LEADERBOARD

AUSTIN ESPINOZA

TRIBE GAMING

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO GAMING?

Moving back to my earlier experiences, it really started with competitive gaming. What I didn't know was esports at the time was just hardcore competitions in Halo, old school LAN style, just hook up your your Xbox with 15 other players in a warehouse and go for it. I wasn't old enough to really be part of that culture, but I was on the periphery of older cousins who played and hosted matches, so that's really what sparked my passion and interest for gaming and especially competitive gaming. As I got older, I had built my first computer in eighth grade and was starting to play more games competitively and I realized that I might be able to take this crazy passion and make a career out of it. It took me a while to understand that and obviously to convince my parents, but after a certain point, I was still absorbing every piece of content that Riot Games was putting out, reading every single esports article I could find, watching every video on social media that I couldn't ignore. I think I got lucky too, because I was growing up at the same time as these larger organizations were maturing and hiring more people, so it was easier for me to rationalize it as a viable option.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON THESE DAYS?

After my time as President of Longhorn Gaming, I moved to Tribe Gaming. When I first started here, I worked closely with Michael Valore, who has a really cool story himself, mostly on the accounts side of things. After a while, I shifted more towards content creation and saw the opportunity to build some cool things from scratch from IRL content to new YouTube channels to helping out our content creators. We've got people all over the world - in Germany, Bangladesh, Ukraine and of course here - all of whom were brought together through gaming and esports. And a big part of my job is to help them be successful as we continue to grow and scale.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN YOUR CAREER SO FAR?

My first reaction is that I don't feel like I've done anything super crazy, which is amazing considering how long I've been in gaming and esports. Maybe that's a good thing and will keep me focused and hungry in the future. If I had to pick something, I'd probably say that it's the inspiration I've given to a few other students when I was leading Longhorn Gaming. I spent five years as part of that organization and I met a lot of different people, but in my last year and a half as the president and advisor I felt like I was able to help guide more, younger students. I guess I didn't really realize it until after I graduated and had students come up to me and talk about how it had given them inspiration and an example of how they could also be successful in gaming as a profession. I remember when I first got to UT being scared and afraid to get outside of my shell, especially when it came to big events like Dreamhack. But as I met more people and learned more about the category, I got a lot more confident. That's something I always appreciated when I was younger, having more seasoned professionals share their experiences and help guide me, so I want to make sure I'm always doing that in my career.

WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST INSPIRING IN GAMING TODAY?

Seeing young people find something that they really love and sticking with it beyond a hobby for fun. The other day I posted a question wanting to hear from those aspiring to work in eports and a highschool student who had already spent a few years doing that contacted me. I found that really inspiring. That someone so young was still getting scrappy and finding a way to learn about the industry. He had even mentioned that his current living situation made it difficult to continue doing so, but he was determined and wouldn't let that stop him. Those are the stories that inspire me and make me think how cool and different the world is and how everyone's making it in their own way and through their own path.

WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST CHALLENGING IN GAMING TODAY?

Probably the other side of the same coin. While it is inspiring to see so much uncharted territory and so many young, new faces in gaming it's equally challenging because there isn't a roadmap and everything feels like it has to be built from scratch. Everyone's learning at the same time and there isn't a base or foundation that you can build from. Even at Tribe Gaming, one of the largest esports organizations in the world, we're having to develop infrastructure and take calculated gambles that you might not have to take in other industries. Again, there's a big part of that that's exciting but there are definitely days when you look across gaming and feel like everyone's running into the same issues on their own and at some point this will all be standardized so you can spend the majority of your time on true innovation and less on logistics.

WHERE IS GAMING GOING?

It might not sound revolutionary, but I think VR and AR will be the standard household entertainment devices in the next 10 years. Right now, they're definitely more gimmicky and in early stages, but given what they're capable of, or will be in the near future, I feel like they will go beyond gaming and into education and other entertainment. What's great about gaming and VR is that every game already has a virtual world that's been created for its characters compared to other industries that would have to create entirely new virtual spaces to supplement their content. Gaming might lead the way given its virtual accessibility and then if others see how great it is, you could see a boom afterwards.

WHAT'S YOUR GAMERTAG AND WHY?

This one's simple. My gamertag is AceEspy. It's a shortened version of my last name combined with my initials. My dad had a PlayStation and his tag was "A_ESPY" so at first I thought about taking it, but then felt like I needed something at least a little original so I changed it to ACE (my initials) and then kept the last part as a nod to him.