The Women of Esports Engine Ohio
IN CAREER SPOTLIGHT, WE INTERVIEW WOMEN PROFESSIONALS IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY WHO HAVE FORGED CAREERS IN GAMING IN ORDER TO SHOW THE MANY WAYS ONE CAN HAVE A CAREER WITHIN THIS INDUSTRY.
This week, we do something a little different and give you a mash-up interview that features eight women from Esports Engine Ohio. Esports Engine works with publishers, broadcasters, brands, leagues and teams to provide turn-key esports technology and service solutions. They support clients with esports ecosystem design, live event production, broadcast technology, and competition operations. Esports Engine also has teams based in Burbank and London.
Haley Broadway, Associate Manager, Event Logistics
Haley Broadway, Associate Manager, Event Logistics
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
My role here at Esports Engine is to coordinate and execute logistics for each event. At each event, I coordinate logistics such as transportation, lodging, catering, and security.
What skills do you use most in your job?
The main skill that I use every day is multitasking. In event planning everything is fast-paced, and you are doing ten things at once. You must be good at multitasking to be good at planning events.
What do you think is special about esports events versus other live-entertainment events?
I firmly believe that Esports can create the most amazing events top to bottom. Esports has something that no one has the ability to do, and that is to create outstanding events. The lightning, staging, production is amazing to see. That is what will set esports above live entertainment.
Adriana Carmona, Manager, Business Development
Follow Adriana:
Twitter: @Catdriana
Adriana Carmona, A.K.A. Cat, Manager, Business Development
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
My main responsibilities include Project Management and Client Relations. I’m one of the leads in charge of managing daily/weekly client calls, ensuring all of their needs are being met as well as leading meetings with them. I’m responsible for ensuring a project is executed successfully and on time. I’ll work with my team to ensure we hit our goals and nothing is missed. At the highest level, my team is the glue that connects all of the specialized verticals to create a fantastic product for our clients.
How did you find your way to working in esports?
I started in Gears of War, running online tournaments with my friends! I’d create brackets and get friends to referee matches and stream, putting in prizing myself or from community donations. I then started helping at grassroots live events with Hypefestation, where I met the then lead esports developer for Gears of War, Jack Felling, who paved the way for a live circuit partnership with MLG (Major League Gaming). My community knowledge and relationships, as well as my experience managing events and tournaments, earned me a full-time job at MLG as the lead for Gears of War in the League Operations department. I later transitioned to project management and moved with my co-workers as a founding member of Esports Engine.
What advice do you have for young women who may want to forge careers in esports?
Let your voice be heard and be strong. This might be a male-dominated industry, but other women are here to support you. I’m lucky to have such a wonderful team of women at my side to help push me up in the face of adversity. Never let anyone interrupt you when you’re speaking, always let yourself be heard and push for what you want.
Hollie Klem, Logistics Manager
Hollie Klem, Logistics Manager
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
I manage events and in-studio logistics across many on-location venues and in-studio broadcasts, including venue operations, requests for proposal, venue surveys and selections, security, travel, catering, COVID-19 protocols, and scheduling. I also contract event vendors for anything from branding needs to interactive activations. Basically, I work with the rest of my team at Esports Engine to ensure everything during a broadcast or a live event stays on track and runs smoothly.
What do you think is special about esports events versus other live-entertainment events? What do you think is similar?
Similar: The team rivalry and the fans’ loyalty. Some of these fans are as die-hard as the ones you see at the Super Bowl! I have seen fans dress up in crazy outfits, do silly dances, and chant till they lose their voice to support the teams they love, and I, for one, am here for it!
Special: Activations at gaming events are worlds cooler than at most live events I attended. Esports events have all these immersive interactions that fans can bounce back and forth from while simultaneously watching matches. In contrast, the majority of traditional sporting events I have been to have only offered a few merch booths and various food kiosks.
What advice do you have for young women who may want to forge careers in esports?
If you are just starting out, volunteer. If you can manage it, always have your day job and a side position that is aligned with your ultimate career goal. Try everything that interests you in that field. You will develop relationships and skills along the way that are priceless and very much sought after when it is time to interview for your dream job.
What can we as fans and consumers of esports and the gaming industry do to support women in esports?
