If you’ve seen any of the stunning images shot of the Overwatch League over the last two years, the chances are it was shot by Robert Paul.

Having worked in esports photography for many years now, Rob Paul has become one of the most prolific and respected photographers in the esports industry. Back in June, I sat down at Simmzy’s across from the Blizzard Arena to chat with Rob about how he got to where he is now, and find out where he started.

You wouldn’t know it from his photos, but Rob has no formal training in photography and never intended to wind up in the industry. “I spent ten years in IT. I screwed up, I didn’t get an engineering job out of college and wound up in IT, which is not the worst thing. But after 10 years I was miserable. I was in a really bad place, and I knew that another IT job just wasn’t going to make me happy. It may take the pressure of the current job off me, but I knew I wanted to do something different.”

Alright, story time… because as much as this seems like a “just stand there and point your camera at the thing” shot, I almost didn’t capture a usable trophy hoist at all. https://t.co/mMpfJb4Gsq — Robert Paul (@tempusrob) August 20, 2019

“I’ve always had a passing interest in photography,” he told me, between bites of a fish sandwich. “We had a little camera growing up, but we didn’t know anything about photography. We just snapped photos here and there.”

“In college, I had a roommate with a nice point and shoot that had manual controls. I toyed around with that here and there and learned a little bit about the basics. I got a point and shoot of my own, and continued to learn super basic stuff. Then in 2011, my friends and I were out of college, starting to get good jobs, had disposable income… They started to buy cameras and I was kind of looking at their photos and being like, ‘mm, I could do better than that. I want one too.’”

It ended up being fortuitous timing. “So I bought a camera, and that was right around the time I was going to more and more fighting game tournaments. Just local stuff in New Jersey, and I was getting my ass kicked.”

However, Rob’s love of video games goes far back, well before he ever got into tournaments or esports. “My earliest memories are playing on the Commodore 64 with my dad. I played Quake and I played Counter-Strike, but it was Team Fortress 2 that got me into competitive gaming. I played some Street Fighter and some fighting games [too].” These days, he mostly plays shooters, particularly Destiny 2. “I wish I was better at fighting games, but my brain doesn’t work the way a fighting game brain is supposed to work. I find shooters much easier to dive into.”

Back in 2011, when Rob started attending more fighting game tournaments, he struggled to keep up with the competition. “I didn’t have the mindset to get better. I was like, ‘I really like these events, I really like the community, how else can I get myself in the door here.’” Rob’s recently acquired penchant for photography came into play. “I just kind of starting taking pictures at these little locals in Jersey. The owner of the store, Local Battles, really liked what I was doing. He got me to come in for other events that the store was doing. Word got around to to other event organisers in New Jersey. I spent a lot of time just going to events myself, just to go to and take pictures for the hell of it. That just kind of spiraled into more and more opportunities and bigger and better gigs.”

“One of the other things about Overwatch League being long term … is that I can kind of mess around and see what works and what doesn’t. Two stages in, we’ve got that core set of images … There’s a lot of opportunities to shoot stuff that I wouldn’t be able to [try] on a weekend gig.”

A few years on, the photography gigs started getting more stable and more frequent. “Into 2015, I was getting repeat clients, I was getting more work and if I wanted to do more photography, I had to step away form the full-time job. So I did the math, realised I can bank enough money and I have enough clients lined up for 2016 that I can make it through the year and see what happens. And if it doesn’t work, I can go and get another job. That was my window, and I knew if I didn’t take it, I would regret it for the rest of my life. So I quit my job end of 2015 and started full-time photography in 2016. And it’s been doing pretty well ever since.”

Eight years on from when he first started, Rob has now built a sizable portfolio of photos, working for multiple clients and tournament organisers across a wealth of different games. During the Overwatch League Inaugural Season alone, Rob delivered 9000 photos to Blizzard, only a fraction of which end up being used online and in marketing material.

Although he’s now most well-known for his work on the Overwatch League, Rob has managed to fit in several other tournaments across the last few years as well. “I still love fighting game tournaments. There’s a certain energy that they have that’s not like anything else. You go to an ESL One or an IEM or an Overwatch League, most of the people there are spectators. They might play the game, they might play it well, they might even play it semi-competitively, but they’re spectators. At a fighting game event, most of the people there are in the tournament. They have a stake in the outcome of the tournaments, they have a stake in the event itself, as a competitor. That just creates something that you don’t really get anywhere else.”

That being said, working so consistently on the Overwatch League has given him an experience he’s not able to get when working on a one-off event. “The broadcast is so structured that I can shoot Overwatch League on autopilot at this point. I have the settings on my camera dialed into specific clicks on my camera. I can move from spot to spot unconsciously, unconsciously change the settings on my camera, be ready to go.”

“I used to always really think I needed to be a fly on the wall and not interact with what was going on around me. Just be neutral and stay away from everything. But now, I can poke my head in the dugout and just get a sense of the room – can I go in at half time and take photos? Sometimes they’ll welcome me in.They know that I’m gonna make them look good. The players having that level of comfort around me makes things a lot easier and a lot more interesting.”

I did the math, realised I can bank enough money and I have enough clients lined up for 2016 that I can make it through the year and see what happens. And if it doesn’t work, I can go and get another job. That was my window, and I knew if I didn’t take it, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

“One of the other things about Overwatch League being long term – not even year-over-year but just within the year itself – is that I can kind of mess around and see what works and what doesn’t. Two stages in, we’ve got that core set of images. If we need a photo of a player sitting at a computer, we’ve got that. I don’t need to shoot that again. So walk-ins, I can try something a little different. During interviews, I can try something a little different. There’s a lot of opportunities to shoot stuff that I wouldn’t be able to [try] on a weekend gig.”

Although Rob can shoot the Blizzard Arena with ease after two years, he also feels there’s a lot that could be done for other esports events to benefit both him as the photographer and the general aesthetics as a whole. “A lot of it comes down to lighting,” he said. “Esports is still in a weird place where I don’t know who is making these lighting designs, but … the focus [is] on ‘it needs to be cool’ and that sense of cool is still that weird early 2000s gamer-nerd chic of bold colours and a really dark room.”

“I get that these players are playing – they’re on stage, they don’t want super bright lights shining in their faces. But still to this day, I just shoot so many events where the stage, the venue and the lighting are working against me, and the work I do is in spite of the event instead of because of it. The lighting just needs to be better. Stage access needs to be thought about in a way that isn’t just cool, but makes sense for your broadcast and your photographers.”

After two seasons of shooting the Overwatch League, I asked Rob if he has a favourite shot. He gave the answer I suspected: a shot taken of the London Spitfire after their victory at the 2018 Overwatch League Inaugural Season Grand Finals. “I think it was Birdring, on somebody’s shoulder. That’s my stand-out photo from last year, easily.”

“I’ll be the first to admit that some of my shots are pure luck,” he said with a smile. “Something like the Barclays shot [of Birdring] is a little of both. The shot of Birdring with his hands… I was framing that shot, but I wasn’t anticipating him pumping his fists. And if you see videos of him doing it, it’s so fast.”

With the Grand Finals of the 2019 Overwatch League Season coming up soon, Rob will have another opportunity this year to catch a victory shot that is equally magical. You can contact Rob Paul on Twitter, his website or at robert@rmpaul.com.

Featured image by Francisco Suarez

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