My job sent me to London to talk about esports

kierpanda

United States757 Posts

January 28 2018 20:22 GMT

Hi TL!
How are you?

I'm going to try to post more often (aka more than once in 2 years) because I've missed you guys.
Some of you may know that I've started working in esports -- like, officially working in esports.... Like my title actually has the word "esports" in it and I report into a vertical that is esports related. #BIGESPORTSMONEY

I wanted to share my experience because I hope it will help shed some light on the growing industry of esports. I'm happy to answer any questions along the way as well. Also I get to eat a lot of food so I will post that here. Honestly, I know you guys are realllyyy only here for the food porn. Don't lie to me.

Anyway, on my 2nd week of work, my job sent me to London.
We have a UK office and I was sent to help plan esports for the year. We met with external partners who will help us ESPORTS!

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I obviously can't go into details about what we're doing, who I met with, etc...
But more importantly, I got sent to London for a week and I spent a lot of time exploring and eating.

I also was insanely unprepared because I'm not used to "cold" temperatures.
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I'M FROM THE CALIFORNIA BAY AREA. I DON'T KNOW WHAT ANYTHING BELOW 50 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT FEELS LIKE! T___T;;;;;;;
ergo, I don't have ANY cold-weather clothes! My UK colleagues made fun of me

I haven't been to London in a super long time, so I was kind of anxious about going.
I didn't do any touristy stuff since that's really not my thing. I just ate a lot and drank tea:

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I didn't have a chance to do proper high tea. ._. maybe next time.

I was also INSANELY jet lagged from the 9.5 hr flight over. :'( I averaged about 2 - 4 hrs of sleep per night for the entire week. Thank goodness for coffee.

Anyway, here's some more pictures:

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I ordered fish n chips from room service because I was so exhausted from the flight that I didn't want to go out T_T

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SPIIIIIICE. I don't know what this place is, but I always lulz about spice

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OMFG HARRY POTTER T___T

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My hotel was in soho, so I wandered around the shops. Liberty looked hella cool but like bougie af. I got some cookies there lol

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a healthy-ish breakfast!

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I also had a latte and a "detox lemonade" with that breakfast... drinking anything with spirulina and the label "detox" on it seemed fitting for a californian.

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the next day I just ordered room service breakfast because I was worried I wouldn't have enough time to go out and get breakfast before I had to go to my 9am meeting. T_T It was super OK.

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OK...so I went to a store called Choccywoccydoodah. lololol eveyrthing is chocolate there. Me and meru binged watched choccywoccydoodah so it will always hold a special place in our hearts. or something like that. ayyyyy

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I spent a lot of time in my hotel just watching esports on my laptop lolol. since I was in GMT, I could watch EULCS AT A NORMAL FREAKIN TIME.

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I also split my time between watching EULCS and eleague. omfg eleague is insane.
I'm terrible at CS:GO... maybe one day watching all this CS:GO will let me learn and get better through osmosis. it totally works like that, right? yes.

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I couldn't sleep because of jetlag... so I watched NALCS too. D:

I did end up going to Harrods and spending entirely too much!
Their market is crazy. T_T I want one.

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I went to Steakhouse at Harrods. You basically go up to a counter and pick your meat.
I wasn't super hungry, so i got the tiniest piece of wagyu possible... like you're supose to have 2oz and I was "i'm not super hungry can I just get less than that?" The butcher was super nice and cut me a 1.6oz piece. it was pretty gewwwwd!

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UNICORN CAKE!

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T___T the seafood. omg i could live in that market place.

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meat meat meat meat meat

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All kinds of breads and pastries!

I took way more pictures of Harrods but I am I too lazy to upload the rest. :') I posted them to my instagram and twitter though!

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I had a coffee flight at a place called Kaffiene! YAY COFFEE

Ok, that's all the pictures I have for now.
When I go on my next adventure, I'll post more. :D 'Till next time! <3

UNRELATED:
I wanted to get a TL flag for my desk at work. T_T But Jinx is out of stock. Where else can I buy a flag?

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

January 29 2018 08:52 GMT

Nice little adventure to the best place on earth, England :D

Glad to see you try to bring more ESPORTS stuff to England, we have alot of stuff going on but not to much of it is main stream, hope your meeting is to bring some big events here

i heard we might be getting the next CSGO major which would be great.

You seemed to have a huge mix of food and alot of tea which is pretty much nailing everything about England!

