I’ve been a competitive gamer since the age of 11, but for over a decade, I only played one game franchise: Tribes.

It was not until the release of Quake Live many years later that I began to learn that esports was already a broad phenomena, with many communities, and sub-communities, within. Quake hooked me, but in reality I wasn’t hooked just on Quake, I was hooked on the concept of esports itself.

Together with a couple friends, I embarked to build a “shoutcasting” entity to cover the Quake Live esports scene (@QuakeLive_TV) and host fun events for the competitive Quake community. We were not good commentators, nor were we even good at the game, but we wanted to make a splash, and were willing to put in the effort.

We were gearing up to launch QL.tv and start regularly live streaming on Ustream, which had just barely launched the year before (2007, the same year that Justin.tv and Livestream launched). This was my first real foray into content creation, internet marketing, and social media.

I had only heard of the names djWHEAT, Slasher, and SirScoots in legends at the time. I think I had heard Marcus’ voice in frag videos and once or twice when I was able to find clips of CGS on DirectTV, but I really didn’t know much about who these guys were. But when I heard about their new show LiveOnThree, I knew that it could be a gateway the the wider esports industry.

So I listened, and I learned from these three veritable esports OGs. All of them had been doing this for nearly a decade or more. Mind you, depending on how you count it, modern “esports’ was only really a decade old at this time.

We were getting close to launching QL.tv, and after listening to a few shows, I decided to call in and pitch our tiny little shoutcasting org’s debut stream. It was shameless self promotion no doubt, but it was also clear that we had the passion, and I think were in it for the right reasons. We were not shunned by these Quake and esports veterans. Instead, they supported us.

This was such a crazy moment for me. These guys were so much more experienced and connected than me, but they gave me the time of the day.

Later, I messaged Marcus and Rod on IRC to see if we could get them to actually shoutcast for our first broadcast. Much to my surprise, they agreed to join us for our debut. This put us on the map and gave us the opportunity to make a name for ourselves. My mind was blown.

I kept tuning in to every episode of @LiveOnThree (side note: man I miss my old routine of watching 2–3 live esports events and Lo3 simultaneously every Sunday), kept calling in when they’d take my call, kept networking with Lo3 and the audience in chat that tuned in every week.

Eventually, the guys that I had worked on QL.tv with had the idea to create a new platform called Games Cast TV (@GamesCast), with the goal of aggregating ALL live esports broadcasts into one website. Esports was 1/1000th the size it is today, but it was still impossible to know what to watch and when.

Games Cast TV’s promo video

We set forth on building this GamesCast with the Lo3 guys as one of our first, marquee partners and somehow, over the course of 6 months, managed to strike agreements with almost everyone who was producing live esports broadcasts at the time. It was the Lo3 guys that introduced me to damn near everyone. Ok, I did shitload of legwork and sent dozens of of cold emails to, but the help the Lo3 team gave me was invaluable.

In the midst of launching GamesCast, @djWHEAT announced that @LiveOnThree would broadcast a fighting game event called Devastation.

I saw that my friends @ajpotato214 and @theGunrun (both of whom were already GamesCast partners) volunteered to help Lo3 run the broadcast. So… why couldn’t I?

I called Marcus that same day and offered to volunteer. He accepted.

Volunteering at Devastation 2009 was the first major step I took in my path towards a career in esports. I met and became friends with many in the fighting game community (FGC). I solidified my relationship with the Lo3 core team. My personal brand changed from just that of a fan, to someone who actually gets shit done.

This was also my first real test as a marketing/promotions/social media guy, too. Actually, my entire job at the event was to help promote the stream. @Slasher was my mentor in this. Social media marketing wasn’t even a thing yet, but here we were, cracking away at it, spamming every relevant forum, tweeting like crazy, begging for RTs, and hyping up the chat. It was honest work.

Left to right: me, AJ, Gunrun, Marcus, Scoots, Slasher

It was a blast, one of the high points of my burgeoning interest in esports.

Flash forward to 2010 early. We had launched @GamesCast, and it actually worked. It was actually good (obviously, I had to call in to Lo3 again to shamelessly promote GamesCast as well). We didn’t have crazy traffic or anything, but hard core esports fans appreciated it for what it was. I was over the moon. I worked harder on GamesCast than I did studying during my junior and senior years at college.

Then, @djWHEAT announces that @LiveOnThree was set to produce the WCG 2010 Los Angeles qualifier.

I had a backpacking trip scheduled that ended the day before the WCG started and never committed to going because of it. But, in the last possible moment, I made the decision that I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I called Marcus, and the next day I took my parents’ minivan and drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles to volunteer at my second ever esports event, again doing promotion and social media with Rod.

It was great. It was my first real exposure to StarCraft 2 AND League of Legends (both in beta at the time). I remember when the League portion came on, our viewership skyrocketed to 16,000 concurrent viewers. This was fucking unfathomable at the time. Holy shit. Our esports stream was exploding. No… esports itself was exploding. And I was playing my part.

I met several more people at that WCG who would go on to become some of my closest friends: @SeltzerPlease, @EsportsTorcH, @RivingtonThe3rd, and many more.