Esports Meta | A Nerd Street Podcast

In the first live-recorded podcast at Nerd Street's The Block, XSET's Erin Ashley Simon discusses the difficulties aspiring professionals face when entering the esports scene, and having the courage to be true to yourself and speak your mind on social media. Follow Erin: https://twitter.com/erinasimon Follow Jess: https://twitter.com/JessScharnagle

Zekken gives the recap of what happened on day one of the VCT Last Change Qualifiers, and what it is like to be a student while also maintaining a career as a professional VALORANT player. Follow Jess: https://twitter.com/JessScharnagle Follow zekken: https://twitter.com/zekkenVAL

Naori Mizuki, aka Samantha Timms spoke to me about how she got her start in her casting career. Then we talk about our predictions for Valorant Champions, and how VCT Game Changers is going. Follow Naori: https://twitter.com/NaoriMizuki Follow Jess: https://twitter.com/JessScharnagle

Jason Lake founded Complexity back in 2003. For the last two decades he has been the leader of one of North America's longest running and most prestigious esports orgs. After being acquired by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in 2017, Complexity has become an industry leader in physical health, mental health, posture and nutrition for esports players. On this episode we dive into the science, how esports has changed and why its important for not just the players but the industry at large to...

True Neutral is an esports organization based in Argentina best known for their Rocket League team. After winning RLCS X South America, True Neutral is moving up north to compete against NA teams for this upcoming season. We talk about that decision, winning NSG's Summer Champs, and the South American esports landscape as a whole.

Psalm's career has had plenty of ups and downs. From leaving a Dota 2 team only to watch them win The International the year later, to going pro in Heroes of the Storm just to have the league shutdown, to winning one of the single largest prize pools in esports history at the Fortnite World Cup, it's been a ride. On this show, he talks about how the journey has played out, what he would do differently if he could do it over and how the process works when the prize payout is in the seven...

Yannick "KOLER" Blanchette plays for DarkZero Esports' VALORANT team. Since the org picked up the roster competing under the name Kooky Koalas, the squad has put together a few impressive results. In just Stage 3, DarkZero has beaten FaZe while losing 2-1 to both XSET and TSM. On this show KOLER talks about Challengers Playoffs live during the lower bracket matchups on Thursday night. He makes his predictions for Berlin before we move on to talk about Summer Champs. NSG's upcoming VALORANT...

The Esports Meta goes in-depth on the business of esports. How orgs make money, why many operate at a loss and where the industry is heading going forward. Adam Fitch talks about how he broke into the world of esports reporting, the benefits and the hazards of joining an industry that's already a hobby and plenty more. Check out Adam's Dexerto portfolio and follow him on Twitter.

XSET's new roster, featuring a new in-game leader, has quickly made waves. Alongside Envy, 100 Thieves and Sentinels, XSET is the only team to qualify for all of NA's biggest VCT events in Masters 1, Challengers Finals 2 and Challengers Playoffs 3. But the first two times, they got bounced early. With the new IGL and new young gun in Zekken, fresh off an upset of Sentinels, XSET seeks out to make a true run with the team's eyes on Berlin. Full episode transcription below the dotted...

LJ Browne, the 19-year-old co-founder and Chief Gaming Officer of the Kansas City Pioneers, joins the show. We talk about the orgs impressive upsets over Immortals and Version1 in VALORANT's Stage 3 Challengers1, signing previous champions like Kronovi and Censor, and the orgs goal of potentially getting a spot in the Call of Duty League if it expands. We also talk about LJ's background, being a young founder, the orgs work in Kansas City and its mission of increasing diversity and inclusion...

TenZ is arguably VALORANT's best player following an MVP performance at VALORANT's Stage 2 Masters but he's also one of the game's biggest content creators. This show covers the recent changes in VALORANT, the growing content scene around the game and TenZ's wild few months which took him from a Cloud 9 streamer to a Sentinels pro locked into VALORANT's first World Championship in Fall. The full transcription of this episode is underneath the dotted...

In May, Respawn Entertainment announced Arena Mode, a 3v3 version of Apex Legends similar in style to the top FPS esports. On this show, XSET's Clane and Keni join to talk about Apex Legends Global Series, the creation of Arena Mode and why the battle royale version will likely stay the dominant form of Apex esports. We also talk about XSET, one of the fastest growing organizations in esports, Nerd Street Gamers' upcoming Summer Champs and more. Be sure to follow Clane and Keni on Twitch and...

Average Jonas' career has been anything but average. An accomplished opera singer, Jonas began creating parody songs based on video games. Hits like "You Don't Know Your Silver 4" and "Eco Maybe." He's also a damn good esports player and not just for content creators, he helped 100 Thieves Hiko become one of the best Sova players in the world and other pros have been known to check out his videos for tips and tricks to the challenging hero. After VALORANT's release, Average Jonas was laid...

The summer of 2011 proved to be formational for modern esports. Twitch is founded by Justin.TV in June, the first League of Legends Worlds happens in Sweden a few weeks later. The first edition of Dota 2's The International and Call of Duty XP Weekend become the first two esports events to offer prize pools of $1M in August and September. Ben Goldhaber, one of the founding employees of Twitch, was there for it all. On this show, we talk about the ten year anniversary of the launch of...

After two decades, the sun seemed to be setting on Super Smash Bros. Melee. But as one door closed, another opened, this time in the form of Golden Guardians, the esports division of the Golden State Warriors. The Golden Guardians are best known for the org's LCS team but also have invested heavily in NBA 2K and World of Warcraft. In the last few months, Nintendo's Super Smash Bros' Melee has become a new focus for the org. From a grassroots fund to signing a talented roster to hosting...

5-Time World Champion Emmalee "EMUHLEET" Garrido joins the show to talk about breaking barriers for the next generation of female esports players, why Riot's hands-on approach to VALORANT has been refreshing compared to Valve and the similarities between nursing and being an IGL. Loosely Scripted is a regular podcast from Nerd Street Gamers talking with top players and streamers in all the major esports. Full transcription for this episode below: Hello and welcome into loosely scripted a...

Join us for this episode of Loosely Scripted with our special guest, CS:GO caster Tom 'TomBizz' Bissmire. Loosely Scripted is a weekly podcast with no scripts, no filters and most importantly, no rules. Each week we will bring in a member of the esports community to discuss their life before during and potentially even after esports. Follow Nerd Street on social media! Instagram: https://bit.ly/2vVHWBg Twitter: https://bit.ly/2UBBqYJ Facebook: https://bit.ly/2JhRmtR Follow our host...

Join us for this episode of Loosely Scripted with our special guest, CS:GO caster Conner 'Scrawny' Girvan. Loosely Scripted is a weekly podcast with no scripts, no filters and most importantly, no rules. Each week we will bring in a member of the esports community to discuss their life before during and potentially even after esports. Follow Nerd Street on social media! Instagram: https://bit.ly/2vVHWBg Twitter: https://bit.ly/2UBBqYJ Facebook: https://bit.ly/2JhRmtR Follow our host...