Deleuze

United Kingdom2102 Posts

January 29 2018 13:30 GMT

Looks awesome - coincidentally, yesterday I heard about an artist who did a 'covert' residency at Harrods as a fishmonger.

Basically, he left art school but didn't score a big residency, so ended up working as a fishmonger at Harrods. He turned the whole counter into an exhibition space and created performance acts with other fishmongers.

He now he runs the Centre for Innovative and Radical Fishmongery:

http://www.cirf.org.uk/

DeNikSSB

United States135 Posts

January 29 2018 16:16 GMT

I think you can get TL flags off of Amazon, I could be wrong though. At least, it's where I got my TL hoodie.

FuDDx

United States5018 Posts

January 29 2018 16:58 GMT

Its amazing to travel more so with Esports!!!

Thank you for sharing the pictures makes me want to go back!

Ive been lucky to travel a bit and have done a few gaming events. I would love to get to do more!! If you know anyone that needs a balloon guy or a team of balloon people let me know!!

Bagration

United States18282 Posts

January 29 2018 21:09 GMT

That's awesome - how did you manage to get a career in eSports? The closest I've come is providing corporate clients advice on potential eSports acquisitions (e.g. leagues, teams, player sponsorships), but it was a very one-off scenario.

DSK

England1110 Posts

January 29 2018 21:51 GMT

On January 29 2018 22:30 Deleuze wrote:
Looks awesome - coincidentally, yesterday I heard about an artist who did a 'covert' residency at Harrods as a fishmonger.

Basically, he left art school but didn't score a big residency, so ended up working as a fishmonger at Harrods. He turned the whole counter into an exhibition space and created performance acts with other fishmongers.

He now he runs the Centre for Innovative and Radical Fishmongery:

http://www.cirf.org.uk/

Oh wow that is fantastic story!.

OT: Hope you enjoyed your stay in our humble squat of land, and you didn't find it too stressful. Some people (even Brits themselves) find London a difficult and sometimes forboding place. Hopefully we treated you well.

Also yeah, sometimes it gets cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!.

[DUF]MethodMan

Germany1716 Posts

January 30 2018 05:46 GMT

Nice pictures. English food ain't half bad most of the time. That weather tho. You should try clubbing next time you're in London. The English know music and how to (get shitfaced) party.

lichter

1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts

January 30 2018 06:56 GMT

MORE MEAT

kierpanda

United States757 Posts

January 30 2018 07:14 GMT

#10

On January 30 2018 06:09 Bagration wrote:
That's awesome - how did you manage to get a career in eSports? The closest I've come is providing corporate clients advice on potential eSports acquisitions (e.g. leagues, teams, player sponsorships), but it was a very one-off scenario.

I've worked in the gaming industry for 7+ years as a community manager and then as a marketing manager. At my last job, I was developing and executing marketing initiatives involving esports (tournament sponsorships / influencer marketing / etc.). We sponsored an NALCS team, so I managed to get some experience with working with a pro team.

I also spent around ~5 yrs working with the Collegiate StarLeague, so that helped a lot in my interviews.

My friend works at the company I work for now. He sent me the job posting and said, "hey, you like esports!". I applied and after multiple phone screens and on-sites, I got the offer.

I was told that they chose me over the other candidates because of my extensive knowledge of esports (watching streams pays off!!). The other candidates had years more experience than I did (12+ yrs vs my 7+ yrs), but the fact that I KNEW esports was the defining factor.

If you're looking to pursue a career in esports, now is a really good time. A lot of companies (especially non-endemic companies) are looking for people who know the esports scene/industry. There are a TON of traditional sports teams in the US who are branching out into esports -- the Golden State Warriors has an NALCS team, so they hired an esports manager. As more companies see the potential value in esports, they may start building out full scale teams just to support their esports marketing initiatives.

kierpanda

United States757 Posts

January 30 2018 07:18 GMT

#11

On January 30 2018 01:58 FuDDx wrote:
Its amazing to travel more so with Esports!!!

Thank you for sharing the pictures makes me want to go back!

Ive been lucky to travel a bit and have done a few gaming events. I would love to get to do more!! If you know anyone that needs a balloon guy or a team of balloon people let me know!!

OMG.
WAIT. were you at IEM Oakland? I'm pretty sure I walked by and was like "wait... WAIT.. balloons. I know this?!"

On January 30 2018 15:56 lichter wrote:
MORE MEAT

MEAT ISN'T CHEAP THO.

But here is some meat on sticks that I ate when Meru was visiting: