If we could grow a production company alongside Team Liquid that could service both TL and external clients, we could develop a whole new business unit. It was a brand new concept to me, but the idea of building an entirely new entity, something that I was a part of from the beginning, inspired and motivated me.

Luckily for 1UP, Team Liquid was just about to hire one of my best friends in Mike Milanov. Bringing Mike on opened up a crazy collection of potential projects. He would focus on the business side while the creatives handled creative. Luckily he also understood what the community wanted to see from esports content. It allowed us to work in somewhat of a harmony with sales and creative. Something that is normally very difficult to find at most companies.

We started to develop 1UP Studios, and the projects kept rolling in. Week after week our inboxes filled with new clients and new opportunities. Friends from the industry were excited to work with the team that made Rebirth, the team that was part of the production value movement that began in the LCS and spread across multiple esports titles.