I think the key to any of these fields is collaboration. Women gamers are all over. If you are going to a gaming event, reach out to some of your female friends and see if they would like to join. If you work in merchandising, reach out to some females in the field and ask what apparel they would like to wear if it was available. Hire female casters. Include more non-sexualized female representation in games. I think the esports industry has made great strides in all of these fields, and I look forward to continuing to see this trend grow.
Arica Kress, Head of Strategic Partnerships
Arica Kress, Head of Strategic Partnerships
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
As Head of Strategic Partnerships, I lead client communications internally and externally while working with Business Development, driving revenue and Clients Operations on solution-oriented client support and fulfillment for Esports Engine.
How did you find your way to working in esports?
I transitioned into a full-time role in esports after years of working in traditional sports. While I was the Vice President of Marketing & Communications for the Columbus Crew, I launched the esports platform for the team. It has been great to move into working in esports full-time and use the experienced I gained from the sports industry to transfer into esports.
What advice do you have for young women who may want to forge careers in esports?
My advice for any woman who wants a career in any industry is to not let anything stop you and that you can do it even if that means blazing your own trail. As far as esports, there are a lot of opportunities, and you would be surprised how many women are already working throughout the industry. We very much support each other and hope to continue to see the number of women throughout the industry grow in all roles in esports, including competitive players, people behind the scenes, and as broadcast talent as well.
What can we as fans and consumers of esports and the gaming industry do to support women in esports?
Create a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone. It is important that we all realize that diversity will only continue to improve everything we are doing.
Nef, Competition Operations Manager
Nef, Competition Operations Manager
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
I am on the Competitive Operations Team, myself and my team’s responsibilities depend on what our clients need from us, so we wear many hats. Anything from building their competitive product from start to finish to supporting the competition aspects of an event during its live broadcast.
How did you find your way to working in esports?
I was definitely the kid in the arcade with a roll of quarters waiting for my turn to beat the person running Tekken and taking huge pride in being the only female to beat the guy on the sticks. However, the real path that led me to a career in esports started from the Xbox Dashboard. The Xbox360 used to have a feature on their Dashboard called Xbox Spotlight, it would highlight gamers across Xbox I think on a weekly or monthly basis. I would typically just glance over it but one day, they highlighted a female called “Chickamungus”, it was the first time since I had my Xbox that they highlighted a female (and the only female I ever saw in the Spotlight).
In her interview, she mentioned wanting to be a Frag Doll and I immediately went into research mode to find out who/what the Frag Dolls were. This led me to the PMS Clan and in joining that, I found a community of female competitive and casual gamers. Playing with them helped lead me to other competitive players within the Gears of War community, which was the competitive shooter I was playing at the time. This eventually led me into streaming on Twitch where a friend who goes by “Stupendous” asked me to stream a tournament for him.
Streaming Gears of War tournaments for him and various other groups, led me into being a ref for online tournaments, which transitioned into LAN work. Working LAN events allowed me to meet and impress all the “right” people, giving me the confidence to apply for a full-time job in esports.
Do you game personally? If so, what are your favorite games?
I do, my favorite games are the Gears of War series (I have a tattoo for the game), the Assassin’s Creed series, Apex Legends, Overwatch, Splinter Cell and the Watch Dog series.
What can we as fans and consumers of esports and the gaming industry do to support women in esports?
Stop treating women like we’re these fragile, skilless creatures who can’t handle being on teams with men, whether it’s on a competitive team or in the office. Start making inclusion the norm and not the exception.
Women continuously have to fight harder to prove their worth and be seen as equals, to just be heard. When assumptions stop being made based on a person’s gender instead of their merit, I believe the support will feel more organic and not performative.
What do you wish for the future of women in esports?
To have our voices consistently heard, for our skill, worth ethic, and intelligence to be recognized for the work that we do and not because we’ve had to “perform” to just be invited into the room
Tori Lynch, Global Head of Finance
Tori Lynch, Global Head of Finance
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
My job is to manage the processes and procedures surrounding our operational and event finance. In short, what we spend to operate our business, managing the revenue from our clients to ensure operational solvency, as well as planning and budgeting for client broadcasts and live events. Finance processes touch every section of the business, from the minutia around paying rent and utilities for our studio and office space, to procuring and paying for talent in a live broadcast, to tracking the overall costs associated with a live open tournament with main stage and thousands of spectators.
