Interview with the CEO of CLG: Helen Georgallidis

Can you walk us through your journey in this field? What sort of experiences have you gotten out of it, any favorite memories or specific moments that have impacted you?

Helen: Well, I remember when George hit 20,000 viewers and he was streaming. He said "mom, 20k people are watching me." I was "What? What are you doing that 20k people want to watch you?" And that was the first time I saw him streaming and being "entertaining." I thought "I hope none of my friends from work ever ask me what my kid does for a living." He was such a quiet and well-mannered guy and he got a reputation for being a "rager." Some days I would go in the basement and really yell at him. It wasn't until his grand-parents came over and told him they didn't like his cussing and that they wanted him to be a better role model, that he started to make changes to his "style."

Getting more involved with CLG and subsequently doing business in the eSports side of the industry, was there anything that took you by surprise? Anything different than what you expected coming into this?

Transparency builds trust. While doing business in eSports, companies, players and organisations closely guard contacts, plans, and information and it becomes hard to build this trust. Generally, many people I've dealt with are considerably younger than the management teams that run schools or Boards of Education. At times, this creates difficulties, as generally accepted business practices, and protocols are not in place or ignored and this leads to misunderstandings. I've learned to anticipate this and my approach is to clearly define what I expect from others and what others can expect from me in return.