USC ESPORTS WRAP-UP #14 — “You can find your dream in Esports.”
Heya USC Games! We have one last interview from the Esports team to wrap up the end of the semester with two board members: Vivian Huang, current content lead, and Jaehyuk Choi, former Overwatch JV and current community manager. Last week, we got some insights from them on what the behind-the-scenes of the USC Esports team looks like.
1. What’s one thing you do / did as a Board Member for the Esports Team that you’re proud of and that you think brought the Esports Team one step further?
Jaehyuk: “In freshman year, I decided to make some graphics for the teams— League, Valorant, and Overwatch. My content lead was busy, so I basically made all the graphics at the time for every match— so I’m very proud of that. After that, USC Esports got better and bigger after Joe got promoted into program director and I became content lead.”
Vivian: “This year, although my position is the media director, I took a lot of initiative in recruiting and onboarding different people, trying to make an effort not only to personally reach out, but also redirecting anyone with initiative to people who can help them further. Another thing is that I was able to get our name out there, posting a lot about what we’re doing. We’ve never really tried to promote to an audience outside of USC students but we were able to do that semester.”
2. What’s one challenge that you had to overcome as a Board Member?
Vivian: “I think one big problem I had to face— we had to face as a board— is the restructuring of our club given the budget and faculty cuts and new point of contact that we need to establish relationships with now that Joe is gone. For Conquest, we had to plan that very early on, but at that point we didn’t know anyone yet; Ezzy, being our events director, had to build those connections as they reached out, and I felt like that pushed back our planning process and made us put in a lot more effort than we used to while Joe was still around. Because someone has left, we now have to re-establish a system.”
3. Why did you join the USC Esports Team? Why do you think people should join the USC Esports Team?
Jaehyuk: I’m a game designer— I’m not going into any Esports industry in the future— but the reason I’m doing this is because a lot of people in the Esports team are cool connections. Even so, I saw a lot of students— regardless of their major— find themselves as an Esports worker, so you can find your dream in Esports. When I talked with people in the industry, they actually like students who have experience in Collegiate Esports, and a lot of our alumni went on to the Esports industry.”
Vivian: “USC Esports is what made me realize that there is a bigger community and industry behind playing competitive video games. It allowed me to develop professionally a lot because given the location USC is in, a lot of organizations will naturally think of USC Esports as a top priority for outreach. I was able to take advantage of that: I was able to work under Riot, go to Worlds, which is something that wouldn’t have happened without USC Esports. Firstly, it’s a really good connection if you want to do anything gaming related; secondly, everyone in USC Esports has a sense of passion and you can just tell that they all share the same love for a cause and I think that’s something that’s really difficult to find in such a competitive student organization scene.”