What skills do you use most in your job?
Organization and communication. There are many moving parts to make the business function as well as provide the best quality support to our clients, which requires my team and I to be incredibly organized and efficient while also constantly communicating cross-functionally with every department in our organization. Our finance team is also looked to as experts in the costing and analysis of esports events, that our clients rely on our expertise and candor in communicating costs so that they can plan and budget for the most exciting programming for their fans.
What advice do you have for young women who may want to forge careers in esports?
Become an expert at two things: the thing you are good at and the thing you are passionate about. Most people think you have to become a "sports management" major or tailor your schooling around a very specific profession you want to work in. And while sure, yes that is important if you are going to become a doctor, when it comes to working in esports, we need all types of educational backgrounds.
Find what you are good at - finance, legal, organizational development, entrepreneurship, broadcasting, etc. and get relevant work experience and education in that field. Additionally, find your passion - esports, game development, community, social etc. and become the expert in your given passion. That way, when the opportunity arises, you will not just be the qualified accountant applying for the job, you will be the qualified accountant that has attended esports events and knows the ins and outs of Call of Duty that will set you apart from other candidates.
I never set out to work in esports. However, I had work experience and educational background in finance and was incredibly passionate about live event experiences of all kinds and that is what set me apart.
What do you wish for the future of women in esports?
Ultimately, I wish the same thing for women in esports as I wish for women in every industry.
That we share equal representation within the industry.
That we are looked at as value adds to a company and that our unique experiences are recognized and capitalized to grow and evolve our industry.
When we have more representation and begin to make up a more significant percentage of the industry, eventually, we will not need to have these types of qualifying terms associated with our identities. I wish at that point, we are just considered esports experts, no longer women in esports or women doctors, women lawyers, or women lawmakers.
Alisa Prohn, Accounting Specialist
Alisa Prohn, Accounting Specialist
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
As an accounting specialist, I work in the finance department performing traditional accounting activities as well as handling event budgets.
What do you think is special about esports events versus other live-entertainment events? What do you think is similar?
Esports and other events create an excitement and energy that is unable to replicate outside of a live setting. In my opinion, Esports events are special because audience members can also be gamers, and even aspire to someday be the ones on the stage. The events motivate young and amateur players to keep playing and improving.
Do you game personally? If so, what are your favorite games?
I’m addicted to playing Zombies mode on Call of Duty!
What can we as fans and consumers of esports and the gaming industry do to support women in esports?
I would encourage women as consumers to try playing games that they would normally consider masculine. You never know what you may get hooked on! The more women players and fans there are, the more the industry will begin to reflect that shift.
Ash Sweet, Associate Manager, Event Logistics
Ash Sweet, Associate Manager, Event Logistics
What does your job at Esports Engine entail? What are your main responsibilities?
The planning and execution of live events. From sourcing and procurement of event venues and vendors, to assembling catering and activations on site.
What skills do you use most in your job?
In 2020 and now, the most beneficial skill has been relationship-building. While there has not been a large amount of business to work with the normal parties on, staying in touch and looking out for one another has been crucial. Whether that is helping share new clean certifications of partner venues, writing recommendations for suppliers who are moving on to new roles, or sharing a laugh over the blessings we still have, it has been important to keep a finger on the pulse of those in the industry in an attempt to come back stronger than ever.
What can we as fans and consumers of esports and the gaming industry do to support women in esports?
This can come from including them at the starting line. When putting together teams for games or administrative purposes, be sure that there is representation of women and all demographics. Having a more diverse group of people leads to more inclusion in other places and throughout the process.
What do you wish for the future of women in esports?
I hope that as we progress, women in esports experience more inclusion and safety in personal and professional environments. Whether it be casual gameplay or working the height of an event, the more they feel safe and included in the space the more they will be able to accomplish.
To learn more about Esports Engine, check out their website at https://www.esportsengine.gg/.
You can also follow Esports Engine:
Twitter: @EsportsEng
Instagram: @EsportsEng
LinkedIn: Esports Engine
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